Monster Hunter: Stars of Hope

Chapter Forty-Nine: Regicide

It was here. Before it could be seen, all present at the Iron Bastion heard the beating of its immense wings, and soon after felt the winds become violent with its arrival. As soon as the air calmed, many could feel the shaking of this visitor landing on the south side of the wall, each footfall as it circled the courtyard shaking dust loose from every ceiling in this fortress as it slowly closed in on the focus of its intrigue. Not long after this, the two hunters within the interior corridor of the low wall could count themselves among those who could now see the terror with their own eyes as it finally stepped off of the walls and into the courtyard itself, cautiously eyeing the device at its center that seemed to radiate with the same energy that provided this Elder Dragon with great sustenance so long ago and far away.

The red dragon had arrived.

With this terror arrived what was only expected to a very small number of those who hid in wait, surveying the Elder Dragon as cautiously as it surveyed the Amplifier: the burning rage welling up inside Nia at the sight of it. Though, unlike last time, she was able to force herself towards reconsidering that anger, the boiling of her blood and tightening of her fists kept from escalating at the last second with a shutting of her eyes that stopped the twitching of one of them. It wasn't easy at all for her to do this once that flame was already lit, and was likely only possible at all because she had braced herself for this ahead of time. Certainly, she was not out of the woods yet, as the sounds of each of its footfalls made smothering that fire inside of her with the deep breaths that followed even more difficult. However, these efforts were enough to get Nia to the more pleasant thoughts of her plans for after this battle was over, which she knew would be jeopardized if she lost control right now.

Yet, perhaps unexpectedly, those thoughts calmed her just enough that her mind was able to reach a few further realizations. First of all, there was the fact that it would not just be her, or Sariko, or the rest of her team, or even any of those assisting them in this hunt that could be at risk if she were to snap right now; If her resolve were to falter, if the others were not able to pick up her slack, and if that resulted in today's efforts failing, there was every likelihood that the Safi'Jiiva might turn its ire on Granport in a fit of vindictive rage. More people than she could count were relying on her to keep her cool right now, which led Nia to the second realization: People she trusted more so than herself were confident that she could do it. Of course, most who believed in her and her team would have little idea of the challenge she was facing now; The most they could know about her temper was the incident that forced her into the Guild, which was little more than a forgotten rumor to most by now. However, there were enough people that did know both on her team and above her in rank that if they didn't think she could handle it, she wouldn't be here; As much as she had her reasons to be impossibly livid right now, she had far more reasons not to be.

This thought brought Nia to her third and final realization, which was something she already was very familiar with once, but lost sight of when Haldys died.

Every living thing had a reason for being the way it was. The Safi'Jiiva she could still hear and feel the footfalls of, though it was very likely quite an intelligent creature, was still as much an animal bound by instinct as anything else. Something had given the red dragon cause to leave its natural environment in the New World and plunge itself into these unfamiliar lands so far away. When it appeared at the Well, the naturally territorial creature was greeted by a host of hunters with weapons drawn, and only did what instinct demanded in defending itself and the food source it had come upon; That just happened to result in the deaths of so many good people. Though it pained her to admit it, Nia knew that the Safi'Jiiva even had decent reason for what it did to Haldys at the Silent Peaks, taking his life in self defense. At the end of the day, the red dragon was simply a living thing trying to make it to the next day, same as anything or anyone less. All that it had done, and all that the people of Granport had suffered from it, was a simple matter of everyone being at the wrong place at the wrong time. While the lethal battle that was to come was justified as a matter of survival, coexistence with this calamitous dragon already proven impossible, Nia could see now that the degree of hate she harbored for the Safi'Jiiva ultimately wasn't justifiable at all.