Back in the settlement, A’Mila, Akila, and the rest of the council were busy discussing what to do with Nexarian prisoners, as their numbers were recently on the rise.
The cracks in the veil had gotten more frequent, so the Nexian army was constantly invading their land. At first, the tribe was happy as they got a constant flow of slaves heading their way, but now the situation had grown into something they hadn’t expected.
While Mammoroth would be enough to hold off the invaders, leaning on the King of the Forest wasn’t a long-term solution.
"What’s that noise?" A’Mila asked as she got up to see why the tribespeople had gone haywire.
However, chaos erupted in the settlement before they could delve deeper into the topic. The council walked out to see everyone panicking, and Akila got everyone to calm down.
"Elder Mikali, what is going on? Why are you here instead of the forest?" Akila asked, upon seeing Mikali, one of the people stationed around the forest, to watch over the young ones participating in the hunt.
"The boy has something to confess."
Without wasting a second, Mikali pushed Rina forward. Rina was still in shock and knew he would be punished for crossing into the forbidden forest.
But after witnessing what happened to his friends, he knew he had to tell them the truth so no one else would have to die because of that monster. So he told them everything: the forbidden forest, the beast, and what he did to Leno.
"YOU BASTARD!"
Hearing Rina’s confession, Leno’s mother couldn’t hold back and was about to swing her battleaxe to kill Rina, but A’Mila stopped her mid-swing.
"This isn’t the way, Kayla," A’Mila whispered, gently patting Kayla’s back. "Rina would be punished for what he did. But right now, our concern should be protecting the young ones who are unaware of the anomaly."
She continued, turning towards Akila, "Gather the warriors and prepare to head out. We must find and kill whatever that beast is before he kills any more of our kin."
"I’m on it!" Akila replied and headed off with the elder to light up the firework, signalling the hunters to abandon the hunt and return to the settlement.
The bright red light should be enough to get everyone’s attention in the forest. In the meantime, everyone began preparing for a new hunt. It was at that moment that A’Mila realised something.
Adrian didn’t know anything about their signal or the forbidden forest. A’Mila’s concern was that he might be too far in and not catch the signal.
Even if he didn’t know about it, he should sense that something was off if he saw a sudden streak of fireworks and came back. But if he couldn’t see the signal in the first place, he wouldn’t have a clue that something could be wrong.
"Akila, lead the tribe, I’m heading ahead."
In a rush, A’Mila gave quick instructions and dashed into the forest atop Bakira, her axe in hand and a bow and arrows slung across her back.
While she wasn’t super close to Adrian, she felt responsible for him because he was her name-sister’s precious student. If anything happened to him, she wouldn’t be able to face Vesper again.
***
Meanwhile, in the forest...
"Hm... this is a weird place," Adrian mumbled while riding the direwolf. "I mean, this entire forest is weird, but this part is especially... creepy."
Adrian didn’t know it, but he was slowly entering the Forbidden Forest, which was why the flora around him looked creepy.
Having caught a few small creatures, he was looking for the teens to execute his plan. But even after scouring most of the forest, he hadn’t seen them once.
"Did they leave already?" Adrian thought as the direwolf began to slow down and then stopped entirely. "What’s wrong with you now?"
Adrian tried persuading the beast to carry on ahead, but the direwolf refused to budge from the spot. It almost felt like it knew something dangerous was up ahead.
"Fine, have it your way!" Adrian grumbled as he dismounted the beast. He was about to secure it to a tree when something dropped onto his hand from above. "I can’t see the sky, but it didn’t feel like rain was coming anytime soon. So, why-"
Adrian stopped when he noticed it wasn’t a raindrop on his hand but blood. He then checked the wet spot under his feet, and sure enough... it was also blood.
The Direwolf wasn’t going ahead because it had gotten a whiff of blood and knew going ahead would be dangerous.
"What the-"
He immediately looked up and saw someone was up there, and they were bleeding profusely. But something was off about them. Adrian focused some mana into his eyes to see who it was but got scared instead.
Leno’s gaze fixed on him, yet there were no eyes, no sign of life in that stare. While Adrian was focused on Leno’s corpse, fear took hold of the dire wolf’s mind, freeing it from Adrian’s illusion, and the creature bolted out of the forest in a burst of terror.
"OI! Get back here!" Adrian yelled, but the wolf had made up its mind, and no amount of manipulation would get it to overcome the fear of death.
Adrian couldn’t do anything but be on alert. Despite how bratty the teen was, he didn’t deserve to die. But Adrian could worry about Leno later. First, he needed to get out of there.
At that moment, a few notifications popped up before Adrian; all were messages from the entities. But unlike his expectations, the entities weren’t offering him quests, just warning him.
"You’re walking a treacherous path. Please return to the settlement?" Adrian read one of the messages, and the rest were more or less the same. "As much as I want to know what the hell is going on here, this shit is way over my head."
Saying so, Adrian turned to follow the direwolf’s footsteps to get out of the forest, but as he turned, someone was standing behind him. A huge grotesque humanoid creature that Adrian had seen for the first time in his life, and it had a... smile on its face?
Before Adrian could gather his bearing, the creature lashed out, slamming Adrian into the tree where Leno’s corpse was dangling.
"Long time... I have waited a long time..."
The creature snarled as Adrian’s vision blurred.