Karandi rushed through his preparations. He tried to stay as calm as was physically possible but his thoughts continuously interrupted the calm he was trying to cultivate. Not only was Nadi in danger, but Alice was probably in even more danger. Of course Nadi was the only one confirmed to be in danger, but the existence of a fire suggested otherwise. He understood their thought process and why things turned out this way, but he couldn’t help the anger bubbling up from within him. But still, he had two children to save and he’d be damned if he let either of them die. Maybe even literally if they blamed Alice’s death on him.

He turned towards the two who’d delivered the bad news.

”You thought through a difficult situation well and showed some good judgment, but remember for next time to never go into a forbidden place for any reason whatsoever.” He stared into their eyes one at a time to drive the point home. “Thankfully it hasn’t been too long.”

He shot off towards where Nadi and Alice were, sparing just enough mana to make his exit that small bit more dramatic but not enough to look hurried. Of course, once he was out of sight he immediately moved as quickly as he could. He was basically flying to his target. Every step off the ground thrown forward by a bit of dirt springing up to give a helping hand, letting him cover more ground than he otherwise could. But even then, it would be a few minutes till he arrived, and assuming the messengers, Nera and Sika, came here slower than he did, that was about seven minutes since Nadi had entered. Add some more time since That fire had probably been there for quite a bit of time and… it would be a miracle if either of them were alive.

While going through plans for how to handle an eviction, he slowed down when he realized he had entered the place in question.

The air was cold and stale despite the constant breeze combing through the unmoving leaves. The pervasive fog over everything made the world seem darker than it should be and Karandi also noted the distinct lack of scent in the air. None of the flowers, or animals, or grass. Nothing. These all combined to create a disconcerting atmosphere.

All the evidence around him suggested a passive domain, a universal pain in the neck to deal with. Which is why he wasn’t going to do that. With barely a thought and a single pulse of well practiced intent, he carved away a bubble of the foul mana around him.

With that done he’d probably freed himself from any passive effects in the domain as well as making the forest appear entirely normal; now he just had to find whatever was in here. In the worst case he’d wander endlessly until he got ambushed; the monster definitely knew he was here, if it was making proper use of its mana. At best it would just be a quick jog to find it and he’d easily be able to take care of it. The worst case all but guaranteed Nadi’s death, while the best case was way too optimistic to be realistic. Assuming the current situation was somewhere in between, He opted to head towards the centre of the dome of mana where the monster, whatever shape it might be, was most likely to be.

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After a quick check, Karandi noted that the domain did not extend into the ground, so it was probably leveraging that fact to artificially increase the size of its domain. That suggested a young creature that hadn’t experienced many conflicts and only knew how to hunt. He mentally increased the odds of the girls being alive.

In preparation for the eventual conflict, he began increasing the density of mana in his bubble. Just as he was about halfway to max density he saw a web of whitish grey thread hanging between two trees. On the web was a bloodied caccoon of silk about the size and shape of a deer. Occasionally it would twitch slightly but that was the only sign that it was still alive. Obviously the monster was some kind of elevated spider, but knowing what kind would be a game changer. He picked up a stick and poked at the deer, it was still whole and not dissolved, it also didn’t seem to notice despite how bloodied it was, suggesting a paralytic venom. The sheer thickness of some of the thread also suggested a quite large specimen too. At least deer sized but probably somewhere about double that.

More great news, the enemy was an ambush predator specialised to traps, that was acting as a pursuit predator outside its innate skill set. Letting himself relax slightly, Karandi sighed in relief. The worst damage Nadi or Alice would suffer would be trauma, maybe a concussion or two, but all in all they should be fine.

It was then that Karandi heard the crack of wood breaking, and more out of instinct than anything else immediately conjured a wall of solid rock behind him before turning around and leaping to his left. There was a dull thud as the wood hit the rock harmlessly. Wasting no time, Karandi turned the rock wall into a giant ball that went flying towards the source of the attack. The end result was all in all underwhelming as the many eyed spider’s white carapace crumpled like paper before a splatter of blue flesh went flying through the forest.

Karandi didn’t know whether to be proud or horrified with what he’d seen. Before the spiders very timely death, he couldn’t help but see the blue blood outside of its body. Of course there were a multitude of reasons it could’ve been injured, but injured it was.

He approached the bundle of dimly glowing eyes and eviscerated flesh. Despite the foul creature’s demise he could still sense its foul mana trying to encroach on his sphere of protection. A few meters behind the corpse were two off grey cacoons, one entirely lifeless and dead looking, the other just as dead, but with a bit of blood seeping through the ill-fit coverings.

Looked like he was wrong on multiple accounts.