Karkum pulled open the door to Cypius' house without knocking, walking directly in unhesitatingly.
Inside, Cypius and Plono were sitting in front of a window, talking to each other about theirs days quietly. The sun had just set in the sky, with the last rays of light being visible on the horizon.
They sat, admiring the view while they spoke, a beautiful moment between the father and daughter, before Karkum interrupted them by barging into the scene.
"What's it about this time, hm? Is our friend 6 back?" Cypius asked him with a sigh, annoyed by Karkum's lack of manners.
"Plono, a boy fell and hurt his knee. Go help him. Near the inn." Karkum said, the blunt tone back in his voice now that 6 wasn't here.
"You can't just kick me out like that. Dad, tell him I can stay." Plono said, wanting to be treated as an adult by Karkum.
The two man locked eyes, seemingly communicated silently.
Cypius saw something different in Karkum's eyes, something that told him there was something that needed to be discussed in private, something his daughter could not, or should not, hear.
Trusting the judgement of Karkum, he shook his head.
"No, I'm sorry my dear. We can watch the sun rise in the morning, for now, go to the inn. See if anyone needs any help." Cypius said.
With a look of hurt on her face, betrayed by the fact that her father didn't stand up for her, Plono stood up from her chair.
She understood that she was young, and that her dad wanted to protect her, but she would have to lead the village one day too. She couldn't understand why her dad wouldn't let her experience things, feeling as if he didn't trust her.
Slamming the door behind herself, she left the house, walking to the inn.
The two men sat in silence as they waited for her to be far enough away to ensure that she couldn't hear their words.
"6." Karkum said.
Cypius nodded, indicating that he could continue speaking.
"He entered the inside of the spider's egg."
Cypius closed his eyes, not happy to hear the words from Karkum.
"Is he dead?" Cypius asked.
Karkum shook his head. "He shouldn't be. He survived for several hours after entering, though he got very near to death for more times than I care to count."
Though this was good news, Cypius could tell that it wasn't the end of what Karkum had to tell him.
"So what happened? And how did he live for so long?" He asked.
"The spiders seem to have degraded even more than we expected. The presence of the egg has been split into hundreds of pieces, and only the more complete pieces are functioning properly." Karkum explained. "The guardian seems to have also gotten affected by one of these pieces somehow, and it has completely impaired its ability to protect the egg."
Cypius nodded, the degradation of the spiders was something they had expected, and the fragmented presence was actually good news for them, especially if it affected the guardian.
"It failed to notice 6 when he first entered the nest, and then an attack occurred outside of the nest, another attack from a foolish land which thought it was better than others and planned to loot the spoils of the nest. The guardian left to deal with this, allowing 6 to explore the nest unimpeded by the guardian" Karkum said.
"And did he find anything? Will we be able to find a way to hint at what it is to him?" Cypius asked.
"No, firstly, he has left the nest entirely, but he did not exit it manually. I suspect he was taken back to his world by teleportation."
Grimacing at this news, as it meant they would have to await another adventurer and hope they visit Folrost over anything else, and then further hope that the adventurer would be easier to work with than 6 is.
However, from Karkum's experience and the history of adventurers in this world, the odds weren't great. It seemed all adventurers had their own long list of issues, and that 6 was actually a relatively tame, though very weird, one.
"What happened?" He asked.
"The guardian returned, noticed 6 due to him being nearer to the core of the egg, and attacked him. It was severely weakened, from the presence it was fighting inside of it, and from the battle it had just finished on the outside of the nest."
The guardian spider was the one which attacked 6 at the end of his adventure, the small white spider with red streaks and purple eyes.
The task of the guardian spider was, as indicated by the name, to guard. It was supposed to guard the egg, protecting it from those who wanted to attack and destroy it, or otherwise harm it in any manner.
It wasn't supposed to actively seek out and kill potential enemies, as things attacking the egg was what they actually wanted, as they would turn into food and energy for the egg.
However, when the presence of the egg was splintered and broke into hundreds of pieces, one of the pieces entered the guardian spider, as it was meant to be the most powerful protector of the egg.
Unfortunately, it was also the only spider who would actively be weaker by gaining this broken piece of presence.
Because it was wholly dedicated to defending and protecting the nest, that included the presence which was trying to fuse with it. No matter how powerful it would become, or how hard the shard fought it, it could never allow it to fuse with itself.
That would be taking power away from, and thus damaging, the nest.
So it was forced to spend most of his power fighting the shard, struggling to keep it separate from itself, and weakening it to an absurd level, only a small fraction of its total strength.
"Even if the guardian was weak because of the shard, how did 6 not die to it?"
"Because he was quick, annoying, and more importantly, because the guardian was much, much weaker than it should be. It couldn't even control the nearby spiders, and was forced to utilize its own strength to deal with 6, and even then it took it a significant amount of time to force him to use his trump card to leave the nest."
Perplexed by how that could be possible, Cypius made his confusion clear to Karkum by motioning with his hands, indicating that he had to explain more.
"Erver did something to the egg, before she came here. I think she played a hand in fracturing its presence. In the presence attacking the guardian I sensed her. I would not have noticed had it been my own senses, but since she lent me hers before she fell asleep, I could feel her in it. That may be why she fell asleep as she did."
Erver, though 6 was told had perished entirely, was in fact alive.
She wasn't Erver anymore, not exactly. The cost of surviving alone as she did was great.
Though she was forced to do so, she had to leave every single member of her land behind, leaving them to be destroyed by the egg of the spider as it descended upon their land.
That didn't come without a price.
She arrived in Folrost, damaged, her soul bleeding, and nearly dead. Folrost did what he could, even supplying as much of his own life force to heal her, but the damage was massive, more than any land could hope to survive, much less one that just lost every single inhabitant she had.
Not wanting his sister to die, Folrost did the only thing he could to save her life. Something no land was allowed to do, taboo in their world, but something he knew his sister would do for him, if she had to.
In fact, every sister land would do so for each other, and it was why sister lands were often shunned by others.
Folrost ripped himself from his own land, cutting himself off of Folrost and all of its inhabitants, becoming a Landless Land.
He forced Erver into his spot, turning her into Folrost, as if he never existed there, and connected her to all of his inhabitants, barely saving her life and sending her into a coma.
Folrost, or what was once Folrost, then took a form, and connected himself to what was once his own land, Folrost. At first, it was as a spirit form, but after they attacked the spider's egg, he took the form of one of the men lost in the battle, Cypius' brother and innkeeper of Folrost, Karkum.
The battle itself, though a tragedy, was unavoidable. They had to put up pretenses, to avenge their sister land, in order to avoid the death of every single member of Folrost at the hands of the surrounding lands, who would be suspicious if they didn't care about the supposed death of Erver.
They were supposed to retreat after some light loses, a price everyone agreed to face to protect Folrost and Erver, but it went terribly wrong when there was an ambush by the spiders, wiping out everyone on the mission but Karkum and Cypius.
Then, Karkum died of his injuries once he returned, allowing Folrost to take his form and exist in his land as Karkum, while Erver took his spot as Folrost.
"So what happens next? Do we just wait?" Cypius asked Karkum, unsure of what their next course of action should be. "What happens if we can't get support before the time the egg is supposed to hatch?"
"While the egg won't hatch, I have no idea what will happen when that time comes. Erver was the one who received all the memories inside of the egg, and she could only tell me so much before she fell unconscious." Karkum said. "But I know one thing. If word gets out that this is the egg of what it is, wars will rage for the possession of it, wars that may destroy our world."