As the whole phenonon unfolded, we hiked to the high ground inside our periter of land to take a visual grasp of what was happening.
"This is crazy…"
I watched as the landscape ahead rippled, imnse fissures and gaps opened up in the distance. Mountain peaks in the far-off horizon seed to rearrange themselves, forests folding and repositioning as if the land were a colossal puzzle.
A vast, continental rift opened, exposing gashes in the earth that glowed faintly with an unearthly, molten light.
Was this also the reason why I managed to stumble on Vorrathite veins in a place without volcanic activity?
Kuzunoha shot a concerned look. "This isn't a re relocation. The entire continent is being rearranged—no, it's beyond that. Now that I look closely… Every region is shifting, like… like a massive Rubik's cube."
The vast scale of the shifting was nearly incomprehensible; entire valleys moved like tiles, and massive rifts tore across the earth, yet nothing was collapsing. Instead, it was as if the world itself were being restructured, reassembled into so unguessable configuration.
Yet our bastion remained intact, like a solitary island on a sea of shifting earth.
Whatever force was orchestrating this change, it had a purpose beyond simple destruction.
"What's causing this?" I asked, steadying myself as another tremor rippled beneath us.
"I'm afraid the reason for this phenonon—and any knowledge about it—is buried deep within that Graveyard of Knowledge I ntioned." Kuzunoha's tone held a hint of dark amusent, although her eyes remained wary.
"So, this has already happened, long ago... back when the All-Dreaming Beast prowled with endless hunger."
"Precisely," she replied, her voice tinged with frustration. "Even if I summoned every Elental and cast every spell I know, it's unlikely I'd uncover anything that could fully satisfy our curiosity."
I exhaled, watching the land shift and reshape itself like a living puzzle. "Well, since this upheaval doesn't seem entirely destructive, I'd say our best bet is to try and survive… until the terraforming is complete."
As the hours crept on, the bastioneers began adjusting to the constant rumbling beneath us, moving more steadily and finding their balance despite the unsteady ground.
The bastion itself was a scene of organized chaos—but still operating nonetheless, especially since this whole earthquake was not the strangest or destructive phenonon that would happen in Carcosa.
Occasionally, there was a spike in the tenacity of the tremor, but it was nothing that made any one of us tremble under pressure..
Verina's voice cut through the noise, directing everyone to secure what they could. "This isn't your average tremor, so hold your ground, keep low if you must, and move again the mont it starts dissipating."
Even amidst the growling, my ears managed to catch so interaction within the bastion that was far away from .
"Why am I the only one head-only…?" Lupina asked, still confused and disappointed as her gaze darted from person to person. "Also, why are there only won in this bastion?"
"Well, let's say that our leader is an eccentric kind," Lydia quipped.
"Huh, I guess I didn't expect that she would be this eccentric."
Kara let out a low chuckle, her voice gruff but amused. "Don't worry, Lupina, you'll get used to the strange and stranger."
It seed like Verina had successfully introduced Lupina to everyone in the bastion. To my surprise, none of them questioned how in the world that we have a talking head as a bastioneer.
"I guess I can expect even stranger things to happen from now on," I muttered.
As the tremors beca more rhythmic, almost like the slow beat of a colossal heart, I felt the entire bastion adapt, shifting from panic to a kind of shared acceptance. Kuzunoha remained nearby, her Geodryx perched on her shoulder like a sentinel, its wings sending out gentle seismic pulses, constantly reading the changes in the earth.
She had also redeployed the workshop and so of the material and provision after ensuring that our piece of land was safe from any kind of destruction.
I also once asked Kuzunoha about the Elentals and how many types of them she could summon.
With a boastful glee, she proclaid that she was able to conjure more than 100 types of Elentals. Though, she prefers to not summon the majority of them because of the limitation and criteria that was imposed on her.
She even ntioned that Elental Conjuring was one of her earlier passions in life, only to be ditched for arcane learning because of how inefficient and ddleso it was when it cos to dealing with the Elental that possessed insufferably personality and behavior.
I asked her if she could teach how to perform Elental Conjuring, since the idea in itself was quite novel to .
Kuzunoha imdiately broke my dream by saying that I had zero talent for it.
"If you think about it, this place is like a giant puzzle that keeps moving itself around," Callista murmured as she pounded a makeshift stake into the earth. "Makes wonder who or what is rearranging."
Naosi snorted, pausing from securing another makeshift tent. "If I had to guess, I'd say it's the work of two petty gods who can't stand seeing the world arranged in any way but their own. There's an old tale about it… I heard it a lot back in the ho-citadel when the days were long. Of course, the 'Inquisition' killed the legend, so there is nothing about it that can be dug now."
At this, Callista perked up, a spark of curiosity in her eyes. "Really? Two gods rearranging things because they can't agree? Well, that is definitely sothing that the Inquisition will try to shut about."
"Oh, it's more ridiculous than that," Naosi replied, a smirk tugging at her lips as she leaned on her stake. "Apparently, they're like cosmic siblings. Ancient, powerful, and… well, childish. They're said to be polar opposites in nearly every way.
One loves symtry, the kind of order that makes perfect sense when you see it from above—the geotric beauty of cities, perfect rows, even down to the lines on leaves.
"And the other, the second god, despises predictability. Finds joy only in chaos, in the asymtry of wild forests and twisting rivers, where no two things are alike."
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