Suddenly, a tremor rippled through the floor, causing Verina to stumble and attempt to regain her bnce as she held Lupina''s head.


    The entire structure shuddered violently, knocking over equipment and sending a few tools crashing to the ground.


    I steadied myself against the table, my eyes darting to Kuzunoha. Her brows furrowed as she muttered a spell under her breath, and her gaze darkened with an intensity that meant this was no ordinary quake.


    "Everyone outside!" Imanded, my voice rising above the unsettling rumble.


    Verina rushed toward the exit as her ck Wheels skated with full speed, still clutching a bewildered Lupina, whoseints were momentarily drowned out by the surrounding chaos. Kuzunoha and I followed suit.


    Outside, the scene was one of confusion and mounting fear. The bastioneers scrambled for stability, some clutching onto anything nearby, others ncing toward me with wide, panicked eyes. Their usually confident postures were shaken, and the ground beneath us continued to quake, far stronger than anything I''d ever felt in Carcosa.


    "Verina, the sky!" Imanded.


    "Yes."


    "Gyaaah! Since when did you know how to fly!?" Lupina shrieked.


    As the ground continued its disorienting tremor, Kuzunoha''s expression darkened, her eyes narrowing in thought. "Something''s not adding up here," she muttered, ignoring the fearful looks from the bastioneers who clustered nearby, eyes wide as they clutched their Vorrathite crossbows and pikes.


    "Can you find a way to directly analyze the movement of the earth?" I asked.


    "I know the exact way to do it."


    Kuzunoha rolled up her sleeve, muttering a brief incantation under her breath.


    From her fingers, a swirl of earthen energy materialized, pulsing and spinning until a small, stone-like creature took shape in mid-air. Hovering just above her hand, the creature hummed gently, wings of shimmering sand particles beating with a low, rhythmic pulse. Tiny veins of glimmering minerals traced across its stony body, its molten orange eyes glowing with an intense awareness.


    This must be the Elemental Conjuring that had been told by Kuzunoha''s detail screen. I''m surprised that she didn''t utilize it a lot.


    I tried opening whatever interactive screen that was attached to the elemental by the game world.


    —


    [Geodryx]


    [Description: Geodryx, the Earthen Seeker, is a small, hovering Elemental that resembles a hummingbird made of stone and shimmering minerals, with wings of glimmering sand particles. Despite its small size, Geodryx''s perception is unmatched, detecting shifts in the earth''s crust and reading subterranean patterns with ease.


    Its eyes glow a deep, molten orange, and with each wingbeat, it sends gentle seismic pulses through the ground to locate hidden resources, underground caverns, or shifts in tectonic tes. Geodryx hums softly, and when it finds a valuable deposit or a potential fault line, it emits a pulsing amber light, signaling its discovery]


    —


    "Geodryx, the Earthen Seeker," Kuzunoha intoned, her voice calm and direct. "I summoned you to uncover the truth of these tremors. Seek the patterns beneath us, read the earth''s hiddennguage."


    The Geodryx tilted its head, amber eyes flickering with a knowing gleam, as if acknowledging her request.


    With a faint hum, it darted toward the ground, each rapid wingbeat sending a seismic pulse through the shifting soil. The faint tremors it created were almost indiscernible next to the ongoing quake, but to the Geodryx, they were as distinct as a heartbeat, revealing the movements and mysteries hidden beneath the earth.


    Hovering just above the ground, the Geodryx emitted soft pulses, like waves in a still pond, each one seeking deeper, scanning further into theyers of earth. Its amber light glowed brighter, signaling its findings with a rity that cut through the chaos around us.


    Kuzunoha''s expression grew even more serious as the elemental work, her gaze shifting from the Geodryx to me. "Whatever''s going on, Narcissus, it''s beyond normal tectonic movement. It''s… controlled. Directed. Yet, it''s chaotic in nature."


    "So it''s not a normal earthquake, if you have to say it like that."


    The Geodryx let out a soft, resonant hum, its amber light pulsing as it conveyed its findings. With a sudden, urgent sweep of its wings, it darted back to Kuzunoha, hovering inches from her face as if sharing its secrets with her alone.


    Kuzunoha nodded, her voice edged with a mixture of awe and unease. "The Geodryx has confirmed it. The tes are shifting—yes—but not in the way they normally would. This isn''t a random upheaval. It''s… deliberate. Thend is rearranging itself like aplex puzzle.


    Entire regions are moving across tectonic tes, sliding into new positions as if under an ancientmand."


    The Geodryx emitted a final, low hum before hovering at her shoulder, its taskplete. It turned its amber gaze to me, as if awaiting further orders, its body glowing faintly from the energy of the earth''s secrets it had just unraveled.


    Verina descended with horrified glint in her eyes. "There are visible edges to some of thends, and they are moving and grinding away from one another. Luckily, our bastion exists nowhere near the splitting of thend."


    "I have noment," Lupinamented.


    "Let''s talk while keeping our resources and workshop safe first," I prodded Kuzunoha, who immediately knew of her duty as the sole storage carrier of the bastion.


    "Still, I don''t quite get what''s going on." Verina stated. "Can you summarize the event, Kuzunoha?"


    While hurriedly moving from ce to ce Kuzunoha began moving from hands glowed as she activated her arcane storage, and supplies, materials, and pieces of the bastion itself began vanishing from sight into dissipating dusts, stored away safely for whatever was toe.


    "I''m saying," Kuzunoha replied, her voice unsteady but resolute, "That the surface of Carcosa had been separated into countless pieces and started to move erratically. It''s not an earthquake—Carcosa is shifting."


    "Verina, can you keep the bastioneers in check? In the meantime?"


    "I''ll try my best."


    "It will also serve as this talking head''s debutante too," Kuzunoha chuckled.


    "Ah, now that I see it, we have a lot of people in the bastion now," Lupinamented.