Mythos Of Narcissus: Reborn As An NPC In A Horror VRMMO

As the whole phenomenon unfolded, we hiked to the high ground inside our perimeter of land to take a visual grasp of what was happening.

"This is crazy…"

I watched as the landscape ahead rippled, immense fissures and gaps opened up in the distance. Mountain peaks in the far-off horizon seemed 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 me a concerned look. "This isn't a mere 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 some 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 phenomenon—and any knowledge about it—is buried deep within that Graveyard of Knowledge I mentioned." Kuzunoha's tone held a hint of dark amusement, 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 Elemental 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 phenomenon 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 moment it starts dissipating."

Even amidst the growling, my ears managed to catch some interaction within the bastion that was far away from me.

"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 women 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 seemed 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 became 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 some 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 Elementals and how many types of them she could summon.

With a boastful glee, she proclaimed that she was able to conjure more than 100 types of Elementals. Though, she prefers to not summon the majority of them because of the limitation and criteria that was imposed on her.

She even mentioned that Elemental Conjuring was one of her earlier passions in life, only to be ditched for arcane learning because of how inefficient and meddlesome it was when it comes to dealing with the Elemental that possessed insufferably personality and behavior.

I asked her if she could teach me how to perform Elemental Conjuring, since the idea in itself was quite novel to me.

Kuzunoha immediately 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 me 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 home-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 something 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 symmetry, the kind of order that makes perfect sense when you see it from above—the geometric 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 asymmetry of wild forests and twisting rivers, where no two things are alike."