The oppressive feeling kept growing throughout the day. The tear in the spatial fabric was enormous. Not all rabbits could see it but some could. It seemed so severe that even those without a spatiotemporal affinity could see it.
The burrows were relatively empty. Almost everyone had set out. I added another rune to a magic circle and it was done. It was sloppy but I had made an imitation of [Insomnia] and applied it to myself. This is a bad time to fall asleep for a week or 2. I might wake up with everything destroyed. I don’t want that.
I had pushed Wren to help out somehow. She kept refusing until she gave in. I had the role of protecting the burrows while almost everyone was away. I gladly accepted it. I don’t have the agility of the rabbits so this suits me the best.
The earthquakes, or more accurately spacequakes had increased in frequency. It felt as if something enormous was looming over us. Nobody seemed to be comfortable.
The sun set and the world was still here, also no fairies. Yet.
I set 5 alarms to make sure I would wake up the next morning. My intention was to work on [Acedia] today but so much has happened. I had to help most rabbits to shove more carrots through their throat with a simple [Digest] that I had made.
The more carrots they ate the more lives they would get and the more likely they would get out of this alive. It was interesting to learn that most of the rabbits hate carrots. Probably because they have to eat so many to make sure they don’t kick the bucket.
I’m sure I’ve aided some rabbits in also growing to hate carrots. I started to wonder if I could get more lives by eating cake, and if I had gotten cake shoved down my throat like that for quite a while, I might start to hate cake too.
I haven’t had cake in a long time, unfortunately. I miss my cake. I wonder how these rabbits would react to carrot cake.
The forecast was that tomorrow would be when that tear is getting at its worst and starts throwing bullshit at us. Nobody was looking forward to it.
The next morning came. It was an eerie morning. Everyone knew it was happening today. I stood watch in front of the burrow with fan in my hand. I was yawning a lot but still awake.
And then it happened. More spacequakes but the severity was something never felt before. I decided to lie down and cast [Heavy] upon myself as the rabbit next to me was getting flung around. It was as if something invisible was shaking him around. It was completely physics defying.
He made a gesture toward me for me to help him but the best I could do was cast [Heavy] on him too, which made him crash to the ground.
“Ouch…”
“Sorry, this is the best I can do…”
Both of us laid on the ground while under the effects of [Heavy] and looking by hopelessly as the whole world was shaking.
And then it came. It felt as if something had crashed into us, the world or the dimension. I wasn’t sure. But it was a shockwave as a collision. The [Heavy] wasn’t enough. Everything got flung westward.
The sound of glass shattering and crumbling could be heard. It was a similar sound as when illusion layers shatter. Trees got ripped out of the ground. Parts of the burrow got unearthed and also flung aside. Freak winds made things worse as wind and space was moving everything westward. Some mountains in the distance had detached and all got flung to the side. I casted as many barriers as I could on myself and any rabbit I could spot.
How am I supposed to protect the burrow after a massive spacequake?
My [Stabilized Flight] was useless as space was being turbulent in conjunction with the air. This is bullshit! Everyone and very thing was tumbling and flying westward for 23 minutes.
The longest 23 minutes in history. I spent all that time blowing any rabbit I saw toward the sky. They would have to choose between getting buried under mountains or falling.
I’ve seen how these rabbits move. Falling is no problem for them. They will survive that. Getting buried under mountains and rubble however…
I couldn’t fly in this mess but I managed to get myself high enough so that I wouldn’t get buried alive. But something seems off… did I get heavier? I didn’t have [Heavy] on me anymore.
The landscape had become unrecognizable. The flatter areas seemed relatively unchanged, besides all the earth and trees that had gotten launched over it.
Only elevated areas seemed to be affected the most. But that wasn’t the only thing. Strange towers had appeared on the landscape. They weren’t here before. They seemed equidistant and each had a color.
The closest activated and the red spire on it lit up and the whole tower gave off red light.
I could feel the mana shift toward fire as the jungle around it started to burn and turning the ambient mana more and more toward fire.
Other towers in the distance did the same but activated their own colors. Blue for water, light blue for ice etc.
“Wha… what’s going on! Noo, not the beautiful jungle!”
Rabbits were still falling out of the sky. I was on my fan and flew toward the fire spire. I grabbed my fan and swung it to douse the burning jungle with [Hairpin: Tsunami] but the ambient mana had shifted so much toward fire that I couldn’t use any water-related magic.
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“Hmm, this isn’t unexpected but extremely annoying.” I decided to blow the wind hard enough to kill the fire. Is this a good idea? A mistake and I will literally fan the flames.
The ambient mana would get flipped toward water when I normally swing my fan. I tried that and it did work although to a weaker extent.
The continent was in chaos. We don’t need these strange spires destroying the jungle too! I kept fanning and fanning. The burning jungle had turned into a charcoal jungle. The ambient mana was still shifting more and more toward fire around this tower.
I walked toward the spire. It was huge. It was also extremely hot here. I had to protect myself with a [Water Cloak]. This spire seems similar to those ancient buildings. Where did they come from? Did that spacequake cause this?
I looked at the base of the tower. Nothing suggested that they got unearthed. This tower had an entrance but it had writing I couldn’t understand.
“It doesn’t matter what this thing is. It’s surely not invincible, is it?”
The ambient mana that was leaning toward fire could work in my favor. I used a small but powerful [Meteor] and flew away. Fire related skills get a massive boost when the ambient mana leans toward that element. My [Meteor] would be stronger in a lava pit or on a volcano than in a jungle because of that.
I looked on from a safe distance how the [Meteor] crashed on the spire and hardly put a dent in it.
“Stupid ancient technology and their pointlessly tough constructions! How am I supposed to destroy these?!”
I tried anything that came to mind but the area around this spire started to turn into a magma pool. The other spires were doing something similar. It was easy to see what the area of effect of the spires were as anything outside of their range remained jungle.
“The burrow!” It had been a while and a lot had happened but my duty was to protect the burrow. I flew back.
The burrow was… buried. Rabbits were digging.
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t do anything.”
A bloodied rabbit looked up. “Don’t worry, there was absolutely nothing you could do against that bullshit. I suppose you’re not very skilled in digging, take a rest.” He continued digging.
Rest he says. None of the rabbits here are resting.
We were lucky that the spire close to the burrow was emanating nature energy. I barely get rid of one problem and another one appears. I just want to return to Kaledon… Kaledon! They must have felt this too! Do they also have spires?
They wouldn’t be that big of a problem as over here as Kaledon is relatively flat and has a lot of plains. The spires would actually add some diversity. While the same could be said for Nesher. The fire spires are a problem as they could burn down the whole jungle…
“I’m going to deal with the fire spires! Each of them shifts the ambient mana toward their specific element and turns the area to match it. I don’t know what the range of elements are but fire seems the biggest threat for now. Can any of you spread this information?”
Two rabbits got into action, abandoned their digging duties and started to spread out. I flew up and messed with [Search: Imposter] and made [Search: Spire]. These spires were easy to spot but I couldn’t spot any fire spires besides the one I had just found.
Multiple trails came in after I used it. Some fire mana trails. I will get to as many as I can. The first fire spire drew near.
As I thought, the jungle around the fire spire was burning. Fire is probably one of the few elements that will go beyond their area of effect. It was easy to deal with the fire outside the range of the spire. The rabbits might not like this but I started to deforest the area around the fire spire.
I located the next fire spire and did the same and kept this up for the rest of the day.
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“I’m exhausted!” I collapsed into a couch in one of the public areas. The burrow had been dug out. There was no lasting damage.
“You worked hard.” Several rabbits were relaxing on the couches next to me. Although relaxing might be incorrect. They seemed to almost pass out from exhaustion. Most were covered in wounds and dirt.
I had some scratches too so I didn’t get out of this unscathed. I had also gotten some minor burn wounds from dealing with the fire spire. Everyone was exhausted.
“We’re doomed.” I looked up and several rabbits pointed their ears toward the blonde bunny girl that said this. “We have all this to deal with… and the fairy invasion hasn’t even started yet…”
Realization set in. She was correct, we had prepared for a fairy invasion but we had our hands full on the aftermath of that enormous spacequake.
The rabbits started to talk about how to make their demise meaningful. It was sad but I had no solutions.
An exhausted rabbit guy ran at us. “Kaledon is fine! The effects of the Great Calamity seemed to be different there! Their only problem is multiple settlements and strange races popping up! The elves of the southern elven forest had contacted us and…” The rabbit collapsed from exhaustion. We rushed to his aid but he had passed out. The petals swirling around him disappeared as his Rabbit mode had dropped.
“Let him rest, he worked his ears off.” A bunny girl took the passed-out rabbit guy on her shoulders and brought him away.
So Kaledon also has issues, although not the same ones as ours. Is this the begin of the end? I wish this was a nightmare. This is just one of my many bad dreams right?
I pinched myself and recast [Insomnia] on myself. It seems I’m still awake… I never got to finish my idea of staying in my dreams and be happy in my dreams. Maybe I should start working on it again…
More and more rabbits gathered on the couches. It seems as if gravity had increased slightly. Everyone tired faster because of this.
We spent 2 weeks looking for missing rabbits, protecting the jungle from fires caused by spires and clearing debris. Nobody arrived home at the end of the day with energy. Everyone was constantly exhausted. 80% of the missing rabbits had been found and recovered but there were still many missing.
And then it came. A message nobody wanted to hear. ‘The fairies are coming.’
Never would I have thought that these words would shake me to the core and instil terror. Nobody was ready for this fairy invasion, even though everyone had prepared for it two weeks prior. It seems that I have a new problem to deal with...