I have made a mistake.

At first everything was just peachy as the stone sank into the abyssal depths. Then it was not. See, I had neglected something in this perfect little plan: the warp veins. See, I was sorta even considering them a good thing- after all, I 'drank' from them to produce essence.

They are not good things. Warp is chaos.

I somewhat incoherently explained warp as the essence of change before. This is true but I didn't know what that meant.

As my little sandstone plug of destruction sank through the earth it clipped one of those veins and all hell broke loose. Warp immediately poured out of the hole and spread through the stone and into the water filling the pipe it had dug, then into the surrounding stone as well. All the warp-infused matter began to change.

Change into what?

Everything.

Just a random assortment of atoms and molecules- not that my vision is good enough to see those directly- so mixed up that it clouds up my vision. Many of these substances are volatile and start doing who knows what as they begin chaotically causing chemical reactions.

Some of these reactions are explosions. Then the warp affects whatever is left and randomizes it again! The total mass is decreased as some of it is turned into heat and light and radiation and probably radio waves and who knows what, but yeah- it doesn't stop. After all, more water is pouring down the pipe.

The pipe of water was very quickly becoming contaminated with evil so I had to plug it up- and then do it again as the first plug burst from the pressure. I drug my body away from the spot and kept building behind me until the storm of gunk had enough room that it didn't immediately break down the wall.

As the wuxias say, this took a while to describe but happened in a moment. From the start to me making the first plug was what, ten seconds? I basically just panicked and slapped the lid on. Dragging myself away and walling up that chamber took a few more minutes.

The disaster is spreading, though. More and more warp just keeps pouring out the hole. It's not hopeless though- as it encounters mana it combines into essence, a far more stable, uh, metamaterial. Form of energy? Whatever.

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For my counterattack I send tentacles drilling through the earth and dissolving as much as I possibly could, both to release the mounting pressure and to provide more mana to neutralize the warp. This was tough going. I can only produce so much! Also the explosions are distracting. I'm lucky it's so far down- the tunnels around me are shaking anyways.

Fortunately not everything is changing when exposed to warp- two things stand out. First the stone surrounding the warp veins- it is totally inert, not reacting chemically or magically to anything. The second is a small but growing shard of green crystal that appeared in the chaotic mix.

I do not like this crystal.

It's sucking up heat and essence as fast as it can, growing all the while. As heat is drained away many of the chemical reactions are calming down due to not having the energy to begin and the crystal is plugging the hole in the vein just by blocking it- but it's growing fast. I’m picturing the entirely of my dungeon being swallowed in a tide of frost and crystal as it chases me down and crushes me between its fractal branches. Ya. Let’s avoid that.

Fortunately the inert stone- I’m gonna call it warpstone- seems to block essence as well as warp. It makes sense because warp is a component of essence. I reach down and snag a small sample, losing the tentacle to cold as I do, then began to replicate that stuff as fast I can. I don’t have time to make a dome or something to contain it so I just rain down sand, a thousand grains a second coming from a thousand tentacles. It’s oddly hard, the most difficult thing I’ve ever created. It’s like halfway through the creation the essence starts resisting the change.

Still, it’s working. The crystal slowly begins being buried by sand, the growth rate slowing as more and more of the surface area is covered. The sand was tossed about by various explosions but then it settled back into place. Soon all that was left was a lonely spire trying to claw it’s way up the pipe. Then that was covered as well. I can take a breath. Maybe. More work to be done to make sure this didn’t come back to bite me in the future, but at least the immediate danger is gone.

Or not. As I stopped focusing on the disaster I noted a human coming down the tunnel. She has feathers for hair and is covered in red stripes, wearing leather armor and holding a pair of wicked daggers. Looks kinda like Rufio. She doesn't seem to be having a good time. In fact she looks a bit panicked. I wasn’t feeling super great myself- she was coming right towards me. Barely a hundred feet away. The good news was that Lady Kittysaur was stalking her. My knight in gleaming scales!

She dashes into the chamber and catches sight of me. Ah, she's shaking. Am I that scary? I’m the helpless rock and you’re the one with big scary knives you know. Knives she just dropped. She’s staring, wide-eyed and slack-jawed. Oh, her nose is bleeding. Wonder what’s that about? Maybe I can question her- looks like she’d surrender.

Oh, too late.

Ms. Kittysaur is here.

Crunch.