act20side

Stitch opens his eyes, and sees two familiar figures.

Avdotya, I've got your fresh change of clothes here.

Thank you.

Also, Croque, drink a little less in future, to be on the safe side.

Ahahah, sorry, sorry. All's well that ends well, though, wouldn't you say?

No, I still don't see anything 'well' about this...

In the meantime, I suppose I'll find somewhere to change.

With that, the two of them notice Stitch has come to.

*sigh* Good morning, Stitch.

What happened to me?

Do you still remember how you fainted?

I was steering the boat, and then old Edge came running over, and then... oof, my head...

And then the boat went out of control, crashed against the shore, and flung the two of you out.

And how about Master Edge?

He woke up before you, and he's taken Elysium with him to survey for now.

Wait, the gear on the boat!

The equipment's all essentially wrecked. As for the survey gear... we had Deculture make that on the fly.

The cutting equipment won't be necessary, though.

Why?

You didn't notice the terribly loud noise ever since you woke up?

Avdotya flashes a begrudging glance at a place too not far off.

And with her prompting, it finally hits Stitch that the persistent racket isn't just nature. Is that a mixture of a chainsaw's roar and collapsing rock?

Gavial, what in your right mind are you doing...?

Looks obvious to me. I'm sorting out this cliff face.

The boat did put a considerable dent in the caved-in area, but clearing a passage was never going to be that simple.

And with our cutting equipment down, I thought we'd be waiting for a while, but it turns out—

Well, seeing is believing.

HAHA! Forget rail repairs and surveys, any bozo can tell THIS is my strong suit!

Gazing all around, Stitch sees numerous fragments of extremely orderly cut rock, as well as a tunnel wide enough to fit two side by side.

The fine work of Gavial, without a doubt.

Which is to say, deprived of all the cutting equipment, Gavial opened a way through to the tunnel all by her singular self.

Stitch can't help but begin to suspect that the rumors he heard from the Acahuallan tribes, all those legends of the invincible Gavial, were at least partly founded in reality.

Oh, hey, Elysium. How come you're back so soon?

What happened? Where's Master Edge?

Things have gone a little south, Gavial.

Huh? You mean some giant Originium slug showed up, or what? I heard Provence saw something like that in Siesta.

If it was just some creature, I guarantee I'd be happy to wisecrack with you right now.

Follow me.

After having drilled through the cave-in, everyone enters the tunnel itself.

The space inside is more of a cave than a tunnel in reality, both vast and profoundly deep.

Nevertheless, Elysium is more than up to the task, and everyone proceeds through smoothly with him leading the way.

So smoothly, in fact, that it piques their curiosities that he could grasp the tunnel's structure in such a short time; there's even suspicion he's been this way before.

However, that idea, more a joke than anything, pales in comparison to the hesitance at the sight that greets them where Elysium comes to a halt.

It is a vein of Originium, exposed on the surface of the strata.

Moreover, anyone with some knowledge of Originium could easily tell that this vein has been active for a very, very long time.

And activity means—

Explosion.

Or put less kindly—

Disaster.

How can this be?!

We'd detected the presence of Originium veins in this direction back in the city's founding times, but they should've been much further out—

Is there any chance the earthquake pulled them here? I heard about a few small aftershocks in the wake.

The suddenness of this vein definitely matches, after all.

It's not impossible...

Right, that's it! Chances are that earthquake shifted it right over here!

And what's more, it gave it that push, got its activity slowly warming up.

And because the dome's Originium sensor facilities have been down all this time, that's why we only just now found this out—

I...

Stitch, calm now. This isn't your fault.

We made this decision as the collective inhabitants of Zeruertza.

Thing's just...

We haven't gone even a half kilometer from outside, I'd wager. If a full vein of active Originium explodes only that deep in...

Then Zeruertza's out of luck.

Attention all residents of Zeruertza, we interrupt this broadcast with an urgent notice.

Following the conclusion of our swimming competition prior, Master Edge has taken the initiative in leading a selection of other contestants through the cave-in to survey the tunnel.

The results of this survey are not optimistic.

Master Edge has discovered an Originium vein in the tunnel, located approximately one kilometer from the city.

We tentatively speculate this Originium vein's existence was known at the time of Zeruertza's founding, in a stratum approximately three kilometers out.

However, tectonic shift originating in the earthquake half a year ago caused this vein to warp and extend closer to our city, and kickstarted its activation in the process.

Currently, Master Edge is leading experts to urgently evaluate this Originium vein's level of activity, and thus determine at what point in the future it will explode.

We will provide further updates once accurate conclusions can be drawn.

As of now, we ask all residents to be prepared to evacuate.

Huh? An active Originium vein's going to explode? Where's this coming from?

Judging by the broadcast, we never picked it up after the earthquake wrecked the dome, since the Originium sensor functions never got fixed since.

Now that you mention, I'm pretty sure I've heard Master Edge make mention of the sort.

Well, nothing to do about it now, such as it is.

Don't you... feel as though it was a poor decision to build 'The Great Aquapit?'

What for? It's an outcome we're willing to take.

True, that. We've never rejected any of the naysay from Master Edge.

He warned as much when we decided to build this 'Great Aquapit' instead of repairing that hole in the dome.

And we only made that decision once we understood and accepted the potential danger.

All it is now is taking responsibility for the outcome of our choice.

So it is, surface-dweller. You don't need to give us any pity.

Think about it this way: we've spent a good long summer at least, haven't we?

I completely agree.

Though, evacuating, eh... Haven't decided what I'm going to leave behind. Have you?

I'm nothing like you are. If you ask me right now, my house here's my most wanted and most satisfying design yet.

That's fair. I hope that Originium vein's not going off too easily. I still need to think a little.

How about we go for a drink for now? Some Old Karl Mead?

Not my poison. I'll rather be having a No. 7 Whiskey.

I'd taken Durins to all be buffoons barely smarter than the Archosauria above them... It seems that was hardly the case.

*sigh*...

What's the outlook, Master Edge?

We'll need a little more time to be sure, but based on my experience—

It'll go off within a month.

A month?

Then we should lay the railway while we have the chance, and arrange to evacuate the residents through the tunnel.

Not a chance. Not enough time.

Much more feasible if we dig a temporary shelter deeper in.

We're all aware the dome might be able to suppress some of the vein's explosive force, should it go off.