21 Preparation For The Ordeal: Part 1

"I'm amazed that you could say that so casually!"

Micca navigated her surroundings, before facing me once again with a determined eyes. "Father just got into this world, so you didn't know this,

"But sometimes, there will be a crack in our world that connects with another foreign world. Most often than not, it will be the world that spews out a 'Calamity of the Void' into our plane.

"That monstrosity that appeared back then." She furrowed her brows with frustration, mixed with some hints of fear and powerlessness. "Was one of the Calamities of the Void, called the Unruly One."

"Okay, you're scaring me with the implications of where this conversation is going."

"I have appraised the state of this forest."

"And what did you find after appraising the state of this forest, my dear daughter?"

"There are time dilations everywhere!" Whirlpool of distraught and confusion suddenly appeared in her eyes as if it was formerly repressed. "The angle of the setting sun is wrong, critters that should be active at midnight began scouring the land and air for no reason, and the air is two times more warmer than yesterday!"

"How do you even discern the angle of the setting sun––"

Though, now that Micca mentioned the anomaly that happened in this forest, my senses began to capture some of that eccentricity too.

There were unnaturally ascending leaves that suddenly changed speed and trajectory as if someone was playing with the CD-player's remote control.

Some of the plantation even began to wilt and then reborn a couple of seconds after.

These disparities in space and time, they all felt so natural to me before as if something had brainwashed my sense of normalcy.

Yeah, something is definitely off.

"There are always these sort of time and space shenanigans everytime a rift begins to form within its vicinity." Her claw anxiously caressed her floppy bunny ears like a reflex to calm one's mind down. "There might have been a lot of hints too before the Unruly One arrived, but I'm getting too comfortable in our walk to greet the dwellers of this forest."

I guess that's also partially my fault.

Though, seeing how things play out, the sign of a forming crack might be affecting the reality and the state of conscious being. Even the moose deity didn't seem to be prepared for the Unruly One arrival.

I wonder if the moose deity is okay…

"So if we want to detect these signs in the first place, we need to be aware of their concepts before they could be perceived by us," I said in our resonance channel.

"Uuuoo, father is quite fast on his uptake!"

Yes, praise your father more! Then again, it should be me who is supposed to be praising her with all of this information. I can imagine the dedication, rumors gathering and filtering, intensive research, and many more means to procure information to possess this seldom wisdom.

"My dearest and helpful daughter, do you have any suggestions on what course of action we should take?"

Yes, it should be proper for now to entrust every decision making to this amazing daughter of mine!

Mom! Did you see this!? Your granddaughter is smart enough to skip multiple years and enroll in Harvard! So please, stop forcing me to get into university like it was a must for me to be happy and fulfilled in this life of mine!

Then again, I'm no longer living in that life.

With her snarky deadpan, she raised a finger of her claw. "I suggest that we should accept our fate."

That took a depressing turn!

"Ahhaha, any reason why?"

"While seemingly random and unexpected, there's a pattern and a recurring event that happens with the event of the crack."

Yeah, otherwise, she wouldn't have known that the Calamity of the Void that we faced was that of the Unruly One.

She sniffed and looked at the surroundings once again, ensuring the state of our safety before continuing with her speech, "With the hints of the crack to begin appearing near the night, there should be one thing that one must include in deducing the upcoming event.

"The size of the place."

"The size of the place?"

"An easily discernible place with its confirmed territory and border can be easily taken into account on how big they are.

"For example, if the hints of the cracks happen inside a house, one can easily get outside and check if the road in front of their home is affected with any noticeable anomaly.

"If the anomaly only consisted of the vicinity inside the house, then the size of the crack's destination is the whole house as a whole! Which is small, and there shouldn't be much danger or sign of Calamities of the Void.

"But if the signs appear on the street inside a city, then it's without doubt that the whole city will be included as the target of the crack. And with how big a city usually is, the appearance of a Calamity of the Void can be easily deduced."

"In our case, the whole forest is the destination of the crack, huh." My daughter's anxiety began to creep inside my mind too. "How big is this forest?"

"Big…"

"Big as in?"

"Really, really, really big." Micca paused as she counted the amount of hours it took to exit this forest in our head. "It took atleast three days to exit this forest. That is, if we maintain the same sprinting speed without any break."

"... We are doomed, aren't we?" If I would have an expression right now, it would be that of an awfully wry, and sour smile. "Though, is there a difference if the signs happened on that day?"

"Yeah. Out of all the possible times where the cracks could happen, the night time is always the most predictable and dangerous of them all."

"Yep, we are doomed alright."