Ha-neul's first journey through the ruin had been a blur. Every step was a battle. Every breath a war. All the while he had kept the illusion of being strong up, and had been trying to better understand his companions. That left him very little time to take in his surroundings, even if he later wished that was his whole focus. After all, this abominable ruin would become his home for a long time, if not forever.
The castle was quite hard to understand from inside, as no area had a clear end or beginning. It hadn't helped that Tomatsu had done a terrible job explaining it to him. His companions' explanation was actually so bad, it was easier to understand the event by looking at them backwards. Ha-neul's biggest clue about the ruin's true nature had come in an entirely unrelated conversation he'd had the previous night. It was also the best starting point to understand the castle.
Ha-neul had been laying on his cot, swaddled in blankets and shivering. His first fishing expedition had been a resounding success. However, he had mentally prepared himself to return and sit in front of a roaring fire. He hadn't considered that in an unventilated, subterranean crypt, that was not possible. Apparently Tomatsu had almost suffocated on his first night here in order to learn that lesson. They were able to light a small flame, after opening as many doors around them as possible to cook the fish.
It started when Tomatsu used his magic to strengthen his arm and touch the pan without being burned. He smiled his big, goofy grin, "Isn't magic just the best."
Ha-neul shrugged, "I guess."
"Really? This guy! You don't think magic is cool?"
"Magic's causing the end of the world back home. Doing something you could already do with tongs anyway it's all that."
"That's crazy. Zalgoe, back me up here! Magic is exceedingly awesome, right?"
Zalgoe was sitting in the corner, far away from the flame. She spoke in a hoarse whisper, "magic is a tool, just like any other. It's exceedingly good at hurting people."
Tomatsu looked at the two of them despondently. Then he realized something. He reached over and tapped Mebb, who was lying by the fire, wrapped in a blanket, on the shoulder. She rolled over and looked up at him.
Tomatsu made a grand gesture of gathering his mana into his arm and then smacked the fire, causing sparks to fly around them.
Mebb smiled. "I wish I could do that." Then she lay down and closed her eyes again.
"See? At least one of you gets it."
Ha-neul sat up, kicking his legs over the edge of the cot. "Maybe you're right. I, for one, am not fully convinced that this world's magic is the same as Earth's."
"How so?"
"The Sovereign Mind seems to be the one granting Earth-Human's powers. It chooses people to defend Earth, or something like that. I'm not so sure that the Sovereign Mind is as benevolent as people believe. Earth's population is being slowly destroyed, regardless of the presence of Noticed. All the Noticed are doing is stopping humanity from doing desperate and stupid things to the planet. That's my take, at least."
"Ever the pessimist: Ha-neul." Tomatsu looked over at Zalgoe, "you know a lot about magic, what do you think about old S.V.?"
Ha-neul was distracted from her response by Mebb. Although she had appeared to have fallen asleep, her hand was slowly inching towards the fire. Ha-neul tapped her shoulder, and shook his head vigorously. She sighed, and then rolled over. Now facing away from the fire.
He looked back up, as Zalgoe said, "even if you can't comprehend it, the beings that rule the universe have agendas. You have no reason to put your faith in them, at least. Although, it doesn't really change anything if you do."
Ha-neul said, "it's like that thing you said the other day: can we even comprehend magic?"
Tomatsu said, "You don't really have to understand magic, though. For example, when I was teleported here I just thought 'oh, cool, teleportation magic is a thing.' Zalgoe made sure to drill in the point that there isn't actually teleportation magic though. Knowing how reality warps or whatever doesn't really change anything though, because I basically teleported here."
Ha-neul leaned forwards, suddenly very interested in the conversation. "What does that mean?"
Tomatsu sighed. "Okay, imagine that this castle is a point on a piece of paper. And to be clear, this world is not a globe. I don't know how big it is or what shape it is though, So on this imaginary piece of paper, somewhere else, is the human countries. Now imagine If I was to take this piece of paper and fold it so that the two places were touching. The human countries are above, so it is easy for things to travel to the castle, but much harder to go back up. Also, somehow the demon countries are also above the castle. I'm not really sure."
Zalgoe said, "that's almost correct, but you are missing a few small details." She scooted forwards, but kept a wary eye on the fire. "Don't think of it as a piece of paper. Picture if you were to take a gallbladder and inflate it."
"Okay, I'm definitely picturing that."
"Now squeeze it. Some of the tissue stretches and becomes thinner, while some of it is compressed and becomes thicker. The overall structure stays the same size though. The universe is like this but intently big. It just so happens that the spot where this castle is built is especially malleable."
Ha-neul nodded, not understanding what they were saying at all. But he had realized something. "so the reason people keep building in this seemingly random spot in the middle of the mountains is because it is malleable?"
The ruin could be separated into several different areas. It was very vague in practice. And just by the fact that tomatsu came up with it, it was very arbitrary. The first layer was the Whitestone Castle. It was about four hundred years old and included everything above ground. Below that was the cellars, it had belonged to the castle before Whitestone, and was slightly older. Below the cellars were the dungeons. Below the dungeons were the crypts. Below the crypts was the mass grave/ underwater lake. Below that was the temple. The temple was tens of thousands of years old and housed the teleporter, or at least that's what Ha-neul had been told. The only entrance was an island in the middle of the lake, and he had no plans of going there.
All this stuff had been built on top of each other over time. Until two hundred years ago, it had been a haven for humidity on the border of Demon territory. Then the Frost Demon came, and the rest is history. Every single layer was multiple floors thick and were unexplored mazes chalked full with Undead. Ha-neul had stayed in the mass grave and crypt levels while he was recovering. They were the safest, and stayed warm at night.
Back in the Present, Ha-neul returned to camp with his fish.
The camp was a large room the shape of an octagon with an arched roof. It had four doors that lead into various burial chambers. The room was built of carved stones, and the doorways had worn stone sculptures. At some point it had been a room for guards and so had several cots along the wall and a well in the middle. They had turned the excess beds on their sides to act as a barricade in the middle of the room. That way they had a cozy little fort to relax in.
His companions had not returned yet, so Ha-neul set to work filleting the fish and starting a fire.