It's funny how one moment you could be celebrating your birthday and the next be attacked by a literal dragon.
That day had a name now.
The Merger.
It sounded like a business deal. Some big company fusion or something business related. It didn't sound like the day reality split open and stitched itself to an entirely different universe. Was it actually a different universe, or a different dimension? No one has a clue.
But that's what it was. A whole other world just collided with ours.
One moment, I was blowing out birthday candles, eating cake, and getting glitter blasted by my sisters. The next… two suns were in the sky, and a dragon was crashing into my neighborhood.
People tried to explain it—scientists, journalists, government officials—but no one really could. There was no countdown, warning, swirling portal, wormhole, or dramatic prophecy written in ancient stone—just an earthquake, and then BAM!
Two worlds collided.
They said the new world was called Arche.
A place that made every fantasy novel, video game, and cheesy D&D campaign seem dull by comparison. Arche wasn't just magic and dragons. It had full-on nations ruled by actual gods. Real gods. Physical, powerful, talk-to-you-directly kind of gods.
In total, there were thirteen nations that made up Arche.
Twelve of them were led by a divine being, each one completely different from the others. Different species, different personalities, different magic, different politics. Some were beings of fire, others were spirits of nature, some looked like angels, and some… didn't look like anything I could easily describe.
The thirteenth nation had no god on purpose.
They called it the Godless Nation, and from the very beginning, they made it clear they weren't just sitting out of the divine game. They were actively against it. This nation was built on rebellion, based on the belief that gods were parasites, tyrants, and false rulers who demanded faith, tribute, and control.
Safe to say that they weren't exactly friendly.
At first, everyone thought it was an invasion.
Military bases went on full alert, fighter jets scrambled, and world leaders held emergency meetings. Civilians? We did what civilians do best: ran, screamed, and uploaded blurry videos onto the internet, which was still somehow working.
Everyone waited for Arche's armies to march across the oceans and demand surrender.
But that never really happened.
Not all of Arche was aggressive. Some of the divine nations came forward offering peace, diplomats, translated scrolls, and magical artifacts wrapped in silk. Treaties and alliances were formed within days.
Some countries welcomed the contact. Others… didn't.
Because here's the thing. The worlds didn't just connect; they merged. That's why it's called The Merger, not The Arrival or The Invasion.
Parts of Earth were literally fused with Arche. Cities gone. Forests where suburbs used to be. Ocean swallowed entire coastlines. Deserts with ancient towers jutting out of them like teeth. Weather went nuts. Gravity felt off for a while.
Yeah, the gravity thing was a whole mind fuck.
Entire nations were changed overnight.
Some people woke up in places they didn't recognize. Some never woke up at all.
The damage was terrible. The death toll was worse. People lost their homes, their families, their sense of normal. And with that came panic. Fear. Hate.
Some humans blamed the gods, and others joined them. New religions, cults, and movements popped up. "Chosen by the Goddess of Fire," people are flooding social media with magical selfies and #blessed hashtags.
The rest of us were just trying to stay alive.
…
And me?
I just kept thinking about what it meant.
I was never the spiritual type. Ask anyone who knew me. Atheist, agnostic, logical realist, or whatever label you wanted to slap on me, I wore it just fine.
Because I'd never believed in gods, never wanted to. Didn't matter which religion. Not because I thought people were stupid for believing, just that it never felt real to me. Faith was a story you told yourself when you needed comfort, when the world made little sense.
So, imagine the emotional whiplash of seeing a god on TV. Or having my classmates post selfies with a seraphim god. Or watching WeTube tutorials on how to not accidentally piss off a divine envoy while they're buying coffee.
Gods were real.
Like really real.
They walked the Earth. They had armies. They had temples. They had followers. And they had magic that could flatten a city or raise an island out of the sea with a thought.
And yet…
I still couldn't believe in them. Not in the way other people did.
I acknowledged them. Sure. I'd be an idiot not to. But faith? Trust? Worship?
No. Not even close.
I don't know if it was pride, or fear, or just something stubborn in me, but even now, with the sky having two suns and magic literally in the air, I couldn't kneel. I couldn't look at these gods, some of them kind, some of them terrifying, and say, "I believe in you."
Because belief, genuine belief to me, meant trust.
And I don't trust easily.
Especially not when every god I've seen so far has an army behind them and a throne made of glowing metal or floating trees or whatever symbol of power, they decided to flex that day.
Even now, with divine beings casually strolling through political summits, my first instinct isn't awe.
It's suspicion.
So yeah. The world changed. Not just on the outside.
Everything we thought we knew about science, history, and how the universe worked was thrown into a blender with no lid.
Magic became real. Gods became real.
And normal? Normal was dead.
...
It had been a month since the sky grew a second sun.
A month since the dragon.
A month since Raka's house stopped being home.
Now, he sat cross-legged on a cheap blanket laid out across the polished hardwood of what used to be a middle school gymnasium. The basketball lines were still faintly visible under all the scuff marks and boot prints. Above them, a faded banner that read "Go Timberwolves!" drooped sadly against the rafters.
This has been his life for the past month.
Cots, crates, and crowding. Dozens of families huddled together, trying to carve out some version of privacy in a place that didn't have walls. Some had made barriers with bedsheets or cardboard. Others didn't bother. Few showers were available. Food came in ration packs or instant noodles handed out from supply tables that ran out too often. Though someone brought a portable stove that made it possible to cook whatever food that was on hand. A baby cried somewhere near the front. Two men were arguing in low voices off to the left.
'This sucks,'
Raka's family had claimed a spot near the back wall, between a dusty vending machine and a stack of unused folding chairs. The space was cramped, but at least they weren't by the entrance.
Melody was lying on her side, one arm under her head and the other glued to her phone. She hadn't said much all day. Sarah sat cross-legged, sketching on a crumpled notebook page with a pencil, tongue poking slightly out of her mouth in concentration. Their mom had finally dozed off against their dad's shoulder, wrapped in a thermal blanket. 'At Least some of us are getting rest.'
Raka just watched the small portable screen sitting on top of an overturned box. The footage was still clear by some miracle. The news was playing again, low volume, but still audible over the background sound of the gym turned shelter.
"…global tensions remain high following The Merger. Multiple countries have officially condemned the Godless Nation after unprovoked attacks along shared fusion borders. Meanwhile, divine emissaries from Arche continue to meet with UN leaders in…."
The image cut to footage of an Archean envoy, an armored centaur with braided silver hair, walking past cameras surrounded by security drones. Raka blinked slowly, absorbing it in silence.
Every time he thought he was getting used to this world, it showed him something new.
His dad shifted beside him, looked around the shelter and sighed. "I still can't believe it's come to this."
"They say it's temporary," Raka murmured, though his voice lacked conviction.
His father gave a tired chuckle. "They always say that. When was the last time something 'temporary' actually ended on time?"
"Midterms," Melody said flatly, not looking up.
That earned a faint laugh from Sarah, who hadn't stopped drawing.
Raka leaned back against the wall and stared at the ceiling. The tiles looked warped now. Maybe it was the light. Maybe it was just his head still trying to catch up to reality.
They were living in a gym, watching world leaders debate what to do about gods—real, living gods who walked and talked and sometimes flattened mountains for fun.
And everyone was supposed to just… figure it out?
Yeah. Okay.
The news anchor kept talking, their calm voice starting to sound irritating to his ears.
"…radical groups across the globe have staged coordinated protests in major cities, demanding the removal of all divine presence. Several violent clashes have broken out between pro-god cults and anti-divine factions…"
Raka tuned it out. He'd heard enough about "divine presence this", or "god did what" to last a lifetime.
He glanced at Sarah. She was sketching a dragon, blue scales, long horns, wings outstretched across the paper. It looked almost exactly like the one that had crashed onto their street.
"Do you… think they're watching us?" she asked quietly.
Raka looked at her. "Who?"
"The gods," she said, still drawing. "Like… Do they see us? People like us?"
"I don't know," he said. Then, after a pause, "Maybe."
She nodded and kept sketching.
He didn't know what to tell her. The truth was that the idea of being seen by a god made his skin crawl. He didn't want to be noticed. Not by something that could probably bend reality just by thinking hard enough.
A rumble passed through the floor.
It was soft at first. He barely even noticed it.
Then came the boom.
The wall across the gym shook. A stack of crates collapsed. The lights flickered.
People stopped moving. Then someone screamed.
BOOM.
This time, it hit harder. The front doors blew open with a metallic screech, and shattered glass rained onto the hardwood.
Chaos erupted.
Screaming, pushing, sirens, lights flashing red, a baby crying somewhere, people shouting over each other, trying to understand what was happening. The ground trembled again, and dust fell from the ceiling.
Raka's instincts kicked in. He grabbed Sarah and pulled her close, shielding her with one arm while scanning for Melody. She was already crouched behind a cot, wide-eyed but unharmed.
Another explosion rocked the shelter. Somewhere near the west wall.
Then the warning sirens finally kicked in. A voice boomed over the emergency speaker system.
"This is not a drill. All civilians prepare for immediate evacuation. I repeat, this is not a drill."
'Why did this have to happen again?!'
Screaming. Sirens. Footsteps.
It was all blending together.
Raka's ears were still ringing from the last explosion. He held Sarah tightly, shielding her as she clung to him, her small hands digging into the back of his hoodie. Melody had moved beside them, crouched low, her face pale but steady.
'I can't think clearly like this!'
The shelter had become a Warzone.
People were running in every direction, some toward exits, others away from falling debris. Dust was picking up in the shelter. He quickly covered his mouth and nose with the top of his shirt. A section of the ceiling near the gym's stage had partially collapsed, taking out a row of cots and most of the overhead lights.
He looked at his family. Everyone was okay. Shaken, but otherwise physically fine. Looking around at the others in the shelter, some were also alright. But he saw a woman whose leg was trapped under a pile of debris, probably part of the collapsed ceiling.
No one was looking at her. It seemed she was alone and desperately trying to get her leg unstuck.
She won't make it like that.
No. he needed to stay with his family. He needed to keep them safe. Someone else would help that woman. Someone else would save her—
Then the lady looked straight at him.
Her eyes were full of tears, and when they locked eyes, it was as if he could hear her speaking to him: Please help me.
He didn't know how he was already running. His body moved before he could think. He heard his mother shouting his name from behind, but he didn't look back.
He stopped at the lady's side, looking at her trapped leg. She was trying to hold herself together but still let out a few sobs of "Thank you."
"Don't thank me yet, miss. Let's get this thing off first."
She nodded.
Carefully looking at her leg, he could tell it wasn't broken. That made things easier. Now, he just had to get the heavy debris off her. He really should've thought this through.
"Miss, I'm going to lift this up and I need you to get your leg out the moment you can move it, okay?"
She said nothing, but her eyes told him she was ready.
'Here goes nothing!'
Planting his legs wide, he crouched and started to try to lift the debris. "Aghhh!"
'Fuck, this is heavy!'
Looking at it, there was barely any movement. He needed to try harder. Taking a deep breath, he pulled harder. "Raghhh!"
Creak.
'It's working! Barely, but I can do this!'
BOOM.
'Dammit, universe!'
Another explosion shook the gymnasium, making him lose grip on the debris. It fell back down on the woman's leg. He winced. He needed to finish this fast. If another explosion happened, even more debris could fall. If a piece of debris fell on him, he would be injured.
Gripping the rubble again, he pulled with everything he had. His hands started to bleed. 'Please move!' Just as he was about to lose hope, he heard running approaching him.
"Once we get a new house, you are so dead!"
"Dad?!"
His father suddenly appeared beside him, quickly grabbing the debris as well. They looked at each other and nodded.
"One, two, THREE!"
The combined effort worked. The debris lifted just enough for the woman to pull her leg free.
Wasting no time, the father-and-son duo grabbed her and threw her arms around their shoulders. She ran back toward the family, who were already moving toward the exit.
BOOM.
Another explosion shook the ground. The trio lost their footing and hit the floor. Raka fell hard, slamming his head against a blunt piece of concrete.
"Goddammit!"
He could hear his siblings yelling his name as he groaned, trying to sit up, head spinning.
'Where are the police when you need them?!'
Then the side doors burst open.
'Well damn. Speak of the devil.'
Dozens of armed soldiers stormed in, weapons drawn, helmets glowing with faint blue lines. Their body armor looked nothing like standard military issue. It was reinforced, layered, and high-tech. And right behind them-
A figure stepped through the dust.
His long coat swayed as he walked. Silver-etched runes glowed softly across the sleeves, shifting like living ink. A floating staff hovered over his shoulder, humming with power, a glass orb spinning gently at its tip.
His eyes glowed gold.
'It's a mage!'
"Everybody, please calm down!" But the civilians weren't listening. Too much panic. Too much fear. People were still screaming, grabbing their things, dragging children, shoving each other as the walls trembled again. The soldiers tried yelling orders, but their voices barely cut through the chaos.
Then the mage raised his staff.
Five bright spheres of white-blue light shot up into the air, hovering near the center of the gym like miniature suns. They pulsed once, then twice, before expanding into glowing orbs that bathed the room in a cool, calming light.
The effect was instant. The noise died down. Movement stopped. Eyes turned to the hovering lights.
The chaos was finally under control.
"Everyone, stay calm!" the mage's voice echoed through the gymnasium. But Raka noticed something, he wasn't shouting.
'Some kind of magic to amplify his voice?'
"You are being evacuated. Follow the soldiers and stay low. We will get you out safely."
Raka froze for a second. Not from fear, just… awe.
The lights dimmed slightly, and the soldiers stepped forward again.
"Secure the west exit! Get these people out now!"
"Civilians, stay low and follow instructions!" another barked, helping someone to their feet. "Move to the loading bay. We're evacuating the entire shelter!"
Raka's dad snapped him out of it. "Let's go!"
Helping the woman up, he gathered back with the family and rushed toward the soldiers. "Stay together!" he shouted, both men letting go of the woman as a soldier took over supporting her. "Move, now!"
Raka nodded, tugged Sarah's hand, and motioned for Melody to follow.
The soldiers moved in synchronized lines, forming shields between the civilians and whatever was happening outside. They weren't all human, either. Raka caught a glimpse of one with glowing green skin and silver tattoos woven across their arms.
Another raised a hand and cast a barrier mid-air, a transparent wall flickering into existence just before another impact rocked the building.
"What the hell is going on out there?" Melody muttered as they hurried behind their dad.
"Nothing good, that's for sure," Raka replied, keeping his eyes ahead.
They passed what was left of the lobby—half-collapsed and scorched—before being funneled through a narrow hallway. The evac route was packed with people: families clutching bags, kids crying, elders limping, volunteers shouting instructions, trying to keep the stream moving.
Then they pushed through the back doors into the night air-
-and the smell hit hard.
Smoke. Dust. Burning plastic. Blood. Flesh.
Raka didn't want to look around to find where it came from.
Further down the road, he could hear spells going off, actual spells. Words he didn't understand, followed by bolts of lightning.
"Go, go, go!" a soldier waved them toward the nearest truck. "Five more inside! Let's move!"
They climbed into one of the armored transports, reinforced with steel and spell work, the sides etched with glowing lines. Raka helped Sarah in first, then pulled Melody up. Their parents followed close behind.
The doors slammed shut behind them with a heavy metallic clang.
The engine roared.
And through the small slit in the back door, Raka watched the gym, what was left of it, disappear behind them
…
The engine hum was loud. Raka actually appreciated that because it muted the sound of his heartbeat.
He sat stiffly on a metal bench inside the transport, shoulders hunched, hands still shaking from the adrenaline. His palms were scraped. His head still throbbed from when he hit the concrete earlier. He did get yelled at by his mom because of his reckless actions. But at the end she said that as a mother, she would beat him unconscious if he did something like that again, but as a human, she is proud of him.
That did lift his mood a little.
The truck's interior was dim, lit only by a faint strip of blue light running along the ceiling. It was cramped. About a dozen other evacuees sat shoulder to shoulder, all too tired or scared to say anything. The only sounds were the occasional cough, the rumble of the road, and someone trying not to cry in the back corner.
Sarah leaned against their mom, fast asleep. Melody sat next to Raka, staring blankly at her knees. Their dad was speaking in low whispers to a soldier seated near the back.
Raka exhaled slowly, trying to center himself.
'You're okay. You're alive. Everyone's alive. That's what matters.'
But his mind wouldn't stop racing.
That woman he helped… What if things had gone wrong? What if another explosion happened and more debris fell on him? What if he died there?
What if, what if, what if.
His eyes drifted across the vehicle and then stopped.
Across from him, sitting way too calmly for someone in their situation, was the mage.
Same glowing eyes. Same floating staff. His long coat was torn at the sleeve, and a streak of soot ran across his cheek, but he didn't seem tired. In fact, he looked perfectly calm. Relaxed, even. Like this was just another day at work.
Raka couldn't stop staring at the staff. The orb at the top was still glowing faintly, with little lines of runes floating around it.
It was mesmerizing.
The mage raised an eyebrow. "Never seen one before?"
Raka blinked. "Uh. No. I mean—well, yeah. Not in person."
The mage smirked, like he'd been expecting that answer. He tapped the orb with two fingers, and it pulsed slightly in response.
"Focus crystal," he said. "Channels raw mana more efficiently. This one's keyed to my affinity, so it doubles as a spell anchor and a memory rune. Pretty standard these days."
Raka blinked again, slower this time. "I understood maybe half of that."
"Don't worry," the mage said with a shrug. "Most people don't."
He leaned back, resting his head against the wall as the staff gently drifted beside him like it was tethered to gravity by suggestion only.
Raka kept staring, more out of mental exhaustion than curiosity. Still, the magic was… weirdly mesmerizing. Not like the flashy spells he'd seen on the news. This was more subtle. Like watching candlelight that couldn't die.
"How… long have you been doing this?" Raka asked quietly.
"Since before The Merger," the mage replied, eyes half-lidded now. "I was part of the crossworld initiative. I also trained some of your Earth people how to use magic."
"Your people, uh, I mean- people from Arche agreed to train people of Earth?"
"Not all of them, gods, no," the mage chuckled. "A lot of the gods are still too suspicious of Earth, but the good ones like Sephor, The Lightseer, allowed an entire group of high-ranking magicians to help the people of Earth.
The truck hit a rough patch, bouncing slightly as the road changed from pavement to… something else. Raka peeked through the small slit in the back door and felt his breath catch.
The streets were gone.
There were no more suburbs, power poles, or even parked cars.
Now it was dirt. Stone. Massive twisting trees with glowing veins running through their bark. In the distance, there was a jagged hill crowned with some kind of stone fortress, impossibly tall, unnaturally balanced, and definitely not Earth-made.
"What is this place?" Raka muttered.
The mage followed his gaze and nodded.
"Fusion zone," he said. "You're looking at one of the largest merged regions on the East Coast. Used to be half a city here. Now it's just… Arche, bleeding through."
Raka leaned back, stunned again. How was anyone supposed to adjust to this?
After a moment, he asked, "Where are we going?"
The mage opened one eye. "Dravareth."
He had no idea what that place was.
"It's one of America's new allies," the mage continued. "Stable territory. Most of the fusion zones around it have settled already."
Raka frowned slightly. "Dravareth… isn't that one of the divine nations?"
The mage nodded. "Yep."
Then he added, way too casually for his liking.
"Ruled by the Arch-God Karthzion."
The name hit like a drop of cold water down his spine.
A god.
He didn't know why that word still messed with him. He knew the world had changed. But there was something about the idea of going to a place ruled by a literal god that made his chest tighten.
He looked down at his hands.
Still sore and bleeding a little. He wasn't sure if the shaking was from the earlier chaos or from this new information settling into his gut.
A god.
He didn't trust gods, nor did he worship them. He didn't even know if they cared about people like him.
But still…
Part of him wanted to see one.
Just once.