Myke looked dumfounded at the trembling Liana as she tried in vain to put some distance between them in the small treehouse.

It was a mystery for him why she was so afraid. There were so many things he didn’t understand.

There were so many questions he wanted to ask.

But most of all he couldn’t bear seeing her suffering like this.

He gestured to her to come down and at the same time, he slowly stepped backward until he reached the wall.

“Everything is fine Liana. I won’t hurt you!” He said with the calmest voice he could muster emphasizing the last two words.

Liana relaxed a bit but still looked with suspicion.

“Impossible! You look too damn human for a metamorph.”

Myke spoke with a soft voice looking her straight in the eyes. “Liana, I have no idea what you are talking about! Please explain it, what is a metamorph?”

It seems Liana was finally beginning to understand that he was clueless.

She spoke in a quiet voice. “The metamorphs are freaking monsters of unimaginable power.”

Myke still had no idea what she was talking about and from her reaction he knew his cluelessness was all over his face.

“Oh crap! What is the last thing you can remember before busting out of the damn cocoon?”

Myke looked at the floor trying to remember. “I remember getting back home from work. I brought some Chinese food for dinner, but I can’t recall eating it. The next thing I remember was fighting for my life in the cocoon.”

“I see.” She looked much more relaxed now, she sat on the floor and leaned on the wall. “Sit Myke and listen, I’ll tell you every damn thing I know.”

With a smirk on her face like on their first encounter she looked at him.

“Myke, I'm not from your bloody damn world!” She tried to sound as dramatic as possible.

“You are not from this world?”

“Yes I am from this crappy world, but so are You. Until thirty years ago, this wasn’t the case though. All I know is that our two damn worlds were twins in parallel dimensions and then the shit hit the fan.”

He muttered to himself. “I was in this thing for thirty years.”

She took a pause looking him directly in the eyes without blinking.

He ignored her gaze and asked her to continue.

“The damn Fusion happened then! The stupid event that fused our two worlds.”

She took a deep breath and Myke felt her struggling to continue.

“The elves referred to your worlds as abnormal. They said it was devoid of magic.”

She took a deep breath again. “After the Fusion the magic became omnipresent in the new world.”

She looked at the floor avoiding his eyes. “According to the elves, most of you weren’t able to cope with such high magic radiation and turned into zombies.”

She stopped talking still looking at the floor.

Myke asked quietly. “How many died?”

“Over ninety-five percent of the population.” She answered almost whispering.

“So many deaths!” Myke muttered crushed from this information. “What about your world Liana?”

She looked at him. “Almost none. And this dumbfounded the damn bloody elves the most”

Myke, still crushed from the information had no idea what to make of this. The elves seem to know a lot.

“How so? Why were the elves so surprised?”

“I’m not sure about the details, but what I heard is that the damn elves were preparing for this event for the past ten thousand years. The bastards knew all the time what will happen and kept if for themselves!”

This was a lot to process. He still had no clear idea of how all the information from Liana can be put together. Should he trust her? Maybe he should visit the elves?

From a scientist’s point of view, the Fusion was impossible.

His understanding was that two objects cannot exist together at the same time and place. If the dimensions collapsed somehow than the result should have been a big explosion.

Everybody dies!

Why wasn’t this the case?

“About the Fusion, how is it possible for two parallel dimensions to merge without destroying everything?”

“I have no damn idea. What I know is that the world now is as big as our two damn worlds combined. The landmass arranged too perfectly. Now the continent Northfolk from my world is to the north of this continent you call Europe.”

“This makes even less sense.” For Myke, this was too big of a coincidence. The probability of this happening naturally was zero.

There was only one possible way.

This wasn’t a natural phenomenon, but a well-planned project.

Myke shivered from this idea. The sheer power for such a thing was beyond his imagination. Maybe a type III civilization on the Kardashev’s scale was needed for something big like this?

Liana continued. “There are many theories, but two of them are the most prominent.

The church of the fifth force believes God is the magic itself and the Fusion was God’s plan.” She frowned while talking about the church. “But they are a damn bunch of untrustworthy religious fanatics.”

She breathed deeply again and continued with a calmer voice.

“The other theory is more of a rumor. Lots of people think that the elves are behind this. They prepared for this for thousands of years after all.” She frowned again. “But another rumor says that they were the most surprised about the Fusion. They also took care of the bloody zombies risking their own lives.”

Myke listened to Liana carefully. It seems she also didn’t know much about the Fusion. At least now he had some idea where to look for more answers.

“How did the elves deal with the zombies?”

Liana doesn’t seem to have much love for the elves so her opinion may be biased, but even so, the elves sounded very suspicious.

“You see, they were preparing for a war for a long time and after the Fusion, they quickly invaded Europe and started exterminating the zombies. They cleaned the small villages by foot and used some heavy long-range siege magic on the big cities.”

“The elves did this damage to the city?” Myke showed with his arms around.

“Yes, the bastards did it, but trust me, it is better this way. The zombies started rampaging around killing and eating everything they can catch. The elves suffered many losses while stopping them.”

"Were all big cities destroyed?”

“No, they didn’t expect this world to have so damn many cities. They ran quickly out of siege magic and had to put a magic barrier to the rest of the cities to confine the zombies inside. They fought with the zombies until these freaking monsters started to appear. At first, they had the upper hand, but soon the damn metamorphs grew in numbers and the elves had no choice but to retreat”

“You mentioned the metamorphs multiple times. What are they?”

“After the Fusion some of you were trapped in these stupid cocoons. All attempts to open them and free the poor souls inside were in vain. The cocoons were infused with a huge amount of magic and were virtually indestructible.

The elves tried to study them, but soon the cocoons started busting open and powerful monsters came out of them.

These creatures were the reincarnation of hell on earth. Mindless monsters with deformed bodies, unimaginable power, and indelible hunger.”

She shivered from the memory.

“The elves hired every available adventurer from Northfolk who was willing to accept the job. Short after the Fusion, I came here with them to help to clear the area from the damn zombies.

Here we joined power with the survivors and were progressing pretty good with the extermination. We were all in high spirit expecting a damn good pay for the job well done.”

She sighed and took a deep breath before continuing.

“On that day we were clearing a small town with some local survivors. The town was damn quiet and felt empty. We wondered where the zombies hid and made our way to the town center. When we reached the central place, we finally found the bastards.”

She made a pause while shivering from the memory.

“They were all dead scattered in pieces all over the place covered with bite and claw marks all over them.

Something had fed on them. Something had eaten the zombie’s rotten flesh and survived.

This was just plain freaking impossible!”

She was breathing heavily. These memories had left a big emotional scar in her.

Liana calmed a little and continued.

“Then it appeared. The monster came from nowhere and stood almost three meters tall in front of us. It vaguely resembled a human but had a deformed head with a big forehead and horns. Its arms were much longer, and it had big claws on its fingers. It also had long half meter blades on its elbows.

Just looking at it made us all shiver in fear.

And then it attacked us.”

The eyes of Liana were moist from tears.

She continued with a quiet shivering voice.

“It was a massacre. The bastard moved incredibly fast and cut through armor and swords like a hot knife through butter.

No magic or blade worked on the damn thing.

I was knocked unconscious and this is what saved me. When I woke, I saw the damn gore everywhere. They were all dead scattered in pieces around just like the zombies.

I ran away as fast as I can.”

This should have happened for over twenty-eight years, but the memory was still clear and vivid in her mind.

“This was the first damn metamorph we encountered, but soon many more started to appear. The elven bastards cowered, gave up, and retreated to Northfolk.

Some of us stayed back to help the survivors. The situation seemed helpless and I was freaking scared to death, but I couldn’t go home without trying to do something.”

Myke was surprised. He expected Liana to be the first to run away. Maybe he judged her too fast.

She continued. “The situation looked pretty damn helpless, but soon intelligent metamorphs started to appear and this changed everything.

The longer a human was in the cocoon the more damn powerful metamorph he became.

The rate of the new metamorphs decreased steadily, and around twenty-five years ago it got almost to zero. For two years there were no more new metamorphs until finally, he appeared.

The last damn metamorph Jorge Hornandez.

He is the most powerful metamorph ever existed. Besides the two horns on his forehead, he looked just like a damn human.

With his power and intelligence, he managed in just under a year to unite a large group of diverse followers.

The most freaking cool thing was, this group included not only survivors and metamorphs but also immigrants from Northfolk.

He then moved to the south and together with his followers he founded the Mediterranea country.”

“What happened to the mindless monster metamorphs?”

“The intelligent metamorphs hunted the bastards down and this made them look like damn heroes”

Myke had now a rough idea about the current situation. Jorge caught his attention in particular.

For now, he had two options to choose from. Go north to the elves or go south to Mediterranea.

There was one thing still boggling Myke.

Liana looked much more relaxed now. He smiled at her and changed the topic.

“What is a beautiful girl like you doing in this zombie-infested city?”

She looked surprised for a moment.

“I’m here for the damn loot of course.” She smiled. “I’m a freaking C ranked adventurer after all!”

“An adventurer you say?” Myke was surprised that she still was an adventurer after all she had experienced.

“Isn’t it too dangerous to come here alone?”

“I wasn’t alone.” Liana’s head and shoulders were hanging down. “The damn zombies surprised us. They were so freaking many, we didn’t stand a chance. I was the only survivor.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, it must be hard for you.”

“Ah, it’s ok.” She smiled trying to look tough. “We weren’t close. This was our first damn job together.”

Myke didn’t want to make her uncomfortable, so he changed the subject again.

“You said, you were looking for loot in the city. What exactly where you after?” Myke wondered why someone would risk his life in such a zombie infected area.

She smiled as if she knew something he didn’t.

“You people had no magic, but you were damn crafty builders. Even a simple artifact from the time before the Fusion costs a freaking fortune.”

“Oh really!” Myke was surprised. Most of the machines shouldn’t work anymore, at least not without electrical power or gas. “Was there something specific you were searching for?”

“Anything will do, but the biggest fricking jackpot is to find a damn gas-powered chainsaw. One of these is worth its damn weight in gold.” She said with glittering eyes.

This was a quick and very specific response.

“Really? I know a place where we could find some.” Myke was intrigued. This was an easy way to win some points with Liana and also to make some money.

“Holy crap, are you serious?” Liana almost screamed. “Is it close? Can we go now?” Liana jumped cheerfully on her feet eager to go right away.

Myke was happy seeing her so cheerful, so he decided to go with the flow.

He smiled. “Sure, let’s go.”