As Eric looked down at the valley, he noticed the air change. He felt a heavy weight on his shoulders and chest as if the air itself was a weighted vest. He turned to Michael, but noticed the Captain was frozen.

He turned around to look at Jessica, and she seemed to be frozen as well. He looked up, and a bird was suspended in the air. He walked around the hill, but noticed his steps were sluggish. It was as if someone had tied bricks made of cement to his legs and arms.

"Why is time stopped?" Eric growled.

He then saw the magic circle. It was small at first, barely visible amidst the smoke and haze suspended in time. His body stiffened, and he stopped as the Golden circle expanded slowly. As it reached over his head, Eric tried to sigh. The noise came out as more of a slow groan. "H...E...Y... I...F....Y..." Noticing that even his words were slow, he closed his eyes and prayed to whichever God was doing this. "Hey, to whichever God is doing this, can you at least either fully freeze me in time, too, or release me?"

A ball of flame appeared in front of him, and Eric opened his eyes.

"Dreha."

Eric felt that he could move his hands and arms, so he folded his arms across his chest.

"What are you doing?" Eric growled. "I thought you told me that God’s can’t interfere."

The ball of flame seemed to shake as the Phoenix laughed. "This is a consequence of Mithrael’s actions. It will also be of great use to you."

Eric stared at Dreha in disbelief. "Okay... But what are you doing?"

Eric swore he could see the Cardinal smirk.

"Merging the worlds fully."

Eric stopped in his tracks, and his body seemed to creak like a door that needs WD-40 as he turned around. "Wait... WHAT?"

"Indeed, child. What indeed. Prepare yourself. My preparations are almost complete."

"WAIT!" Eric yelled as he made his way over to the flame, but it was too late. The flame had disappeared.

Eric pulled out his phone and counted to one hundred. The clock didn’t move. "You have got to be shitting me," Eric grumbled as he watched the magic circle continuing to expand in size.

Eric sat down and rewatched baby videos of Liara. Whenever Eric was gone, Mia sent him videos of Liara hourly. He would never grow tired of watching the videos or seeing pictures of his daughter.

Eric felt a shift in the atmosphere and put his phone away. There was a bright flash of orange light, and the mana circle seemed to explode. The orange hue seemed to cover everything, making it hard to see past. It was as if a fog made simply from fire blocked his vision. He held his hand out, and couldn’t see it through the fire.

As quickly as it came, it stopped, and Eric looked around as the light disappeared. He heard coughing behind him, and turned around Jessica was covering her mouth as she coughed from the dust and haze that still hung in the air after their battle with the Ark. Michael continued glowering at the valley.

"Hey, when is the replacement unit going to get here? I want to go home." The captain grumbled. "Ayeolla wants to cook some chicken tonight and I want to rub in your face that I have a corvette."

Eric shook his head. "There’s no time for home right now." He said as he scrambled into the truck and grabbed the radio. He keyed for Milano.

"HQ, this is Chaos Actual. Urgent report. I repeat, urgent report."

Milano responded nearly instantly. "Go ahead, Chaos actual."

Eric took a deep breath. "Full world merge imminent. I repeat, full world merge imminent."

Michael dropped his smirk and climbed into the truck. Jessica grabbed her weapon, laying prone on the grass and scanning around them for threats. Justin stood nearby, his eyes widening as he felt the air pressure dropping.

"It’s coming."

The ground began to roll and stretch as if the entire hill was growing in size, and Eric yelled out. "Get in your trucks and off this hill!"

The hill side became a flurry of activity as the soldiers scrambled to get into vehicles. Those that didn’t make it to a vehicle began running as fast as they could. The deadlined vehicles effected by the battle were left behind as the team made a mad dash for the valley below. The ground quaked and shook as Eric drove. Everywhere he looked, green trees mixed with purple trees, and he swore that a third sun appeared in the sky for a brief moment.

As he reached the bottom of the hill, Eric had to slam on the brakes. Cars were coming for them. He swerved to miss the first car, taking a hard right turn as a highway began to fracture in. A large bridge then connected to the hill, and buildings began to appear one after the other. Eric stopped the Humvee at the riverbed where the Ark had fallen, and stepped out of the vehicle.

Eric simply stared in awe as the ground kept stretching. The drivers on the highway had finally rolled to a stop. Everywhere Eric looked, chaos was the only way to describe what was happening. Stores popped up next to purple trees, and a large structure that looked like a stadium took shape through the haze. Civilians and soldiers alike tried to keep their footing as the ground kept stretching and rolling. The radio became a constant stream of reporting, so Eric changed the channel to a 6-8 only channel. "Your orders, HQ?" Eric asked, not bothering to use radio etiquette.

There was no response.

Eric looked at Michael. "I have a bad feeling about this, Mike."

Michael chewed on his lip, looking around with narrowed eyes. He grabbed the radio. "HQ, Chaos one, do you read me?"

There was still no answer. They waited for a few more minutes and Michael turned the radio back to open channel. He tried to contact Milano again, but there was still radio silence. Michael looked at the radio grimly.

"There are only two real possibilites for this." He muttered. "Either we are too far away for the radio to reach, or the mana in the atmosphere is messing with the radio."

Eric nodded. "Let’s try the emergency channels."

Michael sighed as he keyed for the unencrypted emergency channels. "Any station on net, any station on net, this is Captain Michael Stryer, do you read me?"

"This is Tuscaloosa PD. Army unit, please identify yourself."

Eric and Michael exhanged a sigh of relief.

"This is Chaos one, we are a part of 6-8 joint task force in Brishan."

There was a brief moment of silence, then a response. "Chaos one, what’s going on right now?"

Michael sighed and held the radio to his head. He looked at Eric. "How the fuck do I answer that?"

Eric grabbed the radio. "Tuscaloosa PD, this is Chaos Actual, 6-8 Task force. We aren’t sure what is going on fully ourselves. What we do know is that you are now in Brishan. We have four vehicles, two of them will go and secure a military asset, the other two can help secure the city. How can we assist you?"

There was a slight pause. "Chaos one, what is your current location?"

Eric pulled out his phone, looking at his map.

"Tuscaloosa PD, it appears that we are just off of twenty fifth avenue, near 13th street."

"In that case, can you help the officers with the crashes on that road, and help with shutting it down?"

"Copy that."

A large crash in the background made both Eric and Michael turn around. "We will figure out why we have no radio contact later. For now, lets control the scene. Captain Stryer and I will go secure the highway. Team Alpha, you will come with us. Team Bravo, go with Jessica and secure the Ark. Don’t let anyone to close to it. The civilians will probably take pictures of it, and that is okay, but they are not to touch it." Eric said as he hopped into the truck.

The ground stopped stretching and rolling a few hours later. Eric looked at the city around them, shaking his head. Some units from Fort Rucker had come to assist with shutting the main roads down, and Eric was currently in a meeting with Michael and the Lieutenent Colonel that had been sent to take command of the situation.

The Colonel eyed Eric and Michael. "And what were you two doing here?" The Colonel said. "I understand that you are a part of 6-8, but why were you seperated from your unit?"

Michael looked up. "Sir, we were tasked with guarding a foreign military asset. I can’t say much more as the information is on a need to know basis, but when the merge started happening, we were on our way to secure the asset."

The colonel nodded. "Alright. We have it from here. Thank you for your help."

They shook hands with the Colonel and left.

Back in the truck, Eric checked his phone.

"Fuck."

There were thirty missed calls. Some from Milano, most from Mia.

Michael looked over and started laughing. "HAHA! Look who’s in the dog hou-"

"Oh."

Michael had fifty missed calls.

Both men scratched the back of their heads.

"Yeah, so Ark?"

"Ark."

They both turned off their cell phones and Eric began driving towards the Ark. Justin looked at his own phone and saw dozens of missed calls too. He decided to follow in his leaders footsteps and turn his own phone off.

"We will address THAT problem later." Eric murmured as they pulled up to the site.

"You know your daughter is there, right?" Michael said with a grin.

They all looked at each other.

"Yeah, we’re all fucked."