Fusion

He didn't say anything about a ritual. I thought it would be some kind of medicine. Then again, this was a mutation, not an illness. Duh.

"Andrew, you can not tell anyone what you are about to see."

I nodded. Burcham proceeded to close the door. After that, he tapped it a couple times, and loud click sound echoed in the room. He stood to the left then nodded at Bruce, who was in front of a stone altar. On it was a detailed image of various animals, and in the center was a large head of a wolf that had green jewels in the pupils that glowed like embers.

Bruce pulled out of the sides of the altar two, small tubes, about a quarter of a liter each, and had a short needle at the end of them.

"In order for the mutation to work, I need a small amount of blood from both of you. Then, set your hands on here and I will summon a lightning bolt to transform you both into your stronger bodies."

"Wait, you need some of our blood?" Jarun sounded worried. I rolled my eyes. It was like getting a shot, but a little different.

"Bro, you ever get a shot?"

He nodded. "Well, yeah..."

"Then its just getting a shot with a lot of extra steps."

He shuffled his feet backwards a little. "I guess it is."

Ziya looked down, putting her fingers to her forehead, mumbling something that sounded like, "Gimme a break."

Both of them stuck their arm out, but Jarun still was clamping his eyes shut and looking away, even after I told him it was like getting a shot. The needles pierced through their skin, the tube getting less and less empty by the second. In almost a minute, the tubes were filled with the blood.

"Good."

Bruce jabbed them back into the slots of the altar, where they were sucked into its sides. The jewels immediately began to glow intensely. Not only that, but the altar was now shaking violently, getting worse by the second. Although everyone else's attention had been set to the altar, mine had quickly turned to swift moving objects that was in the corner of my eye.

I found four pairs of eyes staring at me, belonging to dark figures. I couldn't see what they looked like, but from what I could tell, they seemed like shadows. Living shadows, all of them being hooded to darken the image of their faces underneath. That was, if they had any.

"Hey, do you know who those guys are?" I asked them. I pointed to behind me to show them what I meant.

Burcham, Ziya, Bruce, and Jarun turned their attention from the altar to me.

"What people?" Jarun asked.

I turned around to see what he meant. They were still there, watching.

"Them!"

I kept pointing, but for some reason they couldn't see the shadowy figures.

Just who were these dudes? How come I'm the only one who can see them?

"Nevermind."

I turned and tried to ignore them, but their gazes continued to burn away the back of my neck.

When the rumbling was done, I no longer felt the sensation of someone watching me. I looked over my shoulder to find that the shadows were gone.

'Huh. Weird...'

Bruce's voice became louder. "Jarun, Ziya. Put your right finger and place it here on one of the gems. Doesn't matter which one, as long as one of your right fingers is on the gem."

"Why the right fingers? Why can't we use our left?" Jarun asked.

Bruce's face went grim. "We don't talk about that."

Jarun immediately went quiet. They both set one of their fingers on the gem, not a single word coming out of their mouths.

A deep rumbling noise echoed in the sky. The gems started to look more and more unstable, until eventually, a burst of light flooded the room. Everything had went black. Even though I felt like I was awake, I couldn't see any light in the room.

Just what was this place? It was like I was in a wacky world.

'Did the torches go out?' I thought. I turned my head around and around, searching for the torches.

'Ah! Maybe those are it.'

Behind me was a bright area lit by something that resembled... masks. I got up, dusted off my pants and began slowly creeping over to the light.

This wasn't the room with the stone altar. It was almost like I was in an entirely different dimension, one where everything was infinitely dark and had only this little place of light.

I didn't even understand. How did I even get into this place? It was strange.

The moment I reached the center of the circle of masks, a message popped up.

<Congratulations! You are eligible for evolution! Would you like to fuse with a random beast among the masks?>

<Note: All levels and Stats will reset.>

<Yes | no>

This had completely shocked me. I totally forgot the reason I had even got onto this planet. I was here for evolution, and apparently, this was it. The moment I had been training for.

The question was, though, was it going to be worth it?

I grin began to conform on my face.

"Yes."

I was about to find out.

<Rolling...>

<Common - 39%>

<Uncommon - 24%>

<Rare - 16%>

<Unique - 11%>

<Epic - 7%>

<Legendary - 3%>

I continued to wait, the words and chance of what beast I evolutionized with.

<You rolled: ...!>

<Rarity: Unique>

I couldn't even see what beast I rolled before I heard whispers. The eyes of the masks around me began to glow a flurry of colors, almost like the colors of gasoline.

Suddenly the whispers stopped and my eyes fluttered open. I jolted upright to find that everyone was staring at me weirdly.

"Yo bro, you good?"

I came face to face with a boy that wasn't in the room before the flash of light. It took my brain a while to finally figure out that the mutation had worked.

"J-Jarun?"

He smiled, but this time, you could see the spirit that was put behind it, instead of him just baring his teeth like usual.

"Yeah, guess it worked out pretty well."

He wore those same tattered leather farm pants, a white flannel, and a ripped, purple scarf. But he changed... a lot. Jarun was a human.

Jarun had lime green eyes and medium, lumber-red, unruly hair. Freckles dotted his nose and cheeks. His build was still the same though: skinny and lean, like me.

Jarun coughed fakely. "Wasn't the only one to change though."

He was right. Ziya's skin had been replaced with thin, cyan fur. Lynx ears poked out of the top of her head. Her silver hair was now a navy blue. Her nails had sharpened into black claws. Her bold yellow eyes were the only thing that remained, along with her clothes from the battle.

She folded her arms. "There a problem with my transformation?"

"No," Jarun and I said in unison.

"The ritual is done King Burcham."

We all turned to Burcham, who had a sad, blank look on his face. If it was only me, it looked like one of his eyes was watering.

"Very well. Since it is done, I can not bare the pain of them staying here any longer. To make this painless, I would like them to travel to the portal in an hour Burcham."

--------

Ziya's eyes were filled with nothing but rage. I could tell she was upset—strongly upset. In my eyes, it seemed like she did everything in her power to try and impress Burcham, but nothing was ever good enough for him. If I were here, I probably would have been glad to be leavin. Why she was sad? I don't have a damn clue.

About halfway to the portal, Jarun and Ziya transformed back into their regular selves. They hadn't been transformed for very long, maybe an hour at most. If it was only going to last this long though, then this was a large fork in the road. Then again, time worked differently here.

"We're almost there," Bruce informed us.

Ziya's brows furrowed even further.

It had been quiet long enough. Someone is gonna have to break this silence.

"Oi, Ziya."

"Yeah?"

"You ever seen earth?"

"No."

I turned to look her dead in the eye and smiled. "I think you guys will like it there better than here."

Jarun tapped my shoulder. "We're here."

I turned around to find a large dark portal. It was the same one that had put me on Jaguer all those months ago.

"Before you go, there is one more thing I'd at least like to help you on your... journey."

Bruce fished in his pocket until he eventually pulled out a small, golden gear.

"This right here is—"

"Bruce!" A familiar voice said from behind. Burcham glared at him with a murderous intent. I dunno how he even caught up to us so fast.

"Oh, uh, sorry my king. I was just showing—"

"I do not care, Bruce. And you shall never show them 'it'. Now, onto the reason I came here. I have came to say goodbye. My dear Ziya.... you have done well."

She crossed her arms and said coldly, "I don't wanna stay here another second. C'mon guys. Grab your shit and let's go."

Although she said it coldly, a tear streamed down her face, and without another word, Jarun and Ziya left into the portal. But I made sure to at least say goodbye to Bruce.

"Before you go, take this. Thomas told me to give it to you before you left. He said it will explain a lot of things."

"Thanks Bruce. I better go. I don't need them getting lost in the school."

He stuck his fist out. "Promise me you guys will always remember Jaguer?"

"Promise."

That last thing I saw before leaving into the portal was the smile and tears flowing freely out of a dragon's eyes.