I was slowly coming to. My eye was struggling to open past the resistance that tried to tie my eyelids shut.
"Good morning, brother."
I heard Draz's voice speaking to me from behind. I tried to turn to look, but I was stuck in place, suspended in air by chains wrapped around my wrists and ankles. I quickly noticed the bleak environment surrounding me—a concrete box, akin to my storage home, but the light was feint and the walls were rusty. I could smell beer coming from a corner covered with liquid stains and shattered glass.
"Don't mind that. A bartender needs to vent his stresses every now and then. Not every customer is as great as you or Soho."
Her name alerted my senses. I grew worried in an instant.
"Where's Soho!?" I shouted. "What is this, Draz!? What did you do to us!?"
"Don't worry, Klyson. Soho's passed out, sleeping in her room like usual. She isn't involved with this. You can be rest assured. This is your matter."
"What are you talking about? Why are you doing this?" I tried to shake free of my shackles. "Let me out of this fucking thing!"
"No can do, brother. I've done enough favors for you up until now." Draz walked around, standing in front of me.
"Draz, explain. Explain! What's going on!?" Anger was swelling inside of me. Even though I was in the unknown, there was at least one thing that I did know—that Draz had intentionally laced both my and Soho's drinks.
"Take it as a compliment, I've put you up like this because I'm not underestimating you, Klyson. I'm aware of your capabilities."
"My capabilities…?"
Draz scoffed. "Don't start playing dumb with me now. Especially not after that massacre back at Cyber City."
My heart stopped. Everything came back to me. I suddenly remembered Draz's words before I had fallen into my slumber.
"I know what happened at Cyber City tonight. I know what you did to my buddy, Zion."
In the current predicament I'd found myself in, I understood that there was no use in holding back anonymity anymore. I could tell that Draz knew more than what I'd assumed.
"You knew Zion? Zion Alrano?"
He nodded. "A great friend of mine from medical school. We dropped out together, seeking-out the same nightlife aspirations, but separate ways. I, a bartender at the Waving Kitty, and Zion, a V.I.P. at Cyber City."
"So this is about Zion? About how I killed him? Are you taking revenge on me or something?" My rage was spilling at this point. I couldn't believe that the second person I'd considered home in this dreadful life would turn their back on me this quickly. I was breaking apart at the fact. "I hate to break it to you, Draz. I was never a delivery person like I'd told you. Killing Zion wasn't personal. It was a part of my job! I'm not who you think I am!"
"I'm aware, Klyson." Draz chuckled. "You weren't fooling anyone."
"What?"
"You think I'd believe that you'd just 'gotten into an argument' with your customers whenever you came back to the bar covered in blood? I could smell the bloodthirst on you, but all you ever did was laugh it off and tell me it'd been a tiring day at work."
"Wait, you knew…?"
Draz began to laugh. "It's not hard to pick-up on when you're using the same excuse every day. My suspicions began when that guy, Alex Li, was found dead in his office at Expansion 180 just a day after you asked me about him. It didn't help that you randomly came back to the bar half-dead with a chunk of your stomach missing the same day he'd died. That's not something likely to happen in a delivery person's job, is it?"
"No… But, you don't understand, Draz. I'm not doing any of this of my own will. I've been forced into this line of work! I never chose to dispose of innocent lives! I didn't even know that Zion was your friend!"
"I know, I know." Draz crossed his arms. "It was only a matter of time before Zion would be placed on that list. We've always known he's had a High-Potential Fractal. We've always known what your line of work comes from, and what it contributes to. Everyone at Chrono knows."
Chrono—!?
I recalled that Zion had mentioned the name for a brief moment back at Cyber City, and now Draz was saying it.
"What is 'Chrono'?"
"Chrono are the people that will bring about the Shattering."
"What the fuck is the 'Shattering'!?" I was irritated by all these random new terms Draz was pulling out.
"The Shattering is when the fine line between the Human Realm and the God Realm breaks, merging the two together."
What the fuck is this guy on about?
"When that happens, we can finally be brought closer to MONA."
"MONA? The Moon goddess? Isn't she dead?"
Draz shook his head. "That's what Menesism teaches us. But when you learn of the hidden truths about MONA through Heathen's teachings, you understand that even when a god dies, it will forever reside in the God Realm. MONA is still there."
Holy shit. He knows about Heathen too. Just like Zion.
I had come to a conclusion.
"You and Zion, and all these people from Chrono, you all know about Heathen? You know about what I do? That I'm an executioner?" The last assumption I'd made derived from Zion's words and his awareness of my capabilities.
"Yes. Chrono was established by a single individual who used to worship at Heathen, but left and took those teachings with him, seeking a bigger picture that goes against your leader's values."
Ian…
There was no use in hiding anything anymore. Somehow, someway, Draz knew about Heathen altogether—my role as executioner, Ian's teachings, and probably more. But I had to let him speak in order to confirm that.
"Heathen's leader wants the eradication of High-Potential Fractals, doesn't he? It's why he sends out executioners like you, or that other Fractless, or the Sin of Discrimination, to dispose of these people to maintain order among the people with Fractals." Draz sighed. "He even wants the erasure of Fractals, period."
That was something new I'd never heard. Though, I didn't correct him. Not yet.
"The Null. Are you aware of what that is, Klyson?"
I shook my head. "No. Zion mentioned it though."
"Of course he did. Everyone at Chrono talks about it. It is the key to our endgame after all." Draz pressed his finger against my chest. "And you're the padlock in the way of it, Mr. Fractless."
"What the fuck is the Null?" I asked.
"I knew it," Draz scoffed. "You really are oblivious to what you're doing."
Zion had spoken about me the same way—considering me clueless as to what my role actually contributed to. I'd always thought it was purely for the maintenance of Fractals in Melysia, ensuring that HP Fractal users didn't get out of hand. My Fractless abilities were the pure counter to that. But Draz was soon to tell me the truth.
"You're being used, Klyson. The Null is a biological weapon that's been under development by your leader at Heathen for years now. We at Chrono assume that it might even be finished and ready to use."
"A weapon? What is it supposed to do?"
"It's supposed to have the ability to nullify any Fractal whatsoever, erasing its usage completely. As for how you're being used? Only the Fractless are able to use the Null. I don't know why, but apparently because of something on a biological level. And in order for a Fractless to use the Null, their Fractless capabilities must be heightened—extra keen. And what better way to develop that than putting it to use repeatedly through countless encounters with High-Potential Fractal users? Your leader at Heathen is conditioning you to use the Null."
I refused to believe the nonsense Draz was spurting. "What kind of shit is Chrono brainwashing you with, Draz!? This isn't you!"
"This has always been me, Klyson. Don't act like you've known me forever, because it hasn't even been a year!" He was raising his voice in a way I'd never seen before. "You are a stepping-stone towards Heathen's use of the Null. Therefore, if we get rid of you, then Heathen takes a step back, and Chrono takes one forward. We become a step closer to getting our hands on the Null and bringing about the Shattering."
"But how could you do that without me?! Didn't you say you the Null requires a Fractless to function!?"
Draz smiled. "We have a Fractless, ready to use the Null for Chrono's purpose, already."
"Another Fractless…?"
He nodded. "You aren't the only one, Klyson. For Chrono's sake, you are very much disposable."
"B-But how could you even bring about something like the Shattering? Merging the Human and God Realm together? That's fucking impossible nonsense!"
I was suddenly gutted with a punch to the stomach.
"Ough—!" I spat out blood.
Draz retracted his arm, breathing deeply to contain what looked like his own growing impatience.
"It isn't impossible. Not everything revolves around the narrow world you see, Klyson. Chrono has a member with a very important Fractal—Reversal—the ability to reverse any existing phenomenon of their choosing. Once we get our hands on the Null, this member will impose Reversal onto it, rewiring the ability of nullifying Fractals into the opposite—imposing Fractals."
"There's no way that could work… You're all delusional!"
I was met with another gut-wrenching punch to the stomach.
Slam—!
"Ouegh—!!!" I vomited blood and stomach acid.
"You're wrong. We've had researchers at Chrono working on this for years, Klyson. Once the Null has the reversed effect of imposing Fractals rather than nullifying them, then Chrono will have gained the ability to inflict Fractal Activations on anyone of their choosing."
I tried to speak through the blood that slobbered from my mouth. "Fractal Activations—!? How!?"
"Do you know how the strength of an Activated Fractal is measured in comparison to the original Fractal?"
I shook my head.
"An Activated Fractal is equivalent to the strength of the original Fractal squared. Meaning, multiplying a Fractal's strength by itself results in power equal to the Fractal's Activated form. With that in mind, when the Null becomes used to impose a Fractal on someone who already has that Fractal, what is occurring? We are multiplying the Fractal by itself, producing only a single sensical reaction—a Fractal Activation."
There's no way that could work. It has to be impossible…
Draz continued. "The same way you're being sent around Melysia to execute everyone with High-Potential Fractals, we will send our chosen one around Melysia to activate everyone with High-Potential Fractals."
That's exactly against what Ian wants. That's Ian's literal worst case scenario—the activation of all HP Fractals!
"And according to Heathen's teachings, our realm will crumble from all of the reality-breaking forces unleashed by Activated Fractals. When millions of humans are suddenly in possession of god-like powers, the wall that divides us from the God Realm will cease to exist. Calamity will ensue between gods and the god-like, bringing us ever more closer to our dearest mother, MONA, once again."
Pure absurdity was all I could hear coming from Draz. The calm and collected, caring and kind bartender I'd always known him as had been forcefully wiped from my mind. Now, I could only see Draz as a cultist extremist blinded by ridiculous beliefs.
"Are you kidding me, Draz?! That wouldn't work! That couldn't work! What you're trying to do is pointless! Let me out of this!"
"You won't change my mind, Klyson. I grew up in a Menesis household. All I've ever wanted my whole life was to meet MONA somehow, someway. Chrono is the only place that has ever proposed the possibility—in a way that exceeds simply praying to Her in a church." Draz then pulled out a knife from his back pocket. He pointed it at me. "You're in the way of our goals, brother. I'm sorry to have to do this to you—"
"Fucking bullshit!!!" I screamed, shaking my shackles. "How could you do this, Draz!? You've always been there for me! Always accommodated me! Always made me feel at home when nowhere else did! You even helped save my life back then! How could you choose to kill me now after all of that!?"
Draz grinned for a moment, but it quickly subsided.
"You killed my best friend, Klyson. After all I've done for you, you went and killed Zion."
I snapped in that moment, knowing full well the truth I'd just put together.
"Don't fucking mess with me, Draz! We both know I would have been the one to die at Cyber City had I not killed him!" My voice was raspy with rage. "Zion knew I was coming, because you filled him in! You're the source that told him Soho and I were going! You told him about Soho's Fractal and that I was Fractless! You told him everything you knew about me, didn't you?!"
I was seething with anger, and Draz watched, impressed.
"I guess it should come as no shock that you're such a keen thinker, especially as someone who's gotten away with murder on countless occasions. Yes, Klyson, I'm the one who filled Zion in on everything."
"Soho and I trusted you! How could you do this to us!?"
He shook his head. "I haven't done anything to Soho. I already told you, she has no part in this. She'll wake up, find you missing, and move on sooner or later without suspecting a thing. She would never accuse me—the one whose looked after her for so long—to be the one behind your disappearance. This is only about you, Klyson. This is your problem alone, and we're going to deal with it right now."
"Wait—!"
My eye widened as I watched Draz step forward with the knife in his hand following in pursuit. It was fast approaching my stomach, soon spelling out the end of me.
How many times has my trust been betrayed like this by now? How many more times will it happen? Is there a limit to how many times a person can feel this way in their life? If so, have I not already exceeded that number?
For so long, I'd been used and abused. Even until now, I was a centerpiece of attention for all of the wrong reasons.
I never asked for this. Curse this wretched world. Curse these wicked people. My misery is overflowing, and my hate is overbearing.
I'd lost faith in everything and everyone.
"Fuck you, Draz," I said, as the tip of the knife was about to make contact. When suddenly—
"Kinetic!"
—Draz slipped forward before me, his knife lurching unsteady with its tip only scathing my side. As he hit the floor from the sudden unbalance, the familiar voice quickly screamed another word.
"Static!"
Draz was frozen on the ground, his face and chest stuck to the floor. With light breaking through the doorway behind her into the bleak room I was withheld, I watched as Soho rushed over to me, her face flushed red with a mixture of rage and confusion.
"A-Are you okay!?" She tried shaking me free of the shackles, but they were bound tightly around my ankles and wrists. On the floor, Draz groaned.
"What are you doing here, Soho? Did the drinks not knock you out?"
"Oh, they did. But something woke me up in my sleep, like a voice in my head. It told me to find you, Klyson." She turned to Draz who lay on the floor, with tears streaming down her face. "What's going on here, Draz!? Why do you have Klyson chained up!? Why were you just about to stab him with this knife?!"
He struggled to speak with half of his mouth stuck to the floor. "It's personal matters, Soho. You're not supposed to be involved in this. Leave it between Klyson and I."
"Is that why you tried to knock me out with your drinks!? So I could sleep through you getting rid of Klyson!? Why!?"
"He was friends with Zion," I said. Soho turned her attention to me, her face in dismay. "He's part of the group that hosted that ambush on us back at Cyber City—Chrono."
"Chrono?" Soho was confused.
"Klyson!" Draz tried to interrupt me. "This is between you and I! Don't get her involved with this!"
"It's too fucking late!" Soho shouted at him. "I've caught you in the act doing all of this with Klyson! And you know how much I care about him! Fuck!"
Draz and I watched from our respective entrapments as Soho broke down crying between us.
"For the longest time, you looked out for me like a big brother, Draz. You took care of me when I had nowhere else to go. Made me feel at home here at the Waving Kitty. But Klyson? He came into this life lonelier than me. He came from loss. I wanted to make him feel at home the same way you'd done for me, and you did do that, for a while. So why…? Why did it turn out this way? Why am I walking in on you trying to kill Klyson!?"
"He's in the way, Soho."
"In the way of what!?"
"Revolution of mankind."
Soho couldn't believe what she was hearing, the same way I was dumbfounded hearing Draz speak like this for the first time.
"Get me out of this, Soho…"
She quickly noticed that I was still in chains. She grabbed the knife off of the floor and began cutting away at my shackles, quickly removing me. I fell to the ground with sore arms and legs, suddenly gluing to the floor. I realized that Static was still active.
"Sorry, Klyson. I'm not going to disable Static until I know that Draz isn't a threat anymore."
"He is nothing but a threat, Soho."
"Don't listen to him," Draz interrupted me. "He's a murderer. How could you side with a murderer?"
"You'd be no different if I came any later, finding Klyson stabbed in the stomach by you," Soho said.
"But numbers, Soho. The number of people Klyson has killed is more than you could fathom. Doesn't that worry you?"
She looked at Draz and scoffed. "The numbers that I assisted with?"
His eyes grew wide. "What?"
Wait, Draz didn't know that Soho was in on it too?
I spoke up. "He knows about Heathen, Soho. He knows about the executioner role, and about the Sloth's goals."
"He does?"
I could tell Draz was now trying to equate things in his own head. "What do you mean by 'assisted,' Soho?"
She shot back with a question of her own. "Did you think that Klyson was the only one from Heathen, Draz?"
Concern grew on his face. "You're in Heathen, Soho…?"
She nodded. "If you'd known that I was in Heathen too, would you have chained me up the same way you did to Klyson? Would you have been ready to kill me for your 'Chrono' goals too?"
Draz tried to shake his head, still in disbelief about the revelation. "N-No… I wouldn't do that to you, Soho—"
"Then why do it to Klyson!?" She threw a kick at Draz. He groaned in pain. "You biased piece of shit! You're gonna give Klyson unfair treatment just because you haven't known him as long? Did you know that I've been in this line of work longer than even he has?"
"No... Ough—!"
She stomped on his back. "You're mistaken if you think I'm innocent!"
I added on. "Soho, he's the source behind Zion's ambush at Cyber City. He's the one who provided the information about us—that we were coming, and what to expect from us."
"It was you!?" She stomped on his body once more. "I could have died, Draz! And it would've been your fault!"
"I told Zion not to lay a finger on you…"
"And would that have been different had you known I was in Heathen to begin with?!"
Soho's question stunned Draz. He hesitated to respond.
"That's right." She finally stepped off of his back. "Don't go giving me princess treatment now just because you've known me for years."
I was surprised at how cruel Soho was being, but rightfully so. She was laying over the hatred I had for Draz through her own words.
"Just because you've taken care of me for so long, doesn't mean shit after what you decided to try and do tonight, Draz. I owe you nothing."
He finally decided to speak up. "Chrono has purpose, Soho. A bigger picture. You guys at Heathen only want to make Melysia more muted. You're okay with that?"
"That's the whole point, Draz. And I stand by it."
Draz's sanity crashed in that moment. The desires and occult values of Chrono took possession of him.
"Klyson needs to die for the sake of the Shattering, Soho! Chrono's work will be withheld for longer if he isn't dead! He's in the way of our goals! He's in the way of our mission to meet MONA again! He's in the way of everything! I need to kill him! We need to kill him! Get rid of him so we can get to the Null! We need to get our hands on the Null—!"
"Shut the fuck up!!!" Soho finally had enough. She couldn't take it with Draz's true face anymore. With the knife in her hand, she raised it up high. "Stop the nonsense, Draz! I mean it! Please!"
"Klyson needs to die. Klyson needs to die! Klyson needs to—!"
He kept repeating the words, sounding more and more desperate each time.
"Please, give it up, Draz!"
"Klyson needs to die! I'm going to kill Klyson! We're going to kill Klyson! Kill Klyson, Soho! Kill Klyson—!"
"Shut it already!!!"
Soho brought the knife down.
Shank—!
His insane speech had abruptly ended.
"Urgh—!!!"
A pool of blood immediately began to emerge from beneath Draz's body. The strain in his body's struggle to move from Soho's Static had finally released its tension, as life withered away from his body in the moment. I watched in shock, realizing I'd just watched Soho commit to the kill for the first time ever. I could tell that even she herself was in shock, as she looked down at her lifeless victim with no resistance left.
"Why did it turn out this way…?"
I could see tears pouring down from Soho's face. I knew it was hard for her to do what she'd just done—killing the older brother figure who'd been looking after her for years.
"I'm sorry you had to do that, Soho."
She finally released Static and I was no longer glued to the floor. She immediately turned around and ran to me, hugging my weak body. Her tears were streaming down my shoulder.
"Why? Why?!"
I tried to hug her back and calm her down.
"It's okay. It's okay. You did the right thing."
She tried to hold back her tears as she checked my face, my arms and my legs, my chest and my stomach for any wounds or bruises. "Are you okay, Klyson? Did he hurt you?"
"Just a few punches to the gut…"
She caressed my face. "You almost died!"
"I know. But you saved me, just in time."
Her eyes were swollen with tears. "I don't know how… but I managed to wake up past my drunken state. Even now I still feel drowsy."
"He laced our drinks with something else. It wasn't just alcohol. Something to knock us out quick and for long. How did you wake up past that?"
"Something woke me up, like that jolt you get when you're dreaming of falling off a cliff—waking up in a panic. It's like a voice told me to go find you, even though no one was speaking to me. The goal had been placed in my head and I followed it immediately."
I wondered what it could have been. "Was it Ian…?"
She shook her head. "It couldn't be. I'm not an Absolute. He wouldn't be able to control me directly like that."
"But you're still a proxy nonetheless. Maybe there's some sort of agent from his Fractal left in your mind that can initialize on a whim."
"Like a Control factor?"
I nodded. "Possibly."
"Either way, whatever it was, helped me save you. If it was Ian, then it means he knew you were in trouble. He's looking out for you."
I began to ponder. "If the stuff Draz said about the Null is true, then it would make sense as to why Ian is so keen on keeping me alive."
"The Null? What's that?" Soho asked.
I realized that she was clueless about Chrono's whole motive—about why Draz had done what he did.
"It's the main reason behind why Draz tried to kill me."
"Does it have to do with Chrono, or the Shattering? Those things that both Zion and Draz were mentioning?"
I nodded. "Draz told me everything about their group."
I began to explain all the new information I learned, and Soho listened.