Vibrations, metal ringing—I could feel presence protruding into the factory. Soho and I were seated among the highest catwalk in the building, a point from which we could see everything down below. Just across us, in an upper-management office room, we had sleeping bags, food, and water set up.
We'd been camping-out this place for a few days already.
"There's people here, Klyson," she said to me quietly.
I nodded, glancing down. I made out four figures who'd just stepped into the factory. I assumed it was just another group of teenagers coming inside for the thrill of the idea that the Sin of Discrimination was in here. Those three videos Soho uploaded had gained traction, putting out the rumor that the Sin resided in this abandoned factory. But in reality, it was just a guise set up to lure in the real target.
"Sav Gallagher."
My eye widened upon determining the identities of those who walked in.
"He's here. They're all here. And—?"
I saw that among Sav, Celeste, and Cynthia, they were also accompanied by—
Garren—!?
Soho noticed my surprise. "Why? What's wrong?"
"There's a fourth, unexpected person accompanying them."
"Do you know who they are?"
I nodded. "Another previous colleague of mine. Last time I saw him, he was bed-ridden with a coma…"
He's okay now…?
"Should we be worried about him too?" Soho asked.
"Yes. His Fractal makes his nails extremely sharp and durable. He can use them like claws, and he can practically slice through anything with them."
"Got it. So I should just keep my distance then?"
"Sure." I wasn't prepared to ambush four people. Garren was an unexpected additional foe. The original plan was to set up at a location farther away from civilization, a place unknown and forgotten where public attention would be lacking. We didn't want to make the same mistake we'd made with Cyber City, so with Soho's knowledge of abandoned areas around downtown Melysia, we found this factory. Step two was to lure in our target, Sav. With my knowledge of how keen Operation Zenith was on pursuing leads that had to do with Heathen, we used that to our advantage, mimicking the very clues that led me to Heathen in the first place—the online videos. Soho created three distinct uploads about the factory we resided in, using the original Heathen videos as reference. Now that we'd led the target here as expected, we had to move onto step three.
Execution.
"Garren's presence here changes the tide of things," I told Soho.
"That fourth guy?"
"Yeah. While Sav, Celeste, and Cynthia alone would perform with distanced positioning and defensive orientation, Garren included adds offensive power into the mix. He's a very frontal-assault kind of guy."
"Then that means we have to be a little more defensive now too, right?"
"Yeah. Scratch the original plan of absolute blitz. We can retain some of that, but we also have to be wary of Garren. His nails are no joke."
Soho shot me a smirk. "My Fractal's no joke either."
"I know. Anyhow, let's do this."
"Is Garren included in the rule of 'no-kill' as well?"
I hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Yeah. We're only here to kill Sav. The rest of them were never mentioned by Ian."
"Got it."
We then split up, moving silently along the catwalks near the ceiling. Our positions were parallel to one another, a distance apart. I unholstered my knife and readied my flashbangs. Across from me, Soho double-tied her shoes, ensuring tight grip, and pulled out her own knife. We made eye contact and nodded at one another, putting masks over our faces that would conceal our identities. Soon, we noticed that the group was nearing the ambush position.
The time to strike was nigh.
"Nothin' here so far…" I heard Sav say from down below. They were fixated on finding Seris. They were distracted, and Soho understood this. To initiate the plan, she dropped from her spot, aiming to land on the ground floor below. With a perfect combination of both Static and Kinetic fixated on the soles of her shoes, her landing was inaudible—perfectly silent.
"Static," she said, as her feet were connected to the same floor our target walked on. The Fractal transpired, immobilizing the group in place.
"What the—!?" The group was alerted. That was my signal.
I leapt from my position, beelining directly towards the one with orange hair that I could see from afar. With my knife unsheathed, I sliced through the air, envisioning a straight line that led directly to Sav's neck.
I'm sorry, Sav. You're Third of the Upper Four. You're an amazing person with an amazing Fractal. But I need to do this in order to inherit the Null and save Melysia from an event like the Shattering.
In the dark clothes I bore, with the dark mask I wore, I'd appeared in acceleration before my previous friends and allies with my knife pointed at them. In the flash of a moment, I realized how far I'd stepped away from the person I originally was. Having been a Fractless nobody in A.X.A that was seen as disposable, to now becoming an executioner for Heathen that influenced the tide of major events, I saw this moment as my redemption as a person in terms of relevance—my revenge to all the people that ever doubted me.
This is who I am now.
My knife severed the atoms that welcomed me to Sav's neck. The execution would be swift.
Clang—!!!
My hand flew backwards, my knife having rebounded off of something incredibly solid.
"It's an ambush!" The girl in front of me yelled. Her hand had gotten in the way of my knife just in time, completely blocking my attack.
It was Cynthia.
Fuck! Her Fractal blocked it!
As I landed on the floor, I felt Soho disable Static as planned. But then my senses flared aggressively when noticing a dangerous presence approaching me from the side all of a sudden. At first I decided I'd duck, but quickly I'd deduced that it would not evade the barrage of slashes from what I assumed was Garren's incoming nail fury. Before I could be incapacitated, I retreated backwards in an instant, falling back into the shadows.
Slash—!!
The ground where I'd previously stood had been lacerated into smithereens. Garren glared in my direction as I quickly withdrew into the complex layout of a dark abandoned factory.
"Proceed with Plan B, Soho." I spoke through our ear-piece. "My shot at the insta-kill was blocked."
"Understood," she responded. "Kinetic."
I lifted myself off the floor before I could slip, landing on a rusty oil tank, and hopping from pipe to pipe until I reached a higher platform. As I repositioned, I heard the other four slip off their feet.
"Wha—!?"
"Ough—!!"
I looked and they were squirming along the floor, helplessly trying to get back up. I saw it as another opportunity to attack, until suddenly, Sav and Celeste vanished out of thin air.
What?
Only Cynthia and Garren remained in the spot they once were all in. I realized what this meant.
"Soho."
"Yeah? Did you get him?"
"No. He warped away. Both him and Celeste warped away."
She was surprised. "Wait… But I thought you said that he could only warp one person at a time?"
My breath had become shallow.
"Turns out he can warp two people at once now."