[ "FIRST" Calling… ]
I picked up the call.
"Enzo," I said immediately.
"Klyson. The dead man talking."
I looked up at the sky and all the Angels had deployed their parachutes. "This is you dropping-in on me?"
"Who else? The rest of the Upper Four is dead now, aren't they?" Enzo was smirking on the other end of the line. "I heard it was your bidding."
I clenched my phone tightly. But before I could reply, Enzo broke the silence.
"You've finally discovered your true potential, haven't you?"
"Enough with the bullshit." I cut him off. "Did Michael send you?"
"Of course he did. You should know that none of this is personal. If anything, I applaud your development ever since your disappearance." He paused. "It seems that he picked you up on your way out."
Is he talking about Ian?
"If it's true, then you likely already know about my own history with that league."
He is.
"Heathen. Order in chaos," I said.
"There it is." Enzo chuckled. "That's where you've been all this time? Was going there really the only way for you to gain this much power, Klyson? I tried to awaken that potential in you myself, you know?"
"A.X.A. was the last place I wanted to be after the apartment ambush. The deaths that day could have been prevented had the Overseers been more responsible."
"So you went and joined the people who caused those deaths? What kind of logic is that?"
I hesitated for a moment, trying to find justification in the cause. "I was influenced through Ian's Fractal. I know you know how it works."
He scoffed. "It only works on the weak-minded. His victims are the people whose thoughts are already on edge. All he does is give the final push."
I knew that. I knew that wholeheartedly. I even accepted it.
"Then you should understand why I'm at this point in my life."
"The tables have turned, Klyson. Quite literally." Enzo laughed at the irony. "To think I'd moved to A.X.A. from Heathen, while you moved from A.X.A. to Heathen. Ian was suffering without someone to take my place, wasn't he?"
I remained quiet.
"You're just my replacement. A secondary Fractless. A tool under their name. Have you not realized that by now—?"
"I have." My voice was stern. "I know what my role is."
"You willingly let them use you that way?"
It was my turn to scoff. "You aren't any different, Enzo. You're after me on Micahel's orders, aren't you?"
There was a sigh of irritation on his end. "You've garnered a lot more attitude since the last time we spoke."
I smiled. "And you still seem to cling to your fantasies like a child. You're no different from when I left."
"Shut the fuck up."
"It doesn't matter who's where, or who's who. Both you and I are Fractless being used for upper ambitions by a higher power."
"I said shut the fuck up!!" Enzo snapped. "We both may be Fractless, but our levels of strength are in different leagues. If anyone has a fantasy, it's you for thinking we're anywhere alike."
"I know you're stronger," I said calmly. "I never said you weren't. Your pride is just so fragile that when something about you is placed on the same line as someone else, you take it as an insult. You're a crybaby, Enzo."
He was quiet on his end. I could tell that he was trying to contain his anger.
"Even if you're stronger, it makes no mark on what'll come your way."
He finally laughed. "You think you have a chance against me and a hundred Angels, Klyson?!"
I smiled. With a predetermined plot already laid out in my thoughts, I spoke my mind.
"Take your positions."
A rumble of marches resonated from three particular apartments on the street. Exiting the buildings in organized files were the tenant proxies hidden within each one of them. Sixty, sixty, and sixty, totaling to 180 proxies in total. They began to diverge throughout the city in their respective colonies. It felt like I was controlling three infantries at once.
As this all happened, Enzo had been rendered speechless. While my proxies took up their routed positions, he then finally spoke on the line.
"This is a twist I wouldn't have expected from you. Yet, at the same time, this is as expected of Heathen. You've gained Ian's Fractal?"
I brushed off his question. "You have no advantage in numbers, Enzo. Don't be rest assured."
"I remain rest assured. All you've done is place hurdles on the track, none of which are high enough to make a difference. Are you trying to misdirect me from your own weakness as a Fractless?"
"Not at all. If anything, it seems like you yourself are cowering behind that Angel Infantry Unit."
The Angels were beginning to land, all specifically atop a variety of buildings. None had landed on ground floor.
"Keep me on the line, Klyson. Let's talk while this all plays out."
"It's pointless."
"Think of it like a game of chess."
"It's going to be one-sided."
"It's going to be like a game of cat-and-mouse." Enzo was excited. "You know that I can see you in the overlord position, right? Have you forgotten about A.X.A.'s satellites? I can see wherever you go."
"I know that."
"Really? Then I'm eager to find out how you plan to evade me."
Jumping from surrounding buildings, soaring overhead, aimed to land where I stood, a dozen Angels had made the first move.
"Kill Klyson."
The game had begun.