"Enzo's dead. I killed him with my own two hands."
I stood there, frozen, and shocked to my core. I absolutely couldn't believe what I'd just heard.
"You killed Enzo…?"
I was relieved by the fact, but simultaneously, horrified by the implication, to which Michael then gave.
"Ninth disposed of his entire infantry in just mere moments. Sixth lost half of his infantry in the split of a second. Tenth chose to run away when the pressure got to him. With all of those mistakes made in the same battle, what were their outcomes?"
The frightening sight of their full names on those corpse lockers in the morgue flashed through my mind, keeping me stunned in place.
"Death," Michael said. "Punishment comes to those who make themselves deserving."
My breath was shallowing. My mind was spinning.
"You were on that list too, Rainer. Deploying valuable resources to the field for a flank that didn't even work. Death was at your doorstep." He sighed heavily, almost regrettably. "But Enzo stood up for you. He made me a promise—that he would turn you into the second-coming of his kind of strength. I had no reason to doubt him, considering his perfect state of mind to be at the top of the Tenfold. So I let you live. Who would have known that he'd fulfill his promise in the end?"
I was too perplexed to speak.
"You ended up exactly as he described you would, except, you ended up on the opposing side. That was something I believe Enzo wouldn't have expected. And so, with no discrimination for the people under my rule, I watched your battle with Enzo play out, observing everything along the way, just as I did with the Invidan War."
Images of our recent clash swept through my mind, the sensation of death across both my proxies and Enzo's Angels alike.
"Enzo allowed you to cleave those 61 Angels all at once. He knew what you were planning, but still played into it—all so he could commit to a petty flank on your uncontested position with the remaining 13 Angels."
My eye widened.
He let it happen…?
"He let you dispose of more than half of his infantry just so he could prove a point—that you were going to die whether he had any Angels or not."
"Are you serious?! It was all on purpose!?"
"That act alone of letting all those Angels die when it wasn't necessary was deserving of punishment. That is why he is now dead at my feet. A snapped neck, just like the others."
My heart was pounding. Michael's reasoning of everything until now had just overthrown even the colossal beliefs imbued into my mind. If there was one thing I got out of all of this, it was that Enzo was a fucking fraud. He was never right about anything.
It didn't matter how strong or weak you were. As long as you were being overseen under a higher power, anyone was disposable.
Enzo's constant torment of who he considered 'weak' and an 'ant' in our past conversations were no more than fuel to his overbearing ego. While he himself was immensely strong, his pride was too much stronger. None of it mattered in the end, because both those established to be weak and strong have all fallen to the same exact person.
General Michael.
To live, wasn't due to strength. To die, wasn't due to weakness. All of it, was due to the higher power's rule and choice. Me and Enzo were perfect examples of that very, horrid, philosophy. I was weak during the Invidan War, and according to the dogma of strong-over-weak, I should have died. But Michael chose otherwise in the end. During our battle, Enzo had been nothing but overpoweringly strong, yet now he was dead by Michael's hands, and Michael's choice.
We were all just slaves to this reality.
"Maybe it's because the initial bar you'd set was so low after the Invidan War, but you did nothing deserving of punishment this time around, Rainer. You displayed strength, and the correct choices, throughout your entire fight with Enzo."
"But I was never winning, was I?"
"You weren't, because Enzo was stronger. But it doesn't take away from the fact that you've grown tremendously in power since our last encounter. Which is why I've called you today."
The room had gone silent to make way for the General's words spoken.
"I'm offering you a position back in the A.X.A. military, Klyson Rainer. Not as Fifth, and not even as First. If you can rejoin us with all the information you have on Heathen, on Ian Sedia, on the proxies, and on the Fractal 'Control' you've been using, consider yourself an Overseer."
An Overseer—!?
My mind was blown by the offer. If Michael was telling the truth, it meant that entertaining his requests would put me up in the same rankings as him, Overseer Chamuel, Overseer Uriel, and Overseer Azrael—the highest powers in A.X.A. and all of Melysia.
"Are you being serious?"
"Yes."
"Why would you offer me such a role? Why not Enzo who was so much stronger than me?"
"The information you withhold as an individual overshadows any power Enzo ever had. You and your current state hold value, and I'm willing to offer you whatever it takes to get possession of it."
My mouth hung open, simply at the sheer shock of hearing the General praise me for the first time—but it was only after I'd already left A.X.A.
I left that place for a reason.
The distrust, the irresponsibility, the lack of support and the void of empathy, were all factors that accumulated in my choice to leave and never go back.
I would have blindly accepted that offer back then.
I was a different person by now, having gone through hundreds of trials of tribulation, tested on thousands of unsturdy floors.
"I won't fall for your deceptions anymore, Michael." I rejected his offer.
"I am telling you the truth this time, Rainer."
"It's taken too many lies for me to gain your honesty."
"My honesty is a privilege."
"One that I'm not asking for."
He omitted his iconic grunt of frustration. "So you choose otherwise, then?"
"I choose the option to decline your offer, Michael. I am long done with A.X.A. Plus, how could you offer such a grand position of power to a murderer of innocents and of members in the military? It tells me a lot about your corruption."
"Corruption in many ways is an advantage," Michael said. "You've been charged with more than 30 counts of murder, and are an actively convicted serial killer. Part ways with my offer, and I will put you through hell just like any other criminal in this system. Comply, and all of your wrongdoings will be written-off. Even if you consider that 'corruption,' it'll be in your favor. You don't wish for that?"
I sighed. "I don't give a fuck about what benefits you can give me for complying. Sixth, Ninth and Tenth's deaths are in your name. Emanuel and Kyra's deaths are a result of your carelessness. Garren is a victim of your lack of empathy. And now, even your strongest commander, Enzo, is disposed of out of your own immature spite. You think I'm going to return you any favors with a history like that?"
He went silent for a moment from my barrage of words, not to contemplate, nor to frustrate. He was quiet, simply for the sake of building suspense.
"I have something on standby that you do not want to experience, Klyson Rainer."
It was vague. It was empty. He did not elaborate. But even so, his threat had this blood-curdling aura that petrified me. I tried not to falter.
"I've already experienced the worst of the worst by now."
"It will be incomparably worse than that," he assured me. "It will be a horror you've never experienced in your lifetime."
What could he be possibly talking about?
"What's worse than a simple death? I've faced it countless times already."
"Not just yours, but possibly everyone in Melysia's too."
"What…?"
"Like I have already said, that information you withhold is more valuable than you may think. I will not stop at anything to get my hands on it."
Why is Michael so desperate to get this information out of me? And how does he know all about it anyways?
"How do you already know about Heathen? About Ian, Control, and the proxies?"
"Cynthia was mic'd up."
I'd hit a wall of realization.
Is that how J and the Task Force found us at the factory?
"So you listened-in on all of that. What more do you need to know?" I asked.
"All of Heathen's inner workings. The connection to the Sin of Discrimination. The livelihood of the Sin of Sloth. I know you know about it all."
He's talking about Seris and Ian… Their noted presences must be intimidating to A.X.A. considering their levels of power.
"You feel threatened."
Michael did not have an immediate reply. "We are preparing."
"For what?"
"I won't entertain your questions until you've rejoined A.X.A."
I had a sense of deja vu. For a lingering moment, I had to stop and think about what I even wanted to do moving forwards. I'd gotten past my short-term goal of defeating Enzo with my new sense of self-worth. But now, once again, I was being dealt a new card from Michael.
I've already ascertained this. I'm done playing through the options of others.
I wanted to stand-by my own desires without being influenced by anyone else, especially of higher power. Currently, I was technically still overseen by one—Ian. And for a moment, I attempted to weigh the benefits of his leadership versus Michael's in the newfound offer. But I stopped immediately.
Who the fuck am I kidding?
I'd nearly fallen into the same trap as back then—when I was in a state of vulnerability following Kyra's death, to which Ian took advantage of by offering me a seemingly 'better' path of life. Michael was currently trying to do the same, offering me a large benefit in return for my value.
But I would not fall for it again.
I no longer want to live out a purpose for others, other than myself.
I wasn't going to be Michael's income of information, even with the granted high-power position of Overseer. And with that established in my mind, I realized I had to do the same with Heathen in order to be truly free.
I won't be your pawn for the Null either, Ian.
I stood on the fine line between Heathen and A.X.A, Ian and Michael, a Fractless in the middle of the Fractal world.
I must maintain this limbo to exist as myself.
"Give it up, Michael. I'm never ever going back to A.X.A. no matter what."
He let out a deep, heavy sigh.
"Then I, the rest of the Overseers, and all of A.X.A. will regard you as a primary threat alongside the Sins of Discrimination and Sloth. We will throw everything we possibly can at you and Heathen, and you will learn to regret the mistake you've made just now. What do you think you can possibly do to defend yourself against your own country, Klyson Rainer?"
I said no reply. There was none needed. And just like that, the General hung up the call.
Beep—!
The tone drowned out my senses for a moment.
What have I just gotten myself into?