The wind blew by me, eerie and serene. It was quiet up here in the sky. The city was dead empty.
Just what are you doing down there, Klyson Rainer?
It had been just a few minutes since I watched Klyson descend that sewer grater with those members of Chrono. My directive by Ian was to standby and watch, ensuring that Klyson did as he was told, and none else. I couldn't interfere whatsoever, unless it was absolutely necessary.
If he stays underground, I can only do as much as wait.
Quickly, my thoughts were interrupted by a sudden explosion. A large pulse blasted the surface open, and debris rained everywhere. I hovered high enough in the clouds that I could see the entirety of the dust cloud left behind by the blast.
It's only been minutes. What did the Fractless do?
Although I'd just witnessed a large signature of Fractal energy, I couldn't find myself to be perturbed.
He wouldn't go out that quickly.
My eyes darted around the ruins once the dust settled. There, buried beneath a thin layer of debris, I saw the Fractless' familiar black clothing. His eyepatch stood-out on his blood-lathered face. I saw his chest rise and drop ever so slightly, indicating that he was still breathing.
He's still alive and fine.
"Mom…!"
I suddenly heard another voice, quite a ways from where Klyson lay unconscious. My attention was drawn to a boy greeting a woman in the ruins, with the both of them wearing red robes.
"Vex…! Hurry…! Your father is over here…!"
I saw both the son and his mother rush to a pile of destruction from which they lifted half a man. He had no arms and no legs.
"Dad…!" The boy called out to him. "Dad…! Are you okay…!?"
I saw the man's mouth move, but his voice was too quiet for me to hear. I could only read his words:
"The." "Null."
"I don't know where he is, dad…" The boy turned to his mother. "Mom, you were last with him… Where did he go…? What even happened just now…?"
Frantic, the mother replied. "He had a plan and used it against me… Used the Null and erased both my and Carson's Fractals… Then, Orius' Fractal powered-up and—"
"What did you just say?" The boy interrupted his mom. "Erased your Fractal…?"
The mother looked wretched as she nodded. In return, the son took on an expression of horror.
"Dad…!" He turned to the half-man on the floor. "What do we do…!? Mom doesn't have her Fractal anymore…!"
I listened as their worries turned into chaos.
I see you've made some quick work, Klyson. However…
I detected that Fractal energy still existed in the surrounding atmosphere. His work was not yet done. My peripheral vision suddenly picked-up on movement to the far-right of the Chrono family. There, rising atop the mound of gravel and debris, was the Fractless Executioner of Heathen. He revealed himself to the red-robed members below.
"Klyson? It's Klyson..!!" The mother yelled. The son shouted in pursuit. "You fucker..!! You did this…! You did all of this…!"
"Me…? Me…? You think I have a Fractal to cause widespread destruction like this…? I'm just like you, Vex…" Klyson had said.
"That's not what I mean…!" The 'Vex' boy gruntled back. "You dismantled our place and family from top-to-bottom the moment you showed up…! You erased everyone's gifts from MONA…!"
Klyson scoffed. "It's absurd you say that, considering you were never even blessed with a gift from Her yourself..."
"Shut the fuck up…!"
As they discoursed, I'd made my own connections that I'd pieced from their argument.
This 'Vex' boy must be Chrono's supposed Fractless, considering the way that Klyson talks about him.
"What more do you wish to do, Klyson…? How much farther are you willing to go against us…?" The mother had said.
I saw Klyson take on an expression of disbelief. "Now you want to act like the victims…? Only after things finally stopped going your way…? Don't act like you haven't been trying to kill me or use me all this time… You've only got what was coming to you..."
The Fractless has become confident in speaking out for himself.
"Don't talk to my mom like that…" The son said.
"You're a victim too, Vex..." Klyson's voice was stern. "Just like how I was used by Ian for my Fractless capabilities, you too are being manipulated into believing that you're the star of a bigger cause that you can't even fathom... You're just blind to it all because you were raised under that roof..."
I raised an eyebrow, unexpectedly confounded by what Klyson had said.
The Fractless has been this self-aware all this time?
"I don't want to hear any of your nonsense, Klyson…!"
"Look around…! The sky is endless…! There's no ceiling out here…! And yet, you're choosing to stay enclosed within your parents delusions…? Can't you tell that you're being used…?"
I hovered in place, high in the endless sky from which there was no limit to my expanse. I looked around to realize this, subconsciously instigated by Klyson's words.
Just what kind of message are you trying to convey to this fellow Fractless, Klyson?
"I'm choosing to do their bidding, Klyson… I'm not forcing myself the same way you must have... We are different…" Vex had replied.
Klyson, standing tall among the mounds of debris, began to walk down and descend to the other's level. "We aren't different, but these infectious beliefs of Chrono make you feel like you are... You may tell yourself that you're choosing to do all of this, but did you really ever have a choice, Vex…? If you've been raised under this dogma your whole life, your path was drawn-out for you from the start…! You aren't branching out on your own…!"
For some reason, I'd found myself listening very closely to the words Klyson preached. This conversation was irrelevant to someone like me, yet I was enticed by the very peculiar nature of it. Then, I stopped to think to myself for a moment.
Is it irrelevant to someone like me?
The other Fractless began to march towards Klyson. "And why would I want to…? I know what greater cause I'm going to bring about, and I want to play that role… Who cares if that's been defined for me from the start…?"
Subconsciously, I'd come to agree with Chrono's Fractless. There was a lagging relation I'd felt in his responses to Klyson.
To play a role that's been given to you, one that's been defined from the start. Ian has done the same for me. Why are you trying so hard to oppose this, Klyson? What fruit could you bear in convincing this 'Vex' otherwise? His system… our system is composed of an indestructible foundation.
"You're so imposed-upon by your parents that you can't even realize that you're just settling for what's comfortable for you... Just because it's comfortable, doesn't mean it's right for you…!"
My feelings jolted from Klyson's response, as if it had been targeted towards me. Although he spoke to this other Fractless boy, I'd taken it as my own offense.
'Comfortable'...? You have nerves to portray it in that way, Klyson. Nothing we do is out of comfort, but rather, out of habit and solidity in what we stand for. You cannot tell us how to feel. Only we get to tell ourselves what is right and what is wrong.
"Only I get to tell myself what's right or wrong for me…!" Vex shouted, speaking my own thoughts into existence.
"Don't you want to make your own choices…? Live your own life…?"
"I choose to do what I've readied myself to do my whole life…! You can't tell me otherwise…!"
By now, I was absorbed into this battle of ideals between the Fractless. I was present in defense of Klyson, yet I related most to what Vex stood for.
Who will back up their ideas with more strength?
I watched as the two of them engaged and exchanged blows, dodging and blocking, neither connecting. It was a standstill for a short while before Vex seemed to begin ramping up in intuition, and reaction. He began to land his strikes, and they staggered Klyson—an unusual sight.
Klyson's Fractless capabilities must be gone by now after having used the Null. This 'Vex' on the other hand seems to have Fractless potential of his own. His combat ability is overshadowing Klyson's.
Vex gave him an onslaught of punches to which he suffered both initially, and at a delayed point in time. I assumed it had to do with his own Fractless capabilities.
"Have you not attained that state yet…?"
Klyson shook his head. "I had it… It disappears once you inherit the Null…"
Vex smirked. "So you no longer have it…? Then you have no chance against me…"
Soon after, Vex continued attacking Klyson and dealing damage, all while explaining his abilities to him along the way. Apparently, Chrono's Fractless had something called Stutters—another form of time-perception manipulation just like both Klyson and Enzo had after awakening their Fractless states.
Klyson may have had a chance had he still had his 'state.' But as of right now, everything is in Vex's favor.
To my surprise, Klyson was able to create a timely block and counterattack, against all odds. From what I'd observed until now, he's always been diligent to adapt immediately, especially after failing to do so back in the Invidan War.
Ever since then, even when everything is against you, you refuse to give up.
I'd watched a man learn from his mistakes and grow to improve.
Prove to me you have what it takes to fight for what you stand for, Klyson Rainer.
"Trying to read into my Stutters…? There's only so much you can keep up with…!"
Vex suddenly began to move non-cohesively, with timing even I couldn't read. Expectedly, Klyson was unable to keep up with the unusual rhythm of his movements, failing to defend against the next barrage of attacks. The pressure overtook his stability and he fell on his back. However, Vex would not stop. He followed-up, continuing to strike Klyson even while he was already on the ground. He took hit after hit, attempting to defend himself at one point only to fail soon after. I could only watch, but I was unusually frustrated.
Is this how you're going to go out, Klyson? After everything you've been through, you're just going to let this happen to you?
A battle of ideals and strength were one in the same. Your ideologies could not stand tall unless you had the strength to stabilize it. Right now, Klyson's fortitude waned, while people like Vex and I stood firmly with our own because we had the power to back it up.
If you lose this, I'll be disappointed.
Even though I related to what Vex stood for, I couldn't help but feel eager for the underdog in Klyson. It almost felt as if I wanted to be proven wrong.
Why do I even feel this way?
I watched as Klyson's face was pummeled with bruises and blood. I had to step in when things got too dire, but right now I wanted more than anything to see Klyson get back up on his own. I wanted to see how he would stand up for himself given the current circumstances.
"Vex… Vex…!" He tried to speak through the beating. "You don't need to do this…! You don't need to…!"
Vex continued to punch and ignore him.
You can't move a boulder that's been stuck in place for years, Klyson. You're going to learn this the hard way.
"I know you think this is right because it's what you were taught…! I know you know what's right to you…! I know you know what you stand for…! I respect your dedication…! But, listen…!"
I listened.
"You don't always need to force yourself to fit the mold this world has given you…!"
"You just so happened to be forced into a monster by the cruelty of this world."
A memory abruptly interrupted my thoughts for a moment. Vex finally stopped punching. I watched, and I listened in awe as Klyson said his next words.
"It's okay to accept your doubts and be yourself, especially when this world is already full of people who constantly reject their own humanity…"
My eyes widened, as my mind was taken away from the present and back into a moment in the past for the first time in a very long time. A particular, peculiar, notable conversation from day's past.
~
"You just so happened to be forced into a monster by the cruelty of this world."
"Is that what happened to you?" Dante had responded to me.
I was stunned by his question. I'd just sympathized with him without realizing that I'd been in the same shoes this whole time.
A monster, created and shaped by the cruelty of this unfair world. While Dante had been unwillingly turned into one, I'd grown up into one. But did that really change anything in the end?
I didn't know how to respond to Dante properly, so I looked off into the far distance instead. I saw horizons that never ended, a limitless stretch of freedom. I realized that there were a lot more people out there like me than people like him. I'd gotten my answer.
"If this world is full of monsters, then that would just make me normal, wouldn't it?"
He looked off into the distance with me. "I guess that makes me 'normal' too then."
No it doesn't, I'd thought to myself. "You aren't 'normal.' Not like the rest of us," I told him.
There were countless foul people in this world, all abusing the power they had because they had that power. You could call them 'villains' or even 'monsters.' You're brought into this world with a mold made specifically for you, so you take up that shape that you've been given. I was one of those people.
But Dante had been forced into a new mold he was never supposed to have.
He's not a 'villain' or a 'monster' like the rest of us. Originally, he was supposed to be a 'hero.'
"What do you mean?" Dante asked.
"It's trivial."
"Can you let me out?"
My heart stopped. He was still inside my domain.
"Please. I'm not going after Klyson anymore. I'll even return to the Cube. I need time to reflect."
My hands trembled. I couldn't look Dante in the eyes. I couldn't believe what he'd said.
Despite everything that's happened to him and the monster he's become, he's still choosing to embrace his humanity...?
Dante was no longer allowing himself to be forced into something he never wanted to be, even if he had all the reason to.
Ah… He's broken out of his shell. How… do you do that?
I didn't know how to.
To eliminate all HP Fractal users. To maintain equilibrium in the Human Realm. To fulfill what's been expected of me by Ian. My life has been in Heathen. My order has been in chaos.
Heathen. Order in chaos.
How do you step away from all of that…?
I couldn't. I only knew how to take up my role in this world, and I couldn't fathom anything else, even if I wanted to.
Dante…
Even if this incredible human being before me showed that it was a possibility.
I can't.
I rejected my humanity, instead choosing to embrace what I've already known my whole life as a 'monster.'
That is… my role in this world.
"In another universe, you saved those dear to you, and defeated me here today."
Panic ensued on Dante's face. "Wait, wait, please."
"I apologize for this," I stuck out my hand.
"Wait, please—!"
I clenched my palm, erasing the existence that opposed the path of life I'd chosen.
~
I was brought back into the present from my memory in recent past.
"It's okay to accept your doubts and be yourself, especially when this world is already full of people who constantly reject their own humanity..." Klyson had said.
Be myself…? What is… 'myself'?
"Who's to say I have any doubts about what I do and stand for?" Vex argued back.
Everyone has their doubts. Even… I did.
"You do, don't you…?" Klyson asked.
I do.
Vex looked away, as if he couldn't look Klyson in the eye with this type of confrontation. It reminded me of how I'd felt with Dante.
"Who cares if I have any doubts…? I'm already the hero of my own story... I'm doing what's right for me… Why are you trying so hard to tell me otherwise…?"
"Because I've seen myself as both the hero and villain of my own story before... But in the end, it never changed anything… The outcomes were always the same, no matter whether I saw myself in the right or wrong... What mattered was what I chose to do in the end..."
"What are you even getting at…?"
"You're being used, but you've been shaped into something that restricts that thinking… I've gone through the same thing as you… As a Fractless, I know exactly how you feel..."
"That shouldn't even matter—"
"But it does…!" Klyson interrupted him. "How often can someone in Melysia truly relate to you the way I do…? We are part of the rare few that were born Fractless... Only we know what it's like to be Fractless... Only I would know what you could have gone through, and what you felt…"
I too knew someone who understood me more than anyone else.
"Is that what happened to you?"
Dante Hade. The anomaly, just like me.
"So, what…?" Vex persisted.
"So, break out of your mold…! This isn't a storybook with a linear path… Write yourself the way you want to be, and not how the universe designated you… It doesn't matter if you've set yourself upon one path your whole life… There's no hurt in splitting off into another…!"
But I've done this my whole life because I have the capabilities to do so. I fit this mold I've been given.
"Just because you're Fractless and you have these capabilities to produce the Shattering, doesn't mean that it's your destiny…!"
But…
"You may think it's right for you and that you want it, but consider all of your own options before going on a path of no-return... Be Fractless... Be Vex... Be you...!"
Be me…?
I swallowed regret.
Who is 'me' if not the one I've lived as until now?
"If you keep going down this path, you'll lose sight of who you truly are forever…!"
But if I've already gone down this path for this long, isn't it too late to change into something else even if that's what I want to do…?
"But what if it's already too late…!?" Vex had responded, as if on behalf of my thoughts.
Klyson grabbed his shirt tightly, suddenly, shouting loudly.
"It's never too late to change how you want your story to end!"
The wind stopped howling. The air had become still. My mind became quiet. I could only hear the echoes of what Klyson had just said.
…
My mind went blank. When I looked forwards, I saw a horizon that never ended. There were endless possibilities.
There's so much out there…
My mental solidity and infrastructure could no longer bear the weight of my doubts any longer. The cracks gave out. Everything collapsed.
I can... choose who I want to be...?
From my upbringing, through my solidarity in the shadows as an icon from Heathen, to this limbo of a time in now, everything fell from the high shelves they were once placed. It shook heavily and all tumbled down. But once the dust settled, my mind was clearer than ever. The fog had passed, and it would never come back.
Despite what I've been until now, I can choose who I become from here on out.
I knew that idea was possible, because the only person in the world I could relate to had proven that to me, even when I hadn't accepted it at the time.
Dante…
Change.
"Shut up…!!" Vex had finally snapped. "Shut up…! Shut up…"
He continued beating Klyson's face. The Fractless no longer defended himself. I could see that he was beginning to give out.
Vex is rejecting it. He doesn't want… change.
I watched as he put Klyson out of commission. He continued to punch and punch. He wouldn't stop. But I could tell his strikes were weakening. He began hunching over as it looked like he began to sob.
"Shut up… Shut up…!!"
He let out one final shout with a finishing blow to Klyson. The man was limp beneath him. But I could tell that he was still alive.
I'll only interfere if his life is truly on the line.
"Shut up…" Vex drooped his head. His hand, still a fist formed on Klyson's face.
"Is he dead…?" His mother asked from afar.
Vex looked up. He shook his head, staring at Klyson's one-eyed face. With depleted energy, he began to carry Klyson's limp body over to them. "He's unconscious... We can remove the Null from him while he's out..."
"I told you to kill him, didn't I…?"
The mother's words were stern. It surprised the boy.
"What if the Null dies with him? We'll lose all hope for the Shattering then. We can't risk it…"
The mother looked at him with estranged eyes. "Do you really believe a word he's said…?"
"I…"
"The only truth he's spoken is that he has the Null…" She looked at her hands, trembling with the emptiness in lacking a Fractal. "Now that we've confirmed it, we'll take the rest of this into our own hands…"
"But what if it does disappear…? How could we bring about the Shattering without the Null…?"
The mother's patience looked like it had simmered out. "I'm telling you… The Null won't disappear…!"
Yes it will.
The mother suddenly drew a knife from her back pocket, lunging it down towards Klyson's chest. That was my signal.
Clang—!!
The mother's knife recoiled off the Obelus I'd just formed around Klyson's body.
"What—!?" She stumbled backwards in shock. So too did Vex, as I appeared on the ground before them. Their eyes grew wide as they realized who I was, even as the hood of my cloak hid my face.
"The Sin of Discrimination!?" Vex's eyes furrowed.
The mother snarled at me. "I knew you were watching! You're always watching!!"
I stood by Klyson, who hovered inside my Obelus. "You have nothing left. There's no use in fighting for what you stood for anymore. This man alone tore it all down."
The mother was fuming. "But, the Null…! It's right there—!"
I cut her off. "He's coming with me. He's done his job."
Just as I was about to transport us away, the mother screamed once more.
"What are you doing, Vex!? Don't let her get away!"
My instincts flared immediately, as my nature to exterminate took over for a brief moment. But a lagging moment's time halted my response. I noticed that it was Vex of all people who had come to strike me, but I recalled the nature of his situation—its similarity to mine.
Klyson told you to break out of your mold, didn't he? Why do you continue to bend to your mother's whims?
He performed his Stutter attack, but I already observed how it worked in his battle with Klyson. I pre-placed Obeli between us way ahead of his attack's initiation, which repelled him backwards with their implosions. Still, he continued towards me once more.
It seems you have chosen to remain stagnant, Vex.
I wrapped an Obelus around his entirety instantaneously. With a single clench of my palm, his fate could be reduced to atoms. But I waited this time.
Prove to me, something…
I wanted to give Vex one last chance to change—the same chance I was unable to give Dante back then.
"You're a tool to that woman, Vex."
He looked at me with offense. "Don't talk about my mom like that!" He began to strike at the walls from within my Obelus. It was the same desperation Dante had when he was initially trapped in the same scenario. I was hoping he'd eventually cool down the same way, and give up in the same way.
Realize the hopelessness of the goals you've tied your mind to, and break free from it.
But Vex only continued to strike, and strike, and strike. He refused to give up within his enclosure, and it was because of his mother.
"Get out of there, Vex! Do something already! I don't have a Fractal to defend us anymore! Use your Stutters!!"
Desperately, Vex continued, and I watched as he refused to give up. But it wasn't the kind of perseverance he should have exhibited. This was a desperate attempt to prove himself to his parents.
You remain shackled.
As his knuckles began to bleed from constantly battering his green prison, his tempo finally started to slow. He was getting exhausted. When enough time passed, Vex finally reached his point of exhaustion. He stopped striking and had put a cease to his attempts. There was a brief moment of awkward silence between us all, taken up only by Vex heaving while catching his breath. The silence was broken by the mother first.
"I can't believe you, Vex."
He turned back to face his mother, his face horrified with the inability to meet her expectations.
"Mom, I can't—! No one can! This shield is impenetrable! I'm sorry!"
The mother's words that followed were inevitably the ones that would break Vex.
"To think that we wasted a use of Reversal on you…"
Vex's eyes grew wide. I could tell he'd just been revealed a shocking truth.
"What are you saying, mom…?"
"Did you never wonder why dad was already missing his arm while you grew up?"
He was quickly frozen in place.
"W-What are you saying, mom…?"
"I'm saying that you've been made to inherit the Null since the very beginning, Vex. Your father and I had hoped you'd be part of the rare few born Fractless, but instead you were born with a Fractal… Your father's first Reversal was to rewrite your state into that of a Fractless!"
Vex fell to his knees. His body began to shake as he whimpered at this horrible revelation.
"Just for the Shattering…? All that just for the Shattering…? Ever since I was born...?"
"Of course!" The mother retorted. "Why else would we seek-out the liability-nature of having a child?"
I was taken aback by what she'd said. I could see on Vex's face that this was all the more shocking.
"Have I just been a tool to you and dad this whole time…?" He said.
There was no response from his mother, nor his father who still laid on the floor. So instead, I stepped-in to give the reply.
"Yes you have, Vex. This is what he was trying to get you to see this whole time," I spoke of Klyson.
Vex turned his head to me. Tears were streaming down his cheeks. But before he could say anything, an unexpecting, frail voice spoke up. His father on the floor furrowed his eyebrows.
"Useless…"
"Huh...?" Vex now turned to him.
"Useless… You two…"
"Me…? 'Useless'...!?" The mother suddenly snapped. "I'm the only reason you've stayed alive until now! I've carried your dreams onwards when you couldn't anymore! How am I useless?!"
The father scoffed a dry cough. He looked up at the sky like there was something there, looking down at him. "Too… generous…"
The two looked at him with unsettlement, confused by what he was trying to say. Suddenly, he locked eyes with them. His pupils dilated with more life than he'd ever displayed until now.
"Reversal: I exist in the Human Realm."
In the blink of the universe's eye, he disappeared.
—!?
There was no trace of him left behind.
The large signature of Fractal energy just disappeared. So he was the Reversal user all this time…
Vex and his mother's eyes grew wide with horrifying comprehension at what he'd just done. Their reactions were telling enough for my own assumptions.
He's abandoned them completely, hasn't he?
"C-Caden…?"
The mother was at a loss for words. She stared blankly at where the man had previously lain. Then, it all began to manifest.
"No… No...! No! No!!"
The mother began to scream and shout. Any cool she'd had left had blown out of proportion completely. This was the state of a woman whose lifelong dreams had just been stripped away in an instant.
"You couldn't have! You wouldn't! Not after everything I did for you! Why? Why?!"
She wailed and flailed, like the embodiment of a tantrum. She began to scream and pull at her hair, strands shredding into her hands. On the other hand, Vex watched in disbelief.
"Did dad…?" He gulped. It seemed as though Vex couldn't believe his own father would abandon them either. "Did he…?"
"What else!?" The mother screamed. "He used the last Reversal to send himself to the God Realm! He gave up on the Shattering! He gave up on us!"
She brought her head down into her hands, into the ground. She'd been broken beyond repair, disheveled, feeling left to rot. Vex still couldn't believe the circumstances, as his face read confusion more than anything. He looked at me as if I had answers.
"Why…?"
I looked at him from beneath my hood. I had no answers to give. Klyson had already fulfilled that role. I could only provide my last remarks.
"He answered it all already. He didn't need to, but he did. You didn't listen."
Vex's eyes strained as he finally formed regret for everything until now. His face scrunched with horror at the consequences for his actions. He burst into tears.
These remaining two from Chrono are nothing but broken. I can leave them be—in a state worse than death.
In the next instant, we vanished from the scene. I transported us back towards the clouds.
Good work, Klyson. No notes.
Chrono now ceased to exist.