My hand was on the door handle. I gripped it tightly, half-loose from the sweat on my palm.
There's a guard right outside this door.
I pulled it open and swiftly moved forward with my knife, detecting the guard to my right.
Shlk—!
I swiped at him with my blade, aiming for an artery prone to spray the most blood.
"Agh! What—!?" The man retracted immediately from my attack. But it was too late. His blood had already gotten on me.
"Nullify."
The guard before me shivered in spot. I didn't even know what his Fractal was, but it was gone now. He pointed his hand at me, probably trying to initiate his Fractal, but it was to no avail.
"What happened?!"
His moment of stunned confusion was an opening for me. I lunged at him with my knife and impaled him in the chest, covering his mouth with my other hand as to reduce the noise of his scream.
I won't underestimate anyone without their Fractal, even if they're most likely useless without them.
I'd made the decision to leave no witnesses, only because it was Chrono.
Next.
I proceeded forwards, down the hall of which the end split into a right and left path. I recalled the directions I'd memorized to lead back to the entry ladder.
I need to turn left here to get back to the ladder.
So I chose to go right.
The deeper I dive into the unknown territory, the more victims there'll be at my disposal. I won't leave this place until there's no one left from Chrono to bother me anymore.
I ran down an empty corridor before taking a left. Turning past the corner, there were three Chrono lackeys hanging out in the hall.
"Who's this guy…?" One of them said.
"He isn't wearing our robes…"
"He's not one of us!!"
The three of them began bolting towards me.
This is going to be my first upfront confrontation in a while without Flow State.
Seeing the lackeys run towards me flashed a memory through my mind, from a time when I had not yet awakened my Fractless potential. The last time I'd fought without Flow State. A time when I was still weak and naive.
"Like New Zina."
Kyra's face appeared in my mind. She had a look of confidence in me, from that time we fought together back at the apartment against all of Ian's proxies. I barely held my own without Flow State and without her help at the time. I was dependent on everyone else but myself.
I've grown a lot since then, haven't I, Kyra?
The apparition of her beautiful face nodded at me, before fading away into nothingness.
Even until now, you're still continuing to give me hope when I need it most.
I clutched my knife handle tightly, ready to fight like I used to in the old days. Straight, raw, hand-to-hand combat unreliant on anything but my plain Fractless self.
I've got this.
"150 milligrams!!" One of the lackeys yelled. They suddenly began sprinting—faster than the other two—erratically towards me with his arms flailing, knives in both hands.
An energy-type Fractal. There's always guys like this who juice themselves up.
It reminded me of Sixth's Excitation Energy Fractal, with irregular movements akin to Enzo's Adrenaline State Blitz. I read the movements of both his hands, watching for a pattern in his knife movement. But his motion was so unusual, I couldn't find an opening.
Gonna have to make my own.
I pounced forwards before he could reach me, initiating an immediate retaliation. My plan was to parry one of his strikes and hope for the best to create my own opening. But just as I lunged towards him, another lackey budged-in from aside. He pointed his arm at me.
"Impale!"
His arm suddenly grew forth with immense length, to which I'd dodged from his vocal warning ahead of time. It'd become long and sharp, piercing the wall behind me, embedding his hand. The sudden interruption of this other lackey's attack threw off the momentum of the first guy, creating the opening I needed. I withdrew my knife and slashed at the guy's stuck arm, before pushing the edge of my knife into the other's solar plexus, ending him immediately. I backed off right away.
They created a disadvantage for each other. Do these guys not know how to work together?
From Rai and Vick, to these other two, I realized that Chrono was full of unreliable subordinates. They could only get in each other's way, which gave me an advantage every time.
"What are you doing, Jason? Get him!!" Said the man whose arm was stuck in the wall. The last, third lackey at the end of the hall looked terrified.
"Who is this guy? Why is he here?" His panic stuck him in place. Without wasting time, I just threw my knife at him.
Shank—!
My aim wasn't as supreme without Flow State, so it only hit him in the leg. But it was enough to keep him where he was.
"Agh…!" He clutched it in bleeding pain, falling to the floor. I walked past the impale guy who was still stuck in the wall, towards this scaredy third guy. As I approached, he tried to crawl away.
I still don't know what his Fractal is yet.
I also realized that none of their blood had gotten on me somehow. From the other two, I hadn't slashed at places that sprayed enough blood on me. So a new idea revealed itself to me.
My knife.
I stepped on the man's leg, keeping him in painful place.
"Argh!!"
I pulled out the knife that was embedded in his thigh, and he screamed in pain. I'd drawn blood from these three, but none of it had gotten on me. There was, however, one place where all their blood had contaminated.
The blade.
I lathered my knife that was dipped in blood from all three of these lackeys on my arm, painting it red. I'd understood that it wasn't always necessary to make their blood spray on me, but that I could use other methods as well. This time, I made my knife a brush, and painted myself with their red bloody paint.
"Wh-Who the hell are you?!"
I stared at him on the ground, unresponsive. But a shadow suddenly casted itself on the floor from behind. It approached me.
"Impale!"
"Nullify."
I erased all three of their Fractals in an immediate instant. Soon after, I was struck in the back with a hand, but it no longer extended like it used to. Turning around, I saw that it was the man who'd been stuck in the wall, who'd somehow snuck up on me.
"Impale… Impale!" He repeated the activation words for his Fractal. But it was no longer there. He looked at me with panic.
Shank!
I walked out of that hall with three more Fractals logged into my Null database, and three more individuals dead under my name.
That makes five total. How many more are there?
I rounded the corner to find an empty hall lined with closed doors. One by one, I opened them, shocked to find what was inside each room. They were all plain and empty, except for a single individual standing in each room. They stood there, lifeless, staring blankly at the wall. My heart skipped a beat, as I was taken aback to a longtime memory. The moment was all too familiar.
"Hello?" I waved my hand in front of their face. They were unresponsive.
Just like that apartment filled with Ian's proxies. All the empty rooms, all of them just standing there, staring at the wall. What's going on here?
I recalled that Chrono had been kickstarted by a previous member of Heathen, so I assumed this was influence taken directly from Ian. But how did they get these people to become docile just like Ian's proxies? It finally clicked in my mind.
Chronostasis.
I imagined that when I was put under Delfina's Chronostasis Time Prison that I must have been in a similar state. Except at the time, only ten seconds had passed apparently, equating to ten hours from my perspective. These people looked like they'd been standing there for quite some time, which must have equated to unbearably long hours or even days in their perspective.
This must be their brainwashing technique. Delfina used Time Prison on me so my mind could break and I'd work for Chrono. She must have initiated the same thing with these people. These people are all victims.
I realized now, that just like Heathen, Chrono must have also been full of unwilling subordinates. In Heathen, Ian used Control to mentally influence all of his followers. In Chrono, Delfina used Chronostasis to force everyone into joining the cause as a result of being driven to insanity.
All of these places, these organizations, are just full of corruption from start to finish.
I was disgusted. I was appalled. I wanted, more than anything, to tear down the foundations of these sickening institutions.
I can't kill these people. They don't deserve it.
Instead I only opted to shed blood from each of them. Using my knife, I tore paper-thin cuts on each of their upper-arms. There was no intention to hurt them, cause any pain, or cause any fatal injury. I only contaminated my knife with all of their blood, wiping it on my own hands afterwards.
"Nullify."
14 new Fractals had been added to my Null's database, and erased from their bodies. I began to wear some guilt over my shoulder.
Draz, Zion, Rai, Vick, that guard, and those three lackeys—were all of them possibly just brainwashed by Delfina to strive for Chrono?
This feeling was nothing new. At first, it was remorse at killing Ian's proxies back at the apartment, knowing that they were just victims being controlled. Then, it was the guilt of executing those with HP Fractals around the streets of Melysia after being brainwashed by Ian. Now, it was the open interpretation that maybe not everyone in Chrono was crazy and delusional to begin with, but that they were driven to that point by the higher-ups.
"Tsk…" I felt myself embedded with rage. There was a horrid manifestation of resentment deep inside of me, sprouted first from my experience with Michael, then Ian, and now Delfina.
It's always the ones with the most power in their hands, always doing the most to benefit themselves and themselves only.
I clutched a tight fist, blood squelching in my palm.
And just like all of these unwanting victims, I myself have been driven into a corner with nearly no escape. We're all just puppets to them, toy-things to play around with.
To win was to disassemble these hierarchies. To overthrow the higher-ups was to win.
That is what I want to do. For the protection of current and future victims, to prevent anymore of them, I will end these dictators.
I now knew what big move I wanted to make, not just for myself, but for everyone else around me. I had a purpose to strive for from now on.
The root of the evil is where the beliefs originate. Not the innocent fruits and trees that they've spread to.
I could no longer blame the victims of these self-imposed higher-beings.
Ending Chrono means ending Delfina, and her husband.
Now knowing what had to be done, I marched towards the end of the hall stomping with aggression fueled by pure hatred.