Fractless

Melysia, the country of the abnormal. Here the people were different. Fractals made them different.

Fractals are skills that can range from powerful capabilities like the absurd ability to conjure fire, or even simple practical ones like the ability to read books at twice the regular speed. According to history, the first instance of a Fractal occurred nearly 40 years ago, just after the Filtering—a dark, decade-long era of homicidal chaos and destruction, established just after A.X.A. (Archangel Experimentation Association) took over the country as the primal governing power. When the Filtering was finally over, Fractals began to spread out among the population like a virus, and within a month, every single person in the country had a superhuman capability—a Fractal.

My parents were one of the few children born during the Filtering that were able to make it out of the era alive. According to the stories they'd told me, they were "awarded" their Fractals by A.X.A. for surviving the Filtering. They were told that they demonstrated the strength and willpower required to live in the—at the time—new-and-upcoming age of a superhuman society, which is what I'd been born into. The only thing is…

…I wasn't born with a Fractal.

Out of every other child born in my year of birth, I am one of two apparent instances that came into the world Fractless, as they called it. Luckily for me, discrimination against minorities was considered a criminal offense that could lead to the death penalty, so I never got to experience it. A.X.A. absolutely did not tolerate discrimination against the Fractless, even going as far as labeling minorities to be "the glowing stars of our nation." Due to the image that the Fractless had, we were even occasionally looked up to. And since the support system for the Fractless had always been so grand, I'd been lifted past hardships all my life, providing me opportunities I would have never expected to reach as an individual without a Fractal. This led me to where I am today.

Klyson is my name. Klyson Rainer. I'm the leader in command of the Fifth Angel Unit Infantry, out of ten in total. Altogether, the ten infantries make up what is called the Tenfold—a branch of A.X.A.'s military that specializes in wave-based assaults on enemy grounds, through the efficient use of Angel Units. Most of the time we just refer to them as Angels. They're soldiers dressed in broad white battle suits, and they attack recklessly without the use of weapons.

They are the weapons themselves.

As a leader, I command them by linking my brain to a designated hive mind—the Fifth Infantry's hive mind—which allows me to communicate my thoughts and tactics to each Angel. My job is to keep them moving, and constantly provide them ideas on how to eliminate the enemies. Though, that is if I were ever on the field for a battle. Melysia had never been involved in any large-scale international conflict. We had absolutely no history of actual wars, except for some minor individual battles here and there. I'd never had the opportunity to work in the field, so I didn't have any actual battleground experience other than training simulations. But this was not because the country acted neutral. Being neutral meant both remaining in the middle, and on the outside, away from the conflict without taking a side. Melysia was in neither of those positions. The other countries were.

The world feared us.

A.X.A.'s military technology is unparalleled compared to any other nation. Our methods are unheard of. The world has only ever heard of the Filtering and that alone was enough to impose fear. They never hoped to see a second-coming of that event occur in their own countries. They didn't want to get involved with us either. But it didn't matter. A.X.A. had always rejected the idea of alliances with other nations. Melysia was independent, and even I would agree. The world we lived in was different from the rest of the planet. The technology we used was out-of-this-world, quite literally. Even the sun we saw was different from the sun that the rest of the world saw. There was the sun, then there was Solitaria—our own artificially produced sun—a giant ball of glowing energy that resided in the shallow sky of Melysia, surrounded by a dyson sphere that constantly provided the country with energy. It was designed to be limitless, and it was. In Melysia, energy was not even a bill to pay since the supply was never-ending. A.X.A. had reached hundreds of years' worth of technology advancement in the mere 49 years that they'd been in power. It was almost horrifying how quickly the country had become so advanced, yet it made me ever more grateful that I was born here out of anywhere else in the world.

I believed that I was a part of the bigger picture that A.X.A. continued to build. Ever since we were children, it's what they'd been telling us. The seed they sowed continued to grow, and the colors of its fruit were already beginning to glow.

I just wished I could do something to contribute to that.

I'd worked my way up to this honorable position, but have done nothing to own up to its title yet. Commander of the Fifth Angel Unit Infantry, but I'd never even taken true command once. Simulations obviously didn't count, so when could I do something that would? As a Fractless among a crowd with Fractals, I continued to wait until a purpose presented itself for me to fulfill. I desired to stand out for a reason other than not owning a Fractal. I wanted to exist as something special to others.

I wanted to exist as something with a purpose.