Chapter 179: The Empty Mirror
The voice...
As always.
Returned.
Discreet. Infiltrated. Very low, almost erased, as if it too, this time, hesitated to speak, as if it too, in this instant, was afraid of its own truth. It no longer held the tone of provocation, nor that of gentleness — only that of those who know. Those who watch... and speak.
— You’ve won, she murmured.
And I smiled.
A wide smile. Spread across my whole mouth. A grimace that had nothing joyful but everything visceral. A taut smile, too taut, like a rope snapping without sound. A twisted smile, split by tension, by excess, by victory. I felt it distort my face, like the grimace of a child who no longer knows whether it’s joy or pain.
Then I screamed.
Not a cry of rage. Not a call.
A pure scream.
A scream of raw exaltation, of euphoria ripped from the depths of the void, a scream that no longer needed to be contained or justified, a scream that vibrated to the tips of my outstretched arms. I raised my arms toward that inverted sky, arms open, palms offered, the burning glow in my pupils, pride howling from my guts.