CHAPTER 184: Dead End

CHAPTER 184: Dead End

A place of blackness. An absolute void, without horizon, without true ground. Only a faint light descending from some inaccessible point high above, bathing a small circle.

There, in the center, Fénix. Curled in a fetal position, arms wrapped around his legs, forehead pressed to his knees. His sobs shattered the silence, each breath sounding like a broken confession.

The thought drilled into him:
He had lost everything.
Control of his body.
His friends.
His family.

His inner voice became a muffled whisper, almost a prayer:
"And, still... the year I spent at Enid Corp was the best of my life."

The images came on their own, almost like sweet wounds: the shared laughter in the midst of danger, the arguments that seemed eternal, the warmth of a shared table. At some point, those people had stopped being allies, had stopped being simple companions. They had become his only family.

For an instant, Fénix allowed himself to imagine it: a world where everything had been perfect. Where there were no betrayals, no scars, no blood on his hands. A world where Enid was just a happy woman by his side, where his friends laughed without fear of the darkness surrounding them.

That world didn't exist. But inside him, for a second, he felt it was real.

A solitary tear slid down his cheek. The faint light seemed to catch it in its path, as if the void itself wanted to preserve it as a relic.

Fénix closed his eyes.
And the world, along with him, went dark.

End of Part I