V̵̭͚̼̫̻̼͙a̦͍͈̗̺ͅn̢͙̪͚̦̺̱͈g̖ú̻̥̘͕͍̪̣a̢͉̯̼͕̯r͈d̟̯̻̣̙̮̞
The woman was lying down the couch, resting and reading a book half heartedly. While normally he would have been enraptured by the novel, he had other things in mind.
Why?
He had been smiling all this time, and initially, he was indeed thrilled. His flesh and blood, what had been robbed from him had finally returned. Well, it wasn't his, but the very fact that possessing such a thing, or rather that he could, had made his heart thrilled with excitement once again. For a while
But nothing came. His glorious return was at hand, his ascension, his long sought eternity. And yet all those sensations he longed for since long ago... brought him nothing. He could neither feel any more joy nor could he fill that void that had been aching for so long. It was as if even now, he was still caged in that shell. But why?
The power to touch, to feel, to cradle, to destroy, to save... he had it all! He thought that if he could gain such a thing, he would have neared his long sought goal. Not the world's salvation, but his own. And yet, he had slowly realized he was sinking further back into the abyss.
A false smile built on a throne of deceit was no more worthy than the inability to smile in the first place. What he planned for so long to achieve, the star of fate accomplished in a day. And yet, he could not rejoice of such fortune. Even when he touched her, it all felt empty. He did not feel lust, joy, power or even disgust. The food, the wind, the warm touch of the sun gave him nothing. Why didn't he feel anything at all?
It was as if he had been an empty shell all along. Smiling ironically, the girl seemed saddened, but she didn't shed a tear. After all, he could not do so even now. He wanted to laugh, to cry, to scream...
But he simply couldn't.
"Hehe...pathetic."
