***
{Outside The Projection}
The hall was trembling.
Trembling, not from the "cold" on display, but from fear.
This was who they were up against.
This was Malik, stripped of all limits, all pretenses.
All those debates they had over whether they'd technically won or not felt really laughable.
They dared think… they really dared to think they'd won against this?
THIS?!
No.
Not a single soul in the entire world could lie to themselves about it anymore.
There was no victory. There never was. There never could be.
What they did was one thing.
Survive.
And that too was only by his grace.
His mercy.
His want.
Not theirs.
Nothing they did had truly changed anything.
In the grand scheme of things, they really were inconsequential.
The people, their leaders, and their leaders' leaders.
Now they all understood that.
Malik's cages had trapped them all, not only the hated three.
Only now did the world process that fact.
