Utopian System

Lucien observed the tide of monsters from his elevated position.

The barrier glowed intensely thanks to them never stopping its feeding; the only reason why the city wasn't completely flooded with beasts.

At his side, Selene helped coordinate unit movements. The army had grown stronger in these months, many more soldiers having reached at least level 10. Their formations moved with practiced precision, each squad supporting the others to finish the monster elimination.

But despite the rapid response... the price had been high.

The external settlements, which had been symbols of progress and hope, now lay submerged under waves of monsters. The carefully constructed houses, the newly planted gardens, all vanished beneath the tide of creatures.

"The people," Valeria gritted her teeth while her magic disintegrated a group of Dipterus. "All those who didn't make it in time..."

"Children used to play there," whispered Aria, her voice breaking while eliminating another approaching Locus.

"Move!" Kriz's voice cut through their pain. "We don't have time for regrets!"

Brok crushed a monster with his enormous elephant. "Kriz is right! People built voids under the houses!"

Those words struck like lightning through everyone present.

"They could be resisting!" exclaimed Aria, her energy renewed. "Some might have enough mana for defense!"

"We have to hurry!" added Valeria. "They won't last long!"

The army moved with new purpose, fighting with the urgency of hope. Each eliminated monster was another step closer to finding survivors. Squads reorganized on the fly, adapting their formations to clear paths to potential shelters.

Lucien directed a unit toward the eastern sector and asked Selene, Tarec, and Ivan to focus on the gates of other sectors.

The battle transformed into a race against time, each monster eliminated was time gained to save one more life.

"Maintain pressure!" ordered Lucien, his power manifesting in devastating waves that cleared entire zones of monsters.

♢♢♢♢

Mei's entrance to the chamber was different from the others, her body already transformed by the potion moved very fast but her more analytical mind took slightly longer to digest the situation.

Her eyes widened upon finding her companions in mortal combat against a familiar figure.

"Why are you attacking Dia...?"

"It's Zahyla!" Elio interrupted while dodging a counterattack, his sword tracing an arc that forced his opponent to retreat. "Diana betrayed us! Now Zahyla controls her body!"

Lila and Zara maintained pressure without pausing, their synchronized attacks forcing Zahyla into constant defense. Diana and Zahyla's fusion bled from multiple wounds, her resistance reduced to less than half, but her smile remained intact.

"We need you to take your magical power to maximum in each attack to manage reducing her resistance to 0!" Elio shouted while coordinating an attack with the others. "You need the maximum multiplier so our mana is enough! It's the only way!"

"Oh, another one?" Zahyla feigned a pout while blocking two simultaneous attacks. "Don't you think it's unfair? Four against one poor girl..."

Her laughter echoed through the chamber, discordant with the brutality of combat. "Though since you're being so persistent in trying to defeat me, I'll do you a favor."

She dodged by millimeters a combined attack from Zara and Lila, her movement so fluid it seemed to anticipate each strike. "Elio, dear, did you notice the cores the first time you killed me?"

Mei joined the combat, her power rising to maximum while processing the situation. The four-way attack forced Zahyla to move faster, but her smile only widened.

"I have nine cores left," she continued between blocks and dodges. "If you manage to break them before they become invulnerable when I die... well, then you really could kill me permanently…"

Elio maintained his face impassive while calculating. The cores had appeared at specific points in Zahyla's disintegrated body; he remembered exactly where. But reaching them in a cut would require monstrous penetration force, close to 100,000 damage points he didn't have.

"Of course," Zahyla spun between four simultaneous attacks with supernatural grace, "your sword can barely cut more than my skin now. Can you reach something so deep?"
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The 5 summons danced around the combat, their powers limiting Zahyla's elemental control. But even so, stopping her to penetrate to the cores seemed impossible.

"We need to hit the same points!" Elio shouted, his mind working at full speed. "Attack where I do!"

Zara and Lila responded instantly, their attacks converging on locations Elio had begun marking with his cuts. Mei adapted quickly, her style complementing the established strategy.

"Clever," commented Zahyla while blocking some attacks from another barrage of coordinated strikes. "But even if you manage to penetrate deep enough, remember you need to break the cores before killing me. Quite an entertaining challenge, don't you think?"

Her movements became more fluid, as if Diana's body had finally fully accepted her control.

'At last you surrendered. But... What is that small section of information you refuse to release, stubborn little girl?' thought Zahyla while using maximum control to make them miss the exact locations of her cores.

"The question is," observed Mei while managing to extract the maximum of her magical power, "why would she tell us something like this? Why give us information that could lead to her permanent defeat?"

Elio maintained his concentration on the points where he remembered seeing the cores, but part of his mind couldn't stop wondering the same thing. Was it true that if they won, everything would return to the beginning?

"It doesn't matter why!" Zara's voice cut through their doubts. "If there's a chance to end her, we must take it!"

For now, she was right... They couldn't turn their backs, retreat wasn't an option, they could only win.

The four moved as a unit, their attacks converging on the points Elio had identified. If they could maintain pressure, if they could penetrate deep enough before Zahyla's resistance fell completely...

♢♢♢♢

The perfect coordination between the four created an opening Elio had been waiting for.

His sword found exactly the point where he had seen one of the cores, and this time, with accumulated damage in the same wound, the blade penetrated deep enough.

The scream of pain that escaped Diana's throat resonated with two distinct voices. The core shattered under the sword's edge, fragmenting into flashes of dark light that dissipated in the air.

"Impressive!" Zahyla recovered quickly, though her smile now held a touch of pain. "You really managed to reach one. Although..." she dodged a combination of attacks from Zara and Lila, "I'm afraid it's too late for 8 others."

She moved like water between the coordinated attacks of her four opponents. "I only have 20% resistance left. With luck you could break another before I die, and then what? Seven would remain."

Her smile turned predatory while looking directly at Elio. "How about next time I die you let me catch you? We could use your body to eliminate your dear admirers. It would be a fascinating experiment, don't you think?"