Utopian System

With a fluid movement, Zahyla turned the sword toward herself. Her eyes found Elio's as the blade pierced her own left eye.

"No more waiting," she whispered, a genuine smile replacing her usual mocking smirk. "No more games."

For a moment, no one moved. The horror of understanding took a second to reach Zara and Lila.

Diana was disintegrating.

Elio was unconscious.

Divine Corrupted Soul was active.

Zara and Lila's eyes met, the same thought crossing their minds.

Both launched forward.

Mei shouted something, a warning perhaps, an alert, but it was too late.

They no longer sought to intercept a sword. Now they ran to intercept a soul.

♢♢♢♢

Time slowed as Lila jumped, and in that moment of suspended eternity, thoughts flooded her like a dark tide.

'I could simply...'

The image formed in her mind with painful clarity: her, arriving a second late, just after Zahyla possessed Zara.

Elio would be devastated, of course, but she would be there...

She would be there to console him, to support him, to be his pillar when everything crumbled.

'I just need to be a little slower.'

Memories of every stolen moment watching them assaulted her.

Every smile that wasn't for her, every gesture of affection directed at Zara. How many nights had she dreamed of being the one receiving those looks?

'We could be happy.'

She saw it so clearly: Elio, with time, learning to love her.

It wouldn't be difficult, he had already told her he liked her.

Without Zara, that affection could grow, transform into something deeper. They could build a life together.

'I just have to...'

But then she remembered his smile.

Not any smile, the way he smiled when he was with Zara. That expression of complete, perfect happiness she had never seen at any other time.

Elio's words resonated in her mind: "I'm sorry, sorry that timing and circumstances made things impossible. Sorry that I can't return your feelings the way you deserve."

And she understood.

It wasn't that Elio couldn't love her. It was that he already truly loved Zara.

'What kind of love would it be,' she thought as tears began to form, 'if I condemned him to a life without that smile?'

Her muscles tensed, and instead of reducing her speed, she increased it.

Because the love she felt was true, she understood in that moment of crystalline clarity, that her deepest desire wasn't about possession. It was about wanting Elio's happiness above her own.

Her body arrived before Zara's, placing itself between Elio and the corrupted soul seeking to possess him. Not for glory, not for redemption, but for a simple undeniable fact:

Elio deserved to be happy. And that happiness had a proper name.

Zara.

Lila smiled. A genuine smile, finally freed from the weight of unrequited love.

'Be happy with who you really love...'

In the last instant.

Lila's eyes widened with horror when a familiar figure appeared before her, interposing between her body and the corrupted soul.

Zara.

Using every ounce of strength in her enhanced muscles, every point of impulse she could generate, Zara had managed to place herself in front of her.

"NO!" Lila's scream broke the air. "ZARA!"

But Zara's smile was serene, almost amused, as she looked over her shoulder.

There was no doubt, no hesitation in her movements. It was as if the decision had been the most natural thing in the world.

The impact was immediate. Zara's body arched as the corrupted soul began to fuse with her. But even as pain coursed through her, her smile remained.
Experience more tales on empire

"Take care of him for me," she whispered, her eyes finding Lila's one last time before Zahyla's characteristic blue began to tint her hair. "And don't forget... you're important to me too, friend."

Lila's scream resonated through the chamber as Zahyla's soul took complete control, but it was already too late.

Zara had made her choice.

♢♢♢♢

Mei's scream cut through the chamber: "LILA!"

Lila reacted by instinct, her arms wrapping around Elio's unconscious body.

Zara's sacrifice couldn't be in vain, they had to...

A flash of movement.

Too fast.

The fist stopped centimeters from Lila's head, intercepted by a boron barrier that appeared from nowhere.

Elio had awakened.

His eyes glowed with contained power as his summons responded to his will. The boron scorpion grew, its form magnified by the perfect fusion of ten elements. At his side, Emberg roared, its flames reaching an intensity never before seen.

Two unlocked summons potential.

A huge boron hand materialized, catching the form of Zara, no, of Zahyla in Zara's body.

"RUN!" Elio's voice resonated with absolute authority.

The crack of the prison breaking was like a gunshot in the chamber. Zahyla emerged from the remains, but something was different. Her laughter resonated with a manic joy they had never heard before.

"This body!" The voice was a disturbing mixture of Zara and Zahyla, but there was ecstasy in it. "IT'S PERFECT! As if it had been designed for me!" Her movements were fluid, natural, without the slightest trace of the resistance she had found in Diana's body.

She moved like lightning.

Before anyone could react, her hand closed around Elio's throat.

Lila tried to intervene, but the magical attack she received sent her flying against the wall, leaving her in critical condition and on the edge of unconsciousness.

Zahyla turned toward Mei, her eyes glowing with killer intent, but then...

Elio's fingers closed like steel shackles around her wrist.

His other hand dropped the sword and with an impossibly quick movement, grabbed Zahyla's other hand freeing his neck.

Elio had momentarily managed to neutralize any attempt at elemental manipulation, holding Zara's hands and immobilizing her fingers.

"RUN!" he roared again, his muscles trembling from the effort.

"No..." Lila's voice was barely a whisper as she lay there struggling to stay conscious. "We can't..."

Mei acted. Her magnetic control enveloped Lila's body, beginning to drag her toward the exit.

Zahyla's laughter cut through the tension. "Oh, Elio," her voice was almost tender as her muscles began to tense. "Do you really think you can contain me?"

Pure horror flooded Elio's face when he felt the strength in Zahyla's arms begin to increase. It wasn't the fixed power she had with Diana.

It was something new.

She could use Active Strength.