Utopian System

The air whistled around them as they crossed ring after ring.

"The queen's chamber," she murmured as they continued their vertiginous fly. "There must be something there, some potion, some artifact that can eliminate this... resistance."

Her voice mixed frustration and determination. Zara's body was perfect in every way except one, it absolutely refused to harm Elio. It was as if every muscle fiber, every drop of blood, had a single inviolable directive engraved: protect this man.

"There must be a way," she continued as they crossed into the 5th ring, her level growing to 50 and her flight speed to 1000. "The statue has several options... And with the boy in my hands..." A cruel smile formed on her lips. "He'll be the architect of his own downfall... Or perhaps I'll dominate this body before that... the point is that no one can interfere while I search for a solution."

♢♢♢♢

Pain was the first thing Lila felt upon awakening. Every muscle in her body protested, but there was a void in her chest that hurt more than any physical wound.

"Elio..." her voice was barely a whisper as she tried to sit up. "Where..."

Mei was at her side, her eyes red and swollen from crying.

"I'm sorry," Mei's voice broke. "I couldn't... didn't take us far away like he said."

"What happened?" Lila tried to stand while looking around.

They were in the outskirts; in the distance, they could see the city and in the other side stood the imposing deposit.

"Mei, where's Elio?"

"I stayed watching," Mei passed a hand over her eyes, wiping away fresh tears. "I couldn't just leave. I had you in my arms and... and then..."

"Then what?" The desperation in Lila's voice was palpable.

"Zara... no, Zahyla..." Mei swallowed with difficulty. "She took him. She had him embraced and flew away with him toward the barriers, toward the artromus city."

Lila froze, her eyes widening with horror as the words sank into her consciousness.
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"No..." she whispered, shaking her head. "No, no, no..."

"I wanted to follow them but..." Mei clenched her fists. "They were too fast, and you were injured..."

"YOU HAD TO FOLLOW THEM!" Lila tried to stand again, only for her legs to give way beneath her weight. "WE CAN'T LET HER TAKE HIM!"

"Lila..." Mei tried to hold her.

"IT'S MY FAULT!" Tears began running down Lila's face. "If I had been stronger! If I had been able to stay conscious! If I had...!"

Her voice broke into uncontrollable sobs. Mei embraced her as her body shook with crying.

"Zara sacrificed herself for me," Lila whispered between sobs. "She put herself in front of me to protect me, and now... now she... and Elio..."

"We'll get him back," Mei promised, though her own voice trembled. "No matter how long it takes, we'll bring him back."

"We don't even know if he's still..." Lila couldn't finish the sentence, a new sob shaking her body.

The silence that followed was broken only by Lila's heartbroken crying and Mei's soft sounds of comfort. In the distance, the battle against the monsters had ended, but for them, the real nightmare was just beginning.

"I couldn't protect them," Lila whispered, her fingers clutching Mei's clothes as if they were an anchor in the middle of a storm. "Neither of them."

"They're alive," Mei tried to sound convincing. "If Zahyla had wanted to kill him, she would have done it there. She needs him alive for some reason, and while he's alive..."

"While she's in Zara's body," Lila completed, a spark of understanding cutting through her pain, "maybe..."

"Exactly," Mei nodded. "Which means we have time. Time to recover, to become stronger, to find them."

Lila closed her hands, tears still running down her cheeks. "We'll get them back," she whispered, transforming her pain into determination. "Both of them."

♢♢♢♢

The area near the city gates had become a desolate landscape.

Where improvised houses of carbon and metal once stood, now only rubble and scattered fragments remained. The ground was covered with level 2 cores, the only remains of the eliminated Locus and Dipterus.

But most devastating was the destruction of the small experimental forest. Thousands of young trees, cultivated with such effort and resources over months, lay trampled and destroyed.

"Check every corner!" Lucien's voice resonated with authority while coordinating the search teams. "There could be survivors!"

Brok lifted enormous pieces of debris, his face tense with concern. "The inhabitants should have resisted... some at least..."

"Those who built near the gate evacuated in time," Kriz examined the ruins of what had been a family home. "But here, so far from the wall..."

Valeria moved among the remains, using her elemental control to mold the debris and clear collapsed structures. "Most people entered when the alarm sounded, but..."

"But there's always someone who realizes too late," Selene completed, her eyes scanning the area. "Especially those who were sleeping."

Aria stopped before a particularly devastated section of the experimental forest. Something caught her attention, an irregularity in the destruction pattern. Among the scattered cores and destroyed houses, there was a small area where something seemed... different.

"Over here!" she called while approaching. "There's something strange!"

Her fingers extended, feeling the buried metallic structures. There was a dome, small but incredibly resistant, fusing iron and carbon into steel.

"It's an improvised defense," she murmured while using control to open it. "Someone built it at the last moment..."

But it wasn't simple; it was formed by several layers one over another.

The dome finally yielded under her control, revealing its contents. Inside, a young woman lay unconscious, her body curved protectively around something.

A tree.

A single young tree, barely taller than a sprout, but alive. The girl had protected it with her own body, building the dome around it in the last moments before the monster wave arrived.

"SHE'S ALIVE!" Aria's shout cut through the field of destruction. "AND THE TREE TOO!"

The others ran toward her. Amid so much loss, so much destruction, this small miracle, one life saving another life, shone like a beacon of hope.

"HERE!" Kriz's shout cut through the chaos. "There are more domes! The same pattern!"