Utopian System

Then Enid moved first, being the closest to him in that instant.

There was no doubt in her movement, no hesitation.

She interposed herself between the sword and her leader, her body receiving the blow that was meant for him.

Her eyes found Elio's for one last instant, a small smile on her lips as she fell.

In that instant, which felt eternal, Elio's eyes couldn't look away from Enid's face, from that final smile that would remain etched in his memory forever. Arnaud and Enid.

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Two more who had sacrificed themselves for him.

♢♢♢♢

The pain pushed him to a new and powerful determination.

'No more,' he vowed, his fists clenched with unrelenting resolve. 'Never again will I let anyone be taken from me.'

♢♢♢♢

The four-elemental sword remained in Aria's hands, who had been helping Enid hold it an instant ago.

There was no time for Enid to use it as she would have had to wrench it from Aria's hands in an instant she didn't have, every fraction of a second counted when she decided to sacrifice herself to protect Elio.

Zentros roared with uncontrollable fury, the blow Elio had delivered to his transformed face was an offense that couldn't go unpunished. His claws traced a mortal arc toward the human leader.

Simultaneously, the last remnant of mana abandoned Zara and Lila in their desperate attempt to reach Elio. An artromus, detecting their moment of vulnerability, launched itself at them with murderous intent.

Elio's eyes exploded in a crimson glow more intense than ever.

His perception increased to maximum, combined with muscle strength pushed to the limit, allowed him to move like a specter.

He ducked under Zentros's claws and the strange goddess weapon of the artromus that had murdered Enid in a fraction of a second, his fingers closing around his sword's hilt.

The pull he used to wrench it from Aria's hands was calculated, enough force to knock her downward, away from the immediate reach of the dodged attacks.

Without losing an instant, Elio pivoted on his axis, his sword cutting furiously through the normal artromus and finding again the weak point in Zentros's neck where he had been accumulating damage.

The first monster fell, cut in half momentarily.

Zentros roared in pain and fury when he felt the cut, larger than all previous ones, his transformed leg connecting a devastating blow against Elio's side.

But Elio had positioned himself in the perfect direction, using his perception at maximum...

Even while being thrown by the impact, Elio turned the momentum to his advantage.

With his body spinning in the air, he utilized the monstrous magical power his sword had obtained after applying the enhancement, 960 damage points that found their mark in the neck of the artromus that Kai and Mei were desperately trying to contain.

The monster's head separated cleanly from its shoulders, but Elio didn't stop.

His trajectory took him directly toward the artromus threatening Zara and Lila. The sword sang once more, severing the creature's arm before it could reach his companions.

He had made it on time.

But Elio now had less than 200 resistance points left of his 2,200, having only endured thanks to the emblems and his enormous obstinacy, surrendering and dying would have been hundreds of times less painful.

Yet, having managed to use the new runes seemed to have opened the door for one last desperate fight and turned the situation around, maybe...

"ENOUGH!" Zentros's roar shook the entire chamber.

The artromus leader's fury had reached its critical point.

That damned parasite refused to die despite so much, so much, SO MUCH!

Unacceptable.

His multifaceted eyes also glowed with intensity, evaluating the situation in an instant, his artromus comrades could resist a magical attack of 400 points, but the humans, in their current state...

They would all die.

Energy began accumulating around his transformed form.

This time there would be no containment, no precision.

Only pure destruction.

Elio saw the explosion forming.

His armor, already failing to regenerate accumulated damage, barely held his shattered muscles together. The resistance he had left wouldn't be enough to survive an attack of that magnitude.

He had to cut that magical attack to save everyone.

He tried to jump in an explosion of power, but his tendons finally gave way when his armor's light went out.

He wouldn't make it like this.

In one last desperate act, he threw his sword spinning toward Zentros. The weapon traced a perfect arc toward the energy concentration, but Elio could see it wouldn't arrive in time.

The explosion was about to be released.

A heart-rending cry escaped Elio's throat as he watched the explosion being born from Zentros's center.

'NO MORE!!'

The magical energy swirled around the transformed artromus like a tornado of pure power, his sword spinning uselessly meters from the target, too late to make a difference.

In a movement born of pure protective instinct, Elio extended his arms.

If the explosion was going to consume them all, he could at least use his body as a shield for Zara.

It wasn't much, probably wouldn't even work against an attack of this magnitude, but it was all he could do.

Time seemed to slow even more before his bleeding eyes.

A blur of movement descended from the crater's ceiling like a meteor, so fast that even with his perception increased to maximum, Elio could barely see what appeared to be a human disguised as an artromus.

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The figure caught the four-elemental sword mid-spin and, in an impossibly fluid movement, made it cut through the accumulated magic just as it began to release, lastly burying the sword a few centimeters into Zentros's body.

The explosion dissipated like mist before the sun.

"ELIO!"

The voice was strange but familiar; in his state of shock and exhaustion, it took him a moment to recognize it.

Selene landed beside Zentros.

Without losing an instant, she threw something toward Elio, a flask that glowed with a strange light.

"Drink it!" she shouted while maintaining her defensive position. "I need you transformed!"

Anyone else would have hesitated. Would have asked for explanations, evaluated risks, considered alternatives.

Not Elio.

There was no time for doubts.

In one movement, he brought the flask to his lips and drank its contents.

The change began immediately. A power he had never experienced began to flow through his veins like liquid fire, and his body started to transform.

Selene realized something and wrenched out the sword to throw it to Elio, while using a powerful wind impulse to push Zentros away.

♢♢♢♢

Zentros received the attack with the sword, yet his more than 100,000 resistance points defend him from a deep cut, they would need more than 5,000 damage points to pierce all the way through him.

But Zentros seems to realize something and shouted to his companions in their mental link.

"Transform, all of you, NOW!"