"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 dos! The sa pattern!"
Under the remains of what had been a family ho, they found another defensive structure. It wasn't a simple do either, but overlapping layers of tal and carbon, each one reinforcing the previous.
Brok moved the debris while Aria and Valeria worked together to open the layers. Inside they found three children huddled next to an elderly woman, who had maintained composure until seeing them arrive.
"We all... began practicing ways to make the houses resistant to outside control," she explained between tears of relief. "We practiced creating resistant layers every day. When the alarm sounded, I just... just tried to copy what I rembered."
The discovery unleashed a frantic search. Soon they found more dos, each unique in its construction but following the sa basic principle.
"Here's another!" "This one has six people!" "I found a complete family!"
A young mother had protected her baby in a do barely larger than herself. A teacher had managed to shelter five of his students.
"The girl with the tree," Lucien murmured, watching the rescues. "It wasn't luck. They all learned the sa skill."
The dos kept appearing, each telling its own story of courage and resistance.
♢♢♢♢
In a eting room, Lucien spread the reports across the table.
The numbers were devastating: of the more than ten thousand people who had been building a new life in the outskirts, two thousand hadn't made it.
"7,500 managed to enter the city when the alarms sounded," his voice was grave while sharing the details. "Another 500 survived thanks to different factors... improvised defenses, sufficient level to resist or fight until reinforcents arrived, or simple luck."
The silence that followed weighed like lead on those present.
"But there's sothing more urgent we must discuss," Lucien raised his gaze to the gathered group. "Sothing that can't leave this room."
Lila straightened in her seat, her eyes reddened but determined. Around her, familiar faces shared the sa expression of resolution: Kriz and Brok, their usual jokes absent; i, more serious than ever; Valeria and Aria, exchanging worried looks; Milo, Kai and Nessa, all three showing maturity beyond their years; and Selene, whose presence had replaced Ren's.
"We can't keep Elio's absence secret for long," Lucien continued. "People will start asking questions."
"They already are," Nessa murmured. "In training, in patrols..."
"That's why we must act quickly," Lila leaned forward. "The plan is simple but dangerous. We need to level up, beco stronger, and cross the rings until we reach him."
"It's practically impossible," Selene didn't try to soften her words. "Reaching level 100 without dying..."
The elephant in the room. No one wanted to say it out loud, but everyone was thinking it: how could they recover Elio? Would they even arrive in ti to find him alive?
"It doesn't matter how difficult it is," i's voice cut through the doubt. "We can't simply abandon them."
"Ren wanted to co," Selene ntioned, "but we need him here just like Lucien. I'll go in his place."
"People also need hope," Brok added. "If they knew that Elio..."
"They won't," Lila interrupted. "Officially, Elio is on a special mission. And we..." she looked at each person present, "will recover him before they realize..."
"It's madness," Kriz shook his head, but smiled. "But I'm in."
"We all are," Milo confird. "When do we start?"
"We start now," Lila explained. "We need to reach 20 first... Without potions."
Experience tales at empire
"Even using all the cores the artromus left... It will be dangerous," Lucien warned. "And the odds..."
"To hell with the odds," Brok hit the table with determination. "Elio never gave up. Never."
A murmur of agreent ran around the table.
"Then it's decided," Lila stood up.
"We'll bring them back," i completed. "Both of them."
Hope was small, almost invisible under the weight of reality. But it was there, burning in the eyes of every person in that room. Because sotis, as Elio had taught them so many tis, impossible only ant that no one had achieved it yet.
♢♢♢♢
Elio awoke with a violent spasm...
Consciousness returned to him like a slow, heavy wave.
The first thing he noticed was the absence, the lack of the familiar white glow he had known all his life, the absence of the perpetual hum of the barrier, of the ozone sll that perated every corner of his city.
Instead, darkness enveloped him like a physical presence. The walls, the ceiling, the floor... everything was of a black so deep it seed to absorb what little light existed. It wasn't the matte black of stone or tal, it was sothing else, sothing that made his eyes hurt when trying to focus too long on one point.
His wrists and ankles were imprisoned against the wall by shackles of the sa color but another impossible material.
No matter how much he tensed his muscles, how much force he applied, the black tal didn't even vibrate. It was like trying to move a mountain with his fingers.
And then he saw her.
In the chamber's center, bathed in a dim light whose source he couldn't determine, stood a statue. It wasn't like the god statues he knew, with their absent expressions and contemplative poses…
This was different, a female figure with a presence that seed to defy the inert nature of the material it was made from.
There was sothing disturbingly familiar about its features, like an echo of sothing he had seen before but couldn't exactly place.
"I see you're admiring my useless statue..."
Zala's voice resonated in the chamber.
Zara's body moved between the shadows with unnatural grace, and Elio felt the weight of her presence like physical pressure.
This was her territory. Here, in the tenth ring, her power had none of the first level's limitations. The aura emanating from her made the air itself seem denser, heavier.
Zala A?th$%#n Guthrand (Divine tamorphosis)
Level 100
Skills:
??%?#??
Divine Cursed Soul (6/10)
Divine Elental Magic
Tier 1 (Wind, Fire, Water and Ground)
Tier 2 (Thunder, Ice, Darkness, Light, Magma, Life)
Tier 3(Electroplasma, Caos, World Magic)
Chemical Magic (lvl 100)
Mana: 10,000/10,000
Resistance: 10,010,000/10,010,000
Stamina: 1000/1000
Attack: 10,000 (12,000)
Magic Damage: 10,000 (11,000)
Strength: 2000 (A)
Defense: 10,000(10,100)
Magic Defense: 10,000(10,110)
Speed: 2000
Perception / Agility: 25 (A)
God Elental Weapon (100) / ((Attack 2000) (Magic Damage 1000))
Elental Resistance Cape / Magic Defense 10
System's Armor 100 / ((Defense 100) (Magic Defense 100) (Magic Damage 100) (Resistance(10,000/10,000))
"Welco to my boring ho," she continued, gesturing toward the black walls. "My personal waiting room during these... how many have there been exactly? Well, several million years..." Her laughter had an edge that cut. "You lose count after a while."
She approached the statue, her fingers brushing the base with what seed almost longing. "Beautiful, isn't it? The maximum prize for humans who manage to defeat . A sha I can't use it myself."
Her eyes, now a supernatural blue that glowed in the dimness, found Elio's.
Elio tried to maintain a neutral expression, but sothing in his face must have betrayed him because Zala smiled, a smile that had nothing to do with Zara's warmth.
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