Utopian System

Consciousness returned to Elio slowly, like a rising tide.

The first thing he felt was the warmth of healing energy flowing through his body, and Lila's worried voice.

"That's enough!" Brok's voice sounded distant. "You're running out of resistance!"

"I don't care!" Lila's desperate response came between sobs. "I need to heal him!"

"Lila, it's enough..." Elio's voice was barely a whisper, but it was enough to make everyone turn toward him.

"Elio!" Lila tried to continue transferring her resistance to help the healing process even more, but Kriz and Mei gently held her back.

"His armor is completely regenerated," Mei said firmly. "You don't need to spend all your resistance. The armor will do the rest now that it's activated. His leg will be fine."

Elio sat up slowly, evaluating his condition. The loss of his leg was a small price for their victory, even smaller considering he would recover it soon thanks to Lila's efforts.

Inside the armor, Elio could feel an intense tingling while his tissues regenerated. Not far from him, Zara and Micah were also recovering. Their bodies didn't show the level of damage one would expect after being crushed by the King Locus.

They're lucky to have the system armor for all team members.

The nature of crushing damage didn't allow proper regeneration while they were trapped. But the real damage was only 100 points, corresponding to the monster's strength.

Once freed...

"The armors are truly a blessing," Zara commented, experimentally flexing her arms. "Although it was really close... If it had chewed Elio we would have been screwed."

It was then that Elio noticed something he hadn't seen before: a statue rose in the chamber's center, its surface glowing softly in the dimness.

"Was that there before?" he asked, trying to stand up.

"It appeared after you defeated the King Locus," Kriz responded. "There's also a core, but... it's funny."

"Funny how?"

"It's small," Brok explained. "The idiot finds anything amusing, you know him, he can't get over the fact that the biggest monster has the smallest 'balls'... To be fair, it's not what you'd expect from such a powerful monster. And it's blue instead of red."

"And the statue?"

"We didn't want to approach," Mei added. "We decided to wait until you woke up first."

Elio took the core, leaning on Micah to maintain balance. He tried to absorb it, but for the first time in his experience, the core resisted.

"There must be another way," he murmured, turning toward the statue.

The group approached slowly.

The statue was an impressive work of art, carved in white stone with impossible precision. It represented God holding the protective shield over the city, identical to the one found in the central building's garden.

But there was a crucial difference.

"The message," Elio pointed out. "It's different."

Where the original statue proclaimed "The creator protects us, we fulfill our duty," this version showed a different message: "We protect our home and family, we begin our duty."

"What does it mean?" Lila asked, her voice barely a whisper.

"I'm not sure."

Elio extended his hand toward the statue, his fingers brushing the white and perfect surface. The moment he made contact, a blinding light flooded the chamber.

When the glow dissipated, a figure stood before them, its presence filling the space with an energy that made the air itself seem to vibrate. There was no doubt who it was:

God himself had manifested before them.

♢♢♢♢

The silence that followed was absolute, broken only by the group's held breaths as they contemplated the divine presence that had just materialized before them.

Divine light bathed the chamber, and for a moment, everyone held their breath before the majestic figure that seemed to emerge from the statue itself.

The image was exactly as they had imagined: imposing, majestic, radiant with divine power.

Exactly like the statue.

Until the glow began to flicker, like a faulty light bulb.

A coughing fit broke the solemn atmosphere, followed by a laugh that sounded more like resignation than joy. The glow completely died out, revealing a reality that was far from the divine image they had contemplated.

Before them stood a man who seemed the antithesis of everything divine.

His beard, long and unkempt, seemed not to have seen a comb in decades. His hair, equally chaotic, extended in all directions as if it had a life of its own. But it was his eyes that made the most impact: sunken in dark circles that spoke of weariness beyond the physical.

It wasn't the tiredness of someone who hadn't slept for a night.

It was the look of someone who seemed not to have found rest in years, perhaps centuries. The kind of fatigue that clings to the soul itself.

"Congratulations!" exclaimed the man, his voice surprisingly animated in contrast to his desolate appearance.

The discord between his enthusiastic tone and his dim face was almost comical, like a sad clown trying to make others laugh.

The group exchanged confused looks.

Was this God? The creator they had worshipped all their lives?

He looked more like a vagrant who had accidentally stumbled upon divine powers.

The contrast between the divine image they had expected and the reality before them couldn't be more marked. The statue behind them, perfect and majestic, now seemed almost a cruel joke when compared to this man who seemed to carry the weight of eons on his tired shoulders.

Lila, always the most empathetic of the group, observed with fascination and concern. There was something deeply disturbing about seeing who was supposedly their creator in such a... human state.

So vulnerable.

The man began to examine those present, his tired eyes passing from one to another with interest that seemed genuine despite his defeated appearance.

Suddenly, he frowned, as if noticing an important absence.

"Where is little Fath?" he asked, his voice mixing curiosity and something that sounded dangerously close to affection.

The silence that followed was heavy. Elio's companions held their breath, aware of the moment's magnitude.

Some looked at the ground, others averted their gaze.

Elio, uncomfortable but direct as the new leader, held the gaze of the being who claimed to be God.

"I killed him."