Utopian System

But even as she hated herself for her dark thoughts, part of Lila kept imagining how it would feel to have Elio's arm intertwined with hers, sharing those casual smiles, those moments of stolen intimacy in empty hallways.

And she hated herself even more for it.

"LILA!" Aria's shout resonated through the hallway like a gale. "YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS!"

Lila barely had time to dry the moisture from her eyes before Aria and Valeria appeared running around the corner, practically skidding to a stop in front of her.

"You too!" exclaimed Valeria, pointing at Elio and Zara. "Everyone has to come!"

"What's happening?" asked Elio, his arm still intertwined with Zara's, making Lila's stomach twist again.

"No questions!" Aria grabbed Lila's hand and pulled. "Just come!"

The race to the planting zone was torture for Lila. In front of her, Elio and Zara ran together, their movements perfectly synchronized. Aria practically dragged her, her usual enthusiasm multiplied by ten.

When they reached the area where Elio had been obsessively burying fruits for the last few days, everyone stopped.

"Well?" asked Elio, looking around. "What's so urgent to drag us here? I see nothing of…"

"Look!" Aria pointed.

"Look at what?"

"Down!"

"The ground?"

"Lower, on the ground!"

"Aria, if this is another joke..."

"NO! LOOK CLOSELY!"

Elio crouched, squinting his eyes.

Everyone held their breath as his gaze finally focused on the tiny green sprout barely protruding from the earth, no larger than a fingernail.

Silence extended for several seconds, until...

"That..." Elio began, his voice trembling. "Is that...?"

"A baby tree!" exclaimed Aria, bouncing on her feet.

Elio's expression went through a series of emotions in rapid succession: amazement, understanding, disbelief, and finally...

"WHAT KIND OF JOKE IS THIS?!" he exploded, pointing at the tiny plant. "THIS IS A TREE?! WE SPENT OBSCENE AMOUNTS OF MANA TO CREATE TREES OVER 20 METERS TALL... THIS THING IS BARELY VISIBLE!"

"Well," Valeria tried to reason, "I suppose it has to grow and with time..."

"GROW?!" Elio knelt before the seedling, looking at it as if it had personally insulted him. "HOW MUCH?! DECADES?! MILLENNIA?!"

Lila couldn't help it. Laughter bubbled in her throat before she could stop it.

All the tension, all the jealousy and self-hatred from moments before dissolved at the image of Elio, the city's powerful leader, arguing with a microscopic plant.

Zara looked at her surprised for a moment before joining in the laughter. Soon, everyone was laughing while Elio continued his diatribe.

"...AND WE DON'T EVEN KNOW IF THIS IS THE RIGHT METHOD! IT COULD STAY LIKE THIS! NEVER GROW! DIANA! WHERE'S DIANA?! I NEED TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THIS!"n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"At least now we know it worked," Valeria managed to say between laughs.

"WORKED?! THIS ISN'T A TREE! THIS IS A MOCKERY! A GREEN AND TINY MOCKERY!"

For a moment, all their problems seemed insignificant compared to Elio's existential crisis in front of a fingernail-sized plant. Even Lila, with her heart still heavy from her conflicted feelings, couldn't help feeling that maybe, just maybe, things weren't so terrible after all.

At least until Elio started threatening the seedling with "severe consequences" if it didn't start to grow faster…

♢♢♢♢

"You know what's truly fascinating?" Zahyla floated lazily above one of the stasis chambers while another artromus warrior awakened at her touch.

"How you cling to 'pure' forms as if they were sacred."

Zalvek watched, still uneasy about her casual way of moving, too fluid, too... human.

"It is the goddess's design." He argued.

"Oh, the goddess," Zahyla laughed, the sound strangely musical. "So busy hating humans that she created this 'curse' without considering it might be an advantage. Right? Sure, you can believe that if you want to but..."

She rose higher, her hair undulating as if submerged in water.

"Isn't it ironic? The species comes first, right? We're not selfish like those 'parasites' and all that. Then, why reject the maximum power form just to maintain an appearance?"

"It is the protocol established by the Queen and our pride, is..."

"Protocols are boring," she sighed, extending a hand toward the chamber. The warrior inside began to glow. "Like being locked in that chamber for an eternity. Can you imagine? It didn't even have windows."

Zalvek didn't understand, clearly there was a window there...

The ninety-seventh warrior emerged from stasis, immediately prostrating before Zahyla's presence. She simply rolled her eyes.

"Oh, get up, all these reverences are tedious and boring... Though I must admit absolute power has its advantages."

"My... lady," Zalvek chose his words carefully. "The gods' rules are… how…"

"The game's rules kept you all asleep, yes," she interrupted, descending beside another chamber. "That god and his dumb restrictions…¿Right? But now I'm here to gain some advantages in the final battle..." her fingers traced patterns on the crystal, "now it's time to use all the power at our disposal. No matter what form it takes."

The ninety-eighth warrior emerged from stasis, immediately prostrating. Zahyla simply rolled her eyes.

"So bound by traditions, should have given this species a millisecond more to process," she murmured.

"While humans adapt and evolve, we cling to forms that no longer serve their natural purpose. These are warriors who will win this final war, not common artromus citizens..."

She moved to the next chamber, the warrior inside beginning to awaken after she touched it. "The metamorphosis they hate so much... is just the first step. If the species truly comes first, shouldn't we use any advantage at our disposal?"

"But the pure form is..."

"Form is irrelevant," declared Zahyla, her voice losing its careless tone for a moment. "Function is what matters. Survival, is what matters. Or are you as selfish as humans, caring more about appearance than our species' triumph?"

The hundredth warrior emerged, completing the promised army. Zahyla floated to the chamber's center, her presence somehow more imposing despite her mostly human form.

"Ten days," she murmured. "Humans expect an army of traditional artromus. How... educational it will be to show them that some 'curses' are actually blessings in disguise."

"We are going to fight, I order you all... TRANSFORM NOW!"