Utopian System

At dawn the next day, Lucien and Ren's return found the city slowly awakening from the celebration.

"The barrier is secured," Ren reported. "The indicators at the statues' bases marked nine days, we managed to raise them to 11 once."

"Only 11?" asked Selene, frowning.

"I tried to take them to twelve," Ren ran a hand over his face in frustration. "But there seems to be a limit. The initial ten days of 'God's gift' stretch this limit only the first time, but afterward it seems we can only accumulate forty-eight hours of barrier."

"We'll need daily patrols to carry the million then, also on the wall since we're at it," Selene reflected.

"I've already left a hundred soldiers organizing a messenger system with swifts, but with the enormous magnitude of the wall..." Lucien responded.

"We'll need more people," Elio completed. "Many more."

♢♢♢♢

The central building's meeting hall buzzed with the energy of multiple conversations. The main commanders had gathered to discuss the city's immediate future.

"Expansion is inevitable," Lucien began, spreading a map on the table. "The new gates and insufficient space are a clear indication of the direction we must take."

"The problem isn't just space," Ren intervened, his fingers drumming on the table as he thought. "It's creating an environment where people want to live outside the walls. No one will voluntarily move to a barren land that was once infested with locus."

"Locus aren't the problem now," Taron pointed out. "The first ring's barrier keeps them at bay. The real challenge is making the terrain habitable."

"Oxygen is the priority," Ivan added. "The city now has it in pleasant quantities. Without a constant source, no one will want to settle outside."

"We could expand gradually from the gates," Tarec suggested. "Create closed domes that contain air produced from the city..."

"We can't expect people to keep producing oxygen forever, much less for expansion spaces... Too costly in mana," Mei interrupted. "And vulnerable to attacks if the artromus returns."

"Trees," Elio declared, softly hitting the table with his fist. "We need more trees. Green zones that generate their own oxygen, those would be irresistible."

"Have you gone mad?" Ren raised his eyebrows. "Do you have any idea how much mana it would cost to create so many outside? Just today's trees already put us in debt!"

"Maybe..." Diana, who had been unusually silent, stepped forward. "Maybe there's another way." All eyes turned to her. "The god explained some things about trees that could completely change our perspective."

"The god?" Lucien straightened, suddenly interested. "What exactly did he tell you?"

"The trees..." Diana seemed to search for the right words. "They're not just oxygen producers. Apparently they drop something besides leaves, they produce something called 'fruits', it's even food, in some variants."

"Fruits?" asked Taron, frowning.

"Yes. They're... like small packages that contain everything needed to create a new tree. If you plant them in the earth, they grow by themselves."

The silence that followed was broken by the sound of Elio dramatically falling to his knees.

"Are you telling me... that trees can... reproduce on their own?"

"All that mana," he groaned, looking at the monumental trees that had cost a fortune to create. "All that mana spent when they could... they could..."

"This is no time for laments," Selene interrupted, though her lips trembled containing a smile. "We need to organize groups to begin exploration and exterior colonization."

"Right, right," Elio composed himself, though he kept throwing pained looks at the trees.

"This changes everything," Mei leaned forward, excited. "We can create initial zones around each gate, plant some main trees and let them multiply naturally."

"The first colonists could settle near these green cores," Selene added. "Expanding gradually while the trees grow."

"And the first ones will need training," Lucien added. "We can't send unprepared civilians."

"We'll need trained volunteers," Tarec pointed out. "People who can defend themselves if necessary."

"We could offer incentives," Taron suggested. "Their own land, additional resources..."

"We'll establish a program," Elio decided, recovering from his existential crisis about wasted mana. "We'll evaluate volunteers, train them, and start with small groups near each gate."

As the group immersed themselves in planning details, Diana smiled to herself.

The future stretched before them, as vast as the world they could now claim.

And if anyone noticed that Elio kept muttering about "self-replicating trees" and "wasted mana" during the meeting, they had the courtesy not to mention it.

♢♢♢♢

Zalvek's steps echoed in the empty hallways of the royal chamber.

The place, which should have been his species' most sacred sanctuary, felt strangely profaned. Something in the air, in the way shadows moved across the black chitin walls, was... wrong.

The stasis chamber lay empty, its life support systems silent. Small motes of dust floated in the air, glowing where the dim light reached them.

Zalvek studied the marks on the floor, scratches forming an irregular pattern, as if something large had dragged itself toward...

His antennae bristled, catching an ancient but unmistakable scent. The smell of his queen, but there was something else, something that made his instincts scream in alarm.

He followed the trail through corridors that seemed to narrow around him. His steps, though firm, became more cautious with each meter he advanced. The silence was oppressive, broken only by the soft hum of his retracted wings.

Finally, he reached a chamber he had never visited before. A huge window dominated the farthest wall, offering a view of the outside world that should have been impossible from this position in the city.

The glass was one-way, they could see out, but no one could see in.

And there, before the window...

The breath froze in his throat.

The queen's massive form rose against the glass, her silhouette cut out against the diffuse light filtering from outside.

Five meters of artromus majesty.

Zalvek prostrated himself immediately, his body adopting the position of maximum respect. "My queen," he whispered, his voice trembling slightly. "I have returned with crucial news about..."

The silence that followed was absolute.

No movement, no acknowledgment, not the slightest sign that his words had been heard.

Seconds crawled like hours while Zalvek maintained his position.

The silence began to weigh on him like a physical slab, crushing his thoughts under a growing sensation that something was terribly wrong.

"My queen?" he tried again, his voice sounding strange even to his own ears.

Nothing.

Tension accumulated in his muscles as he fought against the impulse to move, to break protocol.

But as minutes passed and the silence became unbearable, fear began to overcome respect.

With slow, almost reluctant movements, Zalvek rose.

His multifaceted eyes scanned his queen's figure, noticing details that initial respect had prevented him from seeing: the too-rigid posture, the grayish tone of her exoskeleton, the complete absence of movement in her respiratory gills.

Horror grew in his chest as he approached, step by step, toward the immobile figure.

The smell he had detected earlier intensified.

When he finally circled the figure, the scream choked in his throat.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The queen's belly had been torn from within, as if something had violently emerged from her entrails.

The wound's edges were blackened and dry, the internal tissue mummified by the passage of time. Her body, once overflowing with power and life, was now little more than an empty shell, preserved in this position by death's rigidity.

Zalvek backed away, his mind refusing to process what he was seeing.

How long had she been like this? Months? Years?

His eyes drifted to the window, to the outside world his queen had been observing in her final moments.

What had she seen? What had led her to abandon the stasis chamber?

And most importantly, who had...

A voice from behind startled him.

"So they arrived sooner than expected..."