F-Rank Sold, Married to an S- Rank-Chapter 36: The Surface Breach
For several seconds after Elara’s words, no one moved.
The chamber felt colder than before.
Not physically.
But in the quiet way reality shifts when a new danger appears.
Adrian looked toward the tunnel leading to the surface.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
Elara nodded once.
"Yes."
Lyra ran a hand through her hair.
"Please tell me there’s some other explanation."
"There isn’t," Elara said calmly.
Kaelith stepped toward the tunnel entrance, listening carefully.
"I feel it too."
Seraphine looked at Adrian.
"The network?"
He closed his eyes briefly.
The bond system activated immediately.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Domain Stabilization Active
External Mana Disturbance Confirmed
Location: Western District Surface
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The signal pulsed again.
Stronger.
Closer.
Adrian opened his eyes.
"It’s real."
Aria’s voice trembled slightly.
"But the barrier is still sealed."
"Yes," Adrian said.
"This is something else."
Lyra crossed her arms.
"Fantastic."
"So now we have a monster underground and another one walking around outside."
Elara stepped toward the tunnel.
"If a breach creature reached the surface..."
She didn’t finish the sentence.
She didn’t need to.
Everyone understood.
They moved quickly.
The group left the chamber and headed back through the damaged tunnels.
Dust still covered the floor where the parasite fight had collapsed part of the passage. The air smelled faintly of burnt mana and concrete.
But Adrian’s attention remained focused on the bond network.
The stabilization field still spread beneath the city.
Five anchors connected.
Seraphine.
Lyra.
Kaelith.
Aria.
Elara.
The system displayed the underground currents like glowing rivers in his mind.
And somewhere above those rivers—
A new disturbance had appeared.
Unstable.
Chaotic.
Hungry.
Lyra noticed his expression.
"Getting closer?"
"Yes."
Kaelith frowned.
"How far?"
"About one kilometer."
Elara’s pace quickened.
"That’s already inside the city."
Aria looked worried.
"What if people see it?"
Seraphine answered calmly.
"They won’t."
Lyra smirked.
"The Council is very good at hiding disasters."
Elara didn’t deny it.
They reached the surface entrance ten minutes later.
The western district at night looked almost abandoned.
Old warehouses lined the streets.
Broken streetlights flickered.
Wind pushed scraps of paper across the cracked pavement.
For a moment, everything looked normal.
Then Adrian felt it.
A pulse of distorted mana rolled through the air.
Lyra flinched.
"Okay."
"Yeah."
"I feel that."
Kaelith looked toward the far end of the street.
"It’s coming from there."
Seraphine followed her gaze.
An old factory building stood at the end of the block.
Half of the roof had collapsed long ago.
But tonight—
Something moved inside the darkness of that building.
Elara spoke quietly.
"That structure sits directly above one of the underground mana channels."
Adrian nodded.
"The creature is feeding."
Aria swallowed.
"But the barrier is still sealed."
"Yes," Adrian said.
"That’s why this one is different."
Lyra cracked her knuckles.
"Alright."
"Let’s go see what kind of nightmare crawled out this time."
They approached the factory carefully.
Broken windows reflected the dim streetlights.
Inside, the building was completely dark.
Adrian stepped through the doorway first.
The moment he crossed the threshold—
The bond network reacted violently.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Hostile Entity Detected
Classification: Unknown Breach Spawn
Estimated Rank: A
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Lyra stopped behind him.
"Did the system just say A-rank?"
"Yes."
Kaelith’s voice was calm but tense.
"That’s far stronger than the parasite."
Seraphine stepped forward beside Adrian.
"Stay focused."
Inside the factory, the floor was covered in twisted metal and broken machinery.
But in the center of the room—
Something stood.
Tall.
At least three meters high.
Its body looked like a distorted mixture of bone and shadow.
Black energy pulsed beneath its skin like slow-moving lightning.
And its eyes—
Two glowing cracks of white light.
The creature turned toward them.
Lyra whispered,
"Well."
"That’s unpleasant."
The monster moved.
Not slowly like the parasite.
Fast.
One massive claw slammed into the floor where Adrian had been standing a second earlier.
Concrete exploded.
Kaelith dashed forward.
Her blade flashed once, striking the creature’s arm.
The metal edge barely scratched the surface.
"Too durable," she said immediately.
Seraphine raised her hand.
A wave of pure mana blasted the creature backward, slamming it into a steel support beam.
The entire structure shook.
But the creature stood again almost instantly.
Adrian felt the bond network surge.
Five anchors reacted simultaneously.
Seraphine stabilized the core.
Lyra redirected the chaotic mana.
Kaelith compressed the energy flow.
Aria amplified the entire system.
Elara stepped forward.
Her blade flashed once.
The strike landed directly across the creature’s chest.
This time the monster staggered.
Lyra grinned.
"Nice one, Commander."
Elara didn’t smile.
"Focus."
The creature roared.
A wave of corrupted mana exploded outward.
Windows shattered.
Metal beams bent.
Adrian felt the stabilization field strain.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Network Load Increasing
Domain Stabilization Engaged
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Hold the formation!" he shouted.
The anchors responded instantly.
Mana flowed through the network like a living structure.
The chaotic energy around the creature began stabilizing.
Its movements slowed.
Lyra’s eyes widened.
"Wait."
"That’s working."
Seraphine nodded.
"The stabilization field is disrupting its energy source."
Elara understood immediately.
"It feeds on unstable mana."
"Yes," Adrian said.
"And we’re removing that instability."
The creature roared again.
But this time—
Its movements were slower.
Heavier.
Kaelith moved first.
Her blade struck again, this time piercing deeper into the creature’s arm.
Black energy burst from the wound.
Lyra followed with a powerful kick that sent the monster crashing through a pile of machinery.
The building shook again.
Adrian felt the bond network surge one final time.
The stabilization field expanded.
The creature tried to stand.
But its energy was collapsing.
Seraphine stepped forward.
Her mana condensed into a single brilliant spear of light.
"Now."
The attack struck the creature’s core.
The monster froze.
Then—
It shattered.
Black fragments dissolved into dust that drifted slowly across the floor.
Silence returned.
Lyra exhaled.
"Well."
"That was intense."
Aria smiled nervously.
"Is it gone?"
Adrian checked the system.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Hostile Entity Eliminated
Network Stability Restored
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Yes."
Elara looked toward the dark sky through the broken roof.
But her expression wasn’t relieved.
It was thoughtful.
Adrian noticed.
"What is it?"
Elara spoke quietly.
"That wasn’t the breach creature."
"No," Adrian said.
"It was something else."
She nodded slowly.
"A spawn."
Lyra blinked.
"Spawn?"
Elara looked at the group.
"If the creature beneath the city is producing spawn..."
Her voice lowered slightly.
"...then it’s already far more active than the Council predicted."
The bond network pulsed again.
Because if that was true—
The battle beneath the city had only just begun.
The dust from the destroyed creature slowly settled across the floor of the factory.
For a moment, the building was silent again.
Broken machinery lay scattered everywhere, and the cracked concrete floor still smoked faintly where Seraphine’s final attack had struck.
Adrian kept his eyes on the spot where the monster had disintegrated.
Even though the system had confirmed its destruction, something about the encounter felt wrong.
Lyra stretched her shoulders and sighed.
"Well."
"That’s the ugliest thing we’ve fought so far."
Kaelith wiped the dark residue from her blade.
"It was durable."
"Yes," Seraphine said calmly.
"But unstable."
Elara stepped closer to the scattered remains.
"What do you mean?"
Seraphine pointed toward the fading black particles still drifting in the air.
"True breach creatures are extremely resilient."
"That thing collapsed too quickly." 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶
Adrian understood her meaning.
"That wasn’t the main entity."
"No," Seraphine said.
"It was something created by it."
Lyra frowned.
"A spawn."
Elara nodded slowly.
"Yes."
Aria looked uneasy.
"So... the creature underground is making more monsters?"
"That’s the most likely explanation," Elara said.
Adrian closed his eyes again.
The bond network activated immediately.
Five anchors responded.
Seraphine’s stability.
Lyra’s adaptive flow.
Kaelith’s precise control.
Aria’s amplification.
And Elara’s sharp discipline.
Together, the network expanded across the underground mana channels.
The system began scanning the city.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Domain Stabilization Active
Scanning Mana Channels...
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Several seconds passed.
Then the results appeared.
Adrian’s expression hardened.
Seraphine noticed immediately.
"What did you find?"
"Disturbances."
Lyra groaned.
"Please tell me that means one more."
Adrian shook his head.
"Five."
The group fell silent.
Kaelith spoke first.
"Five more spawn?"
"Yes."
Aria whispered,
"That’s too many..."
Elara crossed her arms.
"And those are only the ones the system can detect."
Lyra rubbed her forehead.
"Great."
"So we have an underground monster factory."
Seraphine looked toward Adrian.
"Where are they?"
Adrian focused on the system display again.
Five faint signals pulsed across the city.
Two in the western district.
One near the central industrial zone.
One near the old port.
And one—
He frowned slightly.
"One near the academy."
Lyra blinked.
"Oh no."
"Not the academy."
Kaelith’s voice remained calm.
"That area has a high mana density."
Elara nodded.
"The spawn would naturally gather near strong energy sources."
Aria looked worried again.
"There are thousands of students there."
Seraphine spoke quietly.
"Which means we cannot allow that one to grow stronger."
Adrian nodded.
"That will be our first target."
They stepped back outside the factory.
The night air felt colder now.
Adrian looked toward the distant skyline of the city.
Lights glowed across the horizon.
Cars moved along distant roads.
People lived their lives without knowing what was happening beneath their feet.
Lyra followed his gaze.
"You’re thinking the same thing I am."
"That we can’t fight five monsters at once?"
"Yes."
Kaelith stepped forward.
"We split."
Aria looked surprised.
"That’s dangerous."
Seraphine nodded.
"But necessary."
Elara agreed.
"These spawn will grow stronger the longer they remain active."
Adrian knew she was right.
But splitting the anchors was risky.
The network worked best when they were together.
The system confirmed it.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Warning
Network Efficiency Reduced When Anchors Separate
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Lyra leaned against the wall beside him.
"Still thinking?"
"Yes."
Kaelith waited patiently.
Seraphine simply watched him.
Elara studied the city.
Adrian exhaled slowly.
Then he spoke.
"We don’t split the anchors."
Lyra raised an eyebrow.
"Then how do we fight five monsters?"
Adrian pointed toward the underground mana channels.
"We control the battlefield."
Elara understood immediately.
"The stabilization field."
"Yes."
Kaelith’s eyes narrowed slightly.
"You plan to weaken them before we fight."
"Exactly."
Seraphine nodded.
"That reduces their advantage."
Lyra smiled.
"Now that’s a plan I like."
Adrian activated the system again.
The bond network surged with power.
Five anchors synchronized.
The underground mana channels responded instantly.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Domain Stabilization Expanded
Range: 3 kilometers
Mana Flow Control Active
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The invisible stabilization field spread through the city.
Mana currents shifted.
The chaotic energy feeding the breach spawn began to weaken.
Aria gasped softly.
"I can feel it."
Lyra grinned.
"They’re slowing down."
Elara closed her eyes briefly.
"Yes."
"The spawn are losing energy."
Adrian kept the network steady.
But then—
The system reacted again.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Warning
Large Mana Surge Detected
Location: Academy District
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Adrian’s eyes opened instantly.
"That one is evolving faster."
Kaelith stepped closer.
"How strong?"
The system updated.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Threat Level Update
Academy Spawn: Rank A+
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Lyra cursed under her breath.
"Well."
"That escalated quickly."
Seraphine’s expression remained calm.
"We move now."
Elara nodded.
"If that creature reaches full strength, the academy will not survive the night."
Aria looked frightened.
"We have to stop it."
Adrian already knew.
He looked toward the bright lights of the academy district.
Because somewhere within that massive complex—
A breach spawn was evolving.
And if it reached its final stage—
Even five anchors might not be enough to stop it.
The bond network pulsed once more.
Waiting.
Because the real battle for the city was only beginning.
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Author Note
The first breach spawn has appeared on the surface. In the next Chapter, Adrian and the anchors will discover how many more creatures may already be hiding inside the city.
