F-Rank Sold, Married to an S- Rank-Chapter 29: Beneath the City

The western district looked ordinary from the surface.

Old factories. Abandoned rail lines. Rusted towers that had once powered half the city’s industrial sector.

At night, it felt like a ghost district.

Few streetlights still worked, and the remaining buildings were quiet except for the wind sliding through broken windows.

But Adrian knew that the real activity wasn’t happening above ground.

It was happening below.

They reached the entrance to the maintenance tunnels twenty minutes later.

The gate that normally sealed the underground access had already been cut open. The metal lock lay broken on the pavement beside it.

Lyra crouched beside the ruined lock and ran her fingers across the cut marks.

"Professional tools," she said.

Kaelith stepped past her and looked into the darkness of the tunnel entrance.

"Not amateurs."

Seraphine remained calm as always, though Adrian could feel the faint shift in her mana through the bond network.

Primary anchor steady.

Aria stood beside Adrian, her hand lightly gripping his sleeve.

"Are they already inside?" she asked quietly.

"Yes," Adrian said.

He could feel them.

The stabilization network he had spread through the city’s mana channels earlier still remained partially active. Through it, he could sense disturbances in the underground currents.

The scavengers were moving carefully, but their equipment was disturbing the flow of mana.

Small ripples.

Enough to guide him.

"They’re moving deeper," he said.

Lyra stood up and brushed dust from her hands.

"Well then, let’s go stop them before they do something stupid."

The maintenance tunnel was colder than expected.

Old electrical cables hung from the ceiling, and thin layers of dust covered the concrete floor. The deeper they moved, the stronger the mana currents became.

The underground channels of the city were close now.

Adrian felt the network respond immediately.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Bond Network System

Passive Stabilization Field Active

Network Range: 1.02 km

Mana Flow Irregularities Detected

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Seraphine noticed his slight pause.

"Something changed?"

"The mana flow is unstable."

Kaelith’s voice echoed softly through the tunnel.

"That means the scavengers have already reached the inner channels."

Lyra sighed.

"Of course they have."

They moved faster after that.

The tunnels sloped downward for nearly half a kilometer before opening into a large underground maintenance chamber.

And that was where they saw the lights.

Portable flood lamps illuminated the far side of the chamber, casting long shadows across the walls.

Five figures stood near a massive steel door embedded in the rock.

The breach barrier.

Even from across the chamber, Adrian could feel the faint pressure coming from behind that door.

The creature was still there.

Sleeping.

But restless.

Lyra leaned against the wall beside the entrance and whispered,

"Five of them."

Kaelith nodded.

"Two guards. Three working on the barrier."

Adrian focused his senses.

The scavengers’ mana signatures were clear now.

Two C-rank hunters.

Three D-rank technicians.

Seraphine’s voice remained calm.

"They’re preparing extraction equipment."

Adrian frowned.

"Extraction?"

Kaelith pointed toward a metallic device mounted near the barrier.

"They’re drilling into the mana seal."

Lyra blinked.

"That’s incredibly stupid."

"Yes," Kaelith said.

"But extremely profitable."

If they managed to extract even a small fragment of the breach creature’s energy...

It would sell for millions on the black market.

Unfortunately, breaking the seal even slightly could also weaken the barrier holding the creature.

Which meant the entire city was at risk.

Seraphine stepped forward.

"That ends now."

The first guard noticed them immediately.

"Who the hell—"

He didn’t finish the sentence.

Lyra moved first.

Her speed blurred through the chamber as she closed the distance between them.

The guard barely had time to raise his weapon before she knocked him unconscious with a clean strike.

The second guard reacted faster.

He drew a blade and lunged toward Adrian.

But Kaelith intercepted him halfway.

Steel clashed against steel.

The fight ended in less than three seconds.

The scavenger collapsed to the floor.

The three technicians froze in shock.

One of them shouted,

"Stop! We’re licensed—"

Seraphine’s presence alone silenced him.

Her mana filled the chamber like a sudden drop in temperature.

"You are illegally tampering with a Council seal," she said calmly.

The technician swallowed.

"You don’t understand."

Adrian stepped forward.

"Then explain."

The man hesitated before answering.

"The barrier is weakening."

"We know," Adrian said.

"That’s why we’re extracting energy before it collapses."

Lyra raised an eyebrow.

"That’s your brilliant plan?"

The technician glared at her.

"When the breach creature wakes up, the city will burn."

"Maybe," Lyra replied.

"But drilling holes in the barrier definitely won’t help."

Adrian walked toward the massive steel door.

Up close, the pressure behind it was impossible to ignore.

Something moved in the darkness beyond the seal.

Slow.

Massive.

Hungry.

The scavengers hadn’t broken the barrier yet.

But they had weakened the outer stabilizing layers.

The system reacted immediately.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Bond Network System

Barrier Integrity: 71%

External Interference Detected

Emergency Stabilization Recommended

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Adrian exhaled slowly.

He placed his hand against the cold metal surface of the barrier.

The bond network activated instantly.

Primary anchor stabilized the mana currents.

Secondary anchor widened the channels.

Tertiary anchor compressed the unstable energy.

Overflow anchor amplified the stabilization effect.

The barrier began to glow faintly.

Lyra watched in surprise.

"You’re repairing it?"

"Temporarily," Adrian said.

The system pulsed again.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Bond Network System

Stabilization Process Active

Barrier Integrity Increasing

Current Level: 76%

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Behind the door, the creature shifted.

A low rumbling vibration passed through the metal.

Aria flinched.

"It knows we’re here."

"Yes," Adrian said quietly.

And then—

The fifth slot in the bond network pulsed again.

Stronger than before.

Seraphine looked toward the ceiling suddenly.

"Adrian."

"I know."

The signal was close now.

Very close.

But it wasn’t coming from beneath the city.

It was coming from above.

A sudden explosion echoed through the tunnel behind them.

Dust fell from the ceiling.

Lyra spun around.

"That didn’t sound like scavengers."

Kaelith’s eyes narrowed.

"No."

Adrian felt the network react again.

Multiple mana signatures entering the tunnel.

Stronger.

Organized.

Seraphine spoke calmly.

"The Council."

Lyra groaned.

"Perfect timing."

Adrian looked once more at the barrier.

The stabilization process had bought them time.

But now a new problem had arrived.

And the fifth anchor signal was getting stronger by the second.

The system activated once more.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Bond Network System

Anchor Candidate Approaching

Distance: 200 meters

Compatibility: High

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Adrian turned slowly toward the tunnel entrance.

Footsteps echoed through the darkness.

Someone was coming.

And whoever it was...

The system had just identified them as the fifth anchor.

A/N:

If you enjoyed the Chapter, support the story with Power Stones and comments! The appearance of the fifth anchor will change everything in the next Chapter.