F-Rank Sold, Married to an S- Rank-Chapter 34: The Choice of the Fifth Anchor
The chamber fell silent after Elara’s words.
For several seconds, no one spoke.
Even Lyra—who rarely stayed quiet for long—looked unusually serious.
More breach creatures.
Not just beneath this city.
Across the world.
Adrian slowly exhaled.
"If that’s true," he said, "then the Council has been hiding a global crisis."
Elara didn’t argue.
"Yes."
Kaelith’s eyes narrowed.
"And people are still living their normal lives above us."
"That was the decision," Elara replied.
Lyra shook her head.
"That’s insane."
Seraphine remained calm, though Adrian could feel the shift in her mana through the bond network.
Primary anchor steady.
"Panic destroys cities faster than monsters," she said quietly.
Elara nodded.
"That was the Council’s conclusion."
Aria looked uneasy.
"But if there are more creatures... how many?"
Elara hesitated.
Then answered honestly.
"We confirmed three."
The number hung heavily in the air.
Three breach entities.
Three potential disasters.
And that was only the confirmed number.
Adrian turned back toward the barrier.
The metal door trembled faintly again as the creature behind it shifted.
"Then we don’t have much time."
"No," Elara said.
"We don’t."
The system pulsed again.
Stronger this time.
Almost impatient.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Anchor Slot Available
Candidate: Elara
Synchronization Probability: 91%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Adrian rubbed his temples slightly.
The system rarely pushed this aggressively.
Seraphine noticed immediately.
"It wants you to complete the network."
"Yes."
Lyra tilted her head.
"Is that bad?"
Adrian thought about it.
"It means the system thinks we’re not strong enough yet."
Kaelith crossed her arms.
"That’s reassuring."
Elara looked between them.
"You’re discussing my recruitment as if I’m not standing here."
Lyra grinned.
"That’s fair."
"So what do you think?"
Elara met Adrian’s gaze directly.
"What exactly happens when I become an anchor?"
Adrian didn’t hide the truth.
"You’ll feel the network."
"Mana will flow through the bond."
"You’ll gain access to the system’s influence."
Elara frowned slightly.
"And in exchange?"
"The network grows stronger."
"And you grow stronger."
"Yes."
Kaelith added calmly,
"But it’s not one-sided."
"The anchors also gain power."
Elara seemed to consider that.
Her eyes moved toward Seraphine.
"You accepted the bond."
Seraphine nodded.
"Yes."
"Why?"
Seraphine answered simply.
"Because I trusted him."
Adrian didn’t expect that response.
Lyra laughed quietly.
"Wow, that was unexpectedly sincere."
Seraphine ignored her.
Elara turned back to Adrian.
"And the others?"
Lyra raised her hand.
"I joined because it sounded fun."
Kaelith shrugged.
"I joined because it was efficient."
Aria smiled nervously.
"I joined because Adrian saved me."
Elara studied each of them carefully.
Then she looked back at Adrian.
"You seem to collect unusual allies."
Lyra grinned.
"You have no idea."
Another tremor ran through the barrier.
Stronger this time.
The creature behind the door moved again.
Not violently.
But with growing awareness.
Adrian felt it through the stabilization field.
The system responded immediately.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Barrier Stress Increasing
Stabilization Recommended
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Adrian stepped toward the door again.
The four anchors responded instantly.
Seraphine’s mana reinforced the core.
Lyra stabilized the outer currents.
Kaelith compressed the unstable flows.
Aria amplified the entire network.
But even with the four of them working together—
The barrier continued to strain.
Elara watched carefully.
"You’re struggling."
"Yes."
Lyra wiped sweat from her forehead.
"That thing is getting cranky."
Kaelith frowned.
"The parasite weakened the outer seal."
Adrian nodded.
"We’re holding it together temporarily."
Elara looked at the glowing barrier.
Then back at Adrian.
"And a fifth anchor would help."
"Yes."
That answer came without hesitation.
Elara crossed her arms again.
"I don’t like systems deciding my future."
"That makes two of us," Adrian said.
"But sometimes the system sees patterns we don’t."
Elara considered that.
Then she asked a question that surprised him.
"If I join... does the network change?"
"Yes."
"How?"
Adrian hesitated.
Because the system had never explained that part.
But he could feel the answer.
"The network evolves."
"New abilities appear."
"And the stabilization field grows stronger."
Lyra’s eyes lit up.
"Oh."
"That part sounds useful."
Seraphine nodded.
"It might allow us to control the underground mana channels more precisely."
Kaelith added,
"Which would slow the creature further."
Elara looked back at the barrier.
The door vibrated again.
A deep growl echoed through the chamber.
The breach creature was no longer sleeping.
It was waking.
Slowly.
But inevitably.
Elara exhaled.
"Then we don’t have time for hesitation."
She stepped closer to Adrian.
"Show me how it works."
Lyra clapped her hands.
"Nice."
Aria smiled nervously.
Seraphine simply nodded.
Adrian felt the system react instantly.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Anchor Integration Initiated
Candidate: Elara
Synchronization Beginning
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The bond network surged.
Mana flooded through the chamber as the system expanded.
The four anchors connected simultaneously.
Seraphine’s stability.
Lyra’s flow.
Kaelith’s precision.
Aria’s amplification.
And then—
The fifth connection ignited.
Elara gasped softly.
A pulse of energy spread outward from the center of the network.
The stabilization field expanded instantly.
The barrier door stopped trembling.
The creature behind it quieted.
For a moment—
The entire underground chamber became perfectly still.
The system spoke again.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Fifth Anchor Integrated
Anchor: Elara
Network Level Increased
New Ability Unlocked
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Lyra blinked.
"Oh."
"That definitely worked."
Elara looked down at her hand.
Mana flowed across her skin like faint silver light.
She raised her eyes toward Adrian.
"I can feel them."
"Yes."
"The network."
Seraphine stepped closer.
"You’re part of it now."
Elara looked toward the barrier again.
The stabilization field was stronger.
Much stronger.
The creature had stopped pushing against the seal.
For now.
Adrian looked at the system’s final notification.
Because the bond network had just changed.
And whatever ability the system unlocked next...
Would determine how they faced the disasters still waiting beneath the world.
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Author Note
The fifth anchor has finally joined the network. In the next Chapter, the bond system will reveal the new ability that may change the fight against the breach creatures.
Thankyou for all the readers for give your time to my novel after today that novel go to premium after Chapter 30
Once again Thankyou
