F-Rank Sold, Married to an S- Rank-Chapter 40: The Awakening Beneath the Tower
The night sky above the city felt unusually heavy.
From the streets of the lower district, Adrian could see the distant towers of the Council sector glowing faintly against the darkness. Normally those buildings symbolized stability—the heart of the barrier system protecting the capital.
Tonight, however, they looked fragile.
Adrian walked beside Elara through the broken streets while the Bond Network pulsed softly in his mind.
The signals of the others moved closer.
Seraphine and Aria were approaching from the eastern district.
Lyra and Kaelith from the west.
The network threads slowly tightened again.
For the first time since the spawn attacks began, the formation was nearly complete.
A system notification appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Anchor Connections Restoring
Active Anchors: 5
Network Efficiency: 68%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Adrian exhaled quietly.
The stabilization field surrounding the city strengthened again.
But the moment of relief didn’t last.
The ground trembled.
It started as a faint vibration beneath their feet.
Then the streetlights flickered.
A second tremor followed.
Stronger.
Elara stopped walking immediately.
"That wasn’t a spawn."
Adrian nodded slowly.
"No."
His gaze shifted toward the Council district.
"The main entity."
The system confirmed it.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Primary Breach Entity Activity
Status: Ascending
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Elara’s grip tightened around her sword.
"If it surfaces inside the Council sector..."
"The barrier control systems will be destroyed," Adrian finished.
Which meant the underground breach would open completely.
Lyra’s voice suddenly echoed through the network.
"Well, that sounds bad."
A moment later, the rest of the group appeared at the intersection ahead.
Lyra arrived first, hopping down from the hood of a damaged patrol vehicle.
Behind her walked Kaelith, calm as ever.
From the opposite street came Seraphine and Aria.
The moment all five anchors stood together again, the Bond Network surged.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Formation Complete
Network Efficiency: 68% → 82%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The stabilization field expanded across several city blocks.
Even the air felt calmer.
Lyra stretched her arms.
"Finally."
"I hate fighting without the full squad."
Kaelith glanced toward the distant skyline.
"Unfortunately, the real fight is about to begin."
Seraphine looked at Adrian.
"You felt it too."
"Yes."
He pointed toward the Council towers.
"It’s moving directly beneath them."
Aria looked worried.
"Can the barrier hold?"
Elara answered first.
"Not if the creature fully awakens."
The group fell silent.
Everyone understood what that meant.
If the main breach entity reached the surface—
The city would face something far beyond the spawn they had fought tonight.
Lyra cracked her knuckles.
"Well."
"Guess we should go introduce ourselves."
The streets of the central district were already under lockdown.
Defense vehicles blocked the roads leading toward the Council sector.
Hunter squads had formed barricades across every intersection.
Emergency sirens echoed through the city.
But it was too late for evacuation.
The tremors beneath the ground were growing stronger.
When Adrian and the others reached the outer perimeter, several defense officers rushed forward.
One of them recognized Elara instantly.
"Commander!"
"Status?" she asked.
The officer swallowed nervously.
"The ground beneath the Council tower is collapsing."
A deep rumble shook the street again.
Even the nearby buildings creaked under the pressure.
Seraphine looked toward the tower.
"That’s where it will emerge."
Kaelith’s calm voice followed.
"Then we stop it before it reaches the surface."
The officer looked confused.
"You’re going down there?"
Lyra smirked.
"Where else would we go?"
Adrian didn’t waste time.
He stepped toward the barricade.
"The access tunnels."
The officer hesitated.
Then quickly pointed toward a reinforced maintenance entrance beside the tower plaza.
"That tunnel leads to the underground barrier chamber."
Adrian nodded.
"Perfect."
The tunnel beneath the Council district was massive.
Reinforced walls lined with glowing runic panels stretched deep beneath the city.
The deeper they descended, the stronger the tremors became.
Chunks of dust fell from the ceiling with every vibration.
Aria walked closer to Adrian.
"The mana pressure down here..."
"It’s overwhelming."
He nodded.
The creature beneath them was enormous.
Much larger than any spawn.
The Bond Network displayed new readings.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Primary Breach Entity
Estimated Rank: ???
Energy Output Increasing
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Lyra raised an eyebrow.
"Question marks?"
"That’s never a good sign."
Kaelith stopped near the end of the tunnel.
"Look."
Ahead of them, the floor of the barrier chamber had cracked open.
Massive runic pillars surrounded the chamber, each one channeling energy into the barrier system.
But the ground between them had collapsed into a deep chasm.
Dark energy poured upward from the abyss.
And something enormous was moving below.
The group stepped closer.
Adrian felt the Bond Network react violently.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Warning
Primary Breach Entity Detected
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The ground suddenly exploded.
Stone shattered as a massive claw burst through the chamber floor.
The creature’s hand alone was larger than a car.
Black armored scales covered its surface.
Crimson energy pulsed between the plates.
Then the monster began to rise.
A massive head emerged from the darkness.
Its glowing red eyes opened slowly.
And the entire chamber trembled.
Lyra stared.
"...Okay."
"That’s definitely bigger than the spawn."
Seraphine’s voice remained calm.
"But not unstoppable."
The creature pulled itself fully into the chamber.
Its massive body stretched across half the room.
Wings of black bone unfolded behind its back.
A low growl echoed through the underground chamber.
The system updated.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Primary Breach Entity
Threat Rank: S
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Aria’s face went pale.
"S-rank..."
Elara raised her sword.
"Then we treat it like one."
Adrian stepped forward.
The Bond Network activated.
Five anchors connected.
Blue energy spread across the chamber as the stabilization field expanded.
The monster’s red eyes locked onto him immediately.
And for the first time—
It spoke.
A deep voice echoed inside their minds.
"Interesting."
The words felt like thunder.
"You are the one disrupting my awakening."
Lyra blinked.
"Did..."
"...did the monster just talk?"
Adrian didn’t answer.
Because the creature’s gaze remained fixed directly on him.
"I have watched you."
"You and your bonds."
The monster’s massive wings spread wider.
"Tell me, human."
Its voice echoed through the chamber like a challenge.
"How long do you think your fragile network can survive against a god?"
The Bond Network pulsed.
And Adrian raised his hand.
Blue energy surged through the chamber.
His answer was simple.
"Long enough."
Then the battle for the city truly began.
For a brief moment, no one moved.
The creature’s enormous body loomed over the chamber like a living mountain. Its wings scraped against the stone pillars supporting the barrier system, sending fragments of rock crashing to the floor.
The pressure alone made breathing difficult.
Aria felt it first.
Her knees trembled slightly as the overwhelming mana density pressed against her.
"This... this isn’t like the spawn."
Seraphine stepped forward beside her.
"Of course it isn’t."
"This is the source."
The monster slowly lifted its massive head.
Its glowing red eyes studied them with unsettling intelligence.
Adrian felt the gaze settle on him again.
The creature had recognized him.
Not the hunters.
Not the anchors.
Him.
"You carry something unusual," the creature’s voice echoed inside their minds again.
The sound vibrated through the chamber walls.
"The threads connecting you."
Lyra tilted her head slightly.
"Okay."
"That’s creepy."
Kaelith stepped forward calmly.
"Focus."
The monster shifted its massive claws against the stone floor.
Each movement caused the entire chamber to shake.
It had not attacked yet.
Instead—
It was observing them.
Studying them.
Elara raised her sword slowly.
"We strike first."
Adrian nodded.
"The stabilization field is active."
Blue light spread outward across the chamber floor as the Bond Network expanded.
The runic pillars surrounding the barrier chamber reacted immediately.
Their energy synchronized with Adrian’s field.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Environmental Sync Detected
Barrier Pillars Linked
Network Efficiency: 82% → 89%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Lyra grinned.
"Oh."
"That’s nice."
The monster noticed the change.
Its massive wings shifted slightly.
"You attempt to control the barrier itself."
Its voice carried a faint amusement.
"A clever strategy."
Then its eyes narrowed slightly.
"But insufficient."
The creature raised one claw.
The movement alone created a violent shockwave.
The moment its arm slammed into the ground—
The chamber exploded with force.
Stone pillars cracked.
Energy waves blasted through the room.
Aria gasped as the shockwave knocked her backward.
But Adrian reacted instantly.
"Bond Network — stabilize!"
Blue energy surged outward.
The stabilization field intercepted the shockwave.
Fragments of stone and debris froze midair before crashing harmlessly to the floor.
Lyra whistled.
"That’s a new trick."
Adrian didn’t respond.
Because the monster was already moving again.
Its massive body lunged forward with terrifying speed.
The creature’s claw swept across the chamber like a falling wall.
Kaelith moved first.
Her blade flashed.
Steel collided with the creature’s claw in a shower of sparks.
But the force behind the strike pushed her backward several meters.
Elara joined the attack instantly.
Her sword struck the creature’s armored wrist.
This time the strike cut deeper.
A thin crack spread across the black scales.
The monster growled.
Its tail suddenly whipped through the chamber.
The massive strike smashed one of the outer pillars completely apart.
Energy surged violently from the broken runes.
Aria shouted.
"The barrier!"
Seraphine raised her hand.
A burst of radiant mana shot toward the damaged pillar, stabilizing the rune structure before the entire chamber collapsed.
Adrian realized something immediately.
"It’s targeting the pillars!"
Lyra rolled her shoulders.
"Of course it is."
"Smart monster."
The creature roared again.
The sound shook the chamber walls.
"You believe your structure protects you."
Its glowing eyes burned brighter.
"Then let us remove it."
The monster’s wings unfolded fully.
Dark energy poured from its body like smoke.
The mana pressure inside the chamber doubled instantly.
Adrian felt the Bond Network strain.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Warning
Network Stability Decreasing
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The creature was overpowering the stabilization field.
Slowly.
But steadily.
Adrian clenched his fist.
If the pillars collapsed—
The barrier would fail.
And the creature would reach the surface.
Seraphine noticed his expression.
"We need to force it back into the chasm."
Kaelith nodded.
"Agreed."
Lyra grinned.
"Finally."
"A real fight."
Elara stepped beside Adrian.
Her sword glowed with faint silver energy.
"Give us the opening."
Adrian looked at the monster.
Then at the cracked floor behind it.
The abyss beneath the chamber still glowed with dark energy.
If they pushed the creature back into that pit—
They could slow its awakening.
Maybe even trap it again.
The Bond Network pulsed.
Five anchors.
Five sources of power.
Adrian raised his hand slowly.
Blue threads of energy spread across the chamber like glowing veins.
"Then we end this."
The network surged.
The stabilization field expanded to its absolute limit.
And for the first time since the creature appeared—
The monster took a step backward.
Its glowing eyes narrowed.
Because now it understood something.
The fragile human standing before it...
Was not fighting alone.
And the battle beneath the Council tower had only just begun.
A/N:
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Author Note
The main breach entity has finally appeared. In the next Chapter, Adrian and the anchors will face their first battle against an S-rank creature.
