The footsteps grew louder.
Heavy.
Slow.
Each step echoed through the collapsed tunnel like the deliberate movent of sothing that did not fear being heard.
Dust still drifted through the air where the ceiling had partially caved in. Broken concrete and twisted tal blocked half of the passage, leaving only a jagged opening that led into darkness.
Adrian stared at it.
The bond network pulsed in warning.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Hostile Entity Approaching
Distance: 28 ters
Threat Level: Unknown
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Seraphine felt it too.
Her mana spread quietly through the chamber, reinforcing the network Adrian had created earlier.
"Everyone stay behind the stabilization field," she said calmly.
Lyra stretched her arms lazily, though the sharp focus in her eyes betrayed the tension.
"Or we could go say hello first."
Kaelith shook her head.
"We don’t know what killed the Council team."
Elara stood near the tunnel entrance, watching the darkness carefully. Unlike the others, she had not drawn a weapon yet.
That alone told Adrian sothing.
She was confident.
Or she already suspected what was coming.
The footsteps stopped.
Silence followed.
Then sothing moved inside the darkness.
Not quickly.
Not violently.
Just enough that the shadow shifted across the broken wall.
Aria grabbed Adrian’s sleeve.
"I don’t like this," she whispered.
"Neither do I," Adrian replied quietly.
A figure stepped into the faint light.
Not a monster.
Not a creature.
A man.
He wore the sa black uniform as the other Council operatives, though the coat was torn in several places and stained with dark patches of dried blood.
His head tilted slightly as if he were studying the chamber.
But sothing about him felt... wrong.
Lyra frowned.
"That’s one of your missing operatives."
Elara didn’t answer imdiately.
Her eyes narrowed.
"Yes," she said slowly.
"But he shouldn’t be standing."
The man took another step forward.
His movents were stiff.
Unnatural.
Like a puppet whose strings were being pulled by soone unfamiliar with the body.
Adrian felt the bond network react instantly.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Corrupted Mana Detected
Source: Unknown Entity
Warning: Network Instability Possible
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Seraphine stepped forward slightly.
"That man is not alive."
The figure raised his head.
And smiled.
The expression stretched too wide across his face.
Lyra’s voice dropped.
"Yeah... that’s not normal."
Suddenly the man’s body jerked.
His spine twisted sharply with a cracking sound, and dark energy spilled out from the wounds across his chest.
Sothing inside him moved.
Not blood.
Not mana.
Sothing darker.
Kaelith drew her blade imdiately.
"That’s a parasite."
Elara’s calm voice confird it.
"Void corruption."
Adrian felt his stomach tighten.
Void corruption was rare.
But when it appeared, it ant sothing had already crossed into the world from the other side.
The man’s body convulsed again.
Then the parasite revealed itself.
A mass of black tendrils erupted from his chest, pushing through bone and muscle as if the body were nothing more than a fragile shell.
Aria gasped.
"Oh gods..."
The parasite lifted the corpse slightly off the ground as its tendrils spread outward like searching fingers.
Then it turned toward them.
Adrian felt the system flare violently.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Hostile Entity Confird
Type: Void Parasite
Estimated Rank: B
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Lyra groaned.
"Great."
"So now we’re fighting infected corpses."
Seraphine’s voice remained calm.
"Stay focused."
The parasite moved first.
One of its tendrils shot across the chamber like a spear.
Kaelith intercepted it instantly.
Her blade cut through the tendril with a sharp flash of mana, severing it before it could reach Adrian.
The severed piece writhed violently on the ground before dissolving into black smoke.
The parasite screeched.
A high, distorted sound that vibrated through the walls.
Lyra dashed forward.
Her speed blurred through the chamber as she launched a powerful strike directly into the creature’s torso.
The corpse exploded apart.
But the parasite itself simply reford.
Tendrils wrapped around Lyra’s arm.
She cursed.
"Okay!"
"That part hurts!"
Seraphine moved.
A surge of pure mana burst from her palm, slicing through the tendrils and forcing the parasite backward.
The creature recoiled.
Its tendrils twisted together, forming a dense mass of black energy that hovered in the air.
Elara finally drew her weapon.
A thin silver blade.
Unlike Kaelith’s heavy weapon, this one looked almost ceremonial.
But the mont she moved—
Adrian felt the bond network explode with energy.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Anchor Synchronization Spike
Candidate: Elara
Compatibility Rising
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Elara stepped forward.
Her blade flashed once.
The parasite split cleanly in half.
The creature scread.
Black energy spilled across the floor as its body attempted to regenerate again.
But this ti it struggled.
Adrian understood imdiately.
Elara’s blade was disrupting the corruption.
"Everyone focus your attacks now!" he shouted.
Seraphine responded instantly.
A wave of mana slamd into the parasite from above, crushing it against the ground.
Kaelith followed with another precise strike.
Lyra grinned.
"Now this is teamwork."
She launched forward again, driving her fist directly into the core of the creature.
The parasite shrieked.
Then—
It collapsed.
The black tendrils dissolved slowly into ash-like dust that scattered across the concrete floor.
Silence returned to the chamber.
Only the faint hum of the barrier remained.
Aria exhaled shakily.
"Is it... gone?"
Adrian checked the system.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Hostile Entity Eliminated
Network Stability Restored
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Yes," he said.
Lyra stretched her shoulders.
"Next ti, let’s fight sothing less disgusting."
Kaelith wiped her blade.
Elara remained still.
Her eyes were focused on the remains of the parasite.
"Void corruption appearing this close to the barrier is not a coincidence."
Adrian agreed.
"If one parasite escaped..."
He didn’t finish the sentence.
Because everyone understood the implication.
There could be more.
Behind the barrier.
Or deeper beneath the tunnels.
The system pulsed again.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Anchor Synchronization Threshold Reached
Candidate: Elara
Integration Available
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Adrian looked at her.
Elara seed to sense it again.
"What is it this ti?" she asked.
Adrian hesitated for a mont.
Then he spoke honestly.
"My ability."
"It wants you in the network."
Lyra grinned.
"Welco to the club."
Elara studied him carefully.
For the first ti since she arrived, the commander looked uncertain.
Not afraid.
But thoughtful.
The bond network pulsed once more.
Waiting.
Because the next decision—
Would decide whether the system finally completed the fifth anchor.
Or whether Adrian’s strange power remained incomplete.
A/N:
If you enjoyed this Chapter, don’t forget to support the story with Power Stones and collections!
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