Sidd's hand stopped inches from the silver Anchor Point.
Not because he wanted to stop. The Hunger screamed for him to touch it, to consume it, to bind himself to power beyond measure.
He stopped because the temple exploded.
Stone shattered. Flesh corruption burst outward like ruptured organs. The entire structure convulsed as something massive tore through from beneath.
They erupted from the floor—three creatures, each one a nightmare made flesh.
Not the mindless corrupted they had fought before. These were different. Intelligent. Coordinated. Purpose-built.
"DEFENSIVE POSITIONS!" Kael roared from the stairs.
But the five chosen—Sidd, Lucy, Gery, Somi, and Darius—were already moving.
The first Hunter was a mass of arms. Twenty limbs sprouted from a central torso, each one ending in bladed fingers. It moved like a spider, scuttling across the wet stone with horrifying speed.
The second was tall and thin, elongated beyond human proportions. Its body stretched twelve feet high, covered in the same black-red veins that marked the Awakened. Its face was a smooth mask of flesh with no features except a vertical mouth full of needle teeth.
The third was the worst. It looked almost human. A woman's form, beautiful even, except her skin was translucent. Through it, they could see her organs writhing, her bones shifting, her essence pulsing like contaminated blood.
"The Anchor Point," Somi stated, her tactical mask analyzing rapidly. "It was bait. The Mother knew Sidd would be drawn to it. She sent these to kill us while we were distracted."
"Or to test us," Sidd replied, his void eyes tracking all three creatures simultaneously. His Essence Detection showed their power signatures—each one as strong as an Awakened, maybe stronger. "She wants to see if her First Child is worthy."
The many-armed Hunter struck first.
Gery met it head-on.
His Azure Fang materialized, the water-blade singing as it cut through the air. The Hunter's twenty arms lashed out in a coordinated pattern, each blade-finger aiming for vital points.
Gery's style had changed since gaining the katana. No longer the heavy, powerful strikes of his old Tier 6 sword. Now he moved like water itself—flowing, adaptive, impossible to pin down.
He ducked under three arms. Spun past four more. His blade flashed, severing two limbs at the joints. Black ichor sprayed across the stone.
The Hunter regenerated immediately, flesh bubbling and reforming.
"They heal!" Gery shouted.
"Then don't let them," Sidd replied coldly.
The Hunter pressed its attack. Twenty arms became a cage, surrounding Gery from all sides. Nowhere to dodge. Nowhere to run.
Gery activated his katana's Tidal Strike ability.
The blade glowed brilliant blue. He spun in a perfect circle, the water-edge extending outward in a disc of compressed liquid. The technique carved through every arm simultaneously, cutting them all at the base.
The Hunter collapsed, its central torso now limbless.
But it was already regenerating. Arms sprouting from the stumps like grotesque flowers blooming.
"Somi!" Gery called. "I can cut it but can't stop the healing!"
Somi's Magic Seeker mask pulsed with blue light as she analyzed the regeneration pattern.
"Essence core located in central torso, lower-left quadrant. Regeneration draws from core reserves. Deplete the core, stop the regeneration. Recommendation: sustained damage faster than recovery rate."
Her own artifact activated. The half-mask covering her lower face began to glow, and she raised one hand toward the regenerating Hunter.
Essence Drain.
Invisible force connected Somi to the creature. Its essence began flowing out, siphoned directly into her. The regeneration slowed. The arms grew back at half speed.
"I can suppress it," Somi stated. "But I cannot attack while draining. Someone else must kill it."
"On it," Darius growled.
Darius had learned from his previous loss. He no longer let the corruption control him. Now he used it. Channeled it. Made it his weapon rather than his master.
His body shifted as he charged. Not fully bestial like before—controlled transformation. His hands became claws, black and curved. His teeth sharpened. His spine bent slightly, giving him a predator's stance.
But his eyes remained clear. Focused. Human.
He hit the Hunter like a battering ram.
Claws tore into the central torso, ripping through flesh and bone. He dug deep, searching for the essence core Somi had identified. Found it—a pulsing organ the size of a fist.
Crushed it.
The Hunter convulsed. Its regeneration stopped. The arms went limp. The creature dissolved into black ichor and grey ash.
"One down," Darius said, retracting his claws. Blood dripped from his hands—his own blood, from where transformation had torn his skin. But he was smiling. "Who's next?"
The tall, thin Hunter answered by lunging at Lucy.
Its elongated limbs gave it incredible reach. It moved like a mantis, striking from ten feet away with blade-like hands.
Lucy didn't dodge.
She exploded with lightning.
Her entire body became electricity. Blue-white light erupted from her skin, her hair standing on end, her Lightning Wand amplifying the effect a hundredfold.
The Hunter's blade-hand struck her.
The electricity conducted through its arm, through its torso, through its entire body. The creature seized, muscles locking, unable to move.
"I've been practicing," Lucy said, her voice distorted by the electrical charge surrounding her. "Turns out lightning doesn't just destroy. It controls."
She thrust her wand forward. A bolt of concentrated electricity shot from the tip, striking the paralyzed Hunter in the chest.
The creature exploded. Not metaphorically. Its body literally burst from internal pressure as the electricity superheated its fluids.
Charred remains scattered across the floor.
"Two down," Lucy said, the electricity fading from her skin. She was breathing hard—the technique took enormous effort. But she was grinning. "I've wanted to do that since we got here."
The translucent Hunter watched its companions die. Through its clear skin, they could see its essence-heart beating faster. Calculating. Adapting.
Then it did something unexpected.
It spoke.
"First... Child..." The voice was wet, gargling, barely human. "Mother... loves you... come home..."
"I am not her child," Sidd replied. "I am her First Child. There is a difference."
"No... difference... all... hers... eventually..."
The Hunter's translucent form began to change. Its organs shifted inside its body, rearranging themselves. Its bones extended and reformed. It was adapting in real-time, becoming something designed specifically to kill him.
Sidd's Essence Dominion activated.
His Transcendent ability reached out, touching the Hunter's essence. Not draining it like his Devourer attribute. Controlling it. Reshaping it. Forcing it to obey his will rather than its own.
The Hunter froze mid-transformation.
"You are made of essence," Sidd said quietly. "And I control essence. Which means I control you."
He clenched his fist.
The Hunter's essence collapsed inward. Its heart stopped. Its organs liquefied. Its bones turned to powder. The entire creature imploded, crushed by its own essence turning against it.
What remained was a small sphere of pure, concentrated corruption. The Hunter's entire existence compressed into a marble-sized orb.
Sidd picked it up. Absorbed it.
[ESSENCE CONSUMED: TIER 4 HUNTER - MOTHER'S TRUE CHILD]
[CORRUPTION LEVEL: 63%]
One percent. Consuming the concentrated essence added only one percent corruption. Far less than he had expected.
"Three down," Sidd stated. "The Mother's test is complete. We pass."
Kael and the other survivors descended from the upper floors, staring at the carnage.
Three Hunters destroyed in under two minutes. Not through luck. Through coordination. Through power. Through five individuals working as a synchronized unit.
"That was..." Kael struggled for words. "That was Saint-level combat. You five fought like Saints."
"We are not Saints," Somi corrected. "But the Anchor Point system has given us equivalent power. Sidd is Ascended—roughly Saint-tier. The rest of us are Awakened—roughly Master-tier. Combined, we match what a Saint-level party could achieve."
"And the Tier 2 Anchor Point?" Lucy asked, looking at the silver crystal still pulsing in the center of the room.
Sidd approached it. Studied it with his Truth-Seer vision.
"It is not real," he said finally. "Or rather, it is real, but it is not meant to be bound. Look closer. The essence is wrong. Unstable. This is not a true Tier 2 Anchor Point."
He reached out and touched it.
The crystal shattered instantly. Dissolved into silver mist.
Behind it, carved into the stone floor, was a message. Essence-writing that glowed with the Mother's presence:
"YOU HAVE PASSED THE FIRST TEST. YOU RESISTED TEMPTATION. YOU FOUGHT AS ONE. NOW COMES THE WEEPING CITADEL. FIVE WILL ENTER. FIVE WILL BE TESTED. ONLY TOGETHER WILL YOU SURVIVE."
"I AWAIT YOU, MY CHILDREN. SHOW ME YOUR UNITY. SHOW ME YOUR STRENGTH. SHOW ME YOU ARE WORTHY TO STAND BESIDE MY FIRST CHILD."
The message faded.
"So the Anchor Point was fake," Gery said. "A test to see if Sidd would take the bait and bind himself to something that would destroy him."
"And the Hunters were the real test," Darius added. "To see if we could fight together despite our differences."
"We passed," Lucy said. "Both tests. We're ready for the Citadel."
"No," Sidd corrected. "We passed the preliminary tests. The Citadel is the real trial. What we just faced was merely the entrance exam."
He looked at his hand where the veins glowed black-red. Sixty-three percent corrupted. Still in control. Still functional.
Still human enough.
For now.
"We leave in one hour," he stated. "Prepare yourselves. Whatever waits in the Weeping Citadel will be worse than anything we have faced so far."
As the others moved to gather supplies, Somi pulled Sidd aside.
"There is something you should know," she said quietly. "Something my tactical analysis detected during the fight."
"What?"
"The Hunters were not trying to kill us. They were testing us, yes. But they were also... measuring us. My mask detected essence signatures being transmitted during the combat. Data flowing from the Hunters back to the Mother."
"She was watching. We knew that."
"Not just watching. Recording. Analyzing. Learning our abilities, our fighting styles, our coordination patterns." Somi's emotionless voice somehow conveyed urgency despite the clinical tone. "Sidd, she was not testing whether we are worthy. She was gathering intelligence. Learning how to defeat us."
Sidd's void eyes narrowed. "For when we face her directly."
"Yes. Every fight makes her stronger. Every trial gives her more data. By the time we reach her, she will know exactly how to counter each of us."
"Then we adapt. We hold back abilities in the Citadel. We do not show her everything."
"Will the others understand that? Will they fight at partial strength when their lives depend on full strength?"
Sidd looked at the four who had fought beside him. Lucy, who trusted him despite everything. Gery, who remained loyal through doubt. Somi, who stated truth without emotion. Darius, who sought to learn control.
They were strong. Coordinated. Effective.
But were they smart enough to fight while hiding their true capabilities?
"We will find out," Sidd said. "In the Weeping Citadel, we will find out exactly what they are capable of."
He did not say what he was really thinking:
We will find out if they can survive what I am becoming.