LEVEL 0 IMMORTAL

Elias was not the only candidate here who chose to walk alone; Kaelen Ashford also did the same.

Without any squad, beasts, or backings, it was a miracle he was allowed to participate, but he had his hammer, and unlike almost anybody here, if Kaelen wanted to infiltrate this place, with his mastery over stone, it was only a matter of time.

Of course, there was a great risk that he would be discovered by the Lord Protector who raised this wall, but Kaelen was crazy enough to try.

He had come to this place because the stone was screaming in pain, and he had to know why and to stop it.

Kaelen had to stop it because the screams were becoming louder, and he feared that if he did nothing, then one day, all the stones in the entire world would be screaming like this. Dying would be a thousand times better than living in a world like this.

He knelt and placed his palm on the ground. He was one of the first to discover that the stone was warm when there was no visible underground source of heat, and that the warmth was increasing dramatically.

Still, this was not the only thing he was sensing; there was also a sort of vibration, like a pulse or a heartbeat.

He closed his eyes and listened closely, his talent pushing into overdrive, and suddenly his body froze in place as the stone spoke to him more loudly than it had ever done.

The language of the stone was deep, and he saw its memories.

Kaelen saw the pit opening and expanding, and the spawns crawling out. He saw the Enforcers dying, their screams swallowed by the darkness, and he saw hundreds of thousands being herded into the depths, their faces blank, and their eyes empty.

For those who were too weak to move like babies and young children, they were quickly consumed by these spawns.

Kaelen gasped in horror, but it was silent as he could not make any sound. He tried to pull his hand away from the stone, but it held him fast.

The stone had not finished showing him its memories, and Kaelen's sight was dragged below the earth, where he saw something that was not a spawn. He only saw yellow eyes before a feeling as if he had been stabbed through the head made him flinch, and his hand was mercifully let go by the stone.

Kaelen opened his eyes, and his entire body was shaking as cold sweat covered his skin.

"We need to leave, we need to run from this city," he said, but there was no one to hear him.

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No one noticed it at first, but the ground had begun to tremble for a while now; it was very subtle, and even Elias did not notice it, because the footsteps of the candidates inside this place disguised it.

But it grew and deepened, becoming a rhythm, a pulse, then a heartbeat that echoed through the empty streets. Even the dullest person here could hear the sound of this heartbeat; it was almost as if the entire district had gained a life of its own, and the sound of its heartbeat was reverberating through every corner.

"What is that?" someone shouted in panic, even though the sound of the heartbeat was not so loud that it could deafen; it was still extremely strange.

"Everyone, stay calm!" another voice called. "Form up! Shields forward. The show is about to begin!"

Even though they had spread around, since they were all heading towards the pit, the distance between the candidates had reduced, and when the sound of the heartbeat increased, they began to subtly move closer to each other.

The three thousand young Siphons moved into formation, their training taking over, their fear pushed down by the instinct to survive and the desire for advancement that danger would bring.

They formed a perimeter, shields facing outward, weapons ready, eyes scanning the darkness. The beasts with them were agitated, making roaring sounds, and it took a while for them to be settled. Suddenly, the trembling stopped, and the sound of the heartbeat faded, leaving only silence behind.

And then…the ground cracked.

They began at the edges of the street, where the cobblestones met the walls of the buildings. Fine lines spread across the stone, thin as spider silk, branching and multiplying. The cracks grew wider, deeper, until the ground itself seemed to be coming apart, and then buildings began to cave in as if there was an earthquake.

"What's happening?" someone screamed.

"Get back! Get back from the…"

A hand burst through the stone, which was too long, as it extended for nearly four feet before joints began to appear, bending in directions that should not be possible. It was pale, almost translucent, and beneath the skin, something dark moved.

The hand grasped the edge of the crack and pulled, and the ground shattered.

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Because she was looking for her mother, Elara had not joined the gathering of Siphons, and she was one of the first to see the spawns rising from the ground.

She was still kneeling when a crack appeared beneath her feet, and with her high Agility, she leaped back while pushing one of her squadmates away from the crack that would have swallowed the annoying noble brat whole.

Her blades were drawn even before she realized what was happening as the thing that had been hiding beneath the ground rose.

It was a spawn, but it was not like the ones the reports had described. This one was larger, its body swollen, and its skin stretched tight over bones that had been broken and reformed too many times.

Its eyes opened, red, almost as if it was burning, and it did something that the report said these creatures never did… it screamed.

The sound was like a pressure echoing beyond the normal hearing spectrum of a Siphon; it had a weight that pushed against her skull and made Elara's vision blur. She staggered, and the spawn attacked her.

Her blades crossed, caught its claws, and it held… barely. She twisted, pulled, and the spawn's arm came off, black blood spraying across the stone. It did not fall or even flinch; it just kept coming.

Behind her, her squad was screaming as the ground was breaking everywhere. Hands were reaching up, claws were tearing through stone, and the spawns were rising.

Dozens… hundreds… thousands. They poured from the cracks like water from a broken dam, their bodies pressing against each other, their red eyes burning in the darkness.

In the distance, Elara could hear the cry of the other candidates

"Form up!" someone shouted. "Form a line!"

The spawns were everywhere, in the streets, on the rooftops, crawling out of windows and doors and holes in the ground that had not been there a moment before.

They moved with a speed that should not have been possible, their claws tearing through armor, their teeth finding flesh.

When the first spawn burst through the cobblestones, claws extended, red eyes blazing, the candidate who saw it had time to blink. That was all. The spawn's claws took his head before his body realized it was dead.

Then the ground shattered everywhere.