CHAPTER 70: LEVEL 2 ABNORMAL HIGH EATER: THE TANKER.

The tremors grew violent.

Johnquis slowly turned around, feet sliding slightly on the smooth stone. Cracks spiderwebbed across the glowing floor like lightning frozen in time. The light dimmed beneath his feet, pulsing in warning, flickering like a heartbeat skipping out of rhythm.

Then the center of the chamber erupted.

KRRAAA-KOOOM!

Chunks of glowing rock blasted upward as the floor split open. A massive shape surged from the depths, dragging with it slabs of stone, broken roots, and shards of radiant crystal. Water that had been perfectly still now scattered in every direction, spraying across the dome like rain flung from an explosion.

A thing rose from the earth—towering, hunched, yet steady. Like a mountain forcing itself upward through the ground.

Johnquis stumbled back. The chain in his hand clinked softly, taut with tension. His body locked into instinct, eyes fixed on the impossible on the impossible shape rising before him.

The silhouette grew slowly, towering—easily twice his height. It wasn’t just coated in stone. It was stone. A living mass of fused rock and mineral, crusted with glowing gems and jagged ore. Limbs like columns. Hands thick and crude, shaped more like blunt siege weapons than fingers. Its entire body was a fusion of hardened resin and blackened muscle, wrapped in layers of crystalline armor that pulsed with a strange inner light. Sharp crystals jutted from its spine like thorns on a buried god.

Its face—if it even had one was buried beneath a mask of jagged stone shards, each a different kind of rock, fused together like some cruel mosaic. Then its eyes opened, cold, glowing violet. The same color all Eaters shared.

That was the only thing proving it wasn’t just some ancient statue come to life. It wasn’t a goddamn rock. It was an Eater.

It breathed. It was watching Johnquis. And it was hungry...

Johnquis’s vision flared with a sudden system ping:

[SYSTEM ALERT!]

Warning: Detected Eater exceeds current Eater Blade rank.

Proceed with extreme caution.

[ABNORMAL HIGH EATER]

[CLASS: Tanker]

[LEVEL: 2]

[FEED POINTS: +2000]

His breath hitched in his throat.

"An abnormal level two?" he muttered. "You’ve gotta be kidding me..."

The creature’s chest cracked open slightly. Revealing a molten glow beneath its ribs like a furnace stoking awake. The entire chamber groaned as its feet, more like collapsed cliffs than legs, anchored themselves into the ground. Every step it took, the floor buckled under its weight.

Chunks of crystal fell off its back, ringing like bells when they hit the ground.

Johnquis backed away slowly, jaw tight, mind racing.

"What the hell are you?" he whispered.

The creature raised its head. Its chest plates shifted with a grinding flex, then flared wide. From deep within that sealed throat came a scream—less voice, more force. A deafening bellow of stone ripping steel, like the earth itself howling in pain.

"GRRRRAAAUUUNNNGGHHH!!"

Johnquis dropped to one knee, hands clamped over his ears. The sound tore through him, vibrating straight into his bones. Eyes wide. Breath caught.

"...Yeah. This ain’t a shrine."

He slowly rose, chain uncoiling in his grip, gaze locked on the towering figure before him.

"This is a goddamn tomb."

He exhaled. "Let’s see who stays buried."

The tremor didn’t stop in the lower chamber.

Far above, in the starting chamber, Dancer froze.

Her ears twitched. A second later, the tremor rolled up the walls—soft at first, then growing into a deep thrum that passed through her. Her claws dug into the stone as the quake buzzed through her bones.

She dropped to all fours, low and alert. Her breathing quickened.

She felt it—him.

Their senses were linked. His presence, buried far below, pulsed with alarm. Something was wrong.

She let out a soft whine. Barely a sound and sniffed the air, trying to trace his scent. He was distant. Too far. But not gone.

She needed to move. Now.

Elsewhere in the tunnels, Savier leaned against the wall, still catching his breath, the pain from his wounds pulsing in waves.

Then it hit.

The scream.

A monstrous, grinding wail tore through the stone, echoing up the passage like a banshee clawing through granite. The pitch scraped into his ears, followed by a tremor that made the walls pulse around him.

The ground shook. Dust rained down.

Savier winced, clutching his side.

"What the—!?"

He straightened up, grimacing. "Okay, that’s not normal."

He looked down the dark stretch of tunnel ahead, then glanced at the blood on his palm.

"You better not be dying, freak-boy," he muttered, cracking his neck. "I ain’t dragging your body back up."

He tightened his grip on his weapon and pushed off the wall, limping forward.

"Goddamn it, Johnquis. What did you wake up?"

The massive creature moved.

Slow—yes. But with terrifying weight.

Its first swing came like a landslide. An arm the size of a tree trunk arced through the chamber, trailing fragments of crystal and screeching sparks where its knuckles grazed the stone.

Johnquis dove to the side.

WHOOOM!!

The wind from the strike followed half a second later—hot, compressed, like a pressure wave from an explosion. It caught his shoulder mid-dive and spun him off course, slamming him hard into one of the shallow pools.

SKRRAAASH!

Water exploded upward as he tumbled, skidding across the luminous floor before coming to a stop against a broken pillar.

He groaned, rolling to his knees. "Okay. Big. Slow. Windy as hell. Got it."

The creature turned toward him, massive limbs grinding like tectonic plates, its violet eyes glowing hotter now.

Johnquis stood, adjusting his grip on the chain. His back burned from the landing, and his soaked coat clung to his skin like glue.

"This was a beautiful place five minutes ago. Now it’s a rock concert and I’m front row."

The tanker advanced, its footfall shattering another stretch of glowing tiles. The radiant stones beneath its steps dimmed, like they were being drained, crushed beyond light.

Johnquis sprinted in a tight arc, staying close to the dome’s edge. He ducked another wide swing—this one from its opposite arm but the rush of air shoved him again, knocking him slightly off balance. He stumbled but caught himself.

"Shit—!" he spat, backpedaling fast.

He hurled the chain, catching it around a shard of protruding pillar, using it to whip himself behind cover as another fist slammed down where he’d just stood.

BOOM!!