The guttural chanting of the robed figures seemed to reach a fever pitch, the air around them visibly vibrating. 

Suddenly, the relative quiet of the mechanical repair shop was shattered. 

A cacophony of screamsLoud screams filled the air, creating a chaotic sounds, the crash of overturning furniture, and thudding sounds erupted from within, so violent it was audible even across the wide thoroughfare.

[Source Power: 12.5%] ... [Source Power: 12.9%]

Moments later, the shop's front door burst open, and a wave of people spilled out onto the street, their faces contorted into masks of pure, unadulterated terror. 

These weren't just scared expressions; their features were ugly with the primal fear of imminent death. 

Eyes were wide and bloodshot, mouths agape in silent or shrieking horror, and a few stumbled, their limbs uncoordinated as they scrambled desperately for safety. 

Su Mu could almost taste the acrid tang of their fear in the air, a potent fuel for her Empathic Siphon.

The cloaked figures outside remained eerily still, their chanting a relentless, chilling drone. 

They made no move to stop the initial flood of escapees, allowing the first terrified individuals to stumble past them. 

They stood there silent, like some ominous sentinels. 

The crowd surged forward, a panicked mass trying to put as much distance as possible between themselves and whatever horrors they had witnessed inside the store.

Then, with a sudden, sharp intake of breath that seemed to suck the sound from the air, the chanting ceased. 

In the abrupt, ringing silence that followed, a shimmering, translucent barrier of energy, the color of bruised twilight, flickered around them. 

It erupted from the ground in a near-perfect arc, sealing off the escape route, precisely encompassing the storefront and the area immediately in front of it, trapping those who hadn't managed to push past the line of cloaked figures.

The effect was instantaneous and horrifying. 

The people caught behind the shimmering purple-black shield slammed into it, their momentum carrying them into an invisible, unyielding wall. 

Panic turned to raw despair. 

Screams tore through the air, no longer just of fear, but of agonized realization.

"No! Let us out!" a man in a grease-stained mechanic's jumpsuit shrieked, pounding his fists uselessly against the shimmering energy wall.

"Help! Somebody help us!" a young woman cried, her voice cracking with terror as she clawed at the barrier, her eyes wide and unseeing.

A few others simply collapsed to their knees, their faces buried in their hands, their bodies wracked with sobs, while some began to plead incoherently, their words lost in the rising tide of terror and hopelessness. 

The intense, raw emotions of the trapped victims washed over Su Mu in a sickening wave, her Source Power climbing even faster now, the percentage points ticking up with terrifying speed.

[Source Power: 13.5%] ... [Source Power: 15.2%] ... [Source Power: 19.8%]

Xu'er, who had gone rigid beside Su Mu, swore under her breath, her earlier playful demeanor completely gone, replaced by a grim, focused intensity. 

"Cultists," she hissed, her purplish eyes narrowed and fixed on the unfolding horror. "Damn it, what are they after?"

'Cultists?' The word, sharp and cold from Xu'er's lips, sent a jolt of icy recognition through Su Mu. 

Memories, not entirely her own but vivid and chilling from Su Mu's inherited knowledge of this world, flashed through her mind. 

Cultists. Followers of dark, forgotten, or forbidden Evil Gods, small, fanatical groups, often operating in secret, known for their ruthless devotion and grotesque rituals. 

They sought power through appeasing these Evil Gods, and their offerings often involved the most horrific of sacrifices: human lives, offered up in bloody ceremonies in the names of the gods they worshipped. 

The sudden, brazen appearance of such a group, here in the bustling heart of Monster City, was almost unthinkable.

Both Su Mu and Xu'er, despite their different backgrounds and levels of worldly experience, were visibly shocked. 

Su Mu felt a cold dread grip her, the kind that went deeper than simple fear. 

The cries from behind the energy barrier were growing more desperate. 

The initial shock of the crowd outside the shield quickly faded; as some escaped with the previous group, while some tried to help.

"We have to do something!" a man in the crowd shouted, his voice tight with panic. 

A collective group of people, Su Mu and Xu'er among them, rushed towards the energy barrier. 

Fists or any improvised weapons they had were slamming against the energy barrier one by one. 

Some, likely Awakeners like them, unleashed crackling bursts of spiritual energy, their hands glowing with power.

Xu'er, with a guttural cry of frustration, slammed her palm against the shield. 

As an E-rank Awakener, her strike carried considerable force. 

A visible ripple spread out from the point of impact, distorting the purple-black energy like a stone dropped into dark water, but the barrier held firm. 

"Damn it!" Xu'er grunted, recoiling slightly. She struck again and again, her knuckles soon bruising, but the shield only flickered, absorbing her power with disdainful ease.

[Source Power: 25.5%] ... [Source Power: 28.3%] ... [Source Power: 32.20%]

Su Mu, though knowing her F-minus rank meant her physical strength was negligible, also pushed against the barrier. 

The energy felt cold and slick beneath her hands, utterly impenetrable. 

Around them, a few other individuals, clearly more powerful Awakeners, judging by the intensity of the auras that appeared around them, were also launching attacks. 

Flashes of light, bursts of elemental energy, concussive spiritual blasts, and even enchanted weapons struck the shield, creating dazzling but ultimately futile displays. 

Each impact caused more ripples, but the barrier showed no signs of cracking or failing.

The awful truth began to dawn on the onlookers. They were too late. The shield was too strong. 

The people trapped inside were beyond their immediate reach. A strong sense of helplessness settled over the crowd, with the rising horror of what they were being forced to witness. 

The pleas and screams from within the dome were a raw, ragged chorus of despair. 

Hope, which had briefly appeared when the onlookers first tried to break the barrier, was now visibly dying in the eyes of the trapped. 

Some slumped against the energy wall, faces pale and streaked with tears, while others huddled together, forming a small island of humans bracing for an unthinkable fate. 

The mechanics, the shoppers, the everyday people who had just moments before been going about their lives, were now trapped in a terrifying, public spectacle.

[Source Power: 37.8%] ... [Source Power: 38.5%] ... [Source Power: 39.3%]

Su Mu's Empathic Siphon was working overtime, the sheer volume of terror, despair, and agony flooding into her, converting into Source Power at an unprecedented rate. 

It was a dark, sickening energy, yet the panel in her mind registered its absorption with cold, digital precision. 

She felt a tremor run through her, a combination of the overwhelming emotional input and her own rising horror.

Just when the onlookers thought the horror had reached its peak, the door of the store was thrown open again, not by the cultists, but by another, smaller wave of desperate people fleeing from within. 

Their faces, too, were etched with terror, but there was a different quality to their flight, less of the helpless panic of the first group, and more of a harried, embattled retreat.

Among them, Su Mu's heightened senses, amplified by her Insight Digitization, picked out the distinct, flickering auras of several Awakeners. 

Some were wearing what looked like personalized, lightweight mechanical armor, and wielded enhanced cold weapons – swords and axes that pulsed with faint spiritual energy. 

Their clothes were torn, and they bore fresh wounds – bleeding cuts, seared burns, and deep, vicious-looking claw marks raked across their armor and flesh. 

They were fighting a desperate rear-guard action, trying to cover the escape of the few civilians still with them.

Su Mu then noticed the cause of the fight: three shadowy figures had emerged from the shop's dimly lit interior and were following them.

They moved with a speed that was almost too fast for the unawakened eye to follow.

They weren't human, not entirely. They were grotesque, humanoid creatures, their bodies lean, corded with unnatural muscle and distorted at the edges, like heat haze or shadows come to life. 

Patches of what looked like scaled, dark grey hide, reminiscent of some grotesque cloud-dwelling reptile, covered parts of their limbs and torsos. 

Their heads were elongated, with rows of needle-sharp teeth visible in snarling maws, and their eyes glowed with a faint, predatory red light. 

Instead of hands, they possessed elongated claws, dripping with something dark and viscous. 

With terrifying, inhuman agility, these creatures leaped and darted among the fleeing Awakeners and the small group of ordinary humans. 

Their swift and brutal movements allowed their claws to tear through armor and flesh with sickening ease.

One Awakener in heavy mechanical plating, raised his mechanical heavy sword to defend a civilian cowering behind him. 

But the creature, dodged the blow with impossible agility, its own claws tearing through a gap in the man's armor at the shoulder. 

The Awakener roared in pain, stumbling back, but he held his ground, trying to attack back.

Another creature, distinguished by a ridge of bony spurs along its spine, leaped onto the back of a female Awakener, its weight driving her to her knees. 

Her companions tried to reach her, their energy blasts searing the air, but the creature didn't give them any chance.