S Ranked Reincarnation: My Infinite Leveling System
Chapter 18: The City Of Jiayuan

Chapter 18: The City Of Jiayuan

The dropship pierced the clouds over Jiayuan just past midday. What should have been a gleaming skyline of glass and steel was instead a ghosted outline — bent, warped, and wrong.

Ning Que stood near the open hatch, his gaze locked on the terrain below. Buildings leaned in impossible directions, as if gravity had become an unreliable concept. Trees flickered in and out of visibility. The streets, once wide and populated, twisted like veins of a diseased heart.

It was the Rift. It had already begun.

Aeris came up beside him. "This city should’ve had over 300,000 people."

Ning didn’t look away. "Where are they?"

She didn’t answer.

They touched down in the city’s central plaza. The air shimmered with a faint silver haze, like heat mirage mixed with fog. No sound came from the buildings. Even the wind felt... fake.

The team moved in formation. Viera activated a proximity sweep. Linx’s fingers hovered over his sai, twitching.

Ning’s katana remained sealed.

They reached what was once a garden square, now blackened and pulsing. At the center stood an old man in tattered civilian clothing.

He was barefoot, eyes closed, mumbling.

Aeris raised a hand. "Sir? Are you alright?"

The man didn’t move. Then his eyes opened — clouded with silver.

He looked directly at Ning Que.

"You came back late this time... didn’t you, Commander?"

Everyone froze.

Linx took a step back. Viera’s hand tightened around her scanner.

The man’s voice deepened, layered with echoes.

"They screamed for hours. Screamed for you. But the seal needed blood."

Ning felt ice crawl down his spine.

"Step back!" Aeris ordered.

But it was too late.

The old man’s body convulsed — and ripped apart into black mist, reforming into a humanoid creature tall and armored, faceless but somehow grinning. Its form was unstable, flickering between flesh and memory.

Its voice boomed:

"Your soldiers remember you, Sovereign."

Time distorted.

Birds froze midair. Linx shouted, but the sound bent sideways. Gravity surged then dropped. The ground pulsed like a heartbeat.

The Rift was responding.

The creature lunged.

Denz would’ve taken the front. But Denz was gone.

So Ning stepped forward.

The katana answered his call, bursting from the vault.

{Sovereign Interface Active. Synchronization: 31%. Emotional Anchor: Surging.}

{Rift Severance Ready.}

"I’m sorry," Ning whispered — not to the monster, but to the memory behind it.

Then he moved.

Faster than light. Faster than thought.

The blade cleaved through the creature, not in the body — but in time.

A ripple of space cracked outward. The monster screamed, caught mid-motion, its body repeating the same death loop.

Viera flung up barriers. Linx dove behind a wrecked car. Aeris stood frozen.

Ning’s voice echoed with a dual tone.

"This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not again."

The creature hissed, "Then why did you return?"

With a final motion, Ning sealed the time loop.

The Rift creature shattered.

But the distortion didn’t.

Buildings around them flickered. Streets inverted. A clock tower rang a bell that had never existed.

A crowd began to form.

Civilians — what remained of them — had come out from hiding.

They stared at Ning, some with awe, most with fear.

One woman dropped to her knees.

"It’s him," she whispered. "The Flamebearer. The Curse."

A child clutched her hand. "Mama, is he going to burn us too?"

Ning flinched.

Linx muttered, "He’s not one of us anymore."

Aeris didn’t speak. Just stared.

Viera moved to Ning’s side.

"They were watching. Through that Rift. The creature wasn’t a summon. It was a message."

Ning nodded slowly. "They’re calling me back."

Far above, in a high drone circling the city, the Guild observer watched the scene unfold. He tapped into the encrypted relay.

> "Sovereign has awakened. Jiayuan compromised. Initiate Phase Two."

He closed the relay.

And vanished.

The survivors were relocated within the hour.

The Rift wound was too unstable to close.

As the aircraft lifted off again, Ning sat at the rear, staring out the window. Jiayuan was behind them.

But it would never truly be gone.

The system pulsed in his mind.

{Synchronization at 38%. Emotional profile: Severed Loyalty.}

{Do you wish to remember what she said... before the gates closed?}

He closed his eyes.

"...Yes."

A memory returned.

Not fire. Not pain.

Just a voice. Her voice.

"Don’t seal it, Commander. If you do... you’ll forget who we were."

Then the gates closed.

And she died.

But the memory did not end there.

In the haze beyond the memory, Ning saw something new — a shadow watching the sealing from afar. Not beast. Not Reclaimer. It looked far more ancient.

Its voice, older than mountains, whispered:

"You sealed the wrong gate, Sovereign. And left the right one open."

Ning’s eyes shot open.

The Katana of Light hummed faintly in its vault.

Back at the base, the Guild Council met in secret. Tao was pacing. Li sat silently, reading transcripts of Rift pulse data.

"The Jiayuan rift is active. The main Rift Node is still two days out. But it’s pulling now. Like a tide," Tao said.

The masked man spoke finally.

"We need to prepare the cities. And prepare for him."

Li looked up. "He saved lives."

"He also reminded them what Sovereigns were," the masked man replied.

Tao exhaled. "It’s not the monsters we should be afraid of this time."

That night, Ning stood outside the recovery ward. Lyra was awake. She looked tired, but her lips curled into a grin when she saw him.

"You came back," she said, propping herself up on her arms.

"Still in one piece," he replied, stepping closer.

She studied his face. "You used the power again, didn’t you?"

He nodded.

"Did it hurt?"

Ning didn’t answer right away.

"It didn’t hurt," he said slowly. "But it felt like forgetting something I used to love."

Lyra blinked. "That’s... a terrifying answer."

They both laughed, and fell into conversation.

But outside the city, far beyond the eastern mountain range...

The Rift Node pulsed, it’s mana spreading like wildfire.

The first true Sovereign-class gate began to open.

And from the other side...

They were watching.

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