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.