S Ranked Reincarnation: My Infinite Leveling System-Chapter 38: Beneath The Mask

"The real Tao?"

The thing wearing Tao Chang’s face laughed. It was not the sound of amusement; it was the sound of glass breaking inside a coffin, a dry splintering crackle that scraped against the inside of Ning’s skull.

"I suppose you could say I... integrated him. Every scrap of him. His flesh, his memories, even that pathetic little spark he called ambition. I devoured him body and soul."

The creature stepped closer, its movements impossibly fluid, a predator inspecting its meal. It leaned in its voice, dropping to a conspiratorial whisper that coiled like smoke in the dead air.

"And you... You should feel privileged, Ning Que. Truly. Most mortals just... vanish. A whisper of terror in the dark, and then nothing. But you? You get a front-row seat. A special preview of the final act before the curtain falls for everyone."

Ning’s throat was locked, a scream trapped and dying in his larynx. But his eyes worked. They trembled in their sockets, wide and dry, fixed on the man who was not a man. For a single soul-shattering heartbeat, the illusion wavered.

Tao’s form flickered like a faulty projection. His skin did not tear so much as peel away from a void beneath a rolling pulsing shadow that writhed with an inner life.

There was no blood, only darkness. From that darkness, bone-white tendrils, thin as needles and sharp as razors, rippled under the surface. A multitude of eyes glowing with a malevolent crimson light opened and closed across a face that stretched and distorted a canvas of pure nightmare.

His body elongated bones cracking and resetting as he grew impossibly tall, monstrously thin, before snapping back into the familiar handsome guise of the Guild’s Acting Commander.

The entire transformation lasted less than a second, but it was burned into Ning’s mind. This was no dungeon boss. This was no system-generated anomaly. This was something ancient, something wrong, a cancer that had taken root in the heart of their world.

"I won’t destroy Yundao with an army from the outside," Tao said, his voice once again calm and collected. He took another step, crouching until he was eye-level with the frozen Ning Que, the intimacy of the gesture a profound violation. "That’s crude. No artistry. Demolition is for brutes and lesser beasts."

He smiled a perfect, charming smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

"No, I’ll crumble it from within. I will turn brother against brother. I will twist their hope into a weapon against them, make their courage the very fuel for their own funeral pyre. The Guild won’t be a fortress. It will be a tomb built by the very hands that swore to protect it."

He straightened, brushing a non-existent piece of dust from his uniform.

"And you," he said, the final poisoned dart. "You will be nothing but the ghost who watched it all happen and failed to even scream."

A soft electronic chime echoed from the communicator on Tao’s wrist. He glanced at it, a flicker of annoyance crossing his features.

"The Grandmaster wants to see me. So soon?" He let out a low, genuine chuckle, the sound utterly incongruous with the horror he had just revealed. It was the sound of a man mildly inconvenienced by a work summons. "Ah, well. Duty calls." He gave Ning a final dismissive glance. "Enjoy your last breaths, Reclaimer."

With a whisper of displaced air and a surge of spatial energy that warped the light around him, Tao vanished.

Ning Que was alone. Frozen. His body was a prison, but his mind was a wildfire. Yundao... the Guild... Li... Goran... everyone... The names the faces they flashed behind his eyes. He had to warn them. He had to move.

He pushed. Not with his muscles, they were unresponsive lumps of meat. He pushed with his spirit with the core of his being, a desperate, silent roar against the unnatural stasis. The System interface, which had been dormant, flickered into life in his vision, the blue text shuddering erratically like a dying television screen.

[WARNING: You are drawing excess mana beyond the calibrated threshold.

Current Level: 12.

The capacity is insufficient for manual override of the Tier-3 stasis lock.

PROCEEDING MAY RESULT IN SYSTEM FAILURE.]

I don’t care the thought blazed through his mind hotter than any warning. He ignored the flashing red text and the shrill digital alarms that began to ping in his ears. He focused everything, every ounce of will, every drop of determination, on a single point of failure in his prison. His hand.

Tao’s words echoed a mocking chorus. A ghost who failed to scream.

No.

He clenched his teeth so hard he heard them grind. He pushed harder, pulling on the wellspring of mana deep within, him a reservoir not meant to be drained so violently.

The system’s warnings grew more frantic, the text glitching and overlapping. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

[WARNING: Incoming destabilization of Skill Core. Mana Wellspring is nearing critical rupture.

SYSTEM INTEGRITY COMPROMISED. PHYSICAL DAMAGE TO USER IMMINENT. SUGGESTION: CEASE EXTRACTION IMMEDIATELY.]

He felt it then, a searing heat building in his chest, a pressure behind his eyes that threatened to crack his skull. But he didn’t stop. He focused on a single finger. Move. A twitch. Barely perceptible, but it was a start. Then another. The ice was cracking...!

***

Across the sprawling city, in the highest spire of the Guild Headquarters, Tao materialized in a silent ripple of energy. The air in the Grandmaster’s chamber was heavy with unspoken anxieties. Vast banners depicting ancient victories against forgotten evils hung from the high ceiling, their faded colors a testament to a glory that felt increasingly distant.

Grandmaster Li stood on the edge of a wide marble balcony, his back to the room. He stared out over the gleaming metropolis of Yundao, a king surveying a kingdom he feared he could no longer protect. Beside the entrance stood Goran, his massive arms folded across his chest, his gaze sharp and unforgiving.

Tao offered a perfect respectful bow.

"You summoned me, Grandmaster?"

Li didn’t turn. His voice when it came was weary but held an edge of steel.

"Tao. There was an explosion reported an hour ago. Residential wing Sector 9. Within your jurisdictional patrol zone. Explain."

Tao’s expression remained untroubled.

"Ah, yes. A regrettable incident, Grandmaster. A prototype escape pod malfunctioned during a routine pressure test. A minor energy flare was completely contained. My teams were on site within minutes. There is no cause for alarm."

Goran shifted his weight, his voice a low growl.

"Minor? The system logs registered two life signs in that structure just before the detonation. Those signs are now gone. Where are the technicians?"

Tao met Goran’s suspicious glare with a placid smile.

"A fortunate turn of events. They evacuated the immediate area moments before the malfunction, citing an unstable energy reading. My tech division is debriefing them as we speak. A full report will be on your desk by morning. We are, of course, still investigating the root cause of the failure." The lie was seamless, professional and utterly devoid of holes an outsider could poke.

Li was silent for a long moment, the city lights reflecting in his tired eyes. He finally turned his gaze, sweeping over Tao, searching for a crack in the perfect façade.

"See that they do Tao. See that you have a full and truthful report on my desk." His voice hardened. "I will not tolerate instability within these walls. The monsters at our gates are enough of a threat. I don’t need to be wondering about the ones that might already be inside."

Tao simply bowed again, his smile unwavering.

"Of course, Grandmaster. I live to serve the Guild. I’ll handle it personally."

As Tao turned and strode from the room, his footsteps echoing with confident purpose, Goran stepped up beside the Grandmaster.

"He’s lying," Goran stated not as a question but as a fact. "That story was too clean. Too perfect. He had an answer for everything before I even finished the question."

"I know," Li murmured, his eyes following Tao’s retreating form until he was gone. "He has... changed. Ever since he returned from the Shadowmire expedition. The man who came back is not the same man who left." He let out a long, slow breath. "Watch him, Goran. Be my shadow. No alarms, no confrontations. Just... eyes. I need to know what he is truly planning."

Goran’s jaw tightened.

"Understood."

***

Back in the hidden silent chamber, Ning Que’s entire arm was trembling violently. The veins pulsed with a faint inner light as they siphoned a torrent of mana his Level 12 body was never meant to contain. The System was in total meltdown, the warnings flashing in a chaotic screaming cascade of red alerts.

[MANA SURGE IN PROGRESS CAUTION: Limit Break Protocol Breach Detected SYSTEM CORE FAILING...

CRITICAL... FAILING...

IMMINENT COLLAPSE...]

The text shattered into digital fragments. With a final guttural roar that was more rage than pain, Ning’s eyes snapped open. He forced a single word through his teeth.

"Summon!"

The Katana of Light didn’t just appear in his hand; it exploded into existence. A blinding flare of pure holy energy erupted from his fist, searing through the dark frozen mana that encased him.

The sound was of fire engulfing ice, a furious cleansing hiss that filled the room. Cracks of raw power spread across the chamber floor, spiderwebbing out from his feet as the unrestrained energy poured from his body in visible waves.

The stasis lock shattered.

Ning Que fell to one knee, his body screaming in protest, breath tearing from his lungs in ragged gasps. But he was free.

And in his vision, the static cleared. The chaotic red warnings vanished, replaced by a single line of calm, crisp white text.

[SYSTEM FULLY OPERATIONAL

WELCOME BACK RECLAIMER.]

He lifted his head, the hilt of the glowing katana gripped tightly in his trembling hand.

His eyes no longer wide with terror, burned with a new and terrible intensity, a pure white flame...