Re-Awakened :I Ascend as an SSS-Ranked Dragon Summoner

The three friends sat in stunned silence, each lost in their own thoughts as the weight of their situation pressed down upon them. Outside, the sounds of battle continued—screams, explosions, and the distinctive crack of chi-based attacks against hastily erected barriers. Inside, only the soft hum of Kelvin’s damaged mech suit and the occasional drip of blood from Sophie’s knee broke the quiet.

Lucas finally straightened, rolling his shoulders as blue electricity flickered weakly across his skin. ”I’ve still got a little gas left in the tank,” he said, voice rough with fatigue. ”I can raise the alarm, try to get a sector-wide evacuation started. It won’t save everyone, but...”

”Better than nothing,” Sophie finished for him.

Kelvin nodded absently, still staring at his displays. ”If you’re planning to fly people out, be careful with your speed. Most people aren’t built to withstand the g-forces you generate at full acceleration. You’ll tear them apart.”

Lucas grimaced. ”Right.” The word hung in the air, heavy with everything left unsaid.

Sophie pushed herself to her feet, wincing as her injured knee threatened to buckle. ”I’ll coordinate on the ground. Set up evacuation routes, prioritize children and the elderly.” Her voice was steady despite the pain evident in her eyes. ”We save who we can.”

”That’s all any of us can do,” Lucas agreed, the blue lightning around him intensifying slightly as he gathered his remaining strength.

Kelvin watched as his friends prepared to face what was likely their final hour. With a deep breath, he tapped a sequence on his wrist display. The damaged mech suit began to retract, nanites flowing like liquid metal back into a small cube that attached itself to his shirt button. He rolled his shoulders, feeling exposed without the armor’s protection.

”Good luck,” Sophie said, clasping his shoulder briefly before limping toward the door. Lucas followed, pausing only to give Kelvin a nod that conveyed everything words couldn’t.

Then they were gone, and Kelvin was alone with the bomb schematics and his failing calculations.

”Screw this,” he muttered, rolling up his sleeves. Green light began to emanate from his eyes, the telltale sign of a technopath accessing their abilities at full capacity. The same verdant glow spread across his hands as he approached the main terminal, bypassing physical interfaces to connect directly with the system.

His consciousness expanded into the digital realm, racing through code and security protocols with ease. He could visualize the bomb’s architecture now—a masterpiece of destruction, its quantum-entangled detonators pulsing with malicious intent in his mind’s eye.

”Come on,” he growled, fingers dancing in the air as he manipulated virtual constructs invisible to normal sight. ”There has to be a way in.”

But each approach he tried was rebuffed. Whoever had designed this device had anticipated technopath intervention, incorporating non-digital components that existed outside the realm Kelvin could influence. The more he pushed, the stronger the resistance became, like running into a wall designed specifically to keep him out.

A cry of frustration tore from his throat as another approach failed. ”NO!”

His back arched as feedback surged through his connection, sending pain lancing through his skull. Kelvin dropped to his knees, the green glow flickering as his concentration wavered.

”I can’t let this happen,” he gasped, forcing himself back into connection despite the pain. ”I can’t let them die.”

Images flashed through his mind—faces of friends, classmates, instructors. Sophie, with her sardonic humor and unwavering leadership. Lucas, arrogant and brilliant and loyal to a fault.

”Noah would never find another hot Year 3 senior willing to date his stupid, genius ass,” Kelvin laughed bitterly through tears that had begun streaming down his face. ”And Cora... and Vii...”

The thought of Vii, fellow technopath and the only person who truly understood the wonders and limitations of his abilities, sent a fresh surge of determination through him. Their relationship had no label yet, just shared moments and conversations that stretched until dawn about theoretical applications of quantum computing.

Kelvin pushed harder, forcing his consciousness deeper into the system despite the defenses that sliced at his mental projection like razor wire. Each breakthrough cost him, draining his already depleted reserves. The mech suit battle had taken more from him than he’d admitted, and this sustained technopath dive was pushing him beyond safe limits.

”They planned for this,” he realized with growing horror. ”They knew technopaths would try to disarm it. They built it specifically to exhaust us.”

His vision began to blur, the green glow around his hands stuttering as his concentration faltered. With a final, desperate effort, he threw everything he had at the bomb’s central control node—only to be violently repelled, his consciousness snapping back into his physical body with enough force to send him sprawling.

Kelvin lay on the floor, tears mixing with blood from his nose as the displays continued their merciless countdown. Thirty-two minutes remaining. He’d failed.

Outside the arena, chaos reigned. Lucas streaked across the sky, a comet of blue electricity with three terrified civilians clinging to his extended force field. He moved at a fraction of his usual speed, mindful of Kelvin’s warning about some human fragility.

”Hold tight,” he called over his shoulder, searching for a safe drop zone beyond the blast radius. ”Almost there.”

He could see commander Owen helping with evacuation as well as other officials he didn’t quite know but guessed they were uncompromised academy staffs from within and outside the twelfth.

On the ground below, Sophie fought with desperate efficiency. A Purge operative had intercepted her as she directed a group of elderly residents toward a train tunnel, forcing her to engage despite her injuries.

The operative moved with unsettling grace, dark chi flowing around his limbs like liquid shadow. Sophie dodged what she could, her combat training keeping her alive but just barely. Her luck ability—usually her ace in the hole—seemed to have deserted her entirely.

A misstep on her injured knee sent her stumbling at the worst possible moment. The operative’s chi-enhanced strike caught her squarely in the chest, launching her backward into a crumbling wall. Pain exploded through her ribs, vision momentarily whiting out as she slumped to the ground.

”The mighty Sophie Reign,” the operative sneered, advancing on her fallen form. ”Not so special after all.”

Sophie tried to rise, but her body refused to cooperate. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth as she glared defiantly up at her assailant.

”Just kill me and get it over with,” she spat.

The operative smiled coldly. ”Orders are to take you alive if possible. The Minister has special plans for his daughter.”

Sophie’s retort died on her lips as a strange sensation washed over the battlefield. The air pressure dropped suddenly, sending a shiver down her spine that had nothing to do with her injuries. Above the open arena, dark clouds materialized as if from nowhere, swirling in an unnatural formation that defied normal weather patterns.

”What the hell?” the operative muttered, momentarily distracted as he looked upward.

Wind gusted violently across the arena grounds, temperature plummeting as snowflakes began to swirl among the debris. Lightning cracked through the unnaturally dark clouds, followed by a rolling boom of thunder that seemed to shake the very ground.

”It’s a storm,” someone shouted from across the battlefield.

Sophie, taking advantage of her assailant’s distraction, kicked upward with her good leg, connecting solidly with his knee. As he staggered back, she managed to pull herself upright against the wall, a strange smile spreading across her blood-streaked face.

”No,” she said, eyes fixed on a familiar silhouette materializing within the storm clouds. ”It’s Storm.”

Simultaneously, at the center of the arena where the fighting was thickest, reality itself seemed to tear. A jagged portal ripped open in the air, edges glowing with dark purple energy as thick red mist poured through the opening. The temperature around the portal rose so severely that moisture in the air evaporated.

From within the mist came a sound that stopped combatants on both sides in their tracks—a bone-chilling roar that seemed to vibrate at a frequency that resonated with primal fear. The mist parted as a massive form emerged, red scales gleaming like fresh blood under the storm-darkened sky. Powerful wings unfurled as a dragon stepped through, its presence radiating an aura of such intense power that nearby Purge operatives instinctively retreated.

The operative facing Sophie recovered his balance, dark chi gathering around his fists once more. ”You are coming with me, Reign.”

He lunged forward, only to freeze mid-step as dark energy coalesced beside Sophie, forming into a humanoid shape. The operative’s eyes widened in surprise, but before he could react, something punched through his chest with impossible speed. He looked down in shock at the fist-sized hole where his heart had been, then collapsed as the energy was withdrawn.

”I’m sorry, babe. I’m here now.”