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

”Lucy sent an urgent transmission,” she said. ”From Raiju Prime. Briefing room. Now.”

That was it. No wounded, no dying, no explanation, and somehow that made it worse than if she’d told him something. Noah followed her down the corridor at a jog, still half in his own head from the domain, blood dried along one knuckle he hadn’t gotten around to healing properly.

The briefing room was already full when they got there. Sophie stood near the main display with her arms crossed. Angel peeled off to join her. Lucas sat forward in his chair, elbows on his knees, looking at the blank screen like it had already told him something he didn’t want to hear. Seraleth stood by the window. Lila leaned against the far wall, arms folded, watching everyone else instead of the display.

Kelvin came in last, one of his prosthetic arms already unfolded into some kind of interface tool, the other holding a tablet he wasn’t looking at.

”Play it,” Lucas said, before anyone asked him if he was ready.

The recording came up. Lucy, standing in what looked like the Grand Hall on Raiju, her voice clipped and fast in a way Noah had never heard from her before.

”Sterling homeworld was hit three hours ago. Aurigon, their capital, gone. Not damaged. Gone. The report we have says one attacker. Not an army. One. Matthias is confirmed alive, Evangeline’s status unclear. Their family council is dead or scattered. I’m sending this to every original bloodline and to Eclipse because whoever did this walked onto original soil alone and left nothing standing behind him.”

The recording cut.

Nobody spoke for a second.

”One attacker,” Sophie said slowly.

”Say it,” Lucas said, not looking away from the dead screen. ”Just say the name. Everyone’s thinking it.”

Kelvin’s tablet chimed before anyone could.

”That’s not the only thing,” he said, and something in his voice had gone flat in a way that scared Noah more than the volume would have. ”I just got word from our contact at the EDF. Miss Brooks. The planet we fought Kruel on. It’s been overthrown.”

”Overthrown by who,” Angel said.

”One.”

The room went still in a completely different way than it had a second ago.

”That’s not possible,” Sophie said. ”That’s two different places at once.”

”I know,” Kelvin said. ”Give me a second.”

He crouched by the console, both mechanical arms extending fully now, ports sliding out of his forearms that clicked into the terminal without him needing to look. ”Not every drone we sent in during Operation Null Hour got pulled out clean. There’s a chance one’s still sitting out there, low power, maybe still recording if it wasn’t destroyed.”

Nobody said anything while he worked. Lucas’s leg was bouncing. Seraleth had both arms wrapped around herself now.

”Got one,” Kelvin said. ”Barely. It’s been running on standby this whole time, cached footage, no live feed, but there’s a timeline here.” He pulled it up on the main display. Grainy, low resolution, timestamped. ”Three days after we left with Aurelius’s fleet. Three days.”

The footage showed the same coastline they’d fought Kruel on. Ships coming down. Not many. A handful.

”That’s it,” Noah said. ”That’s all he brought?”

”Keep watching,” Kelvin said.

The footage jumped forward. Buildings changed hands overnight. Vel’kai civilians on their knees in rows. The same insignia stamped across every surface that used to be free.

Noah’s jaw tightened.

”So Arthur waited,” he said, and his voice had an edge Angel hadn’t heard from him in a while. ”He waited for us to rescue four hundred million people just so his kid could put them right back in a cage?”

”It wasn’t Arthur,” Lila said.

Everyone looked at her.

She hadn’t moved from the wall, but her eyes were on the screen, on one specific still frame Kelvin had frozen, a banner hanging off one of the new structures.

”Zoom that,” she said.

Kelvin did.

”That’s not the Endless symbol,” Lila said. ”The Eight’s insignia is an infinite loop. That’s not a loop. That’s a straight line cutting a straight line.” She looked around the room. ”This is all One.”

Lucas had been quiet through all of it. Now he laughed, short and without any humor in it at all.

”So we dealt with the dad,” he said, ”and now the son’s up and doing this.”

”Appears so,” Kelvin said quietly.

Seraleth pushed off the window. ”What do we do. The Dreamers are already waiting on us for mission prep, ten hours from now. And the originals are under attack.” Her voice cracked slightly on the next part. ”My people are on original soil, Noah. They’ve been on Raiju’s border since Lilivil.”

”Raiju’s safe,” Sophie said. ”Lucas’s family runs that world. Nobody’s touching it.”

”Same Raiju Arthur’s shadow soldiers raided?” Seraleth said, sharper than Noah had heard her get in a long time. ”Same Raiju where they stole the king right off his own planet? Please.”

Nobody argued with that. The room sat with it, quiet enough that Noah could hear the ventilation running somewhere overhead.

Noah stood up.

”We’ve done this before,” he said. ”Split focus. The beast surge hasn’t slowed down, it’s gotten worse every week Kelvin’s tracked it. Category fours are becoming routine in some sectors. There aren’t enough high ranked hunters left to handle what’s coming if we don’t get ahead of it now. Give it a year, maybe less, and this planet’s dealing with something closer to what Kruel used to be, except spread across a dozen locations instead of one.”

”So the Amazon mission doesn’t stop,” Lucas said.

”It doesn’t stop,” Noah said. ”Especially not with the Dreamers already committed to it alongside us. That’s not how Eclipse operates. We don’t leave partners standing at a rendezvous point because something else came up.” He looked around the room. ”But this is also real. I and Lucas have both stood in front of One before. We’ve seen exactly what he’s capable of. That was two years ago. He was a kid then. There’s no version of this where he got weaker.”

”He did it alone,” Kelvin said. ”According to what Lucy sent, nobody backed him up. He walked onto Sterling territory by himself and left their entire leadership dead.”

”Everyone in this room knows what an original bloodline actually is,” Noah said. ”Pure royal houses start at S rank equivalent, easily. Lucas is proof of that. Lucy’s proof of something even further past it.”

”SS,” Lucas said quietly.

”So for One to walk into that kind of territory alone,” Noah said, ”and come out the only one standing, he’s carrying something serious. And if his abilities work anything like Arthur’s did, being that close to originals means he’s had access to copied power that puts him somewhere past anything we’ve fought as a species.”

He let that settle for a second.

”So we split,” he said. ”Lucas, Seraleth, Sophie, Angel, you’re going to Raiju. Coordinate with Lucy directly. The Greys have been good to us. An attack this close to their territory is an attack on Eclipse too, whether it’s technically our fight or not.”

”And the rest of us,” Kelvin said.

”Handle the Amazon,” Noah said. ”Exactly as planned.”

Nobody argued with the split. The room started breaking apart, people peeling off in different directions, quiet in the way people got quiet when a decision had actually landed and there was nothing left to debate about it.

---

Noah found Seraleth in her room twenty minutes later, sitting on the edge of her bed with her hands in her lap.

”Hey,” he said, sitting beside her.

She didn’t answer right away. When she finally looked at him, her eyes were already wet.

”My people don’t have a home anymore,” she said. ”And now the one place they’re standing might not be safe either.” Her voice cracked properly this time. ”I’m scared, Noah.”

He put his arm around her, pulled her in.

”The originals will rally,” he said. ”You’ve seen how they take this kind of thing. And even if they don’t move fast enough, you’ve got me. I can be anywhere in a blink. You know that.”

She laughed a little, wet and small, and leaned her head against his shoulder.

They sat like that for a while before he kissed the top of her head and stood.

”I need to go see Lucas,” he said.

She nodded and let him go.

---

He expected to find Lucas packing.

Instead Lucas was flat on his back on the bed, hands folded under his head, staring at the ceiling like it owed him something.

”Brother,” Lucas said, without turning his head.

”Bro.” Noah leaned against the doorframe. ”You good?”

”It’s funny,” Lucas said. ”We let the kid go. And now he comes back around and does this.”

”It probably wasn’t his fault,” Noah said. ”Not really. Arthur’s the one who put those kids up to everything back then.”

Lucas finally turned his head. ”It didn’t look like Arthur in the footage, Noah. Kelvin pulled the whole timeline. Nobody was standing behind him giving orders. It was just him.”

Noah didn’t have anything to say to that. He didn’t have an answer, because there wasn’t a clean one.

”Sometimes people are just a product of what raised them,” he said finally. ”And sometimes people are just bad. Genuinely, all on their own. I don’t know which one this is yet.”

”What am I supposed to do about it,” Lucas said. ”He’s a kid, Noah. Was a kid, anyway. Am I supposed to go find him and just kill him?”

Noah stood there for a second.

”I think when the moment actually comes,” he said, ”you’ll know what’s right and what isn’t. You always have.”

He left Lucas to it and stepped out to give him space.

Lila was waiting in the corridor.

She pulled him aside before he’d taken three steps.

”I want on the One mission,” she said.

”You’re needed here.”

”For what,” she said. ”A beast hunt?”

”Yes. Is that a problem?”

”For Christ’s sake, Noah, you could send Nyx and Storm to the Amazon and burn the entire jungle to ash in an afternoon. You don’t need me farming beast cores.”

”That’s not how we do things.”

”Really.” Lila’s arms were already crossed. ”Because from where I’m standing, you’re the one keeping me off that mission. And we both know why.”

”Lila—”

”Say it.”

He sighed. ”The last time you and One crossed paths, he beat you badly. That’s true. But that’s not why I’m holding you back.”

”Then what is it.”

”I’m afraid this mission opens something back up for you,” he said. ”You’ve been doing so well.”

She scoffed. ”Really. What, I’d abandon a mission chasing my own parents? Isn’t Sophie’s family working with Arthur too? And you’re sending her.”

”Sophie’s situation is different,” Noah said. ”She already knows the cost. She’s made peace with what has to happen.”

”And I haven’t?”

He tried to walk past her. She grabbed his arm.

”Answer me.”

He stopped. Turned around.

”You’re not going on that mission, Lila,” he said. ”And I’m not telling you that as your boyfriend. I’m telling you as your leader.”

He walked away.

Lila stood there for a long moment, staring after him.

Then she started laughing, quiet at first, one hand scratching the back of her head. By the time Noah had turned the corner, she was grinning wide enough that it looked like her jaw might split open.