Re-Awakened :I Ascend as an SSS-Ranked Dragon Summoner Chapter 787: Falling short

The ramp lowered onto Raiju Prime with a soft hydraulic hiss, and the first thing that hit Angel was the light.

It came from everywhere at once, soft and blue, filtered through walls that weren’t quite glass and weren’t quite crystal, throwing warmth across a landing bay that made the Eastern Cardinal’s finest architecture look industrial by comparison. Spires rose in the distance beyond the bay’s open edge, curved in ways that suggested organic growth rather than construction, and the air itself carried a faint hum, low and constant, the sound of an entire planet running on energy that flowed through everything instead of being confined to wires and conduits.

"This is a lot," Angel said, mostly to herself.

"You get used to it," Lucas said, already moving down the ramp ahead of her, and something in his posture had loosened the second his boots hit the deck plating, a familiarity settling into his shoulders that Angel had never seen on him back on Earth.

Sophie came down beside her, unhurried, eyes scanning the bay with the ease of someone who’d been here before and knew exactly what to expect. "First time?" she asked Angel. She was surprised given Angel was once a high ranking EDF soldier so she assumed she must have made trips like this regularly. They on the other hand came here out of sheer audacity and stubbornness.

"First time," Angel confirmed. "I’ve heard about it. Hearing about it and standing in it are different things."

"They always are," Sophie said, and there was warmth in it, the warmth of someone remembering their own first arrival here.

Seraleth came last, wings folding tight against her back as she cleared the ramp, and her eyes went immediately to the horizon, to the shape of the spires and the soft blue light, and something in her face eased slightly, the tension she’d been carrying since Lucy’s transmission first arrived loosening just a fraction at the sight of solid ground under her feet again.

Two figures were already crossing the bay to meet them.

Lucy moved like she owned the space around her, which, Angel supposed, she technically did now. She wore something simpler than Angel had expected from a ruling monarch, dark fabric that caught the light without demanding attention, her dark hair falling loose rather than styled into anything formal, and her eyes, that same electric blue Lucas carried, found her brother across the bay and lit up before anything else registered.

"LUCAS!"

She crossed the remaining distance at something close to a run, and Lucas barely had time to brace before she collided into him, arms locking around his neck, lifting slightly onto her toes to actually reach.

"You’re late," she said into his shoulder. "You said you’d get here yesterday."

"We got here as fast as we could," Lucas said, laughing despite himself, hugging her back properly now. "You try coordinating a cross-system flight on short notice."

Beside them, Damien Grey approached at a more measured pace, but the smile on his face carried the same warmth his daughter’s had, unguarded and immediate.

"My boy," he said, pulling Lucas into an embrace the moment Lucy released him. "Every time you come home you look more like the soldier I always hoped you’d become and less like the child I sent away."

"You say that every time," Lucas said.

"Because it’s true every time."

Damien held him at arm’s length for a second, studying him, then turned his attention to the rest of the group with the easy, genuine curiosity of a man who genuinely enjoyed meeting new people rather than merely tolerating the obligation of it.

"Sophie Reign," he said, taking her hand warmly. "Good to see you again. You look well."

"Good to be back," Sophie said.

"Seraleth," Damien continued, and something in his voice gentled further as he turned to her. "I heard about your world. I’m deeply sorry. Truly." He held her gaze a moment, letting the sincerity of it sit rather than rushing past it. "Your people have been settling on our borders, I understand. i want to reassure you we’ll make sure they want for nothing while they’re within our reach."

Seraleth’s throat worked for a second before she managed to speak. "Thank you," she said quietly. "That means more than you know."

"It’s the least any of us can do," Damien said, and then, softer, "You must miss them greatly."

"Every day."

"Then we’ll get you to them," Lucy said, stepping in. "There’s a transport being prepared right now. It’ll take you to the border settlements directly, no delays. You should see your people as soon as possible, and frankly, I imagine they’d want to see you the same way."

Seraleth’s wings shifted slightly, something between gratitude and barely contained emotion. "I don’t know how to thank you for that."

"Don’t thank me," Lucy said. "Just go hug your people and come back for the briefing after."

Damien’s attention finally settled on Angel, and there was a beat, brief but noticeable, where his eyes did the polite work of assessment before his expression settled into welcome.

"And you must be," he said, extending a hand, "someone we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting yet."

"Angel," she said, shaking his hand. "Task force commander. I’ve worked with Eclipse for a while now."

"Angel," Damien repeated, testing the name. "Welcome to Raiju Prime. Any friend of my son’s is welcome here."

He said it warmly, genuinely, and Angel felt the sincerity of it even as she caught, just at the edge of her vision, the way Lucy’s expression had cooled slightly, polite but measured in a way it hadn’t been for Sophie or Seraleth.

"Come," Damien said, clapping his hands together once. "Let’s get everyone fed and settled before we talk business. Seraleth, your transport will be ready within the hour, no need to sit through any of the political nonsense first."

He led the group toward the bay’s exit, chatting easily the whole way, asking Sophie about her family, asking Angel about her task force with genuine interest rather than diplomatic obligation, and the group followed him deeper into the palace, voices and footsteps echoing down corridors lined with the same soft, ambient light.

Lucy hung back.

"Lucas," she said. "A word."

He glanced at the others disappearing down the corridor with his father, then back at his sister.

"Sure," he said.

She led him a short distance away, into a smaller adjoining room with a wide window looking out over the city, the door sliding shut behind them, sealing off the sound of the group’s footsteps and Damien’s easy chatter.

Lucy crossed her arms.

"So," she said. "Angel."

"What about her."

"I don’t know her," Lucy said. "I know Sophie. I’ve spent time with her, I trust her, I’ve seen how she carries herself. I know Seraleth, and her people, and everything she’s lost. I don’t know this woman at all, and the last time this family opened its doors to someone unfamiliar from your team—"

"Lyra," Lucas said quietly.

"Lyra," Lucy confirmed. "Who we welcomed here. Who walked these halls. Who turned out to be reporting everything she saw back to a man who nearly got our parents killed." Her jaw tightened. "So forgive me if I want more than a name and a title before I fully relax around a stranger, especially now, with everything happening."

"She’s not Lyra," Lucas said.

"You don’t know that for certain."

"I do, actually," Lucas said, and there was an edge in it now, protective in a way that surprised even him a little. "She’s been with Eclipse since before we ever took down kruel. She ran her own task force on Earth. She fought Kruel, Lucy, stood on that battlefield and bled for it same as the rest of us. She’s earned every ounce of trust anyone’s given her."

"And?"

"And," Lucas said, "she’s Noah’s fourth girlfriend."

Lucy went very still.

"Excuse me."

"You heard me."

"His fourth."

"Yes."

Something in Lucy’s expression shifted, careful and calculating in a way Lucas recognized immediately and dreaded.

"So he’s got four," she said slowly.

"Lucy."

"And when I asked, oh so long ago now, whether he was betrothed to anyone, you told me he was taken. Simply, cleanly, taken. As though there were exactly one woman standing between me and any possibility whatsoever."

"He was taken," Lucas said. "By Sophie. At the time. That was true."

"And it remained true," Lucy said, "while apparently expanding to include three additional women, and somehow none of that qualified as relevant information you thought to share with your own sister."

"It wasn’t relevant! You weren’t actually going to pursue him!"

"I absolutely was going to pursue him," Lucy said, and the sheer bluntness of it nearly knocked the wind out of Lucas’s argument entirely. "I am extremely disappointed to learn that an entire additional woman entered the picture and somehow I, your own flesh and blood, the ruler of this planet, was deemed too old for consideration while Angel apparently was not."

"That’s not— Lucy, that’s genuinely not how any of this works."

"Isn’t it?"

"You’re being ridiculous."

"I am being consistent," Lucy said primly. "If age was truly the disqualifying factor you implied, then explain to me how a woman clearly closer to my own age than yours ended up on the list and I did not."

Lucas dragged a hand down his face. "It’s weird that you still want this. Genuinely weird, Lucy. You’re the ruler of an entire planetary system. You could have anyone."

"I don’t want anyone," Lucy said, with the particular calm certainty she used when she’d already thought something through completely and had no intention of being talked out of it. "I have a strong affinity for greatness, Lucas. I always have. It’s why I ended up where I am. And Noah Eclipse is greatness, still in the process of becoming whatever he’s ultimately going to be. I find that far more interesting than anyone who’s already finished growing into themselves."

Lucas stared at her.

"You cannot possibly explain that to Sophie."

"I’m not explaining anything to anyone," Lucy said, waving a hand. "I’m merely stating a fact of personal preference in the privacy of a sealed room with my brother. What I do with that fact remains entirely my business."

"You’re impossible."

"I’m efficient," Lucy said, and the corner of her mouth twitched toward something almost fond. "Now come on. Father’s probably already three stories deep into some story about you as a child that you’d rather Angel never hear."

She turned toward the door, and it slid open before either of them reached it, a guard standing just beyond the threshold with a tablet held tight against her chest and an expression that made Lucy’s teasing evaporate instantly.

"Your majesty," the guard said. "Forgive the interruption. An urgent transmission has come through, relayed via Sterling channels."

"From who," Lucy said.

"The Conclave," the guard said. "They’re requesting direct contact. With the original families. All of them."

Lucas felt something cold settle behind his ribs.

"The Conclave hates working with humans," he said slowly. "They’ve made that clear for as long as any of us have known they exist."

"Apparently," the guard said, "not clear enough to stop them reaching out now."

Lucy’s expression had gone flat and focused, every trace of the sister who’d been bickering over Noah a moment ago folded away entirely, replaced by the ruler a lot of people had watched dismantle Councilman Bertrand without raising her voice.

"Patch it through," she said. "Wherever father’s settled the others, get them there too. If the Conclave is calling us directly, breaking centuries of precedent to do it, they’re either about to declare a war none of us are ready for."

She looked at Lucas.

"Or they’ve realized they need our help against the exact same thing we’re already hunting."