Re-Awakened :I Ascend as an SSS-Ranked Dragon Summoner Chapter 828: Kiss for the road

Noah rode the last of the smoke’s updraft on Ares’s back, watching the water close slowly over the wreck below, when a streak of white and blue cut across the sky, Storm’s tail whipping around Ares’s flank in a sharp, playful snap.

Ares snarled and caught Storm’s tail mid-swing in his jaw, not hard enough to hurt, just enough to make his point, exactly the way an older dog corrected a younger one that hadn’t figured out where the line was yet.

"Hey," Noah said, laughing despite himself. "Be nice."

Ares released the tail with a low huff, and Storm circled back around, entirely unbothered, wings flaring in what Noah could only describe as smug satisfaction at having gotten a reaction at all.

"You’re getting old, you know that?" Noah patted Ares’s neck. "One tail whip and you’re already growling like a grandpa. Makes me wonder how you two handle being cooped up together in the domain when I’m not around to referee."

Ares made a low sound in his chest that could’ve meant anything at all, though Noah chose to hear agreement in it.

"Alright, big guy," he said, turning toward Storm. "Open it up. Take us home."

Storm’s portal split wide beneath them in a wash of violet, and the mountain, the smoke, the sinking wreck all fell away behind as they dropped through and came out the other side under open water once more, the swamp already a memory replaced by the familiar shimmer of Athlantix’s barrier and the crystal spires rising beyond it, catching the last of the ambient light in slow shifting colors.

They cruised in low over the city, and the reaction below started almost immediately. Xytherians poured out onto terraces and rooftops, pointing up, some of them cupping hands to their mouths and calling out things the wind tore away before Noah could catch them. Most of the attention landed on Ares, a second dragon nobody had seen coming, wings catching the city’s light in deep burnished red as he banked alongside Storm toward the landing platform.

Noah brought them down, and before his boots had fully settled on the crystal surface, Hibanna was already running toward him, crystal armor still half formed at her shoulders, trident forgotten somewhere behind her.

She threw her arms around him without a second’s hesitation.

Then pulled back just as fast, staring past his shoulder at Ares.

"Another one," she said. "Where."

"My domain," Noah said.

She waited, clearly expecting more, brow furrowed with the specific confusion of someone who’d just been handed half an answer and was still waiting for the rest of it to arrive.

Noah just smiled. "I’ve got a lot of friends, Princess. More than you’d believe."

Behind her, near the edge of the platform, Munachi stood with her arms folded, watching the whole exchange with a small, knowing smile of her own.

Noah caught her eye and felt something twist in his chest, a flash of genuine guilt he hadn’t expected. He’d forgotten she existed the second Hibanna had stepped out from behind that pillar hours ago. He gave her an apologetic look, and Munachi just shook her head, still smiling, like she’d already made her peace with exactly how this was going to go the moment she’d introduced them.

"So," Noah said, turning back to Hibanna, rubbing the back of his neck. "About the island—"

"Our satellite monitors registered a real piece of our world vanish from orbit," Hibanna said, cutting him off without a trace of alarm in her voice.

Noah winced. "Yeah. About that."

"It is fine."

"It’s really not fine, though. I destroyed an actual island. A whole landmass, gone, into the ocean—"

"It was that, or Harbingers," Hibanna said simply, like the arithmetic settled itself. "I will take the missing island."

Noah stood there a second, genuinely unsure whether she’d fully processed the scale of what he’d just done to her world or whether she simply didn’t care, provided the alternative had been worse. He decided, on reflection, it probably didn’t matter which. Either way, she wasn’t holding it against him.

"Come," she said, already turning toward the spire behind them. "You must meet my parents properly now. The king and queen."

---

The great hall sat near the top of the tallest spire in the city, walls curved and seamless the way everything here seemed to be, light bleeding through crystal panels in slow shifting hues that changed the whole room’s mood by the minute, gold sliding into blue sliding into something closer to violet. Long tables ran the length of the room, set with dishes Noah didn’t recognize by shape or smell, and a small gathering of officials and family stood near a raised dais at the far end.

The king rose to meet him first, tall and broad-shouldered in a way that made his lineage to Hibanna obvious at a glance, the same set to his jaw, the same directness in his gaze.

"You have our gratitude," he said, voice deep and resonant, carrying easily across the hall. "Athlantix does not forget those who defend it."

"Happy to help," Noah said. "Though for what it’s worth, I’m sorry about the island."

"We are not," the queen said, rising beside her husband, and Noah understood immediately where Hibanna’s presence came from, the same luminous quality to her skin, eyes swirling faint with soft color, movement that seemed to flow rather than simply happen. "Please. Sit. We have prepared a meal in your honor. A custom we borrowed from your own people."

Noah sat.

The food was strange, textures unlike anything he’d encountered on Earth, colors that didn’t map cleanly to flavor the way he expected, but genuinely good, and the conversation moved easy and warm through the whole meal, the king asking real, curious questions about Earth’s politics and the structure of the EDF, the queen leaning in with open delight every time dragons came up, asking about Nyx, about Storm, about how the bond actually worked between rider and creature.

"You are as radiant as your daughter," Noah told the queen at one point, entirely meaning it, watching her expression soften into something pleased and slightly bashful.

"Careful," the king said, though his smile gave away that he wasn’t actually bothered. "Flattery travels fast in this family. You will find yourself outmatched before dessert."

By the time the meal wound down, the light through the crystal walls had shifted toward something dimmer, evening settling over the city in slow waves of deep blue, the kind of light that made the whole spire feel like it was breathing.

---

Hibanna walked him out through the halls afterward, her pace unhurried, torchlight or its Xytherian equivalent flickering soft along the walls as they passed, the two of them alone for the first time since the fight.

"I grew up in these halls," she said, trailing one hand along the smooth wall as they walked. "Sheltered, more than I ever wanted to be. It took years of arguing before my parents allowed me to train properly. Longer still before they trusted me to lead."

"And now you command your own soldiers," Noah said.

"Now I do." Something proud slipped into her voice, quiet but unmistakable. "I imagine commanding for the EDF, or Eclipse, as you insist on calling it, must carry its own difficulties. Different pressures. Different stakes than mine."

Clearly, she couldn’t distinguish between Eclipse and the EDF and Noah didn’t want to spend time narrating how he no longer was in full support of the institution that she and her whole world allied with.

"Different everything, honestly," Noah said. "But yeah. Difficult’s one word for it."

They reached a wide balcony overlooking the sprawl of the city, spires catching the last blue light of evening, and Hibanna stopped there, turning to face him fully.

"Enough of old memories," she said. "I have arranged a place for you to rest tonight. Though I must join my soldiers for the sweep. Make certain nothing survived what you did to that mountain."

"If anything did survive that," Noah said, "I’d honestly be a little scared too."

That got a real laugh out of her, quick and unguarded, the first one all evening that didn’t carry any weight of formality behind it.

"Although, Princess." Noah’s expression sobered. "I can’t stay."

Hibanna’s smile faded slightly, something more careful settling in behind it. "You are on a mission."

"Yeah." He leaned against the railing, looking out over the city rather than at her for a second. "A friend of mine, back home. His life’s on the line. Someone I’m hunting did something to him, drained something out of him that shouldn’t even be reversible, and I need to find the one responsible before it’s too late to matter."

"This...one," Hibanna said slowly, testing the unfamiliar name. "He is the reason you have been thrown into a hunt across the stars."

"That’s the One."

"I admire your loyalty," she said. "Your dedication to the people you love."

"I owe them everything," Noah said simply. "Lucas, all of them. They’ve never once let me down. Least I can do is not let him down now."

Hibanna studied him a long moment, something thoughtful working behind her expression.

"So when will we meet again," she asked.

"Honestly? No idea. This journey takes me wherever it decides to take me." He shrugged, then softened it with a smile. "Or you could come visit Earth sometime. See me there instead."

Color rose fast in her cheeks, unmistakable even in the dim light.

"That sounds reasonable," she said, voice a little unsteady around the edges.

She stepped closer.

"Something," she said, "for your travels."

She kissed him, quick and soft, and pulled back almost immediately, color deepening further across her face, one hand rising to cover her own mouth.

"I have been watching too many of your Earth dramas," she admitted, half laughing at herself.

Noah felt something pull warm and reluctant in his chest.

"I’m tempted to stay just one more day," he said. "But—"

He stepped back from the railing.

And fell.

Hibanna’s face froze in pure shock, both hands flying to the railing, leaning out after him before her mind had fully caught up to what her eyes were showing her.

Then Storm caught him mid-fall, a streak of white and blue sweeping in from below, and Noah reappeared on his back a heartbeat later, grinning up at her.

Hibanna’s shock melted into a slow, helpless smile.

"Noah Eclipse," she called down, voice carrying easily in the still evening air. "You are extraordinary."

Noah lifted a hand in a small wave, and Storm banked away from the spire, climbing toward open water and whatever waited beyond the barrier.

"Enjoy that little break, buddy?" Noah asked, leaning forward against Storm’s neck as the city fell away below them.

Storm’s spine spikes rippled in answer, a slow wave running down the ridge of them, and a thin line of lightning traced along beneath the scales in its wake, glowing steady for a second like a strip of LED before fading back to nothing.

Noah grinned. "Yeah, of course you did. Center of attention, whole city staring up at you like you’re some kind of celebrity." He patted the scales beneath him. "That’s basically your whole personality, isn’t it. Give you an audience and you’d fly circles around a parade if I let you."

Storm rumbled, deep and pleased with himself, and banked a slow, unnecessary loop through the open water above the barrier, wings catching the last of the fading light like he was taking a bow nobody had actually asked for.

’Alright,’ Noah thought, watching Athlantix shrink below him, spires glowing faint gold and blue against the dark water. ’Detour out of the way.’

’One. Here I come.’