Re-Awakened :I Ascend as an SSS-Ranked Dragon Summoner Chapter 846: Consummating the wedding of the century

The great hall of Eclipse HQ had been transformed almost beyond recognition.

Where training equipment usually lined the walls, white draping now hung in soft folds from the ceiling, catching the afternoon light pouring through the tall windows. Flowers spilled from every column, real ones, thousands of them, someone having called in favors with three separate off-world suppliers to get enough blooms for a wedding this size. Rows of chairs stretched back further than the eye comfortably tracked, a thousand faces already settling into their seats, murmuring, laughing, greeting each other with the easy familiarity of people who lived and fought together every single day.

Overhead, stream drones hovered discreet at the corners, broadcasting the whole thing out to however many millions were tuned in across the Cardinal and beyond.

At the front, beneath a makeshift altar built from reclaimed wood and threaded with more of those same white flowers, Kelvin stood adjusting his cuffs for what had to be the fortieth time that hour.

"Stop that," Miss Brooks said, standing beside him in a deep navy dress that made her look, for once, entirely unlike a woman who spent most days barking tactics at recruits. She’d pinned her hair up, and something about the softness of it caught Kelvin off guard every time he glanced her way. "You’re going to wear a hole through that fabric."

"I might," Kelvin admitted. "Is that normal? Is this normal nervous or is this concerning nervous?"

"Every groom I’ve ever officiated for has asked me that exact question."

"How many have you officiated for?" Kelvin asked.

"You’re my first, actually."

Kelvin’s head snapped toward her. "What?"

"Relax." Brooks smiled, calm as ever, hands folded neatly in front of her. "I got certified for this the second Diana asked me. Spent a week studying old ceremony structures, ran through the whole thing four times in my head last night before I fell asleep. You are in extremely capable hands, Kelvin, I promise you that."

"That’s either very reassuring or the opposite of reassuring."

"Take it as reassuring." She reached out and straightened his collar with two efficient fingers. "You’ve survived worse than public speaking in front of a thousand people and half the galaxy. You’ll be fine."

Kelvin exhaled, long and shaky, and looked out over the sea of faces already settled into their seats. Marcus caught his eye from the front row and gave him an exaggerated thumbs up. Sam, beside him, mimed wiping tears already, just to needle him.

"Okay," Kelvin muttered. "Okay. I’m okay."

The music started.

Something soft at first, strings building slow, and the doors at the back of the hall opened.

Diana stepped through on Sophie’s arm.

The entire hall seemed to inhale at once.

She wore white, simple and elegant, nothing overdone, her hair pulled back the way Sera had spent an hour perfecting that morning, and she carried herself down that long aisle the way she carried herself into every fight, steady, unshakable, utterly certain.

Kelvin’s breath caught somewhere in his chest and simply didn’t come back.

Sophie walked beside her, radiant in soft blue, holding Diana’s arm like she was personally responsible for delivering the most precious cargo in the galaxy, which today, she genuinely was.

Kelvin watched Diana the entire way down that aisle, unable to look anywhere else, admiration written so plainly across his face that a ripple of soft laughter moved through the crowd, gentle and fond.

Sophie reached the altar, kissed Diana’s cheek, and placed her hand carefully into Kelvin’s before stepping back to join the others, wiping already at the corner of her eye.

Miss Brooks cleared her throat, and the hall settled into hush.

"We are gathered here," she began, voice carrying clean and steady across the massive space, "not just to witness a wedding, though that alone would be reason enough. We are gathered to witness something this faction has fought hard to protect. The right to still find joy in the middle of everything we carry."

A murmur of agreement rippled through the crowd.

"Kelvin. Diana." Brooks looked between them both. "You may begin."

Kelvin’s hands trembled slightly as he took both of Diana’s in his own, and he cleared his throat twice before he found his voice.

"Diana." He swallowed hard. "I built things my whole life. Machines, systems, solutions to problems nobody else thought could be solved. I genuinely believed, for a long time, that if I was smart enough, I could engineer my way through anything." His voice cracked. "And then I watched you throw yourself in front of Kruel’s fist to save me, and every single piece of engineering I’d ever done in my life suddenly felt small next to that. You didn’t calculate the risk. You just loved me enough to accept it."

Diana’s eyes were already glistening.

"I spent a year afterward trying to fix what happened to you," Kelvin continued, voice thick now. "Not because I was smart enough to solve it. Because I couldn’t imagine a version of my life that didn’t have you in it, and I refused to accept any outcome that ended that way. I found the stone. I got you back. And every single day since, I’ve been trying to figure out how to actually deserve that." He drew a shaking breath. "I don’t think I ever will, fully. But I’m going to spend the rest of my life trying anyway. That’s my vow. I will spend every day earning the person who loved me enough to take a hit meant for me without even blinking."

The crowd had gone utterly silent, a thousand people holding their breath together.

Diana laughed, wet and unsteady, wiping at her eyes before they could ruin her makeup a second time that day.

"Kelvin." Her voice wavered, then steadied, gathering strength as she spoke. "You once told me my nullification field made me the scariest person in any room. And I let you believe that was the compliment for a long time." She smiled through her tears. "But you’re wrong. You’re the scariest person I know. Because you love with your entire chest, no shields, no calculations, nothing held back, and that kind of vulnerability terrifies me more than any fight ever has."

A few soft laughs moved through the crowd.

"I told Sophie this morning I was scared," Diana continued, voice cracking now too. "Scared that loving you this much makes us both bigger targets. Scared that I’m not strong enough to survive losing you the way you’d survive losing me." She squeezed his hands tighter. "But I realized something standing here right now. I don’t have to be strong enough for that, because I’m not doing this alone anymore. I have you. And I have everyone standing here today who’s promised to help protect what we’re building together." Her voice steadied fully now, certain. "So my vow is this. I will stand in front of anything that comes for you, every single time, without hesitation, for as long as I’m breathing. And I will trust you to do the same for me, because I’ve already watched you do exactly for as long as possible,"

Kelvin was openly crying now, and didn’t bother hiding it.

Miss Brooks let the moment breathe a beat longer before continuing.

"By the authority given to me today," she said, voice warm, "and by the will of two people who have already proven, over and over, that they would move heaven and hell for each other, I now pronounce you husband and wife." She smiled. "Kelvin, you may kiss your bride."

He didn’t need to be told twice.

The hall erupted.

A thousand people rose to their feet at once, applause and cheering rolling through the space like a physical wave, and somewhere overhead the stream drones caught every angle of it, broadcasting the moment out to however many millions were watching from wherever they’d tuned in.

---

The reception spilled out onto the wide lawn behind HQ as evening settled soft over the Cardinal, string lights strung between poles, long tables groaning under more food than a thousand people could possibly finish, and music drifting easy across the whole gathering.

Diana found Webb near the edge of the dance floor a while later, and something in her expression made him straighten immediately, sensing a request before she’d even asked it.

"Would you dance with me," Diana said. "Father and bride. I know I’m not your daughter by blood, but—"

"I would be deeply honored," Webb said, cutting her off before she could finish, offering his arm with a formality that somehow didn’t feel stiff at all, just genuinely moved.

They moved together onto the floor, and Webb, for all his loud, brash public persona, danced with surprising grace, guiding her through slow, easy turns while the crowd watched with soft smiles.

"He’s a good man," Webb said quietly, meaning Kelvin, watching his son from across the floor where Kelvin stood laughing at something Marcus had said. "I don’t say that lightly."

"I know," Diana said. "I picked him for exactly that reason."

"Take care of him."

"Always."

Nearby, Sera moved through the crowd with a tray balanced expertly on one arm, handing out small cups of ice cream to anyone who wandered close enough, her wings tucked tight against her back to avoid knocking anything over.

"Ice cream," she announced to a cluster of faction members. "Homemade. I insisted on making it myself."

"This is incredible," one of them said around a mouthful.

"I know," Sera said, beaming with pride, and then, without warning, her eyes welled up entirely, tears spilling fast down her cheeks while she kept handing out cups like nothing was happening at all.

"Sera, are you crying?"

"I am very happy," Sera said, voice wobbling, holding out another cup. "This is what happy looks like, apparently. Ice cream?"

Across the lawn, Kelvin sat with Marcus, Sam, and a loose cluster of other faction men, all of them several drinks deep into the evening, jackets discarded somewhere, ties loosened.

"So," Marcus said, leaning back in his chair. "Married."

"Married," Kelvin confirmed, still slightly dazed by the word.

"Feels different yet?"

"Ask me in an hour."

Sam raised his glass. "To Kelvin. Officially the bravest man in this entire faction, and I include everyone who’s ever fought a four-horn in that statement."

"I fought a four-horn," someone else at the table pointed out.

"You fought a four-horn once. Kelvin’s about to fight domestic partnership every single day for the rest of his life."

The table erupted into laughter, and Kelvin threw a balled-up napkin at Sam’s head, missing badly, which only made everyone laugh harder.

"For real, though," Marcus said, quieter now, raising his own glass. "Good for you, man. You deserve this."

"Yeah," Kelvin said, something warm settling behind his ribs. "Yeah, I think I actually do."

Across the lawn, Sophie stood with Sera, Angel, and Diana near the edge of the dance floor, all four of them watching the party unfold with the particular satisfaction of people who’d helped build something good out of a very long, very hard week.

"I still can’t believe we pulled this off," Angel said, arms crossed, though the smile on her face gave away exactly how proud she was.

"Barely," Sera added. "There were multiple blue bags."

"There are always multiple blue bags," Angel said solemnly.

Diana laughed, leaning into the group, and for a moment the four of them just stood there together, watching the lights, the music, the hundreds of people dancing and laughing across the lawn.

Then Diana straightened, something sharp and playful crossing her face.

"Okay," she said. "I’ve had enough dancing for one night."

"Where are you going?" Sera asked.

Diana didn’t answer right away. She scanned the crowd until she found exactly who she was looking for, still sitting with Marcus and Sam, laughing at something.

"HUSBAND!" Diana bellowed across the entire lawn, hands cupped around her mouth, loud enough that half the party turned to look. "GET OVER HERE!"

Kelvin’s head whipped around, face going instantly red as the whole table erupted into laughter around him.

"I have to consummate my marriage!" Diana called, grinning wide, utterly unbothered by the thousand people now watching. "Come ON!"

Kelvin stood so fast he nearly knocked his chair over, and the entire faction, all thousand plus of them, immediately began cheering, whistling, some genuinely applauding as he crossed the lawn at a dead sprint.

He caught Diana around the waist, laughing, and the crowd surged after them as they ran together toward a waiting transport, cheering the whole way, someone throwing flower petals, someone else yelling something Kelvin didn’t quite catch over his own laughter.

Sophie watched them go, laughing so hard she had to press a hand to her ribs, tears of genuine joy standing in her eyes now.

"Well," she said, shaking her head, still smiling. "That’s my cue."

---

Her room back at HQ was quiet after the noise of the reception, the contrast almost jarring after hours of music and a thousand overlapping voices. Sophie kicked off her shoes the second the door closed behind her, humming some fragment of the wedding song under her breath as she made her way to the bathroom.

She washed her face slowly, methodically, the cool water grounding her after a day that had run the full emotional gamut from tears to laughter and back again more times than she could count. She hummed the whole time, some tune she couldn’t fully place, just something warm and light that matched the feeling still sitting pleasant in her chest.

She settled at her vanity afterward, working through her nightly routine on autopilot, still humming, mind pleasantly empty for the first time in what felt like weeks.

She reached for her mace out of habit, setting it within reach on the table beside her the way she always did before bed, more ritual than necessity most nights.

The eyes on it opened.

Soft blue light bled out from the mace’s core, steady and unmistakable, and Sophie’s hand snapped around the shaft before conscious thought caught up, spinning in one fluid motion off the stool, mace already rising, aimed at the shape that had somehow appeared in her room without a sound.

"Hey—hey, it’s me!" Lila’s hands shot up, eyes wide, a nervous smile flickering across her face. "Relax. Sophie. It’s just me."