Re-Awakened :I Ascend as an SSS-Ranked Dragon Summoner - Chapter 502

Chapter 502: Red death remains
“Nyx.”

Space rippled beside Noah, reality tearing open like fabric being sliced by invisible claws. Purple void energy crackled around the edges of the portal, expanding until it was large enough to swallow a building.

“Ascend.”

What emerged wasn’t just a dragon, it was the incarnation of death in blazing red.

Nyx stepped through the portal with deliberate, earth-shaking steps. Each footfall cracked the ground beneath him, his massive weight leaving impressions in stone that had survived Darius’s rampage. He was enormous, easily dwarfing military transport vehicles, his dark red scales gleaming like polished rubies in the storm light.

Then he roared.

RAAARRRGGHHHHHH!!!

The sound was volcanic—deep, primal, carrying the fury of tectonic plates grinding together. It wasn’t just heard but felt, a physical pressure wave that rolled across the settlement and beyond. Birds fled from trees kilometers away. Small animals burrowed deeper into their dens. Every living thing within range experienced the same instinctive response: freeze or flee.

Valencia dropped to one knee, her hands pressed against her ears. Marcus’s face had gone pale, his enhanced senses making the roar feel like hammers striking his skull. Kira actually stumbled backward, her legs threatening to give out entirely.

Sophie’s expression remained controlled, but her hands had tightened into fists. She’d seen Nyx before, fought alongside him, but the dragon’s presence never stopped being overwhelming.

Diana stood perfectly still, her momentum nullification instinctively flaring to shield herself from the pressure wave. “Jesus,” she muttered.

Seraleth’s eyes were wide, her elven hearing picking up frequencies the humans couldn’t detect. “That is… considerably more imposing than I remembered.”

Darius, still in his wyvern form, had frozen mid-movement. His manic energy faltered as something older than conscious thought recognized what stood before him. The Harbinger arm pulsed with sickly green light, responding to the draconic presence.

Nyx’s golden eyes locked onto the fake Storm. His head lowered, nostrils flaring as he took in the imposter’s scent. The scales were wrong. The energy signature was corrupted. And worse—this thing dared to wear his little brother’s face.

The dragon’s lips pulled back, revealing teeth the size of swords.

Darius recovered first, his obsession overriding survival instincts. “ANOTHER ONE!” His distorted voice carried manic glee. “The boy has ANOTHER dragon! I’ll take them all! Prove I’m the apex—”

Nyx lunged.

The speed was impossible for something his size. One moment he was standing over the settlement, the next he’d closed fifty meters, jaws open wide enough to chew off a car.

Darius shot into the air, his wyvern form’s wings beating frantically. Lightning crackled along his scales as he climbed higher, seeking his natural advantage. Storm’s form was built for aerial superiority—speed, maneuverability, elemental control.

Nyx followed.

His wings unfurled completely, each one spanning wider than a dropship. They beat once, twice, creating windstorms that flattened already damaged buildings. He rose after Darius with terrifying purpose, his bulk somehow not slowing him.

The dark storm clouds became their battlefield.

Darius wheeled and dove, his speed allowing him to stay ahead of Nyx. Ice formed along his wings, trailing behind him in crystalline patterns. He banked hard left, then right, weaving through the clouds with grace that only Storm’s natural form could achieve.

Nyx pursued relentlessly, but his larger frame made tight maneuvers difficult. Where Darius could change direction on a dime, Nyx needed wider arcs to maintain momentum.

Lightning flashed through the clouds. Thunder rolled across the settlement. The recruits on the ground could only see brief glimpses—red scales catching light, blue energy discharging, frost spreading across cloud formations.

“Can you see them?” Marcus asked, his scanner useless in the storm interference.

“Barely,” Valencia replied, squinting upward. “Just flashes. Movement. They’re too fast.”

Another lightning strike. This one deliberately aimed, Darius using Storm’s abilities to attack while maintaining distance. The bolt caught Nyx’s wing, electricity arcing across scales.

The dragon roared again, this time carrying pain and fury in equal measure.

“Is Nyx going to win?” Kira asked, her voice was small like a child watching something terrifying. The question was directed at no one specifically, but everyone heard the doubt.

Noah stood watching the battle unfold, his arms were crossed. His expression carried no concern, no fear. Just calm observation.

“If Darius keeps the fight up there,” Noah said quietly, “Nyx will have trouble. That’s Storm’s natural advantage—speed and aerial maneuverability. Nyx is built for power, not dogfighting.”

“So he could lose?” Marcus asked.

Noah’s smile was slight, almost knowing. “Nah. He’d win.”

As if responding to Noah’s confidence, the temperature in the storm clouds began to rise.

Nyx’s chest started glowing, faint at first, then intensifying rapidly. Red light pulsed through his scales like lava flowing through volcanic channels. His Molten Core was activating, supercharging his abilities, preparing for devastating counterattack.

Darius noticed immediately. His enhanced senses screamed warnings as the dragon’s energy output spiked to dangerous levels.

He dove, trying to build distance, but Nyx was already moving.

The dragon inhaled, his entire body expanding with the breath. Then he exhaled.

Inferno Storm.

The attack wasn’t fire—it was pure destructive energy given form. A massive beam of red devastation tore through the storm clouds, incinerating moisture, superheating air, creating a corridor of destruction that caught Darius mid-flight.

The fake Storm shrieked as the beam engulfed his left side. Scales blackened and cracked. Flesh burned. Even the Harbinger arm, with its enhanced regeneration, couldn’t heal fast enough against that level of sustained damage.

The force of the blast sent Darius spinning out of control, his flight pattern failing as one wing seized up from thermal shock. He plummeted, trailing smoke and frost in equal measure as his body tried desperately to cool the burned areas.

He hit the ground like a meteor.

*Boom!!!*

The impact created a crater maybe twenty meters across, debris exploding outward in all directions. The settlement, already devastated, took further damage as the shockwave rippled through foundations.

“Holy shit,” Valencia breathed.

Nyx descended after him, slower now, more controlled. His wings beat with measured power, bringing him down to ground level where his true strength could be brought to bear. The red glow from his Molten Core intensified, making the air shimmer with heat.

Darius struggled to rise from the crater. His wyvern form was badly damaged—the left wing hung useless, burns covered a third of his body, and even the Harbinger arm showed char marks.

But he was getting up anyway. The corruption from that arm pushed him forward, flooding his system with unnatural strength and pain tolerance.

“I’m… not… DONE!” He launched himself at Nyx despite the injuries, moving on three limbs and one wing, his speed still formidable even crippled.

Nyx met him head-on.

The dragon’s jaws closed around Darius’s torso, teeth punching through scales and flesh. He lifted the fake Storm off the ground, shaking him like prey, then slammed him back down with bone-crushing force.

Darius’s Harbinger arm lashed out, the corrupted limb carrying strength beyond what his wyvern form should possess. The blow caught Nyx across the face, actually making the dragon’s head turn from the impact.

Nyx released him, stumbling back a step. Blood ran from where the Harbinger arm had torn through scales near his eye.

“YES!” Darius shrieked, his voice distorted by pain and mania. “I can HURT you! I can—”

Nyx’s tail whipped around with freight-train force, catching Darius across the chest and launching him through three partially standing buildings. Stone and metal crumpled like paper.

The dragon followed, each step deliberate. His Molten Core pulsed brighter, wounds cauterizing themselves, the heat radiating off him making the ground beneath his feet begin to glow.

Darius emerged from the rubble, his wyvern form shifting and flickering. The damage was too extensive—even with the Harbinger arm’s regeneration, he couldn’t maintain Storm’s shape much longer.

“More,” he wheezed, his obsession overriding reason. “Give me MORE!”

Nyx opened his jaws. The red glow that had been contained in his chest moved upward, concentrating at the base of his throat. Energy gathered, compressed, building to critical mass.

A sphere formed in front of his mouth, growing larger by the second. Two meters. Three. Four. The air around it distorted from pure heat, creating visual warping that made it hard to look at directly.

Magma Bomb.

“Oh no,” Sophie said quietly from the observation point.

The sphere launched with devastating velocity, covering the distance to Darius in under a second.

BOOOOM!!!

The explosion was apocalyptic. Fire and molten energy erupted outward in a sphere that consumed everything within fifty meters. The shockwave shattered what remained of nearby buildings, sending debris flying in all directions. Heat washed over the watching team even at their distance, forcing them to shield their faces.

When the light faded, a massive crater occupied where several city blocks had been. The ground was molten glass at the center, still glowing orange from residual heat.

Darius lay in the crater’s heart, his wyvern form barely holding together. Scales had been burned away completely in places. One eye was swollen shut. The Harbinger arm twitched spasmodically, its green glow flickering.

But he was still conscious. Still breathing. Still trying to move.

Nyx rose into the air, wings beating with powerful, measured strokes. He climbed higher and higher, until he was maybe two hundred meters up, a dark red shape against storm clouds that were beginning to dissipate.

Then he folded his wings and dove.

The acceleration was incredible—Nyx plummeted like a guided missile, his entire mass focused into a single point of devastating impact. Air screamed around him, creating a sound like a whistle magnified a thousand times.

Dive Bomb.

Valencia grabbed Marcus’s arm. “Is he going to—”

The impact was felt before it was seen.

The ground trembled like an earthquake had struck. A shockwave radiated outward, knocking everyone off their feet except Noah, who’d braced himself. The sound came a moment later—not an explosion but the earth itself groaning under impossible force.

A crater within a crater formed where Darius had been lying. The depression was deep enough that its bottom couldn’t be seen from the edge, walls of compacted earth rising like the rim of a meteor strike.

Dust and smoke obscured everything for several seconds.

When it cleared, Nyx stood at the crater’s center, his claws planted firmly on compressed stone. His head was lowered, nostrils flaring as he searched for any sign of continued threat.

Darius was no longer in wyvern form. The impact had shattered his transformation, leaving him in human shape, broken and bleeding. His clothes were burned away, skin covered in wounds that even the Harbinger arm couldn’t heal fast enough. He was unconscious, barely breathing.

“Is he dead?” Kira whispered.

“No,” Noah replied. “But he’s done.”

The team approached cautiously, weapons ready despite Darius’s obvious incapacitation. Sophie moved ahead with Diana, both of them scanning for any signs of deception.

They reached the crater’s edge, looking down at where Darius lay in a heap at Nyx’s feet.

Then his body twitched.

Before anyone could react, his form blurred and shifted. Not into Storm’s shape but something smaller—a falcon. His wings snapped open despite obvious damage.

“He’s running!” Diana shouted.

The falcon launched itself skyward with desperate speed, climbing at angles that suggested he was suffering from severe injuries. Within seconds it was beyond effective weapon range, disappearing into the remnants of storm clouds.

Nyx roared after him and one could tell it was out of pure frustration, but he didn’t pursue. The dragon knew a fleeing target when he saw one, and his subconscious order Noah had given was protection, not hunt.

Noah watched the falcon disappear, his expression remained thoughtful. “He’ll be back. That kind of obsession doesn’t quit.”

“Let him come,” Diana said grimly. “Next time we’ll be ready.”

They spent the next twenty minutes ensuring the settlement was actually clear. No more threats, no more traps, just devastation and the lingering heat from Nyx’s attacks.

The settlers emerged from hiding gradually—first one or two brave souls, then families, then entire groups. They’d taken refuge in underground storage areas and reinforced basements, places that could survive the destruction happening above.

An elderly man approached Sophie cautiously. “The dragon… the one that attacked. It didn’t hurt anyone.”

“What?” Sophie blinked.

“It destroyed buildings, tore through the settlement, but every time someone was in danger, it avoided them. Deliberately.” The man gestured to the ruins. “Property damage is extensive, but we had time to evacuate. No casualties.”

Understanding dawned. Darius had been baiting Noah specifically. He’d created chaos without actually killing anyone, knowing that mass casualties would bring military response that might interfere with his trap.

“You’re safe now,” Sophie assured him. “Eclipse Faction responds to threats like this. We’ll make sure you’re protected.”

“Eclipse Faction,” the man repeated, looking at where Nyx still stood in his crater. “The ones with dragons?”

“Among other things,” Noah said, approaching. “We handle threats that other factions won’t touch.”

Word was going to spread. No question about it. A faction with actual dragons had just saved a settlement from a shapeshifting S-ranked threat. That story would be in every underground network by nightfall.

—

The flight back to headquarters was subdued. Valencia, Marcus, and Kira sat together, still processing what they’d witnessed. None of them spoke much, just exchanged glances that communicated volumes.

Valencia finally broke the silence. “That was the Red Death Dragon. Nyx.”

“I’ve heard legends,” Marcus said quietly. “Fictional stories from old hunters about dragons being real. I always thought they were exaggerating encounters with Category Five beasts.”

“That wasn’t a Category Five,” Kira said, her voice carrying awe. “That was something else entirely. The power, the presence, the way it fought…” She looked at Noah, who sat near the cockpit with Sophie. “How does someone our age command something like that?”

“He doesn’t just command it,” Valencia observed. “Did you see how Nyx looked at him? That’s not master and servant. That’s partnership. Brotherhood, almost.”

They fell silent again, each of them replaying the battle in their minds. The volcanic roar. The Inferno Storm cutting through clouds. The Magma Bomb’s apocalyptic detonation. The final Dive Bomb that had felt like the world itself was ending.

“I need to train harder,” Marcus said suddenly. “A lot harder. If that’s the level we’re aspiring to…”

“We’re never reaching that level,” Kira interrupted. “That’s not human capability. That’s… something beyond.”

“But we’re on his team,” Valencia pointed out. “We fight alongside that. Which means we need to be worthy of it.”

The conversation continued in hushed, reverent tones until they reached headquarters.

—

The landing bay was busy when they returned. Other teams were processing contracts, recruits were training, Sam was coordinating logistics. Normal faction operations.

Then Valencia, Marcus, and Kira started talking.

“You should have seen it,” Valencia was telling anyone who would listen. “A dragon. An actual dragon. Red scales, bigger than a transport, breathing attacks that leveled city blocks.”

“The roar alone nearly dropped us,” Marcus added. “I’ve faced Category Four beasts. Hell, if you think that alpha ape Noah took down last week was bad, you haven’t seen anything. Nothing compared to this.”

“And the way it fought,” Kira said, her eyes distant. “It wasn’t mindless destruction. Every move was calculated, purposeful. Like watching an apex predator that knew exactly how dominant it was.”

The recruits who’d stayed behind listened with varying degrees of skepticism and envy. Some demanded proof. Others wanted every detail. A few openly complained about missing the spectacle.

“Why didn’t you bring us?” one recruit asked. “We could have helped!”

“Helped?” Marcus laughed. “Friend, we barely helped. This was watching two titans clash while trying not to get caught in the crossfire.”

Sophie observed the growing crowd around the three recruits, noted how the story was already taking on legendary proportions, and smiled slightly.

She approached Noah, who’d been watching from the sidelines. “It’s safe to say Nyx left a lasting impression on the recruits.”

Noah looked at the excited crowd, at the way Valencia was demonstrating Nyx’s size with exaggerated hand gestures, at how Marcus was describing the Magma Bomb with reverence in his voice.

“The Red Death Dragon wins,” Noah said simply.

Sophie’s smile widened. “Every time.”