Re-Awakened :I Ascend as an SSS-Ranked Dragon Summoner - Chapter 444

Chapter 444: King’s madness

Lyra approached with her usual grace, but something was different. Instead of covert wariness, she moved with the openness of someone who no longer needed deception.

The reaction was immediate. Weapons came up, abilities charged, Ares soldiers took defensive positions.

King Aurelius stepped forward, flames dancing around his fingers. “What you did was in no way flamboyant! Betrayal without style! You’ve insulted the very concept of proper villainy!”

Lucy’s hands began crackling with electricity. “Give us one reason not to end this right now.”

Sophie’s blades ignited. “Where are Kelvin and Bruce?”

Lucas waited, ready to move the moment violence erupted.

Diana said nothing, but created a dead zone around Lyra that would trap her if she tried to escape.

“I understand your anger,” Lyra said, raising her hands. “Everything you’re feeling is justified.”

“Justified?” Diana’s voice could have cut steel. “You kidnapped our teammate.”

Noah stepped forward, moving to stand beside Lyra despite the shocked stares.

“She’s on our side,” he said simply.

The silence that followed could have preceded an explosion.

“What?” Sophie’s voice cracked.

“Lyra is working with us. She has been for weeks.”

Lucas found his voice first. “Noah, what the hell are you talking about?”

Lyra stepped forward, relief and apprehension warring in her expression. “I’m an Infinity soldier. What you call the Eighth, we think of ourselves as Endless.”

“You’re still working for them,” Diana stated.

“I was working for them. Past tense. I got tired of betraying people I’d come to care about.”

King Aurelius’s flames flickered with confusion rather than rage. “Then why the elaborate deception?”

“Because there’s still a mole on the team,” Noah said, his eyes moving across the team, one after the other until finding Uncle Dom in the group. Dom was standing slightly apart from the others, that familiar crooked grin spreading across his weathered face. “Lyra wasn’t the one leaking information.”

The words hung in the air like smoke from an explosion. Everyone followed Noah’s gaze to Dom, who started giggling—a high-pitched sound that made Sophie’s skin crawl.

“Ohhh,” Dom said, clapping his hands together like a delighted child. “Oh, oh, oh! Finally! I was wondering when someone would put it together!”

Lucas felt his stomach drop. “Uncle Dom, what are you talking about?”

“What am I talking about?” Dom’s voice rose to an almost shriek. “What am I TALKING about? I’m talking about twenty-three years of watching my baby brother get everything I deserved! Everything that should have been MINE!”

Lucy stepped backward instinctively. She’d seen her uncle have episodes before, but this was different. This was focused rage wrapped in madness.

“You want to know how they knew about daddy’s precious secrets and way into the palace?” Dom spun around, his arms flailing wildly. “Because I TOLD them! Every single one! Every secret meeting, every travel plan, every family dinner conversation where Damien talked about his important kingly duties!”

Diana’s face went white. “You sick bastard.”

“SICK?” Dom’s laugh could have shattered glass. “I’m sick? I’m the one who spent fifteen years in a padded cell because grandfather decided I was ‘unfit to rule!’ Meanwhile, my perfect little brother got to play king with MY birthright!”

He started pacing in tight circles, his movements jerky and uncontrolled. “Do you know what it’s like? Rotting in that mental institution while my baby brother gets crowned? Listening to the orderlies talk about how wonderful King Damien is? How stable! How responsible! How much better he is than his crazy older brother!”

Sophie raised her weapons. “Stay back, everyone. He’s completely lost it.”

“Lost it? LOST IT?” Dom’s voice cracked as he screamed. “I found it! I broke out of that hellhole just in time to watch everything fall apart! And guess what? My dear little nephew and niece didn’t even know I existed!”

Lucas felt sick. “We never… father never told us…”

“Of course he didn’t!” Dom shrieked. “Can’t have the precious heirs knowing about crazy Uncle Dom locked away in the loony bin! Better to pretend I never existed than admit the Grey bloodline produces MADMEN!”

Lucy stepped backward, horror dawning on her face. “You’ve been planning this since you escaped.”

Dom clapped his hands together like a delighted child. “Since the moment I walked out of those doors! Found the Eighth, told them everything about daddy’s precious routines, and watched it all come crashing down! The look on your faces when you realized you had an uncle you’d never heard of – PRICELESS!”

“The timing,” Noah said quietly. “You broke out right when we needed information about the families.”

“Convenient, wasn’t it?” Dom’s grin was absolutely manic. “Poor little lost children, looking for answers about their missing daddy, and along comes crazy Uncle Dom with all the family secrets! Of course you trusted me – I was FAMILY!”

He started laughing, a sound that made everyone’s skin crawl. “And the best part? The Eighth promised me the throne once Damien dies and you brats are eliminated! King Dominic! The madman who should have ruled from the beginning!”

“You’re insane,” Lucy whispered.

Dom stopped pacing and stared at her with eyes that held no recognition, no family affection, nothing but hatred. “Insane? Maybe. But I’m going to be an insane KING while you’re all rotting in whatever hell the Eighth has planned!”

Lightning began crackling around his body—not controlled, not focused, but chaotic and dangerous. Electricity arced between his fingers, jumped to nearby metal, scorched the ground at his feet.

“I arranged your daddy’s kidnapping and your mommy’s current sick bed situation, you know,” he said, his voice now sickeningly sweet. “Made sure I’d be right there when you came looking for information about daddy. Made sure I could watch your faces when you realized how completely I’d fooled you all!”

Noah stepped forward, his expression cold as ice. “You’re done.”

“AM I?” Dom shrieked, electricity exploding outward from his body. The blast sent everyone scrambling for cover as raw power tore through the air. “I’m just getting started!”

“Because I deserve what was taken from me. The throne should have been mine by birthright, not passed to Damien because the council found me unstable.”

“It was all a trap,” Lucy said flatly.

Noah smiled, never taking his eyes off Dom. “Yes. But not the kind you’re thinking.”

He activated his communication device, bringing hundreds of Ares soldiers out of concealment. They’d been positioned throughout the ruins, waiting.

“Your trap just became ours,” Noah said.

Lightning erupted from Dom’s position as he launched himself backward with inhuman speed. Electrical current coursed through his legs, accelerating him to nearly Mach 2 as he fled through the urban maze.

Noah didn’t hesitate.

[VOID STRIDERS EQUIPPED]

Purple energy wrapped around his legs and his void striders were revealed as he launched after Dom, his speed carrying him through the air in pursuit.

The chase led through collapsed buildings and overgrown streets. Dom moved like living lightning, changing direction instantly and accelerating beyond normal human limits.

But Noah’s boots were designed for exactly this pursuit.

[PHASE STEP ACTIVATED]

Noah disappeared mid-flight, reappearing fifty meters ahead of Dom’s path. His uncle tried to change course, but Noah was already moving again.

[VOID BLINK ACTIVATED]

This time Noah materialized directly in Dom’s path, forcing him to skid to a halt.

“You can’t run forever,” Noah called out, purple energy beginning to gather around his hands.

“I don’t need forever,” Dom replied, electricity crackling around his body. “Just long enough to ensure you all die here.”

He thrust both hands toward Noah, releasing a bolt that would have killed an unprotected human instantly. Noah rolled aside, the blast carving a molten furrow through the street.

[VOID BLINK ACTIVATED]

Noah appeared behind Dom, his fist wreathed in purple energy as he aimed for his spine. But Dom spun faster than should have been possible, his reflexes carrying him out of range.

The building beside them exploded as Dom channeled electricity through its metal framework, bringing tons of concrete and steel crashing down.

[PHASE STEP ACTIVATED]

Noah shifted through the falling debris, emerging on the far side as the structure collapsed behind him. Dom was already moving again, his electrical field allowing him to run up building sides and across rooftops with impossible agility.

Noah pursued, his boots carrying him through three-dimensional space as he leaped between buildings and changed direction mid-air. The chase became a running battle, blasts and purple energy carving destruction through whatever lay in their path.

“You know what hurts the most?” Dom called out as he leaped across a street-spanning gap. “Damien was always the inferior choice. Weaker, more cautious, less willing to make hard decisions.”

[VOID BLINK ACTIVATED]

Noah appeared on the same rooftop, closing distance rapidly. “And yet he was chosen over you.”

“Because the council feared strength! They wanted a puppet they could control, not a king who would actually lead!”

He spun and released another blast, this one powerful enough to shatter the rooftop beneath their feet. Both men fell through collapsing floors, crashing through multiple levels.

Noah rolled with the impact, his gear absorbing most of the damage. Dom landed in a crouch, electricity arcing around him like a living shield.

“I spent years in that cell,” Dom continued, his voice echoing through the destroyed building. “Years planning how I would reclaim what was stolen. Their ather dead, their mother eliminated, the children led into a trap that would end the Grey royal bloodline forever and out with a new bloodline. A bloodline that I will create!!!”

[PHASE STEP ACTIVATED]

Noah moved through a partial wall, appearing beside Dom. His fist connected with ribs, sending the older man flying across the room.

But Dom recovered mid-flight, using his abilities to stick to the far wall. He pushed off with superhuman force, tackling Noah through another wall into the building’s main support structure.

They crashed through steel beams and concrete pillars, their abilities turning them into human wrecking balls. The entire structure began collapsing around them.

“This is madness. You will never be king. You know this. You think the same Eight won’t come for you? Tell yourself the truth!!” Noah swung at Dom.

“You want the truth?” Dom gasped as they grappled among falling debris. “I was the one who told the eight about your trip to earth which you probably know. I arranged the king’s capture, his imprisonment, probably his death by now. You think I care about outcomes?”

Rage flooded through Noah, but he channeled it into focus rather than recklessness.

[VOID BLINK ACTIVATED]

He disappeared from Dom’s grapple, reappearing behind him with purple energy wrapped around his fist like a gauntlet of destruction but he held back and with his second hand which was uncoated with void energy. He swung without care.

The punch connected with Dom’s spine, disrupting the older man’s mobility. Dom collapsed forward, his electrical field flickering and dying.

Noah grabbed Dom by the throat and slammed him against the remaining wall. Purple energy crackled around his other hand, forming into the familiar shape of a Null Strike.

“Two choices,” Noah said quietly, his voice carrying lethal certainty. “You enter my domain where we decide what to do with you later. Or you let me demonstrate what happens when this energy meets matter,”

Dom stared at the purple power wrapped around Noah’s fist, his senses telling him exactly what that could do to living tissue.

“Domain,” he said quickly.

Purple energy erupted around both figures as they disappeared from the collapsing building.

—

Noah materialized alone in the plaza where his team waited, his clothes torn and dusty but his expression showing satisfaction.

“Is it done?” Lucas asked.

“He’s contained,” Noah replied. “We’ll decide what to do with him later.”

He looked around at the assembled forces—Ares soldiers and his teammates who’d come together to end a threat that had plagued them for generations.

In the distance, the Eighth’s fortress rose from the city’s heart like a monument to ancient grudges. Thousands of shadow soldiers moved across its walls, preparing for a siege that would determine the future of human civilization.

“Now,” Noah said, equipping Excaliburn and Knight’s grace, “we finish this.”

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