Re-Awakened :I Ascend as an SSS-Ranked Dragon Summoner - Chapter 449

Chapter 449: Arthur’s biography

The chamber was growing darker as more light was absorbed, but somehow Arthur remained clearly visible, as if illuminated from within.

“It took me forty-seven years to break free of that tomb. Forty-seven years of solitude and fury, forty-seven years to fully comprehend what I was capable of becoming. And when I finally emerged into daylight, do you know what I discovered?”

His voice was rising now, taking on the tone of someone delivering a long-rehearsed lecture.

“I found that the seven families had spread across the galaxy like a plague, establishing kingdoms and empires wherever they went. I found planets where entire populations existed only to serve the whims of your ancestors. I found civilizations that had been conquered, enslaved, or simply erased because they possessed resources the families wanted.”

Arthur raised his hand, and shadows began flowing toward him from every corner of the chamber.

“I found Maive’s grave on a world so distant from Earth that the stars were different. She’d lived exactly eight years after my imprisonment before dying of what the medical records called ‘acute melancholy.’ Leviticus had grown bored with her once the novelty wore off, and she’d spent her final years as a servant in what had once been her own home.”

The shadows were coalescing around Arthur now, not changing his appearance but making him seem more substantial, more real than everything else in the chamber.

“For centuries after that, I watched the descendants of those seven cowards play at being benevolent rulers while committing atrocities that would shame actual tyrants. I’ve seen them justify every conquest, every massacre, every act of oppression as necessary for the greater good of galactic civilization.”

His voice carried the absolute conviction of someone who’d spent lifetimes perfecting their argument.

“You want to know why I’ve been collecting family heads? Why I’ve been building armies and striking at your precious civilizations? It’s simple, children. I’m finishing what should have been done centuries ago. I’m stopping them.”

Noah felt pieces clicking together in his mind. This wasn’t random revenge—this was the systematic dismantling of what Arthur saw as a galactic tyranny built on the foundation of his personal betrayal.

“You’re not just after revenge,” Noah said. “You’re trying to destroy the entire power structure the families created.”

“I’m trying to restore balance,” Arthur corrected. “I was placed among those eight to prevent exactly what happened—the concentration of unlimited power in the hands of people who lack the wisdom to use it responsibly. My abilities exist specifically to check theirs, to take from those who abuse what they’ve been given and redistribute it to those who deserve it.”

Lucas stepped forward, his entire body now crackling with electrical energy. “And you think mass murder is the answer?”

“Mass murder?” Arthur laughed, and the sound carried no humor at all. “Child, your families have been committing mass murder for centuries. They just call it ‘maintaining order’ and ‘bringing civilization to primitive worlds.’ I’m simply applying their own methods to them.”

The shadows around Arthur were moving in increasingly complex patterns that hurt to look at directly.

“But you two represent something genuinely interesting,” he continued, his tone shifting to something more personal. “You’re not the mindless inheritors I usually encounter. You’ve actually thought about your actions, questioned the righteousness of your cause. That shows wisdom beyond your years.”

He took another step closer, and Noah noticed that the man cast no shadow despite the multiple light sources in the chamber.

“Which makes it particularly disappointing that you’ve chosen to involve yourselves in a conflict that began before your great-grandparents were born. You’re children attempting to play adult games with stakes you can’t possibly comprehend.”

Lucas’s anger finally boiled over completely. “We’re not children! We’ve fought wars, saved lives, made sacrifices you can’t even imagine!”

“Have you?” Arthur asked, his voice carrying genuine curiosity rather than mockery. “Have you really saved lives, or have you simply perpetuated a system that requires constant salvation because it’s fundamentally broken? Have you made sacrifices, or have you simply paid prices that other people set for you without your knowledge or consent?”

The challenge seemed to hit Lucas harder than any physical attack could have.

“You don’t understand what you’re talking about,” Lucas said, but his voice lacked its earlier conviction.

“I understand that every ‘heroic’ action you’ve taken has ultimately served to maintain the status quo that keeps the seven families in power,” Arthur replied. “I understand that every enemy you’ve defeated, every crisis you’ve resolved, every life you’ve saved has been in service of preserving a system built on the graves of people whose names you’ll never learn and whose suffering you’ll never acknowledge.”

He spread his arms wide, encompassing the entire chamber and everything it represented.

“Look around you, children. This fortress, this army, this entire war—it all exists because your ancestors decided that might makes right and power justifies any action taken to preserve itself. I’m simply taking that philosophy to its logical conclusion and turning it against them.”

Noah had been processing everything Arthur said, trying to separate legitimate grievances from dangerous rationalization. The man had been genuinely wronged—that much was undeniable. But his response to that wrong had grown into something far more destructive than the original injustice.

“You’re right about what they did to you,” Noah said finally. “The betrayal was wrong, leaving you to die was wrong, and a lot of what the families have done since then has been wrong too. But killing innocent people who had nothing to do with those ancient decisions? That’s just creating new injustices to balance old ones.”

Arthur studied Noah with something that might have been approval, or at least respect.

“At least you’re thinking,” he said. “That puts you considerably ahead of most people your age. But you’re still missing the fundamental point that makes all the difference.”

The shadows around him suddenly stilled, as if responding to his shift in mood and focus.

“There are no innocent people in this conflict, Noah Eclipse. Everyone who benefits from the system the families created is complicit in its crimes. Everyone who could resist their tyranny but chooses comfort instead is an enabler. Everyone who looks away while entire civilizations are ground under the boot of genetic aristocracy is a collaborator in genocide.”

The use of his full name made Noah’s blood run cold. He’d never told Arthur who he was, never mentioned his surname.

“You’re surprised I know your name?” Arthur smiled, and this time it carried genuine warmth. “I know everything about both of you that matters. Noah Eclipse, wielder of dark abilities that rival my own,” he said letting Noah digest it right then for a second.

“Lucas Grey, descendant of the man who helped orchestrate the murder of my happiness, inheritor of electrical abilities refined through generations of selective breeding for maximum destructive potential.”

He resumed walking toward them, his pace still unhurried but somehow more purposeful.

“You’ve made yourselves my concern by coming here, by threatening my work, by representing everything I’ve spent centuries trying to eliminate from the galaxy. Which means, I’m afraid, that you’ll need to be dealt with before you can cause any more damage.”

Lucas didn’t wait for him to finish the threat. Lightning erupted around his legs as he launched himself forward, moving at speeds that should have been impossible for human biology. His fist, wreathed in enough electrical energy to power a city block, aimed for Arthur’s chest with force that could have shattered concrete.

He never completed the attack.

Shadows rose from the polished floor like living creatures, wrapping around Lucas mid-charge and dragging him downward with irresistible force. Before he could react, before he could channel his electricity defensively, the darkness swallowed him completely. Within seconds, there was no trace that Lucas Grey had ever existed.

Arthur sighed deeply, a sound of genuine disappointment rather than satisfaction.

“Well, that was oddly anticlimactic,” he said, brushing imaginary dust from his plain shirt. “I expected more from a Grey descendant. More awareness, more creative problem-solving, more understanding of what he was actually facing.”

Noah stared at the spot where Lucas had vanished, but something was preventing him from feeling the shock he should have experienced. Yes, watching his friend disappear into shadow constructs was disturbing, but it wasn’t what commanded his primary attention.

It was what only he could see that truly mattered.

A translucent blue screen had materialized in his field of vision, displaying text that made his instincts scream warnings:

[NEW QUEST RECEIVED]

[OBJECTIVE: Defeat the entity known as “The Eighth”]

[REWARD: ???)]

[PENALTY: Death]

Noah dismissed the screen with a thought, his mind already shifting into full combat mode. But as the interface faded from view, something else became visible that made every sense he possessed scream danger.

All around Arthur, faint white lines had appeared in the air—dozens of them, moving in complex three-dimensional patterns that suggested incoming attacks from multiple vectors simultaneously. The lines were barely visible, like spider silk catching light from an impossible source, but Noah’s experience had taught him exactly what they represented.

Every white line was a potential killing blow, and there were more of them surrounding this man than Noah had ever seen around any opponent he’d faced.

His grip tightened on Excaliburn as the true scope of what he was facing became clear.

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