Ex-Rank Awakening: My Attacks Make Me Stronger - Chapter 283

Chapter 283: EX 283. Special
Leon’s soul trembled, but he was getting there, slowly and painstakingly.

The process felt like weaving the essence of his being into a living mesh, one fragile thread at a time. Each adjustment sent a wave of torment through him, but he endured, because now he understood what kept him from breaking apart.

At the very center of his soul blazed a steady light, his Talent: {Attack}

It was more than a skill or a gift; it was an anchor. It pulsed at his core like a molten star, radiating strength through the chaos. That unwavering force kept his soul from unraveling, balancing the violent clash between his essence and the ore’s. It was because of {Attack} that his existence didn’t crumble under the impossible weight of what he was attempting. And it was because of that same power that he could dare to do what no being before him had, reshape his very soul to match something alien.

So he pressed on.

Each second dragged like eternity as he merged thread by thread, aligning his soul’s rhythm to the ore’s dark pulse. His consciousness flickered, his senses blurred, but his will never faltered.

Outside, Originus watched in silence, its colossal eyes reflecting ancient wonder.

“He’s actually doing it…” the dragon murmured, voice echoing through the void like rolling thunder.

Then, at last, it happened.

The final thread aligned.

The two wavelengths, Soul and ore, creation and void, snapped into perfect harmony.

A deep hum reverberated across the void, shaking it to its foundation. Light and darkness collided in a single, perfect moment of resonance. The dragon’s eyes widened, awe cutting through its age-old composure.

“He… actually did it,” Originus whispered, as if afraid the sound of his own voice might disturb the miracle before him.

Leon’s body went still. The convulsions stopped. A wave of relief surged through him so profound it almost felt divine. For the first time since the bonding began, the pain was gone, completely gone.

And then, before him, the weapon took shape.

From the blackness, light bled forth in elegant streaks, weaving into steel, forming a blade of impossible depth. Its surface shimmered with threads of pure void, as though space itself bent around it.

Originus’ vast form began to fade, the edges of its colossal body dissolving into motes of ancient light.

“I am glad…” the dragon’s voice softened, like wind through forgotten halls, “…to have seen something so glorious.”

Leon reached out and grasped the weapon’s hilt.

The instant his fingers closed around it, the void erupted in light and then vanished.

Silence followed. The dome, the pain, the dragon, gone.

Leon stood alone, weapon in hand, the bond complete.

He had done it.

He had successfully bound his soul to the weapon born of Nigg’erite.

****

Alexander felt it first, a shift in the air, it was faint but undeniable.

The black dome that had consumed Leon began to hum, the sound deep enough to rattle the commander’s desk and send a shiver crawling up every spine in the room. Then, without warning, the dome splintered like glass under invisible pressure.

A burst of cold air swept through the office as the fragments dissolved into nothingness. In their place stood Leon.

Every pair of eyes locked on him. His aura, though still familiar, now cut sharper than a blade. It pressed against the air like unseen claws, leaving an instinctive weight that even the emperor could feel.

Alexander’s brows drew together. ‘Did the Nigg’erite truly have such an effect?’ he wondered, studying the young man who now looked more like a storm given form than a soldier.

Leon’s boots met the floor with a dull thud. He exhaled softly and opened his eyes. For a brief instant, a violet radiance burned within them, foreign and otherworldly, before fading back into that clear, piercing blue.

The emperor was the first to speak. “What happened?”

His voice carried calm authority, but beneath it was a thread of genuine curiosity. The commander’s gaze followed, equally tense. Even Racheal and Adrian leaned forward slightly, their faces lit with both awe and concern.

Leon looked around at their expectant stares and sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “I just bonded to a primordial dragon,” he said casually, as though announcing the weather. “No big deal.”

The silence that followed could’ve swallowed the room whole.

Then,

“What?!”

Four voices crashed together in perfect unison.

Leon didn’t bother explaining further. His attention was on his arm, where a strange tattoo now crawled across two-thirds of his forearm. It shimmered faintly under the room’s light, an intricate pattern of dragon scales outlined by thin, glowing runes.

“So this is how it looks when inactive,” he murmured, turning his wrist slightly. The weapon wasn’t in his inventory, instead it was on his arm now, bound to his soul.

He smirked faintly and muttered under his breath, “Mom’s not gonna like this.”

A quiet, dry chuckle escaped him, but the others were still frozen in disbelief—trying to process the absurdity of what they’d just heard.

A boy had tried to bound to a piece of ore.

Now he stood there bonded to a primordial dragon.

****

The emperor studied Leon for a long moment, his emerald eyes tracing every subtle motion, the steady rise of his chest, the calm set of his jaw, the strange new depth behind his gaze. There was no deceit there.

‘He’s telling the truth,’ Alexander thought, the weight of that realization sinking in. ‘But if what he said is true… how did it happen?’

The Nigg’erite orb was powerful, yes, but not beyond comprehension. He had obtained it himself on one of his expeditions into the Dragon Mountains, a place where few dared to tread. It was an ore infused with draconic resonance, not something that should have birthed a bond with a Primordial.

Alexander’s fingers brushed his chin as he leaned slightly forward in thought. He could still recall the blood-drenched caverns where he’d found it, the air thick with ancient power.

His eyes narrowed faintly as they settled on Leon.

‘So that’s it,’ he mused. ‘The thing special wasn’t the ore… it was the boy.’

There was something stirring beneath Leon’s calm surface, something that defied the natural order. Alexander could feel it even now, a resonance that didn’t belong to any race he knew, human or otherwise.