Ex-Rank Awakening: My Attacks Make Me Stronger - Chapter 291

Chapter 291: EX 291. Golden Man
In the heart of Harlot’s Paradise, inside a sprawling mansion draped in crimson silks and gold-threaded curtains, a woman lounged on a velvet sofa. Her beauty was the kind that could unmake kingdoms, long black hair spilling like ink down her shoulders, pale skin gleaming against the dim, sultry glow of the pleasure house.

But there were no men there to admire her. Only hulking figures filled the chamber, brutes as tall as the ceiling, their muscles twitching under blackened flesh. These were not the grey abominations that had clashed with the guards outside; these were darker, heavier, and symmetrical, their frames unnervingly human yet utterly monstrous.

For a while, the woman sat motionless, eyes closed as if lost in thought. Then, slowly, her lids lifted. Crimson irises gleamed in the half-light, and in them was no allure, no warmth, only simmering rage.

She rose from the sofa, her robe slipping slightly off one shoulder, revealing the faint shimmer of black veins crawling up her neck. Each step she took was measured, graceful and dangerous. The brutes behind her followed in silence, their heavy footsteps shaking the floor.

Her lips curved into a smile that held no joy.

“We have guests,” she said softly, her tone carrying the sweetness of honey and the bite of venom. “And they don’t play nicely.”

She moved through a set of carved doors into another chamber. The air here was fouler. The stench of death clung to the walls. Rows of corpses lay strewn across the floor, men she had drained dry, their faces pale and twisted in the stillness of death.

Her crimson eyes began to glow brighter, swirling with a corrupted light. The temperature dropped, and the silence broke.

The bodies twitched.

At first, it was small movements, fingers curling, necks jerking. Then, all at once, the corpses began to convulse violently, their bones cracking, flesh writhing as something unholy took root within. The sound was grotesque, a symphony of splitting sinew and snapping spine.

The transformation was swift and merciless. The drained husks swelled and twisted, their human features stretching into monstrous proportions. In moments, a dozen new abominations stood where corpses had been. Their skin was pitch-black, their breath steaming with corrupted energy. Each radiated a strength that far surpassed the weaker brutes outside, these were Rank 6 abominations, born of the succubus’s will.

The woman, no, the seductress stepped closer, her hand gliding beneath the chin of the nearest brute.

“If not for the trouble in making you…” she purred, tilting its head up to meet her eyes, “…I would have created more of you long ago.”

Her hand dropped, and she turned away, her robe trailing behind her like spilled ink.

“Now go,” she commanded, her tone laced with cruel amusement. “Have some fun.”

The towering brutes bowed in eerie unison before marching toward the exit, the walls trembling under their weight.

As they disappeared into the misty streets, the seductress smiled faintly and whispered to herself,

“Let’s see how another creature of the void tastes.”

Outside, the night grew darker.

And in the distance, Leon and his team were drawing closer to the city’s heart, where corruption waited, smiling.

****

They were still hovering above the city, the air thick with the stench of rot and corruption, when the night split open with a thunderous roar.

ROAR!!!

The sound rolled through the streets like a quake, and in the next instant, the horizon shifted, a tide of grotesque figures surged from every corner of the ruined city. Hundreds of them, both grey and black, their claws gouging into stone as they charged across rooftops and streets.

Leon’s eyes narrowed. “Looks like we’ve got a little company.”

Lancelot’s expression hardened, his golden aura already flaring to life. “I’ll restrain them. You do the rest.”

Leon gave a short nod. It was the same plan they’d used outside the city, Lancelot would lock them down, and Leon would finish them off. It was quick and efficient.

He glanced back at Rachel and Adrian. Both were tense but steady, their weapons drawn, waiting for his cue. A small smile tugged at Leon’s lips. ‘Looks like they won’t be getting much action this round either.’

He’d brought them here for a reason. Trial rewards scaled with contribution. The more they did, the better their rewards. An SSS-rank trial wouldn’t give junk loot, but still, every bit of contribution mattered. He’d planned to let them earn theirs, to toughen them up in real combat.

‘Maybe next time,’ he thought.

But then, the sky shifted.

Leon froze as one of the black brutes suddenly turned, not toward them, but toward another brute beside it. The thing lunged, jaws splitting wider than humanly possible, and bit down. Flesh tore and bone crunched.

“What the hell…” Leon muttered.

Before he could blink, chaos followed. The other black brutes began devouring each other in a frenzy, their guttural snarls echoing through the air. Flesh melded into flesh, muscles splitting and reforming. The air shimmered with corruption so dense it made the sky hum.

Within seconds, the battlefield fell silent. No black brutes remained, only one.

It was grotesquely bloated. Its skin pulsed like overfilled leather, its body trembling as though it couldn’t bear its own mass.

Then it detonated.

BOOM!

A shockwave of black sludge rippled through the air. Leon threw up his arm to shield himself as chunks of corrupted flesh splattered across the clouds.

When the haze cleared, something stood where the abomination had been.

It wasn’t massive. It wasn’t hulking. It was human-sized.

The figure’s skin was flayed in ribbons, revealing dense cords of muscle beneath, a body sculpted like a weapon. There were no eyes, no nose, no ears. Just a smooth face and a jagged mouth stretched into a mocking grin lined with rows of razor teeth.

At first, there was no aura. Just the quiet hum of the wind around it.

Then—

FLASH!

A blinding golden light erupted from its body, washing over the battlefield like a sunrise of death. Its skin shimmered, turning pure gold, veins glowing beneath the surface like molten rivers. The air rippled under its pressure, crushing and divine.

Leon’s pupils contracted as he felt the weight of its power press down on him. Rank 7. Equal to Lancelot.

“Shit,” Leon breathed, his grip tightening on the Void Blade.

Originus stirred in his mind, his voice deep and ancient.

‘Now that,’ the dragon rumbled, ‘might actually be worth killing.’

Leon didn’t answer. His gaze stayed fixed on the golden creature ahead, the thing smiling with no eyes, no soul, and enough power to level a city.