Ex-Rank Awakening: My Attacks Make Me Stronger - Chapter 329

Chapter 329: EX 329. Complete Elf
Elaine’s voice grew softer, the sound of the pool’s gentle hum weaving beneath her words.

“The infertility,” she said, “was something that affected us deeply. It wasn’t caused by any external force. It was born from within us, from the very design of our race. We were… not complete.”

Rachel frowned, her brows knitting.

‘Not complete? What does that even mean?’

Elaine turned slightly toward her, her expression unreadable beneath the blindfold.

“Error is a universal law, Rachel. Even entities capable of creation are prone to it.” She paused. “And we… we were that error.”

The weight of those words lingered in the air. Rachel could feel it, the grief of a people realizing they were never meant to exist as they were.

Elaine’s tone dimmed, each word carrying a thousand years of sorrow.

“Because of something beyond our control, we faced annihilation. Our numbers dwindled. Every moon, another life lost… and no new one born to replace it.”

Rachel could almost see it, the forests of the old world growing quiet, the laughter of children fading from memory. The dread of an entire race watching itself vanish, powerless to stop it.

“At that time,” Elaine continued, “there was no magic. No professionals. We didn’t have the means to heal or create. All we could do was watch as we slowly disappeared.”

Silence fell again, broken only by the faint pulse of life from the pool beside them.

Then Elaine’s voice took on a bitter calm.

“But what we lacked in power, we made up for in servitude.”

Rachel blinked, startled.

“Servitude?”

“Yes.” Elaine turned her face upward slightly, as if remembering. “Since the light abandoned us, we sought another being, one strong enough to save us. We lowered our heads and offered our loyalty to the dominant race of that era.”

Rachel’s heart skipped a beat.

“Who?”

Elaine’s lips curved faintly, but there was no warmth in it.

“The beasts.”

****

Before the rise of the first human emperor, Julius Arman, before the creation of the Arts that allowed mortals to ascend as Professionals, the world of Pandora belonged to the beasts.

All races, elves included, lived under the dominion of the Beasts and their ruler, the True Beast God.

But back then, the True Beast God was nothing like the tyrant remembered in later eras. The one the four races would one day unite to overthrow had been different, it was cruel, prideful and insatiable for dominion. Yet the True Beast God of the old age had been the opposite. Being benevolent and calm.

A being that guided rather than ruled.

And it was to him the elves went when their extinction loomed.

Elaine’s voice softened as she recalled that time. “The True Beast God was a being of immense power,” she said. “It was even said he had surpassed the peak of what we have achieved today.”

Rachel’s breath caught.

‘Surpassed the peak?’

It didn’t make sense. The highest known level of power in Pandora was Rank 9, the limit of both Professionals and Trial Takers. For someone to go beyond that… it felt impossibly unreal.

Confusion gnawed at her.

“Then… how did he die?” she asked. A being beyond the peak couldn’t have fallen to something as simple as death. And from what the queen said, the beast gods of later generations weren’t him.

Elaine smiled faintly, her expression unreadable. “He didn’t die,” she said. “He chose to join the Light.”

Rachel blinked.

“Join… the Light?”

“That is all I can tell you,” Elaine said quietly. Then her tone shifted, carrying a kind of reverence. “After we begged the True Beast God for salvation, he agreed. He used his power to create a seed and gave it to us. He had instructed us, to nurture the seed, so that when it grows into a great tree, our race will finally be complete and our error will be undone.”

Rachel’s eyes widened as the realization dawned on her.

“You mean…”

Elaine turned toward her, her voice firm.

“Yes. Being a Bloodborn is not a sin. It is a sign of completion.”

The words hit Rachel like a surge of light.

“The tree he gave us has birthed elves through the ages,” Elaine continued. “Each generation, it seeks to correct what we once lacked—to refine what we are. And you, Rachel…” The queen’s blindfolded gaze seemed to pierce straight through her.

“You are that result. The proof that our race is no longer broken.”

****

Rachel said nothing for a long time. The air around the ancestral pool shimmered with life, yet her thoughts were trapped in death.

Memories surged through her mind in a wild, relentless rush, her birth branded as a sin, the screams of her parents as they were murdered for committing that sin, and her sister’s bright laughter that ended far too soon. Her sister, who had taken on the role of ruler candidate, not out of ambition but to change the elves’ hatred toward Bloodborns. To make them see Rachel not as a curse, but as kin. That decision had led her to her death.

Rachel’s throat tightened.

“All this time,” she whispered, her voice trembling, “I felt like my existence brought nothing but condemnation to my family. My father, my mother… my sister. All dead because of me.”

Elaine didn’t interrupt. She only watched, silent and solemn, the faint glow from the pool casting her features in gold.

“At first,” Rachel continued, her words falling heavy into the still air, “I wanted to end it all. But then… the same people who despised me came to me, asking me to take my sister’s place.” She gave a hollow laugh, one that cracked under its own weight.

“I didn’t want it at first. But I accepted. I thought… maybe if I rose high enough, I could change everything. Make them see Bloodborns differently.”

Her voice faltered as realization sank in.

“But all this time, the status quo I fought to change… was indeed wrong.”

The chuckle that escaped her lips was dry, almost bitter.

“It’s really pitiful, isn’t it?”

Elaine stepped closer. Her expression softened—not of pity, but quiet pride.

“So what now?” Rachel asked finally, her eyes meeting the Queen’s.

Elaine’s lips curved into a gentle smile.

“Now, we bring out your potential,” she said. “As a complete elf.” Her Blind folded gaze lingered on Rachel’s trembling hands, then rose again, calm and sure.

“And once that happens, Rachel… you will never feel weak again.”