Ex-Rank Awakening: My Attacks Make Me Stronger - Chapter 343

Chapter 343: EX 343. Soul Realm
Leon and Elizabeth had known each other for as long as he could remember.

There was nothing grand about how they came together, no fateful encounter, no dramatic confession. Their families were close, and that closeness meant constant meetings, shared dinners, and long afternoons spent together.

It wasn’t rocket science that they’d end up falling for each other eventually.

Back then, Leon had been the hardworking type, always training, always pushing himself. Elizabeth used to tease him about it, calling him an old man trapped in a child’s body.

Still, she’d always found something cool about his focus, his quiet intensity.

Leon, on the other hand, barely noticed at first. He’d just begun to understand the kind of world he’d been born into, a world where power meant survival and he didn’t have time for relationships.

But Elizabeth wasn’t the type to stay quiet.

Her persistence, her laughter, her constant intrusion into his training sessions, somewhere in between it all, she broke through his walls.

He would later blame his weakness for ice cream for how it started; one shared cone at a festival and he was done for.

Now, standing over her still body, Leon’s jaw tightened.

The instant he linked the energy of the Origin Core to Elizabeth’s three cores, his consciousness was pulled away.

His eyes opened to a world that wasn’t his.

Death.

That was the first thing he saw.

The sky hung black as pitch, the earth cracked and lifeless beneath his feet.

The air was heavy with the stench of decay. All around him moved the Countless undead, monsters, beasts and creatures that had once lived.

Each carried awareness, their hollow eyes tracking unseen orders as they shuffled, fought and rebuilt.

When they noticed him, they froze, but only for a moment.

Then, as if he wasn’t even there, they continued their endless work.

Leon looked around and exhaled slowly.

“So this is where Lizzie stores her undead…”

To anyone else, the sight would’ve been enough to send them screaming.

But Leon felt oddly calm. He was inside her soulscape—her world—and that meant she was still there, somewhere.

“Now what do I—” he stopped mid-sentence.

Every undead within sight suddenly turned their heads in unison, facing west.

Leon followed their gaze. The horizon pulsed faintly with dark light.

“I guess that’s where I’m headed then,” he muttered, and began walking west.

****

Leon walked west, his boots echoing softly against the cracked ground.

The path stretched clear before him, no obstacles, no sudden attacks.

It was as if the undead themselves had cleared a road in his honor. On either side, the dead swayed or crawled, some half-beasts held together by threads of strange energy, others humanoid, their forms distorted by decay.

Most drifted aimlessly, but a few moved with purpose, demons, unmistakable even in death.

Leon exhaled through his nose, his eyes narrowing.

“Lizzy was really busy,” he muttered under his breath.

For the first time, he realized the sheer scale of her effort.

He’d always been the center of attention, the prodigy and the anomaly, but Elizabeth… she wasn’t weak.

She was the daughter of a dragon. Bearer of a saint-ranked talent. Her soulscape reflected that power now, vast and alive even in death.

Then Leon stopped.

His foot froze mid-step.

The air changed.

He’d reached where the undead had been leading him.

A faint sound broke through the stillness—a quiet, trembling sob. Leon’s pulse skipped as his gaze lifted.

“Lizzie?”

In front of him stood a little girl, no older than nine. Her hair was black, as dark as the sky above this realm, and her eyes burned with a dim ember light.

She wasn’t monstrous.

She wasn’t twisted like the rest. She was just… crying.

Her small shoulders shook, and each drop of her tears fell to the dead soil like sparks, vanishing on impact.

****

Leon stood frozen, staring at the crying girl before him. Her sobs were sharp, echoing through the hollow plain, yet something about them didn’t sit right.

He watched, uncertain,

“what am I supposed to do here?”

Then her wail rose, a dramatic “Ahhh!” that pierced the dead air.

Leon blinked once, then again. Slowly, his brow furrowed, and a faint smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.

‘She’s faking it.’

He crossed his arms, observing as the girl peeked through her fingers mid-wail, glanced at him to see if he’d react, then quickly hid her eyes again to continue her act.

“Lizzie,” Leon said flatly, “I know you’re faking it.”

The wailing continued, louder this time, like she was doubling down.

Leon let out a tired sigh, shaking his head as he walked forward, his earlier tension completely gone.

He knelt beside her, his movements slow and calm. Reaching out, he gently patted her head. “It’s okay,” he said softly, his voice low and steady. “I’m here now.”

The little girl flinched at his touch, her fake crying halting for the first time. Slowly, she turned toward him, her ember eyes trembling. Then, without a word, she threw herself into his arms.

“What took you so long?” she whispered against his shoulder, her voice breaking now, not the fake kind, but real.

Leon’s expression softened.

“It’s okay,” he murmured again, his hand resting on her back.

“I’m here now.”

Elizabeth, in her small form, buried her head against his chest, her forehead pressing into the fabric of his shirt as if to make sure he was real. The dead world around them fell silent, as though even the undead respected that fragile moment between them.

****

Leon’s hand lingered on her head a moment longer before he gently pulled her back, meeting the gaze of the nine-year-old version of Elizabeth.

He didn’t question her regression in age, he’d seen too many strange things tied to souls and cores to be surprised anymore.

“Lizzie,” he said quietly, searching her ember eyes,

“why did you want me here?”

He already had an idea.

The misalignment of her cores wasn’t an accident.