Ex-Rank Awakening: My Attacks Make Me Stronger - Chapter 345

Chapter 345: EX 345. What A Father
Ignatius felt it first as a weight, then as an impossible gravity that wrenched him from the air and hurled him into the ashen ground.

BOOM!

The shockwave cracked the floor of the soulscape, rippling through the endless fields of undead that lined the horizon.

For a brief moment, even the dead seemed to pause.

‘How… is this possible?’

He pressed his palms into the fractured earth, muscles flexing beneath the scaled illusion of his human guise.

The pressure pinning him down wasn’t just divine, it was older, heavier, something that gnawed at his very essence.

Ignatius roared, his voice making the air tremble. “You cannot push me down!”

He forced himself upward, his elbows trembling as he rose an inch off the ground.

Leon clicked his tongue.

“Tch.”

The pressure intensified.

BOOM!

The Dragon Lord of the Void slammed back into the ground, the crater beneath him deepening. The once-mighty sovereign looked less like a god and more like a beast caught beneath the heel of a hunter.

Leon approached, steps slow, eyes cold.

The dark winds of the soulscape swirled around him, whispering like voices of judgment.

He crouched beside the fallen dragon, watching him struggle.

“It’s funny,” Leon said quietly.

“Men who don’t deserve to be fathers are always the first to spread their seed.”

Ignatius growled through gritted teeth, but the sound was muffled, his face was half-buried in dirt.

“You had the nerve to say your daughter didn’t deserve to live,” Leon continued, his tone sharpening.

“Because she couldn’t handle something she never asked for. Tell me, Ignatius… does that sound right to you?”

Silence.

The dragon’s pride refused to answer.

He just kept straining against the invisible weight, a low, guttural hum escaping his throat.

Leon leaned closer, his expression unreadable. “You’re wondering what I plan to do.”

A smirk touched his lips.

“Let’s see if you actually believe in that philosophy of yours. You said those unfit for power don’t deserve life… so let’s find out if you deserve yours.”

Leon placed his palm on the side of Ignatius’s head.

A faint black light pulsed beneath his hand, power drawn directly from his Origin Core.

The energy poured out like a burst dam, flooding into the dragon’s spirit without restraint.

At first, Ignatius grunted, his body tensing as the foreign power entered him.

Then the tremors started, small at first, before escalating into violent convulsions.

The ground shuddered. The air warped.

Even the undead turned their heads toward the crater, their hollow eyes glinting with eerie recognition of the storm forming there.

Leon didn’t flinch. His gaze stayed locked on the writhing figure beneath his hand.

****

The energy surged through Ignatius like molten lightning, flooding every vein of the dragon’s manifested form.

His body convulsed violently, his claws digging trenches into the cracked floor of the soulscape.

“AAAHHHHHHH!”

His roar tore through the endless plain, shaking the void itself.

Elizabeth flinched at the sound but didn’t turn around.

Her small hands clenched into fists by her sides as she kept her face forward, just as Leon told her.

She didn’t want to see what was happening to her father, she didn’t want to watch him fall apart.

The light burning beneath Leon’s palm grew brighter, veins of black and silver racing across the dragon’s form as the overwhelming energy consumed him.

His frame began to swell, rippling with unstable force until it looked ready to burst.

Leon’s expression didn’t change.

His tone was quiet—almost calm.

“When I meet you in person,” he said,

“you’d better not still be a scumbag. Because next time, I won’t be this merciful.”

Ignatius let out one final scream.

Before his form fractured, shattered—and then burst apart into countless motes of black and white light that drifted into the void like dying embers.

Leon stayed there for a moment, watching the remnants fade into nothing.

His jaw tightened as the echoes of that scream died away.

He had wanted—at least once—to make a good impression on Elizabeth’s father.

To show he was worthy of her.

But after this? He pushed the thought aside. A man like Ignatius didn’t deserve to decide what his daughter could or couldn’t do.

Still, as the silence settled, another thought gnawed at him.

‘Will I end up like this someday?’

The question made his chest tighten.

Power corrupted—that much he knew—and he had more than anyone should.

Too much, gained too fast, with too little time to learn what to do with it.

He clenched his fist.

“At least I know what kind of father not to become.”

With that, he exhaled, shaking his head to clear the heaviness from his thoughts.

Then he turned toward the small figure standing quietly a few meters away.

“You can turn around now,” he said gently.

Elizabeth nodded and slowly turned.

Her eyes searched for her father, but there was nothing left, only the fading shimmer of what once was.

“Is it over?” she asked softly.

Leon nodded.

“It is. Now we can go.”

Elizabeth gave a small, understanding nod. Her body began to dissolve into dark motes, the childlike form fading as her true self emerged once more.

When the light cleared, the young woman stood there, her long black hair cascading down her back, eyes gleaming amber under the dim void-light.

Leon smiled faintly.

“Now that’s my Lizzie.”

Their gazes met for a heartbeat—hers warm, his steady—and then, without another word, both of them vanished from the soulscape, leaving behind only silence and drifting motes of fading light.

****

As Leon’s eyes opened, the world snapped back into place, the faint hum of mana in the chamber, the soft glow from the crystal light along the walls, and the weight of reality settling on his shoulders.

Then a booming voice echoed in his head, making him wince.

“Boy! Are you insane? You nearly scared me to death!”

Leon groaned, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Aren’t you already dead?”

There was a beat of silence before the dragon replied, gruff and offended.

“That doesn’t mean I want to die a second time!”

Leon shook his head, exhaling through his nose.

Ignoring the grumbling that followed in his mind, he looked down at Elizabeth.

Her breathing was calm now and her three cores, once unstable, began to pulse in perfect rhythm. Threads of pure energy weaved between them, aligning into harmony.

A soft smile touched his lips.

“A-rank already, huh? Now that’s a boost.”