Ex-Rank Awakening: My Attacks Make Me Stronger - Chapter 371

Chapter 371: EX 371. I slept With Death Now I Am Immortal
The hall held its breath, everywhere around Elizabeth.

Leon kept his focus fixed on her as the last lingering tremors of mana around her finally settled.

The moment her aura snapped into place, a surge of dragon might flooded the chamber.

It rolled through the air in a wave so sharp that even the stone under their feet seemed to tense. No one blamed her.

That kind of force wasn’t summoned; it leaked out on instinct, like the growl of an apex predator waking up.

Leon watched her silhouette steady and watched the rippling air calm down enough for him to truly see her.

The shift in her rank showed immediately.

She had already stepped into the divine stage on her own, but now the jump was unmistakable. Entry S-rank to peak S-rank in a single push.

Her three cores thrummed beneath her skin, each pulse carrying a different rhythm, mana, draconic force and origin energy folding into one another.

But something else lived around her too.

It clung to her the way a shadow clings to light, and Leon had known it long enough to recognize its cold bite.

Death.

Not as an omen, but as an identity.

It had always lingered around her like a second soul.

Now it wrapped her like a third skin.

She barely ever showed that power.

Not because she lacked it, but because Leon stole every damn spotlight without meaning to.

Leon let out a low breath, part amusement, part apology that he’d never say out loud.

Her talent’s past played through his mind.

Her initial extraordinary rank talent Death Parade, had awakened into the saint-rank Eternal Dragon Requiem when her father force-fed her enough draconic energy to drown her human side for a moment.

Even then, it hadn’t been a true evolution.

Just an awakening forced by circumstance.

But this… this was different.

The mark he placed on her hadn’t nudged her forward.

It had consumed the old path entirely.

Out of that devouring, a new talent rose, it was complete, seamless and terrifying in its clarity.

[Throne of Finality]

Leon felt the meaning of it settle into him, it was cold and absolute.

A Lord talent built not on fragments of death, but on dominion over it.

Elizabeth opened her eyes then, the last strands of dragon might fading behind her like mist.

She met Leon’s gaze, with a steady and calm expression.

And for the first time since the hall fell silent, he fully understood:

She didn’t just command death.

She ruled it.

****

[Throne of Finality]

Leon felt the details of it pulse into him the moment her aura stabilized.

And what he found almost made him straighten in his seat.

‘Wait… this can’t be right.’

Dominion over death.

It was not metaphorical or poetic, it was literal.

She could bind any creature to undeath: beast, human, elf, dragon, beast-man.

As long as they were lower in rank than her, that was the only condition.

They didn’t even have to die first.

Living or dead, it didn’t matter.

If Elizabeth willed it, they would kneel.

Leon kept a hand propped under his cheek, face deliberately blank.

But inside, he was electric, buzzing and thrilled.

Because now he finally had the last piece of his squad.

His area-of-effect damage dealer.

‘Our team is broken beyond belief.’

But excitement wasn’t the only thing rising in him.

Another thought followed right behind it.

‘Are Lord talents supposed to be this strong?’

He carried an EX-rank talent.

The highest. The one that stood alone. The one unrivaled in every sense.

And that truth had never once been shaken.

But watching these talents, thrones born from his mark—made him realize something simple.

He hadn’t even scratched the surface of [Attack].

That talent had carried him to absurd heights.

It had built his stats into a fortress.

It had forged his extreme art.

It had pulled him into divinity faster than anyone before him.

No Lord talent sitting in front of him diminished that.

Still… they pushed him. And for once, he welcomed the challenge.

His gaze swept over his kneeling Lords.

A slow smile tugged at him.

“It’s time for Pandora to witness our glory,”

He rose and walked past them.

One by one, they stood and fell in step behind him.

Malachi joined at the rear, silent and wide-eyed as Leon’s domain unfurled.

The light bent and the aiir folded.

And in the next breath, they vanished from the hall, drawn straight toward the Hallow.

****

The border of the Arman Empire thrummed with pressure. Columns of divine power stood packed together in a single sprawling line, enough force to make the sky tremble.

This was Pandora’s second great campaign, the next clash with the Hallow, and every domain except the dragons had sent their finest.

The air tasted of metal and focus.

Armored figures of the Imperial Guard formed the human vanguard.

Rank 7 divine might seeped from Samuel and Lancelot as they stood side by side, their silhouettes outlined by drifting motes of primal energy.

Samuel, usually the first to joke, kept silent for once. A heavy awareness pressed against his spine.

This battle would decide whether Pandora had a future at all, and he felt it in every heartbeat.

Beside him, Lancelot held his spear upright and let his gaze drift toward the distant mountains.

He’d wanted to stand at Leon’s side directly, but duty tied him to the Guard. A quiet thought crossed his mind as he shifted his grip.

‘I wonder how they’re doing…’

Clusters of lieutenants stood nearby, each radiating enough heat and force to ripple the air.

Behind them loomed the commanders. Markus was the easiest to notice, a mountain of muscle crowned with a hard, calm stare. His rank 8 aura pulsed in a steady rhythm, a reminder that he’d been built for war.

The other commanders flanked him, every one of them braced for what was coming.

****

-Authors Note-

Mass release if we reach top 60 of golden tickets ranking let my stock not go to waste.