Ex-Rank Awakening: My Attacks Make Me Stronger - Chapter 379

Chapter 379: EX 379. Ultimate Form
Adrian rolled his shoulder, grounding his stance. He could feel Leon’s presence behind him.

It pushed something fierce awake inside him.

He wanted to show his Lord the reason he’d sworn the vow.

A dozen corrupt beasts circled, sensing the shift. Adrian exhaled, fingers tightening around his shield.

A dark shimmer coiled along its edge, space bending like a curtain about to be pulled aside.

“Black Star Art… Ultimate Form.”

****

Normally, an art grew with its practitioner.

Seven ranks meant seven forms; eight ranks, eight forms.

But only two paths could break that rule, absorbing other arts like the Extreme Arts did, or creating an Ultimate Form, a move so refined it detached from rank entirely.

A technique born from compatibility, obsession, and work so brutal it scarred the soul.

Adrian had all three.

Lancelot had been stunned when he created it. Now Adrian intended to show Leon why it existed.

A low pressure rolled out from him.

The corrupt beasts staggered under it.

Even from the distance, Leon and the others felt the sudden weight.

Eden stopped mid-stride, hair blown back by the force, and turned with a look of disbelief.

“Who’s the show-off now…” he muttered under his breath.

Adrian didn’t hear him.

His focus tightened as he lifted one hand toward the sky.

Star energy gathered at his fingertips, black and shimmering, dragging the atmosphere into a slow spiral.

The corrupt creatures hissed and lunged, but each attack curved away or slipped through him before returning in the form of their own wounds. They looked confused.

Then afraid.

The star energy expanded, then compressed, folding in on itself until a dark sphere the size of a mountain hovered above his raised hand.

Space bent around it, warping like stretched glass.

The monsters sensed the shift and panic rippled through the swarm as they turned to flee.

But it was already too late.

Adrian’s voice rose, steady and cold.

“Cosmic Convergence.”

The black sphere collapsed to the size of a marble.

The sound it made was sharp, like reality cracking under pressure.

Gravity surged outward in waves. The fleeing beasts were flattened to the ground, pinned like insects beneath a giant’s thumb.

Adrian’s fingers curled slightly.

“Break.”

The marble ruptured.

And a compressed big bang tore outward in a dome of black-star energy. The blast swallowed the horde without spilling past its invisible boundary.

Corrupt creatures disintegrated into dust before their bodies even touched the ground.

When the light collapsed into itself and vanished, the battlefield was a gouged wasteland of smoking stone and drifting ash.

Adrian lowered his hand, breath leaving him in a slow exhale.

Then he turned, expression calm, and started back toward the others.

****

The armada stood in formation along the borders of the Arman Empire, the pressure of their power humming softly beneath a sky washed pale by distant corruption clouds.

High above, a viewing orb projected the scene from inside the Hallow’s periphery.

The rulers stood on a raised platform behind the command officers, their attention fixed on the shifting images.

None of them spoke at first.

They simply watched Eden’s flames devour abominations and Adrian’s star-born explosion tear the land apart.

Every breath they held felt too small for what they were witnessing.

Francis was the first to find his voice.

“So it isn’t just that boy who’s a monster. His companions are the same.”

The Beast chiefs tone carried none of his usual bluster.

He sounded almost reverent.

Elaine nodded, her blindfolded gaze fixed on the black star dome that had bloomed inside the orb like a contained supernova.

“People say birds with the same feather flock together, but they aren’t birds. They’re lions. The both of them. And I’m sure the rest are the same.”

“If that’s true, then that boy must be an even bigger lion for them to follow him so willingly.”

The beast chief spoke with certainty, because behind his words was a truth none of them could deny: strength like that didn’t gather around weakness.

Alexander didn’t join the discussion.

He stood with his arms folded, his expression unreadable, Genevieve at his side.

Their eyes had not moved from a single figure in the projection.

Luna.

Genevieve’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Brother… it’s Mother.”

The emperor’s jaw tightened.

He hadn’t looked away from the image once. Luna’s silver hair moved faintly in the periphery’s mist, her expression shifting from shock to disbelief as she watched the young trial takers tear down monsters that should have required entire battalions.

She looked… older, exhausted, but alive.

Against all odds, alive.

Alexander finally exhaled.

“Yes. It is.”

The other rulers fell into silence as the siblings watched.

None of them dared interrupt.

They understood this moment wasn’t theirs.

In truth, all of them should have been inside the Hallow right now.

Their armies were prepared for war.

Their spells were ready. Their vows to Pandora echoed in their bones.

By every rule of leadership, they belonged on the front lines beside Leon’s squad, fighting through the deadly outskirts toward the core.

But Leon had spoken, he would handle the Hallow alone with his squad.

They had doubted him at first. Anyone would.

Then they saw Eden ignite a cluster-level flame that burned the world purple and red.

They saw Adrian crush space into a marble and rupture it like a newborn star.

And those were just two members of his team.

So they stayed. They waited. They watched.

And as the armada stood at the empire’s border, thousands of soldiers ready to charge at a single command, the rulers kept their silence.

They could feel reality shift inside that orb.

They could see a new kind of strength carving its mark on the world.

This was only the periphery.

The core region would be worse.

But Leon had told them to trust him.

So they would.

And while the armies of the Arman Empire held their position, the world waited for what would come next inside the Hallow’s depths.

****

-Authors Note-

Mass release if we reach top 60 of golden ticket ranking.