Ex-Rank Awakening: My Attacks Make Me Stronger - Chapter 439

Chapter 439: EX 439. Left Behind
The explanation came moments before the portal tore open reality.

The Brightest Star stood before Elizabeth, Nikko, Racheal and the rest wearing Leon’s mother’s face, her voice calm as she laid the truth bare.

The universe, the trials, pandora as a splintered timeline created to preserve a fragment of existence while the rest was marked for sacrifice.

She told them they were safe here. That this world would endure. That Leon had chosen to return alone and had promised to come back when everything was finished.

Even as she spoke, doubt crept through her thoughts.

“This is the best choice for you,” she continued, her tone softening. “Stay here. Live. Enjoy what time—”

“Take us back.”

The words cut through her sentence cleanly.

The Brightest Star blinked.

“What?”

Nikko stepped forward, impatience sharp in her eyes as she stared at the woman wearing Leon’s Mother’s face.

“You heard her. Take us to him. Stop wasting our time.”

Rachel folded her arms, scowling.

“How could he leave like that? The rest of you, fine, I get it. But me? I’m his favorite.”

No one acknowledged her.

Elizabeth was already standing beside Nikko, her jaw set, her resolve unshaken. Eden and Adrian stood behind them, silent but aligned, their intent unmistakable. Even without words, they had chosen.

The Dowager and Malachi watched in stunned silence, unable to follow what this truth meant anymore.

The rulers observing from afar were no better off. Everything they understood about existence was crumbling under the weight of what they had just heard.

The Brightest Star looked at them, her gaze lingering on Nikko, Rachel, and Elizabeth.

Three bearers of the Overlord Factor.

Beings whose very nature rejected submission, domination, and surrender. The Overlord Factor ensured autonomy of body and soul. It was absolute. Unyielding.

And yet.

They had already broken its logic.

The moment they became Leon’s lords, they had relinquished their rights to its full authority, even if they had never consciously realized it.

Now, standing here, knowing the truth, knowing the danger, they were ready to abandon a guaranteed future for a doomed one.

For one person.

They were willing to throw away safety, power, and destiny itself just to stand beside him.

The Brightest Star could not understand it.

The Overlord Factor was designed to prevent this very thing.

And yet, here they were.

Defying not just fate, but the laws that shaped them.

In that instant, something in her shifted.

The Brightest Star studied them in silence, her borrowed face calm yet searching. The space around them felt suspended, as if the universe itself was waiting for a question.

“Why?” she finally asked. Her voice was steady, almost gentle. “Why are you ready to give everything up for one person, when you already have everything here? A certain future. Safety. Why risk it all?”

For a moment, no one spoke.

Then Elizabeth stepped forward. Her eyes did not waver as she met the Brightest Star’s gaze.

“Because we know he would do the same.”

The words landed with quiet certainty.

Nikko followed without hesitation. “We still have families back there,” she said. “They are not perfect, but they are ours. And they are worth fighting for.”

Racheal, who had been lost in her fantasies until then, finally spoke. The playful edge that usually clung to her was gone; her expression was bare, almost raw.

“My people have been running from the truth for a long time,” she said. “Staying with Leon helped me forget the grief that followed me everywhere because of it. But if I am honest… I need to go back. I need to correct that mistake. I need to prove that I was never an error.”

Nikko and Elizabeth turned to her, stunned by the sincerity in her voice.

Racheal held their gaze for a heartbeat longer, then added, completely straight-faced,

“Also, Leon has not even slept with me yet.”

Nikko groaned. Elizabeth closed her eyes. Both of them thought the same thing at the same time.

‘There she is.’

The Brightest Star exhaled slowly, as if releasing a weight she had been carrying. She looked at them again, at Nikko, at Elizabeth, at Racheal. Then at Eden and Adrian standing firmly behind them.

“I hope you understand what you are choosing,” she said.

She lifted her hand. “Fortunately, I left a marker on Leon when I sent him back. I can open a path to lead us to him.”

Relief flashed across their faces. They nodded in unison.

Then it hit them.

All of them spoke at the same time.

“Us?”

The Brightest Star did not answer at first. She studied them in silence, her borrowed face calm and distant, as if weighing something far heavier than their words.

Then she spoke.

“Yes,” she said. “I will follow you.”

The admission carried no hesitation, yet it unsettled the air all the same.

Her gaze drifted, no longer on the group, but somewhere far away. Somewhere only she could see.

Speaking now as if Leon alone could hear her, she continued, her voice softer, almost contemplative.

“His stubbornness surprised me. At first, I dismissed it. I thought seeing you in person would make it clear. But it hasn’t.”

She frowned faintly.

“This has never happened to me before. Every choice I’ve observed, every intention, has had a perfect logic behind it. Cause and effect. Purpose and outcome. But your decision to return to a doomed world defies that structure. It surpasses understanding.”

Her eyes sharpened.

“And because I cannot understand it, I want to. I will escort you. I cannot bring you back to this timeline once you leave, but I will help where I can. If nothing else, I will delay the inevitable and see whether this resolve of yours is more than bravado at the end of the road.”

The squad exchanged glances.

Before Nikko shrugged lightly.

“Whatever you say.”

The Brightest Star looked at her, then extended her hand. Space trembled. Light folded inward. A portal began to form, its edges shimmering like glass submerged in water.

Malachi stepped forward at once.

“If the master is in danger,” he said firmly, “then I wish to follow.”

Beside him, the Dowager hesitated only a moment before steel entered her eyes.

“So do I.”

The Brightest Star did not raise her voice when she answered. She did not need to.

“That won’t be possible,” she said. “Unlike them, you are bound to this timeline. If you leave it, you will cease to exist.”

The words struck cleanly. Malachi froze. The Dowager’s expression tightened, but neither argued. They understood. The portal was already stabilizing, reality settling around its shape.

Racheal was the last to move. She formed a communication orb, its light flickering before resolving into Jessica’s image, deep within the elven forest.

They had reunited there during Racheal’s training with the Elf Queen. Jessica hadn’t been qualified to join the campaign due to her lack of strength, but now, unfortunately, this was goodbye.

“I’ll be gone for a while,” Racheal said quietly. “You’ve probably already heard. This world is safe, So I want you to live peacefully here.”

Her voice wavered, just slightly.

“I know it’s selfish to leave you behind. Just… know that I want what’s best for you.”

The orb soon went dark. Not just hers, but every orb across Pandora followed, one after another, severed as Racheal closed every remaining channel.

In the forest, Jessica stared at the empty air, lips parting in silence.

“My queen,” she whispered.

Back at the portal, it had fully stabilized.

“You may enter,” the Brightest Star said.

One by one, Leon’s squad stepped through dragging a still unconscious Eleanor and leaving Pandora behind. Eden. Adrian. Nikko. Elizabeth. Racheal.

At last, the Brightest Star followed them, stepping into the light herself.

The portal closed.

And with it, an entire timeline was left behind.