Ex-Rank Awakening: My Attacks Make Me Stronger - Chapter 441

Chapter 441: EX 441. Prelude
In the core space, the Origin Core watched as Leon tore through the final universal limitation.

This limitation had never been about power. Power could always be accumulated, refined, expanded.

This was a limitation of existence itself. A silent rule woven into reality the moment creation began.

A subconscious boundary placed by the Brightest Star, the strongest of the Primordials, born from an unspoken truth: a creation could never surpass its creator.

But who had ever decided that truth was absolute?

Leon had done what no Primordial ever could. While they were born upon unreachable pedestals, wrapped in perfection from their first breath, Leon had clawed his way upward from nothing.

He had learned how to wield strength because he had once lacked it. He had learned restraint because he had once been weak.

Starting from the bottom had taught him something no divine inheritance ever could.

How to climb.

Leon felt it then.

The laws that governed all of existence were no longer distant concepts or abstract forces. They were close. Intimate. The laws were born of Origin. The laws were Origin. And Origin itself was the law beneath all others.

To grasp the laws was to touch Origin.

To rule them was to understand it.

And Leon understood.

He always had.

He was not perfect. Far from it. He was quick to anger, carried pride like a second spine, lust and arrogance woven into his nature. He made mistakes. He broke things. He stumbled often. But he loved fiercely. He protected what was his with everything he had. He worked relentlessly and when he fell, he rose again, every single time.

Unlike the Primordials who clung to perfection and feared flaw, Leon accepted both his imperfection and his perfection. He learned from them. He grew from them. He became something new.

Something greater.

The universe took notice.

The moment Leon’s eyes opened, a tidal wave of Origin surged outward.

The hall was torn apart as if it were made of paper. Space screamed. Reality bent. A pressure rolled through Zion like a living thing, yet it did not crush. It invigorated.

It strengthened. Divine and Origin stage experts stared in awe as power washed over them, igniting dormant potential and sharpening what already existed.

Leon rose higher into the air, his presence alone warping the world around him.

Across Zion, people felt it. Warriors. Civilians. Children who did not understand what they were witnessing.

Their hearts raced. Their blood sang. Power surged through their bodies without effort or intent.

Even the Brightest Star felt it.

Her control over the laws did not vanish. It shifted. It yielded. Her power increased, yet the realization struck deeper than fear. She stared at Leon, an expression forming that had no name. Shock was too small. Disbelief too shallow. This was something beyond reason.

One by one, the Divine stage experts fell to their knees.

Then the Origin stage experts followed.

Not from coercion. Not from fear.

From instinct.

From a pull embedded deep within their existence, whispering that this was right. That this was inevitable.

The people of Zion followed, not understanding why, only knowing they must.

Leon’s squad bowed as well, without hesitation. Without doubt.

Only the Brightest Star remained standing, frozen in place as she watched reality itself acknowledge a new truth.

Her lips parted.

One word escaped her, soft and reverent, carrying the weight of an ending and a beginning all at once.

“Magnificent.”

****

Deep within demon territory, far beyond the reach of mortal skies, the figure that had once stirred when Leon learned of his sister’s deaths opened its eye.

Just a sliver.

That was enough.

Its gaze pierced distance itself, cutting through layers of reality as though they were thin veils. A faint ripple followed the lift of its hand, space trembling in obedience. The being smiled, slow and satisfied.

“The barrier,” it murmured, its voice like stone grinding against bone. “Has finally been lifted.”

Long before the Trial World was reduced to ash, before its skies were torn apart and its lands erased, it had served a single purpose. Every year, chosen candidates were summoned. Thrown into brutal tests. Forced to survive against monsters that knew no mercy and trials that offered no fairness. It had never been about growth. Not truly.

Although not intended, It had been preparation.

Preparation for the calamity that crept ever closer, one that devoured worlds whole and left nothing but silence behind.

The embodiment of imperfection and all things wrong in the universe.

The Demon God.

The creature on the throne let out a low, pleased breath. The sound alone warped the shadows around it.

“After time immemorial,” it said, rising at last, “I can finally become what I was meant to be.”

It stood.

Eons of stillness ended with that single motion. The throne groaned beneath it, ancient and cracked, as the Demon God took its first step forward. Then another. Each step shook the abyss like a dying heartbeat, catastrophic waves of pressure rolling outward.

Light finally reached it.

Not gentle light. Not warm.

Lightning split the void, illuminating its form in harsh flashes. Obsidian armor clung to its body, blacker than night itself, as though it drank in every trace of brightness that touched it. Its helm resembled the foulest demon ever imagined, horns jagged and cruel, a face sculpted from nightmare and blasphemy.

A thing pulled straight from the darkest scripture, given flesh and will.

It stopped.

Shadows stirred.

From the darkness before it, figures emerged. One after another. Then dozens. Then hundreds. Each carried an aura so dense it bent the air, Demon Emperor might radiating without restraint. The ground cracked beneath their presence as they formed ranks.

The foremost among them stepped forward and dropped to one knee.

“Our God,” the Demon Emperor said, head bowed low.

As if rehearsed, the rest followed. Knees struck the ground in unison, a sound like thunder rolling across the abyss.

The Demon God did not acknowledge them. It simply looked past them.

Lightning struck again.

Beyond the kneeling emperors, the darkness parted, revealing the true scale of what waited. A sea of demons stretched endlessly, ranks upon ranks disappearing into the horizon. Their numbers were vast beyond counting, their roars muted only by fear and reverence.

An army born for annihilation.

The Demon God spread its arms slightly, shadows clinging to it like living things.

At last, it smiled again.

The final battle was no longer a distant inevitability.

It had begun.