Ex-Rank Awakening: My Attacks Make Me Stronger - Chapter 444

Chapter 444: EX 444. The Tear
Leon then turned to Elizabeth, Nikko, and Racheal.

He studied them for a long moment, longer than necessary, as if trying to carve their faces into something permanent. Finally, he let out a quiet sigh.

“Deep down,” he said, voice low, “I don’t want you guys to fight. But I already know what you’ll say if I try to stop you.”

Elizabeth answered immediately. She always did.

“Wherever you go, Leon, we go.”

She stepped closer, the resonance of his laws carefully restrained so no pressure weighed on her. Then she pinched his side.

Leon didn’t flinch, but she didn’t let it go at that.

“Next time you decide something like that,” she said, eyes sharp but worried, “at least talk to us first.”

He went silent. He knew exactly what she meant. Leaving them behind in another timeline, telling himself it was for their safety. Now that he faced it honestly, he could see how selfish it had been, not just as a captain, but as someone who planned to spend his life with them.

Elizabeth released her grip, watching him.

“I promise,” Leon said at last. “I won’t do it again.”

He turned to Nikko and Racheal, then opened his arms without another word.

They didn’t hesitate.

The three of them stepped in, closing the distance, and for a brief moment they stood there together in a quiet group hug. No laws stirred. No power surged. Just four people holding on to something human before the weight of the final battle came crashing down.

Leon watched the city move with quiet urgency as preparation rolled through Zion like a tightening tide.

Elizabeth stood with her mother, her fingers laced together more tightly than usual. Her father was there too, steady and composed, though the weight in his eyes betrayed him.

They spoke in low voices, not wasting words. Everything that needed to be said had already been understood long before this day arrived.

Not far away, Nikko stood beside her father. The truth about what Sakura had done to her siblings had reached her not long ago, and it burned like a second core in her chest. It did not break her. It hardened her resolve. Every breath she took now carried purpose. This fight was no longer just about survival. It was personal.

Eden was with his parents, his brother Dayton beside him. The tension was lighter there, filled with half smiles and forced jokes, the kind people use when they are afraid of what silence might say. Still, beneath it all was sincerity. Pride. Trust. Whatever happened next, they had no regrets about the man Eden had become.

Adrian had gone down into the bunkers to see his parents. Grounders could not fight in what was coming, and that fact weighed heavily on him. He reassured them calmly, promised them safety even when he knew promises meant little against fate. Yet his eyes never wavered. He had chosen his path long ago, and he would walk it to the end.

Racheal stood among the gathered elves. She had no family left. They were all long dead. Even so, this moment mattered. Before the battle, before the truth was buried beneath blood and fire, she told them the truth of there race. Where they came from. The weight of that revelation rippled through the crowd. It was not the right time, perhaps, but it was the only honest one.

And Leon stood with his parents.

There were no grand speeches between them. No dramatic farewells. Just quiet words, exchanged looks, and the unspoken understanding that this might be the last time they stood together like this. His mother held his face for a moment longer than necessary. His father’s hand on his shoulder was firm, grounding.

Leon looked at his parents for a long moment, longer than necessary, as if committing their faces to something deeper than memory. Then he exhaled slowly.

“After everything,” he said, his voice steady despite the weight behind it, “I will bring Valeria back.”

Darian and Selena said nothing. They never did when Leon spoke like this. He had made the same promise before, and not once had doubt crossed their faces. They had trusted him from the very beginning, long before laws bent and existence itself seemed to listen when he spoke.

Leon nodded to them, then gently stepped back from their grasp. They nodded in return. No tears. No dramatics. Just faith.

He had told them because he knew the truth of his current state. He had reached a realm where life itself could be shaped at will. Yet even now, despite wielding authority over laws, Valeria remained beyond his reach. He had tried. Again and again. No matter how he twisted power or invoked origin, nothing worked. He did not yet understand why. But he would. After the battle.

Leon turned away.

All farewells had been spoken. Morale stood at its peak. Every trial taker was armed and ready, their auras restrained but coiled tight beneath the surface. Zion was empty now, civilians sealed deep within the bunkers. The city stood silent, its streets abandoned, its towers scarred but unbowed.

They stood in formation, eyes fixed on the sky.

They waited.

Minutes stretched. Then longer still. Yet no one wavered. No one spoke. Determination did not fade. If anything, it sharpened.

Then it happened.

The barrier shielding Zion shattered without warning, not exploding outward but collapsing inward, as if reality itself had been peeled away. The sky beyond was not night. It was worse. A vast, starless black that swallowed light whole. Dreisiphane, the ruined city beyond the barrier, lay utterly silent, an eerie stillness clinging to it like a curse.

The air felt wrong.

Then a hand tore through the darkness.

Fingers like colossal shadows forced their way into existence, followed by a second hand. Together they wrenched space apart, ripping a jagged opening into the sky. Behind it loomed a massive face, only partially revealed, its features shifting as a single eye opened and peered through the tear.

The eye lingered.

Then the face withdrew slightly, the opening narrowing as a mouth pressed against the裂 in space.

And it roared.

The sound was not merely loud. It was annihilating. It rolled across Zion like a living thing, shaking the city to its foundations and rattling the very laws that governed existence.