Ex-Rank Awakening: My Attacks Make Me Stronger

Chapter 424: EX 424. Demon Hierarchy

Leon stood in the heart of ruin. The demon base was nothing but a cratered wasteland, the ground still hissing with the scent of scorched flesh and iron.

Black smoke curled upward, catching faint traces of crimson light from the sky above. In his hand, he still held Valeria’s lifeless body, her blood drying against his skin.

Before him lay the headless corpse of Gordon, twisted and broken beyond recognition.

But Leon’s eyes, cold and distant, didn’t linger on it for long. That body was only a shell. The real Gordon was elsewhere, trapped in an eternity that Leon had built for him with deliberate cruelty.

He exhaled softly, his breath trembling not from exhaustion but from the sheer weight of the power he had used.

His gaze lowered, flicking briefly to his trembling hand before he clenched it into a fist.

Three Lord talents, each powerful enough to change worlds, had been woven together for one purpose: retribution.

Adrian’s "Throne of Denial." The power to reject fate itself, to deny the natural end of things.

Eden’s "Blaze Emperor’s Mandate." The divine right to impose one’s will upon time, and overwrite history with its power.

And finally, Racheal’s "Throne of Boundless Perception." A talent that allowed Leon to perceive all states of being simultaneously, the physical, the mental, and the spiritual to the finest detail..

Alone, each was formidable. But together? Together, they made Leon something else entirely.

He’d taken inspiration from what he did to the Lunatic.

Back then, Leon had simply attacked its existence with boundless perception and used, Throne of Denial to erase its fate, forcing it into a state of ceaseless contradiction.

Existence and non-existence clashing endlessly, a cycle of oblivion. It had been effective... but crude.

This time, he’d refined it. He’d crafted Gordon’s punishment.

Using Throne of Denial, Leon severed Gordon’s natural death, preventing him from ever reaching an end. Then, with Blaze Emperor’s Mandate, he rewrote Gordon’s reality, locking his soul into an infinite loop of suffering, a cycle that would reset the moment pain reached its peak. Finally through Boundless Perception, he grasped the finest details required for his design. Plus it made sure he witnessed it all: every scream, every fracture of Gordon’s mind, and every desperate plea. He bore witness to everything, ensuring that not even a flicker of mercy could escape.

It wasn’t vengeance in the human sense anymore. It was a lesson carved into eternity.

Leon looked at the broken body one last time, his expression unreadable.

"For every drop of her blood," he murmured quietly, his voice a low tremor in the air, "you’ll pay for it again and again. Even when time ends, I’ll make sure you start over."

Unlike the situation with the lunatic, where the loop’s energy would have eventually run dry, this version was stable; Leon had linked its mechanization to his very origin core to make sure it did.

No longer focusing on the damned corpse he knelt, gently laying Valeria’s corpse beside him.

A flicker of tenderness crossed his gaze as his hand brushed her blood-matted hair.

But the moment passed as she slipped into the darkness, crossing the threshold into his death zone.

Leon had never intended to leave his sister dead. Not now. Not ever. That had never been an option.

He stood amid the ruins with her broken body still close, and the thought settled into him with iron certainty.

He would bring her back. No matter the cost. What use were his powers if they could not protect his family? What meaning did strength have if it arrived too late?

But he knew the truth, and it cut deeper than any blade. He was not strong enough. Not yet.

Elizabeth’s talent could raise the dead, yes, but reanimation was a hollow mockery of life. A moving corpse. A soul chained but not restored. Leon wanted more than that. He wanted a true resurrection. Flesh, soul, will, and fate restored as if death had never happened.

Even reversing fate with Throne of Denial would be ineffective. As Leon had learned, the talent had to be active before death occurred to successfully redirect fate to another person. Since that wasn’t the case here, he could not achieve true resurrection.

To achieve that, he would need power far beyond what he currently possessed.

Far beyond even the Primordial Brightest Star.

She stood at Level 9 of the Origin Stage. Leon was only Level 6. And yet, even at her peak, even with all that overwhelming brilliance, corruption had still crept in. Even she had failed to contain it. A whole timeline had been sacrificed just so a fragment of creation could continue to exist.

That alone told Leon everything he needed to know.

Level 9 was not enough.

He had no intention of stopping there. He would surpass it. He would climb beyond the limits that even the so-called gods had accepted.

Otherwise, nothing truly worthwhile could ever be changed.

His gaze drifted back to the shattered remains of Gordon, and his lips moved at last.

"The vermin spoke of a duke rank."

He was remembering Gordon’s words from the moment he arrived. The man had claimed Leon possessed power equivalent to a Duke. At the time he hadn’t bothered with it but now it was different.

Demons were supposed to cap at SSS rank. Even the Lords who exceeded that limit, Leon expected them to be rare anomalies rather than the rule.

A Duke rank implied something else entirely.

Leon’s eyes narrowed slightly.

’Are the demons getting stronger?’

The question lingered, heavy and unsettling. But he didn’t let it spiral. Confusion was a luxury he couldn’t afford. Answers would come later, pulled from blood, battle, and broken worlds if necessary.

Instead, he lifted his gaze.

The elf was still there, floating quietly where she had been the entire time. To her, it must have seemed as if nothing had happened. One moment Gordon was alive. The next, he was dead. An instant. A blink.

Now Leon was looking directly at her.

****

-Author’s Note-

If you don’t understand how Leon created a loop for Gordon despite the explanation, don’t blame yourselves. It is not a lack of intelligence; it is simply the fact that you are still mortals. In fact, compared to the mortals in this world, you are well below average. How could a below-average mortal understand the dealings of a being comparable to a deity? Even attempting to grasp it is a sacrilege in itself. So don’t worry, not all things are meant to be understood. ^⁠_⁠^