Ex-Rank Awakening: My Attacks Make Me Stronger

Chapter 438 438: EX 438. Master Of Laws

Leon stood there, suspended in that lightless space, the glow of the core painting his face in pale gold.

The truth settled slowly, heavy and unwelcome. Learning that the root of his power had been set in motion long before his rebirth left a bitter taste at the back of his throat.

It felt too close to fate. Too close to being a piece on a board someone else had already arranged.

For the first time in a long while, he felt small.

The origin core sensed it.

"You need not fret," it said, its voice steady, without judgment. "Perfection did not choose you because it favored you. Its scope was far simpler. It sought a mortal from the lost era. You were selected by chance."

Leon frowned.

"So it was a gamble."

"Yes," the core replied. "Had the fragment settled in another soul, the outcome might have been different. Perhaps better. Perhaps far worse. We will never know. What matters is this." The light around the core pulsed once, softly. "It fell into your hands. This is your story now, Leon. Only you can see it through to the end."

Silence followed.

Leon didn't speak right away. The tension in his chest loosened, the earlier unease fading as quickly as it had formed. Chance, not destiny. Possibility, not a script. That distinction mattered more than he had realized.

Finally, he lifted his head.

"Then tell me the most important thing," he said. "What do we do now?"

The void seemed to stretch, the silence lingering just long enough to be deliberate. Then the core answered, and for the first time, there was something almost amused in its tone.

"We do what you have been doing all along," it said. "We grow strong enough to put everything back in order."

Leon smiled.

"Now you're speaking my language."

****

Leon stood there in the void of his core, the faint glow of origin light washing over his face as the words settled into him.

"You already have a solid foundation," the core said, its voice steady and absolute. "The fact that you were able to touch origin at all is proof of that."

Leon nodded slowly.

"But," the core continued, "you are not using that core to its full potential."

Leon remained silent. He did not argue. Correction, especially about strength, was something he welcomed without pride or resistance.

"Origin is the source of all laws," the voice went on, calm yet faintly disappointed. "Yet you treat it as nothing more than an energy reservoir."

Leon frowned slightly.

"Isn't authority over laws something only those at Rank Nine can achieve?"

The response came as laughter, rich and amused, echoing through the void.

"Hahaha. You limit yourself, boy."

The laughter faded, replaced by certainty.

"What Rank Nine achieves is imitation. A shadow of the real thing. The fact that the beast girl holds two authorities comparable to those laws should already have told you that."

Leon's breath slowed as the words sank in.

"The only beings capable of wielding true law were the primordials," the core said. "And yet you have surpassed them. A ninety-nine percent origin quality. If anyone deserves to be called a master of law, it is you."

Leon's eyes widened slightly. A realization crept in, cold and sharp. Had he been shackling himself this entire time? Locking away power not because he lacked it, but because he believed he was not yet allowed to use it?

The thought unsettled him.

Then something clicked.

"What about the Brightest Star?" Leon asked quietly.

The core sounded almost playful in its reply.

"What about her?"

Leon already knew the answer before asking the next question.

"What is her origin quality?"

If the core had a face, it would have smiled.

"Ninety-six percent."

At that moment, everything aligned.

****

Leon's body did not move.

He remained seated in the lotus position at the center of the hall, eyes closed, spine straight, hands resting calmly on his knees.

To anyone without perception beyond the surface, it might have looked like meditation. To everyone present, it felt like standing beside the heart of the universe as it inhaled.

Selena stared at her son, shock frozen into her features. Too much had happened too quickly. Around him, the divine stage experts stood guard in silence.

No one spoke. No one dared.

These were beings who had commanded armies. Yet now they positioned themselves instinctively, forming an unspoken perimeter around Leon. Not because they feared him. Because they feared for him.

He had not only returned hope to them. He had handed them a weapon and taught them how to hold it.

At this moment, every single one of them owed Leon Kael more than they could ever repay.

Selena's fingers tightened in Darian's grasp. Her voice came out quiet, almost fragile.

"How long," she asked, "is our boy going to remain like that?"

Darian did not answer.

Not because he didn't want to, but because he couldn't. His eyes never left Leon. He could feel it too. Something vast. Something ancient. Something unfolding beyond mortal time.

Akira and the others who had just crossed into the origin stage felt it most clearly.

It was subtle, yet overwhelming. After receiving that thread of origin energy, barely more than a fraction of a fraction, the world had changed. The laws they had no idea existed were now revealed to them, not as rigid rules, but as flowing structures. Death. Motion. Change. Unity. They were no longer abstract concepts. They were present. Observable.

And all of them were bending.

Not violently. Not forcibly.

They were gathering around Leon as if recognizing him.

Those who had been elevated only to SSS rank felt it faintly. A pressure at the edge of awareness.

A promise. They understood, instinctively, that once their origin quality crossed a single percent, they too would see what the others were seeing now.

The universe was not resisting Leon.

It was waiting.

Just then, space twisted.

A sharp distortion tore open in the air above the hall, folding light inward like fabric caught in a sudden grip.

Weapons were half-raised before being stilled. Every divine expert snapped their attention toward the disturbance.

A portal formed.