Ex-Rank Awakening: My Attacks Make Me Stronger
Chapter 97: EX 97. Nursery Of Horror

Chapter 97: EX 97. Nursery Of Horror

As the dust from the collapsed stronghold settled behind them, Leon walked out with calm steps, his sword already returned to his inventory. Ahead, his squadmates were hunched around a pile of demon corpses, harvesting their organs with mechanical precision.

Adrian looked up first, wiping a smear of blood from his face.

"You cleared the stronghold already?"

"Sorry, it took longer than I expected."

Adrian remained silent, not knowing if Leon was being modest or indirectly bragging, but he decided to let it go. He wouldn’t give himself a headache over Leon’s "normal."

After that, Leon directed them to gather the valuables and burn everything else that wasn’t useful.

Without complaint, the squadmates got to work. Leon didn’t just stand idly this time; he moved among them, inspecting, helping, and correcting when needed. When Eden mistakenly went for the wrong organ, Leon pointed it out. When Eleanor struggled with a stubborn chest plate, he sliced it open with a clean swipe.

Fifteen minutes later, they stood outside the stronghold.

As Leon lifted his hand.

BOOM!

A massive explosion rocked the earth behind them as the structure imploded in on itself. Ash and smoke curled into the sky, the once-standing fortress now a heap of shattered stone and blackened steel.

"Alright," Leon said as the smoke cleared behind him, "on to the next stronghold."

But then Eleanor spoke up, raising a hand slightly.

"Leon... we don’t have any more inventory space. If we keep going, we’ll be leaving valuable organs and cores behind. I think we should return to base to sell what we have before continuing."

Leon paused.

He hadn’t thought of that.

His mind worked rapidly, calculating. Going back would cost time. A full cycle, maybe two, wasted on travel and processing. If they returned to base after every few strongholds, there was no way they could reach all thirty in a week.

"Damn..." he muttered, brow furrowed.

The rest of the squad watched as he stood there, deep in thought. Eden leaned toward Adrian and whispered,

"What’s he doing now?"

Adrian didn’t answer.

He and Eleanor knew what it meant when Leon closed his eyes mid-conversation.

Something strange was coming.

A moment later, Leon’s eyes opened again. He looked at them with that eerie calm and said:

"Hand over everything. I’ll store it all in my inventory."

They stared at him blankly for a beat.

"...What?" Eleanor blinked.

"You’re joking, right? We’re all completely maxed out. There’s no way you can handle four people’s worth of loot."

Leon smiled.

"Trust me. I can handle it."

Still skeptical, the three looked at each other, but eventually, they agreed. Adrian went first, transferring the contents of his inventory one item at a time. When the last organ disappeared into Leon’s hand and he was still standing there unfazed, Adrian raised an eyebrow.

Next was Eden. Halfway through, his jaw dropped slightly.

By the time Eleanor finished placing the last bloody organ into Leon’s hand, her mouth was slightly agape.

"You were actually able to carry everything?" she asked, incredulous.

Leon simply smiled, dusting his palms.

"Of course."

But a single shared thought buzzed through all their minds:

’Just how big is his inventory?’

They didn’t know the truth.

Leon’s massive inventory capacity came from one source, his aura stat.

Most trial takers at F-rank had aura levels at the 90’s at best. But Leon had an aura stat surpassing the norm by an astronomical margin. Inventory space, which was directly tied to one’s energy reserves, be it mana or aura, had ballooned with it.

In other words...

Leon’s inventory was a walking warehouse.

After the shock wore off, Leon stepped forward, the wind ruffling his coat as he looked out at the barren land ahead.

"Now that we don’t have to return to base," he said, voice calm,

"let’s head to the next stronghold."

Without protest, the others nodded, moving to their Raider Bikes. One by one, the engines growled to life like awakening beasts. As they mounted up, Leon gave a sharp grin.

"Let’s pick up the pace. We’ve got twenty-nine more to go."

The thunder of engines roared through the wasteland as Unit 1 tore across the demon territory, toward their next conquest.

****

As Leon and his squad tore through the ashen plains, speeding toward their next stronghold on roaring Raider Bikes, the winds howled around them, wild and untamed. But while their path was one of fire and conquest, something else stirred quietly in the shadows... something Diabolical.

Far away from the thunder of engines, deep beneath the crust of the demon territory, a dark circular chamber pulsed with eerie energy. The walls were uneven and jagged, like the gnarled roots of some monstrous tree, stretching endlessly upward into a ceiling that did not exist. There was no source of light, yet everything in the chamber could be seen, as if the darkness itself was watching.

At the center of the room, a woman sat cross-legged in absolute stillness atop a black, ink-like lake. The lake rippled unnaturally, thick and slow, like tar drawn from the deepest pit of the underworld. Her figure was eerie and graceful, her long black hair merging seamlessly into the lake, like she and the abyss were one.

Suddenly, an orb of pulsating violet floated before her, an object with swirling dark patterns etched across its surface, the lines crawling like living veins. The orb glowed softly, casting reflections across her pale, angular face. Her eyes were closed... until they snapped open.

They were a piercing amethyst, aglow with ancient malice.

She stood from her cross-legged posture and moved into a kneeling bow, her forehead touching the dark lake, hands rigid at her sides as she whispered:

"I greet the Lord."

For a moment, there was only silence. But then,

A voice answered.

A voice so heavy and dark it sank into the soul like an anchor, a sound so cosmically wrong that any weak-willed being would have gone mad just hearing it.

"The vessel has left the Federation’s territory... He is in your region."

The woman’s head snapped up, eyes wide.

"The one Ra’huk failed to capture?"

"Yes."

The voice trembled through the walls like a pulse of dread.

"Incorporate the boy’s capture into the primary plan. If you detect him, take him alive. He is vital to the resurrection."

The demoness nodded, lowering her head once more.

"For the revival of the Demon God."

The voice echoed her, a second deeper than the first:

"For the revival of the Demon God."

Then, after a beat of silence, the Lord’s voice asked,

"And the original plan?"

The demoness slowly raised her head again. A wicked smile curled across her face, stretching far too wide to be human. Behind her, her living hair swayed over the lake’s surface, and her eyes began to glow brighter, shimmering with corrupted anticipation.

"Everything is proceeding... perfectly."

Then the chamber shuddered.

From the jagged, endless wall, pulses of movement stirred.

What once appeared to be the natural patterns of the wall began to move.

As the truth revealed itself.

Thousands of human bodies were embedded in the walls, their eyes closed in the sleep of death, and their mouths open in silent agony. The walls were a graveyard, a storage, and a nursery of horror.

The demoness turned her gaze toward them and whispered,

"Those human scum... they won’t see this coming."

The walls pulsed again, as if hungry.

And somewhere far above, a storm of fate and darkness was beginning to gather around Leon Kael.