Ex-Rank Awakening: My Attacks Make Me Stronger

As Leon already held his Force affinity at Tier IV, he didn't expect much from Destruction. It made sense, this was only Tier I, after all. Comparing the two would be unfair, like measuring a candle against the sun. He had already achieved a domain with Force, shaped it, bent it, and mastered it. Destruction, on the other hand, was untested ground.

Still, Leon wasn't about to ignore it.

"Just because it's weaker now doesn't mean it always will be," he muttered, flexing his palm. Deep down, he believed Destruction held far greater potential than Force ever could. But the gulf between Tier I and Tier IV was too wide to expect much. "Let's get this over with. With the amount of points I'm pulling in daily, it's only a matter of time before I push it to Tier IV anyway."

With that thought, he stopped wasting time. Leon activated the affinity.

The control was instinctive, like it had been waiting for him. A wave of energy gathered in his palm, raw and alien, and then it condensed into a dark, transparent flame. It hovered above his hand, flickering faintly, a shadow of fire that carried no heat, and no light.

Leon's expression sank. His shoulders slumped, and his lips twisted in disappointment. "That's it?"

To say he was underwhelmed would be an understatement. Awakening a second affinity was something unheard of, a miracle in itself. He might be the only person alive, or in history to have done it. And yet here it was, a useless wisp of nothing, more trick than weapon.

"This can't possibly be all it does, right?" Leon asked the flame, his voice edged with frustration.

****

Leon stared at the harmless, ghostly flame flickering in his palm, his brows furrowed as irritation mounted. He had tried everything, willing it to fly away, forcing it to generate heat, even attempting to shape it into something tangible. And yet it yielded nothing. It just sat there, unresponsive, like a hollow illusion.

"What the hell are you good for?" he muttered, dragging the flame closer to his face. It gave no answer, no hint of power, just that faint transparent shimmer that mocked his expectations.

It was starting to feel like the affinity existed only for show, and not even an impressive one at that. Leon's jaw tightened, frustration bubbling. After all this effort, after the insane rarity of awakening a second affinity, was this really all he got?

Clicking his tongue, he deactivated it.

The flames began to fade, their ghostly wisps peeling away one by one. But just as the last trace was about to vanish, something shifted. The flame twitched, like it had suddenly become alive and in the blink of an eye it swelled, mutating into a violent sphere of black energy, pulsing in his palm.

Leon's eyes widened.

"What the hell—?!"

Before he could even finish, streaks of white light burst forth from within the orb, lancing through the darkness. His shock twisted instantly into panic.

'The energy… it isn't stable.'

Without hesitation, Leon hurled the sphere upward.

It clung to his arm for a moment, resisting, before finally launching skyward with a piercing shoooooo that split the silence of the manor courtyard. The sphere climbed higher and higher, until it reached the peak above Shantel.

There, the white light inside blazed so brilliantly.

Everyone in Shantel froze. Heads tilted toward the heavens, eyes wide in awe and confusion, a single question echoing across the city's collective mind:

What was that?

But no answer came.

Because in the very next moment—

BOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!

The explosion tore through the sky, a detonation so immense it shook the entire Tyrant's Forest. Shantel quaked under the force, windows shattered, earth trembled, and the heavens themselves seemed to split.

And all Leon could do was stare, breath caught in his chest, at the terrifying birth cry of his new affinity.

****

The aftermath of Leon's experiment left him standing still, staring at the sky as if it might offer an explanation. The effect of his new affinity was something he never could have predicted, and maybe that should have been expected. After all, this affinity was born from something he barely understood.

The blast point still lingered in the heavens, a gaping hole in the clouds where the explosion had torn them apart. The sky had been scattered clean in a two-kilometer radius, and in the next heartbeat, a sudden downpour broke loose, rushing down with startling force. Yet as quickly as the rain came, it stopped. As sunlight pierced through the ruptured clouds, falling in brilliant shafts over Shantel, as if the world itself couldn't decide between storm and calm.

Leon exhaled slowly, his mind racing.

'That had been tier I?'

He no longer thought of Destruction as a useless affinity. No, it was the opposite, it had become extremely dangerous, volatile, and nearly as terrifying as his tier IV Force. The idea that something so low-tier could rival a domain-level affinity made his chest tighten.

Then another thought struck him. 'If it takes this much power at tier I, how many points will it need to evolve?'

He couldn't know. But what was clear was that Destruction would demand far more than anything else he had ever advanced. His jaw tightened before softening into a faint grin.

"But it doesn't matter," Leon muttered to himself. "With what it can do now, it'll be a long time before I need anything stronger."

Just then, footsteps padded across the courtyard stone. Racheal appeared, sweat clinging to her bare skin, dressed only in a bra top and shorts, the marks of intense training. She paused, her emerald eyes narrowing on him.

"What happened here?" she asked, still catching her breath.

Leon didn't flinch. "I was testing something out."

With that, he pulled a black shirt from his inventory, slipping it over his bare chest. His fingers worked calmly as he tied his white hair back, restoring the composed image he always carried. Then he turned toward her, tone steady.

"If you need me, I'll be in the forest."

And in the blink of an eye, he vanished. His speed left no chance for her eyes to follow.

She stood frozen for a moment, curiosity itching at her. 'What had he done to cause such an explosion?' Then her gaze fell on the place he'd been standing, and realization dawned, his eyes.

They were no longer violet voids. They had returned to their old, human blue.

Silence settled over her as she tried to make sense of it. The questions pressed at her mind, but in the end, she released them with a quiet breath. If Leon wasn't going to speak, she wouldn't pry. Turning back toward the manor, she headed inside, resuming her training with thoughts she couldn't quite put to rest.