Ex-Rank Awakening: My Attacks Make Me Stronger-Chapter 114: EX . Guilt

The sky above the battlefield wasn’t a battleground, it was a storm.

Screams and fire raged below, but up in the clouds, it was pure cataclysm. Blasts of raw energy cracked the sky, lightning answering the rage of combat. And at the center of it all, seven S-ranks collided with the force of natural disasters. Nikko Yakomoto, bearer of a Supreme Talent, took the worst of it head-on, shouldering the weight of two foes at once: the demoness and the grotesque, corrupted form of what used to be Harry.

She moved like something no longer bound by the limits of human flesh. One blink, and she was gone. In the next, she reappeared directly above the mutated Harry, gauntlets glowing with unrestrained energy. Her slash should’ve landed, and split him in half, but the demoness intervened with eerie precision, teleporting her twisted creation away in an instant.

And with a flash of black.

The monstrosity reappeared beside Nikko with a vicious backhand. But Nikko, more beast than girl in that moment, twisted with an inhuman flex of muscle and instinct, her head narrowly missing the blow. In the same breath, she closed the distance. Her hand snapped out, fingers like steel as she grabbed the creature’s arm mid-strike, and spun her entire body, before throwing it across the sky like debris in a tornado.

Before it could even scream, she was already there again, materializing just beside it, leg swinging like a blade of thunder. The roundhouse caught it across the face, skull crunching with a sickening crack as it was launched again, vanishing into the clouds like a comet falling.

But Nikko didn’t get time to follow through.

The demoness was already there, splitting into a dozen wraith-like images that shrieked as they dove at her from all angles. Nikko’s face twisted in cold irritation.

"Tch."

Without hesitating she used one of her Skills.

[Primal Fury]

A bestial roar tore from her soul, and a violent shockwave exploded from her body. The sky rippled, as the clouds trembled, and the wraiths disintegrated mid-air like ash in the wind. Only one figure remained. The true demoness,

Nikko didn’t hesitate. Her gauntlet smashed across the demoness’ face with a thunderous crack, sending her spiraling.

"Thought you were gonna teach me something," Nikko spat, chasing after like a bullet.

She caught up before the demoness hit the ground, grabbed her by the neck mid-fall, and slammed her into the earth with such force it shattered the crust.

BOOOM!!!

A crater bloomed the size of a stadium, as the shockwave split the air.

But as she raised her gauntlet to finish it,

Boom.

Harry’s twisted form collided with her. Nikko skidded back in the air, barely regaining balance as the demoness vanished into shadow.

She exhaled sharply, fists still humming with energy.

"This is going to get annoying."

And then, without pause she lunged back into the fray, eyes locked on the demonified Harry as the sky shook around them.

****

The battlefield trembled beneath the fury of S-rank clashes, a war of monsters and monsters-in-human-skin. While Nikko tore across the sky like a divine calamity, Rebecca found herself facing a storm of her own, the demonified Natasha.

Unlike Nikko, Rebecca’s attacks lacked their usual bite. Her movements, while still impossibly fast, held the weight of hesitation. In the air above the broken earth, the demonified Natasha hovered, surrounded by countless wind blades laced with blackened demonic energy. With a single gesture, they tore through the sky, racing toward Rebecca like the scythes of death.

She moved like a streak of lightning through the sky, appearing in front of Natasha, her fist crackling with electric wrath. But in that moment, just before she struck, she saw it. The face buried beneath the demonic veil. Natasha’s face. Twisted in agony, screaming a soundless scream.

Rebecca faltered. Not even half a second, but half a second was an eternity in a clash like this.

A massive wind blade, larger and sharper than the rest, surged forward. It tore across Rebecca’s chest, ripping through her armor and biting deep into flesh. The pain didn’t knock her from the sky, nor did the injury; it was the weight in her chest and the guilt that made her fall.

All those soldiers she was sworn to protect. All those brave Federation warriors. Were now nothing but demon playthings, stitched into nightmarish forms, puppets for the enemy’s amusement. She had stood tall before her soldiers, as a symbol of strength. But inside... she was cracking.

And when she’d seen one of those distorted faces, that of her own, eyes pleading through demonic pain, it hit her like a hammer to the soul. The guilt became a chain and the hesitation became a cage.

High above, the demonified Natasha let out a wail that bent the wind around her, gathering currents into a massive sphere made entirely of wind blades, they were deadly, spinning, and unstoppable. As she hurled it down toward Rebecca.

And Rebecca?

She closed her eyes.

Waiting for it.

But the blow never came.

Instead, a familiar, pissed-off voice cut through the chaos.

"Bitch, what the hell are you doing? Stop acting dramatic and grow some balls!"

Rebecca’s eyes flew open.

Only one person could be that vulgar, Raven.

Raven Stone stood between her and the attack, arms outstretched, pushing back the sphere of death with raw force, her body glowing faintly from an active skill. Behind her, the demonified Snape struggled inside a gravitational field, snarling and clawing at the invisible walls that caged it in.

Still holding back the sphere, Raven’s tone shifted to become more serious.

"If you feel bad for them, getting killed by them isn’t a solution. It’s a coward’s way out. If you want to fix this?" Her eyes narrowed. "Then fight."

Something cracked inside Rebecca, not like glass shattering, but like chains breaking.

Her blood surged and the heavens answered.

Bolts of lightning screamed from the skies, converging on her, dancing across her skin without harm. Her hair lifted, flickering with raw static. Her eyes burned blue with thunder’s fury. The air around her buzzed with violent energy.

Raven grinned. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Now that’s more like it."

Rebecca’s voice was low, electric, deadly.

"Thunderstorm."

And then the sky exploded.