Ex-Rank Awakening: My Attacks Make Me Stronger-Chapter 130: EX . Now Reverse Like This

The ash was still settling.

All around them, the battlefield stood silent, scarred and scorched, the smell of ozone and burnt flesh lingering like a warning from the heavens. The last echoes of the abomination’s death throes had faded into the distance. Then, from above, streaks of motion carved through the sky as the other Vanguards descended, forming a line beside Nikko Yakomoto.

Their boots touched the earth.

The storm of primal energy that had coiled around Nikko began to recede, unraveling like smoke whisked away by the wind. Her body returned to its normal size, hair shortening back to black, her muscles relaxing, her expression once more composed. But the change wasn’t complete.

Her hands, were still clawed, elongated, and glimmering faintly with residual primal energy, remained in their transformed state.

Raven’s brow furrowed.

"You alright?"

Nikko flexed her fingers slightly. The claws scraped together with a faint shhk. "Consequences," she murmured, mostly to herself.

She didn’t say more. She didn’t need to.

Raven looked at her hands curiously, before asking with excitement.

"That thing you did... the beast skyform or whatever it was, that was an art, wasn’t it? You think there’s a way for me to learn it?"

Nikko turned to face her, gaze unreadable, tone dry. "I don’t think it’d suit you. You’re already wild enough."

Raven blinked, then smirked.

"Thanks for the compliment."

Rebecca rolled her eyes.

Before her gaze drifted away from them, settling on the charred crater where the abomination had once stood. Her voice lowered, touched with something soft. "Now their souls can rest in peace..."

Natasha. Harry. Snape.

Once proud Trial-takers. Now no longer trapped in that nightmare of flesh and fury.

A quiet breath passed between them all. But then Taco stepped forward, his voice uncertain.

"...How are we sure it’s dead?"

The silence that followed was sharp.

Nikko didn’t look at him at first. She was still watching the dust settle, like she could see through the field itself.

Then she answered.

"My primal energy fused with its life force," she said. "I felt it, when I snuffed it out. so If it were still alive...I’d know."

Taco nodded, tension easing from his shoulders. But Raven wasn’t done.

"Really?" she said, flicking her hair. "You just had to ask something that creepy after showing up late?"

Taco raised a hand defensively. "Hey, I didn’t exactly have a say. Got the command last minute to reinforce your base. But just as I was moving, a skirmish broke out in mine. And it wasn’t just us. Word is...it hit everywhere."

Both Raven and Rebecca stiffened.

Raven’s voice lost its playfulness.

"Why now? There hasn’t been coordinated movement like this in three hundred years. Not since..."

"The Age of Chaos," Rebecca finished.

Nikko was silent, the weight of her thoughts palpable.

Then she spoke.

"It must mean... they’re getting close. To their goal."

Rebecca’s voice was barely a whisper. "The resurrection of the Demon God."

Another silence. But this one didn’t linger long.

Nikko’s eyes narrowed. Her senses stretched outward like a net flung across the battlefield. As a frown formed. Then widened into something like dread.

"...Where did he go?" she said, voice sharp.

Rebecca’s breath caught. Her own senses shot out like lightning. Then,

Nothing.

No trace.

No Leon.

"Wait... he was just here—" Raven muttered.

Taco looked between them, confused. "What’s going on? Is there another enemy—?"

But Nikko was already gone.

She vanished, warping through space like a whisper of primal wind.

Rebecca and Raven didn’t hesitate. They followed instantly.

Taco stood frozen for a second, stunned. Then cursed under his breath and gave chase.

Nikko reappeared in front of a line of recovering Federation soldiers. She grabbed the closest one by the shoulders, eyes burning with panic.

"Where is Combatant Leon?!" she asked, voice tight with urgency and something too rare for her, it was fear.

****

The soldier stiffened as Nikko Yakomoto, the Supreme Heir herself, materialized in front of him, her golden eyes blazing with barely-contained urgency. For a moment, all he could do was gape. The clawed hands, the lingering aura of primal devastation, the weight of her gaze, it froze him to the bone.

But discipline kicked in. He snapped into a salute, eyes forward. "Combatant Leon left the battlefield shortly after Vanguard Taco arrived, ma’am. But... we haven’t seen him since."

Nikko’s breath hitched. The world dulled around her for a second, her pulse pounding in her ears. ’Gone? Where could he have gone?’

She didn’t speak. Couldn’t. Her heart felt like it had been gripped in ice. ’I promised to keep him safe... and now, Her throat tightened. I’m a failure. I couldn’t even protect him.’

Just as her composure began to slip, Taco stepped forward, frowning as he rubbed the back of his head. "Is it that white-haired lad you’re talking about?" he asked, casual but confused. "I saw someone like that heading east. Didn’t really think much of it, since I had my hands full."

Before he could finish, Nikko spun toward him, voice slicing through the air.

"Where exactly did he go?!"

There was a tremor in her tone that startled even Raven and Rebecca. Taco blinked, caught off guard by her desperation. He didn’t understand it. Still, he gave a slow nod.

"I didn’t follow him. But I can trace the area I saw him heading to."

"Then lead the way," Nikko said instantly, her voice brittle, urgent.

Without another word, Taco leapt into the air, his boots kicking off the blood-soaked soil. The three Vanguards followed, slicing through the sky behind him like silver streaks. Nikko didn’t speak. She couldn’t. Her heart was filled with only one thought now.

’Please... please let him be okay.’

**** 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Back in the cave, the air was thick with tension, the unstable energy crackling like a lightning storm in a sealed vault. Elizabeth stood beside Leon, eyes wide as Eleanor’s body surged with violent, unnatural light. Veins of molten red spiderwebbed across her skin, and her voice was gone, swallowed by the churning, screaming core of whatever was about to detonate.

Leon moved instinctively, shoving Elizabeth behind him, arm outstretched, shouting something, but his voice was drowned in the roar.

As the explosion hit.

BOOOM!!!

A flash, blinding and absolute. Heat surged through the cave like a tidal wave, swallowing everything in a searing instant. The rocks shattered. The ground buckled. Their screams, if they even had time to scream, were lost in the light.

But then... it stopped.

Not the way fire dies out or sound fades.

It was as if existence itself hit a wall. Everything froze, the rocks mid-air, Elizabeth mid-motion, Leon’s outstretched hand, locked in a moment that refused to pass.

Silence.

Then the impossible began.

Time did not resume.

It rewound.

The explosion collapsed back into Eleanor, the heat retreating into her skin, the shards of stone returning to the walls like a reversed puzzle. Elizabeth’s hair fell back into place. Leon’s hand drew inward, his eyes wide in disbelief.

Seconds peeled away in reverse.

Moments unmade themselves.

And then,

Darkness.