Solo Leveling- Ragnarok-Chapter 321

[Sea of the Afterlife]

It was a vast ocean of pitch-black ink, and the overwhelming sight left them all in stunned silence.

“A safety measure, if you will.”

It finally made sense to Ammut what the “safety measure” was and who it was meant for. An incredulous laugh burst from his throat.

“Ha! You made this just in case your son failed to find the Sea of the Afterlife on his own!”

Of all the...

“It means you can become a shadow soldier at any time, should you wish... It has nothing to do with you, so don’t worry about it.”

The words of the apparition came back to Ammut again.

The Death debuff, the terrible energy which filled this entire sea, had begun siphoning away Arsha and Gray’s vitality as soon as they arrived. Ammut was no exception, of course. He had become immortal through a contract with Kandiaru. He had no lifespan, since the contract was infinite. However, that only applied within the confines of the pyramid, which now functioned as a training facility.

Ammut had been created through the experiments of Kandiaru the Grand Spellcaster as part of his research into shadow power. He was neither truly dead nor truly alive—a discarded soul, much like the imitation of Baran that Jinwoo had once faced long ago. That was why the situation was slightly different for him than it was for Arsha and Gray, who were living beings.

To Ammut, this Sea of the Afterlife was oddly welcoming—so much so that it unsettled him. He had the odd feeling that he would like nothing more than to float in its black depths forever.

It’s like being in a hot tub. If only my spiritual body would melt into the sea...

“Shocking.”

The temptation, if he gave into it, would be lethal. His soul, which had evaded death for so long, was now yearning for it.

“So that’s what he meant.”

Ammut clenched his teeth, forcing himself to resist the sweet pull. At the same time, he recalled the expression on the face of the apparition that had come to him.

“It means you can become a shadow soldier at any time, should you wish.”

What an asshole.

Now death itself was whispering in his ear, telling him how amazing it was for the dead to experience rebirth as a shadow soldier. In fact, he was already looking forward to it.

“I have no words.”

Ammut was struck with genuine admiration. Jinwoo, who had appeared as an apparition without a shred of mana in it, had somehow seen so far into the future in such a short time. Just how much had he planned and prepared in that brief moment?

Ammut laughed under his breath, baring his teeth.

“You sly devil. You said this had nothing to do with me? What a joke!”

He could hardly believe it. Had Jinwoo really predicted this very moment? Had he known Ammut would disregard his warning and enter this place anyway? It seemed difficult to deny it, since a choice was available to him for the taking, welcoming him with open arms.

I am a Crocor, the strongest of the crocodile humanoids, the king of monstrous humanoids and the very person who taught the Monarch of Iron Body the Iron Body Technique! But now... I’m only a dead soul, a discarded spirit and a soul bound by some spell of the arcane world.

However, the moment he had arrived in the Sea of the Afterlife, he had been offered a choice between two paths from which he could choose freely.

One was the quicker, easier path—obedience. He could simply melt into the seawater, await Suho’s summons, and become a shadow soldier. There could be no sweeter option. He would live on, immortal, seeking endless strength for all eternity. The other choice was a problematic one. It was harder and more time-consuming—humiliation. Ammut couldn’t help but smile as he understood what this choice signified.

“I don’t believe it. To think I’m being made to choose between submission and shame!”

He was disgusted by what Jinwoo had intended here, but he understood this was also an act of consideration. That knowledge made the bitterness easier to bear. From the look of things, there was no need to rush the decision.

“A-Ammut!”

Screaming and yelping filled the air. He turned around to find Arsha and Gray floundering in the dark water. Unlike him, they were living beings whose life force was being drained in real time. The Sea of the Afterlife was brutal for the living.

“I suppose the decision can wait until I’ve dealt with these fools.”

He decided to evacuate the ones who had followed him in. Ammut reached out and grabbed both of them by the scruffs of their necks with his enormous hands. Like the mighty crocodile he was, he began skillfully swimming through the Sea of the Afterlife, slicing through the black currents with ease. The monsters of the abyss, having smelled living creatures in the water, lunged at him, hissing and growling.

“Out of the way,” Ammut said casually, swatting them aside.

The water seemed to explode with the force of his blow, rough waves crashing violently across the once-calm surface. Everything that stood in the way of the black vortex was torn apart.

The Iron Body Technique—Ammut was “training”—or perhaps torturing—Suho every day using that technique. However, the true goal of the technique wasn’t simply to enhance the strength of one’s body. It was to break the body again and again, to shatter it and put it back together until even the soul within grew stronger.

A sound mind in a sound body.

The Iron Body Technique training was the very embodiment of a famous human saying. And Ammut stood as the ultimate result of it.

“Begone,” he said, causing another watery detonation.

No one could stand in his way—not the Residents of the Rift who fed on souls, nor the weeds of the afterlife, clingy and obstinate. He was in his element. However, he could hear Gray whining on his back.

“Hmm.”

Ammut quickly looked around. No matter how powerful he was, unless he found a way to escape the Death, none of this would mean anything. He had to find a safe place for them before all their life force was drained away. But did such a place even exist? Even if there was, would he be able to find it in this impossibly vast ocean?

Gray’s tail, usually wagging with energy, began to droop. Arsha, who was even weaker, was faring worse. The agony they had endured in the dark pillar had been severe—but here, in the Sea of the Afterlife, their souls were quietly sliding toward death, and this time, without pain. Surrendering now would be no different from obeying the natural order. As their lives slipped away, the monsters of the deep swarmed in even more aggressively, their gaping jaws opening wide like crocodiles.

How dare you? I am a Crocor!

“Hold on a little longer!”

Ammut batted them all away and charged through the black waters even faster. The two beings clinging to his back were dying by the second. He had to find something.

Then Arsha’s faint voice reached his ear.

“Cold... You must move toward the cold...”

“I know. I’m looking,” he replied.

No matter how busy Suho was out in the world, he still came to Ammut daily for his training quests. Because of this, Ammut already knew that Sirka had recently become the Queen of the Snow Folk, and that a great cold had descended over this sea that was so vast there wasn’t a single spot of dry land to stand on. Ammut had been on the lookout for a colder region which would weaken the effects of the debuff. But that meant he now had to find the World Tree in this vast, endless spiritual ocean all by himself, and quickly, at that—before Arsha and Gray succumbed completely.

The task was so daunting and hopeless that Ammut pressed forward even harder, smashing through everything in his way. This was something no one else could help him with. No matter how much Gray sniffed, he could detect nothing. Even when Arsha, using the last of her strength, conjured a handful of worker bees to scout, they perished instantly under the weight of the debuff.

“I’m sorry. Another bee dead...”

“Don’t waste your energy,” he told her.

Time dragged on, and Ammut wandered the Sea of the Afterlife for what felt like an eternity. By now it was foolish to hope for a miracle.

Then he felt it.

Was it his imagination? It suddenly felt like a breeze blew in from somewhere. It was a tiny, flimsy hope, but he latched onto it.

A low growl rose in his throat. “Where is it coming from?”

His eyes narrowed as he searched, but unfortunately, the “cold” they were seeking was nowhere to be found. Instead, something else entirely was approaching from the far edge of the ocean, barely a faint silhouette.

Arsha and Gray suddenly found that they could breathe again, and life returned to their eyes. Ammut smiled.

“They couldn’t be any slower.”

There was no time to wait. Ammut swam in the direction of the silhouette as quickly as he could, and it steadily grew larger as he went.

“We found them!”

A cheer erupted—but it wasn’t from Ammut. It came from those who had spotted him. It was the demon fleet, now calling themselves the Elvenwood Fleet. Having received word from Antares, the demons had been searching the Sea of the Afterlife for Ammut.

“They don’t look so good!”

“Fish them out of the water this instant!”

The demons called out to one another, and the shadow spiders tossed their webs like casting nets, hauling Ammut and the others aboard. Meanwhile, the demons fought off the swarm of abyssal monsters attacking from all sides. Ammut watched the scene unfold, somewhat impressed.

“They’ve grown quite strong.”

When he had first seen these demons, they had been weaklings, hardly worth a second glance. Most of them had been small fries, since anyone worth their salt had died in the war. However, in the process of wandering through the Sea of the Afterlife at Suho’s command, they had become much more powerful. The exact source of their power soon grew apparent.

“Arsha! Eat this!”

“Gray! Quickly, chew and swallow this leaf!”

They had the Leaves of the World Tree. The demons began to feed the precious leaves to Arsha and Gray, both of whom had been on the verge of death. The same leaves formed the core ingredient in the potions Suho regularly purchased from the shop.

As they ate, color returned to Arsha and Gray’s faces. Ammut found the sheer amount of leaves shocking.

“I mean, I heard you found the World Tree, but this...”

Slumping down onto the deck, Ammut gave a dry laugh as he watched them. The demons were holding the precious leaves of the World Tree in their arms, positively overflowing with them.

“And when did they manage to build all this?”

All he could do was marvel. He clearly remembered the demons departing for the Sea of the Afterlife on a tiny raft crudely fashioned from an Elvenwood. Now that raft had become a massive ship, and there was more than one, even.

“Send word that we’ve found them!”

“Gather up!”

“We’re heading back to the World Tree!”

And so the ships of the demons ruled by Esil, the Monarch of Gluttony, relayed messages through Esil’s refined lifeblood. The demon fleet began to converge from all directions. Their sheer presence was overwhelming. The Residents of the Rift, always hungering for demon souls, stayed back, as did the weeds who wandered the ocean seeking to feed on the living.

None dared approach the imposing armada. If they did, the Elvenwood keels would lash out with their roots and devour them whole. Once the fleet had gathered into formation, a massive gate opened before them.

“All demons! Gather before me!”

The familiar voice brought a grin to Ammut’s face. Hell’s Army—where the King of Demons goes, the demon realm follows. The demons had scattered across the sea in search, but now that their targets had been found, there was no need to sail any farther. Their ruler had opened a gate for them, and they sailed through it, Ammut and the others in tow.

Then a bitter cold swept over them. Before their eyes stood the World Tree, frost covering its surface and exuding an overwhelming majesty. It might have seemed impossible to reach such a mythical place, hidden somewhere within the Sea of the Afterlife, but they had found it. Near the tree, Esil Radiru, the Monarch of Gluttony, was locked in a fierce battle with a giant five-headed snake descending from the tree—Nidhogg.

Upon seeing it, the demons felt their blood ignite.

“Nidhogg has returned!”

“Our monarch is fighting back!”

“Fire the mana cannons!”

“Don’t let it come back down!”

The demons serving Esil might have located the World Tree, but that didn’t mean they had conquered it completely.

[Nidhogg, the Serpent that Feeds on the Roots of the World Tree]

Nidhogg lived here, ready to descend toward the tree’s roots the moment an opening appeared. Each time Nidhogg writhed its massive body, leaves of the World Tree fluttered down like falling petals. In order to gather those precious leaves, one had to first avoid being devoured by the beast.

“Heh. Sh*t. I mean, they used to be so weak...”

Ammut let out a rough chuckle. The demons were actually fighting back and holding their own against the colossal monster of the abyss. He found himself unwilling to sit back and be outdone.

“Damn it. Now I have this itch to fight.”

In the end, he was forced to choose the second of the two paths offered to him by Jinwoo’s apparition—the long, arduous path of “humiliation.” It was definitely the harder path, but thanks to Suho, at least getting here had been a breeze.

“Fine, then! I can take a bit of humiliation!”

With a mighty stomp, he launched himself off the deck and soared toward Nidhogg—or rather at the primordial darkness that emanated from within the beast, where the energy of the Monarch of Iron Body still lingered.

“Hahaha! How degrading this is!”

Ammut, teacher of the Iron Body Technique, drove his fist into the enormous jaw of the head containing the primordial darkness.