Solo Leveling- Ragnarok-Chapter 358

A hellish landscape had unfolded beyond the sky. It was as if the entire sky surrounding the Earth had turned into one massive gate.

“Wh-what... is that...?”

Across the forests of skyscrapers in Seoul, in the heart of Times Square in New York, and beneath Dubai’s shimmering skyline, all of humanity gazed up at the sky in disbelief. The once-tranquil sky cracked apart like broken glass. Through the growing fissures, a landscape of another world, tainted red and a sickly purple, began to show.

Within that dimension, unimaginable, horrifying monsters prowled, more Apostles than could be counted swarmed like mere soldiers—the very same kind which had attacked Earth. Just the sight of it awakened a primal, buried terror within the human race. Cities descended into chaos in an instant.

“Call the police! No, strike that. Get the hunters!”

“We have to figure out what that is right now!”

“What the hell is going on? What is the government doing about this?”

However, that wasn’t the only strange thing happening.

“Breaking news!” 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

“Currently, no abnormalities are detected by any observation equipment worldwide! The skies are still blue, and...”

“What...?”

Something impossible was taking place. Anchors and reporters, visible on TV and smartphones, continued to repeat the same thing with confusion in their voices—that nothing was actually happening.

How could that be? Everyone could see that something was wrong by simply raising their heads to the sky.

“No electronic device on Earth can detect this phenomenon!”

“It appears only the human eye can perceive what’s happening!”

The news anchors were right. Phones, cameras, and even satellites couldn’t seem to pick up the anomaly in the sky. Only Earth’s living beings could see that distant otherworldly dimension beyond the fractured sky.

“Is this a mass hallucination...?” someone muttered.

The scale was far too big to be something like that. How could every human on Earth be hallucinating the exact same thing? If they were all seeing it, it was reality. What had overtaken Earth now was not a simple distortion of perception, but a horror that carved itself directly into the soul, bypassing all forms of technology.

In the midst of it all, the eyes of all humanity were instinctively drawn to the gaze of the absolute being responsible for it. At the center of the splitting sky was an enormous, unblinking eye, the source of the entire catastrophe. That ominous, overwhelming gaze wasn’t just an image floating in the sky. It was the eye of a powerful being observing from the other side.

The moment they saw it, every living creature on Earth understood, before any rational thought could intervene. They were gazing upon a god.

“No... No...”

At the same time, it was embedded in their souls that this god did not have their best interests in mind.

“Is the world... about to end?”

The words slipped from people’s mouths.

The end of the world, in the truest sense, had arrived. Not even the first Great Cataclysm had been this catastrophic. As devastating as that time had been, it hadn’t gripped the entire planet in such unrelenting terror. If the entities they saw above descended upon Earth all at once, humanity would be annihilated. Just looking at it made the soul feel as if it would burn away.

Even the bravest hunters, who always stood at the front lines against the magic beasts, could do nothing in the face of this. They simply knew. That gaze from above could shatter the sky and turn this world into hell at any moment. Before that inevitable fate, humanity was powerless. All they could do was wait helplessly for the blade to fall, and primal despair spread like a plague across the globe.

“Huh?”

“Look... Up ahead...”

People began to notice something. There were people standing before that fearsome eye, as if to fight it. As that realization spread, an astonishing scene unfolded before them. As if the god’s gaze itself had become a massive screen, the fight happening at the secret base in the Arctic was now in full view in the torn sky, being broadcast all over the world.

A man stood firm against the god from another dimension, wreathed in pitch-black energy. A monstrous ant spread its enormous wings beside him. A beautiful woman, a queen, led a swarm of countless insects. The scene looked plucked from myth itself, these beings daring to face the eye of the god.

The face of the man at the center passed through the torn dimensional wall and entered the sight of everyone on Earth, like the silhouette of towering mountains in the distance. Then, someone recognized him. Their voice shook as they spoke.

“Sung... Suho?”

That one name became the spark. Eyes dulled by despair began to light up, one by one, with shock. From every corner of the world, voices came like a wave, recognizing the man’s face.

“Suho!”

“That’s Sung Suho!”

Cries rang out across the sky as people finally realized who it was. Where terror had extinguished all hope, something now stirred again in the ashes, a flame reignited.

Suho was standing against this threat, facing the god on behalf of all humanity.

***

The entire human race now looked on as Suho fought.

“I’ll stop him.”

Beru stepped in front of Suho and revealed his full power. Until now, Beru had been consuming mana crystals without pause since his arrival on the planet, trying to recover the strength he had once lost. Still, it hadn’t been enough. No matter how many he devoured, Beru was one of the closest vassals of Jinwoo, and one of the strongest commanders of the shadow army. Refilling his incredible power required an unthinkable number of magic crystals.

Even then, the moment he used that power, he’d have to start recharging again. He couldn’t afford to expend the strength he’d painstakingly gathered on just anything. So, he had waited patiently, biding his time for the proper moment in which to use his strength, and at the same time, hoping it would never come. That time had arrived. Beru had never imagined that the Outer Gods would strike the Earth in person.

“Young Monarch, I must thank you,” he said, “for all those mana crystals I consumed before coming here...”

Indeed, Suho had arranged everything. Through Adam White, he’d negotiated for the entire stockpile of mana crystals from the American Federal Bureau of Hunters—asking politely, of course. With Norma Selner’s insight, they had realized they might encounter the Itarim. It wouldn’t have been wise to come empty-handed.

War required plenty of preparation, and Suho had done everything in his power to come ready. Naturally, part of that preparation involved restoring Beru’s original power. Beru was his father’s greatest weapon, after all. That decision now proved invaluable.

[Beru: Max Level Commander Grade]

In a single moment, the pitiful name tag that had once dropped to Foot Soldier reclaimed its original title, and a truly incredible level of mana erupted from Beru’s body. All the strength he had suppressed until now burst forth at once. His body swelled, his wings stretched wide, and he locked eyes with the divine gaze.

“Anyone who dares threaten my Young Monarch...”

Beru’s voice had changed. Gone was the overly polite, sometimes frantic tone he used with Suho. In its place rang the hardened voice of a battle-worn veteran, soaked in bloodlust, as he bared his teeth.

“I’ll rip you to shreds myself!”

At that moment, the Itar’s true assault began. Out of the eye poured countless malicious glares.

“Kieeeeeeeek!”

Beru leapt toward the onslaught, leaving Suho behind.

Though the Outer God itself hadn’t crossed into this world, its gaze alone was more than enough. Even through the smallest rift, its vision pierced across the entire planet—and that gaze was so powerful, it became substance, turning into blades sharper than steel.

Thousands of transparent blades flew toward Beru all at once. They weren’t coming from a single angle. They rained down from every direction, from every possible trajectory, enough to encompass the entire planet at once. Each and every attack carried the power of the Outer Gods, which could see through all things, rendering any form of defense meaningless.

Wherever the gaze passed, space itself was torn apart. Though unseen, the air ripped along its trajectory, and the secret base was reduced to rubble. Even the surrounding polar continent threatened to shatter into fragments. However, Beru wasn’t backing down. Evasion was unthinkable. If he dodged, then Suho would be left to face it all.

“Young Monarch, stay behind me and watch carefully,” Beru’s voice called to Suho. “This will be my final lesson.”

There was something strange in Beru’s voice then—almost a sort of excitement, like that of a teacher imparting a final class. Because of that, Beru criticized Suho firmly for the first time.

“Your Mutilation is fake.”

“What...?” Suho replied, taken aback. He didn’t understand what Beru meant. It was abrupt, entirely out of nowhere.

Beru stood his ground, absorbing the torrent of divine attacks flying at him from every direction.

“The true Mutilation your father completed begins by identifying the opponent’s vital points and striking them.”

[Skill: Critical Attack - Level 1]

The skill Jinwoo had refined as his signature technique, Mutilation, began with this. Suho, on the other hand, had acquired the skill from a rune stone saved by Jinho. Though they shared the same end result, the process by which they learned it was very different. Beru was undoubtedly a devoted servant of Jinwoo, a commander who had watched every one of Jinwoo’s battles more than any other soldier.

“My power may stem from Devour, but I haven’t relied on that alone to grow,” he said.

He had been Jinwoo’s longest training partner. Beru had honed his combat skills by sparring with Jinwoo countless times. That was why he was so confident that no other shadow soldier knew Jinwoo’s combat style better than he did.

“So, now...” He broke into a broad, satisfied smile. “Let me show you the true form of Mutilation, which I learned directly from your father.”

Each of Beru’s claws sharpened into daggers, perfectly mirroring the exact paths of Jinwoo’s technique. With them, he began slicing apart the attacks of the Outer God flying at him from all directions. Numerous gazes were severed.

“A mere created being dares get in my way?” said the Outer God, laughing at Beru’s resistance.

The Itarim viewed all creations as beneath them. The gulf between creators and their creations, after all, was vast beyond imagination.

“Struggle as hard as you want, you insect.”

Suddenly, the Outer God’s eye began to expand rapidly, growing clearer as it stared through the gaps in the sky. At the same time, the power of its attacks multiplied exponentially. They were no longer attacks of spears or swords, but bolts of divine lightning.

Massive greatswords formed from its gaze and fell with enough power to carve out dozens of kilometers in a single swing. Space was torn apart along the paths, and even the dimension itself seemed to scream in agony. Even so, Beru was still smiling. He met the god’s gaze head-on.

“An insect?” he echoed. “Know this. My name is Beru.” He declared his name with pride. “I am Commander Beru. I have roamed the front lines of the wars in the outer universes, alongside the great Monarch of Shadows.”