Solo Leveling- Ragnarok-Chapter 359

As Beru spoke, describing himself as a commander, countless memories of battle flashed through his mind.

In the distant reaches of the outer universes, the shadow army had once stood against an endless horde—and annihilated it. However, their leader, the Monarch of Shadows, had not been content with just that. He tore the souls from every one of those corpses and turned them all into his own soldiers.

The army of the Outer Gods had been left reeling in disbelief. They had clearly invaded in numbers that should have overwhelmed this world in no time at all, but instead of gaining an easy victory, they were forced to watch their forces being sapped away in real time. What was supposed to be a swift conquest had dragged into a taut tug-of-war, one that still showed no sign of ending.

Yet there was something they had failed to consider. What happened to the soulless husks, the remains left behind after the Shadow Monarch had extracted their souls? Surprisingly, very few gave it any thought. The war was too fierce, too constant. Even if one had noticed, they would soon be dead, just another corpse themselves. In the end, all those horribly mutilated bodies drifted through space or disintegrated entirely, becoming nothing more than dust in the void.

However, in truth, that wasn’t the end. Beru was there, the shadow soldier who had been the most active among the battlefield’s many terrors. He fought the enemy consumed by bloodlust, and whenever he came across those bodies, he shoved them into his mouth, tearing and devouring them. The endless corpses floating in space—he consumed body after body, one after the other, the lifeless remnants of war that otherwise would have drifted into nothing. That was Beru, the predator of the battlefield, the irregular of the war against the Outer Gods.

The result was something extraordinary. Beru grinned.

“I wonder, Outer Gods... do you have any idea just how much of your discarded filth I’ve devoured?”

A manic gleam overtook his eyes. As his glare intensified and his memories swirled back, the madness of the battlefield surged through him once more. Devouring so many soldiers had given him access to various skills, but to Beru, those were mere side effects. The true strength of his Devour ability was to see the very essence of the soldiers’ powers. With that, he could fully understand how their abilities worked. That was what made Beru the shadow army’s greatest asset, even in Sung Jinwoo’s eyes. He could react flexibly to just about every situation.

“There’s no insect on this planet who understands the powers of your kind better than I do!” Beru cried.

From Beru’s entire body, a surge of magic exploded outward in a dazzling array of colors—red, blue, violet, gold...

For the very first time, the eye betrayed confusion.

“That power...”

It was a startlingly familiar presence.

“Know your enemy and yourself, as they say!” Beru shouted.

The various types of energy once used by the Outer Gods’ soldiers burst from Beru’s body all at once. A flash of light exploded outward.

“Knowledge is power!”

In that moment, Beru saw the true form of the transparent energies that flowed through the dimensional rift—and understood exactly where their weaknesses lay.

[Skill: Critical Attack - Level Max.

Active skill.

Dagger only.

You have learned how to execute your attacks efficiently.

Targets a weak point to inflict critical damage.]

Beru shrieked as he launched his offense.

[Commander Beru activated the skill: “True Mutilation.”]

Beru’s claws moved like a blur, slicing apart every one of the Outer Gods’ attacks, resembling Jinwoo himself. He identified the weak point of each terrifying attack and delivered devastating strikes.

“Young Monarch, are you seeing this?” Beru called out over the chaos. “This is how you truly use Mutilation! It begins with finding the weak spots, not just rapidly swinging your dagger around!”

With that principle in mind, Beru’s attacks grew even faster. With every strike, his strength and speed multiplied exponentially. It reached the point that the clash looked like beams of light colliding, almost beautiful, as if a sky full of starlight was crashing together.

“Wh-what in the world?”

The Outer God was deeply confused by this point. What humiliation, to have its divine power torn apart by a mere creation! What upset it even more was the realization that all of this was being watched by every single being on the planet below. The gaze it had cast to induce absolute terror and despair had backfired. Now, it was revealing this disgrace to all the insignificant creatures of Earth.

The people of Earth were left speechless as they watched Beru fighting at his full potential.

“Wh-what... I don’t...”

“What is that black magic beast?”

“Unreal... It’s fighting a god...”

It was awe-inspiring. Beru, effortlessly cleaving through the attacks of a divine being, became a symbol of hope.

“Please!”

“Hang in there...”

“Just a little more...”

The world cheered as one as they watched a battle their eyes could scarcely follow. The black beast, cloaked in shadow, shining bright on the battlefield, was now the center of attention.

“Don’t you dare!”

However, the Outer God witnessed all of this, and its fury was boundless.

In that instant, it felt as though the Earth itself trembled. A fresh storm of attacks poured from the eye. It released even more power than before, thunderous and wild, at Beru. This time it also aimed at Suho, who was behind Beru and out of sight. An even more tremendous power gripped the Earth. As its immense influence enveloped the entire planet, the sky and land cried out.

“Nooo!”

“S-save me!”

“Oh, god!”

Everyone who had been watching the battle in real time began to scream, plunged into chaos once again. Many had thankfully awakened at least minor abilities through the Tower of Tribulation, so despite it all, the damage was far less than it might have been. Still, among those who had not played the game, some vomited, fainted, or wet themselves on the spot. The Earth was rocked by a quake of enormous magnitude.

However, far more people stood firm against the overwhelming terror on their own. Though their nationalities and ethnicities were different, and the amount of magic they possessed and the types of skills they had varied wildly, they were all, in the end, Sung Jinwoo.

Solo Leveling: Ragnarok.

The game had bestowed that name upon them all, a name to carry with pride.

“Hehe...”

“Ha!”

Somehow, they held on, gritting their teeth and fighting their way through the fear. Their knees buckled, but they forced themselves upright, lifting their heads with resolve. Their eyes remained fixed on the sky, where a hellish scene was unfolding, never looking away from that absurd battle. The expression on their faces wasn’t fear—it was anger. Even now, they knew there was almost nothing they could do to affect the outcome.

“Which is exactly why we have to watch.”

“Even if we can’t join the fight ourselves...”

“I’m... Sung Jinwoo 132, after all.”

Even if their experiences had been secondhand, channeled through avatars, they still were challengers of the Tower of Tribulation, who had walked the same path Jinwoo once had. Even if they themselves were powerless, they had to witness this battle to the very end, continuing to look on as Beru fought. What else could they do? This was a battle against a god, one that would go down in history as a desperate stand to stop the destruction of Earth itself.

“Hehe. How beautiful.”

At that moment, even Thomas Andre’s lips curled into a grin as he looked skyward. He had been the very first player in humanity to receive Jinwoo’s name, Sung Jinwoo 2, and he had inherited the power of the primordial darkness itself. He was now the Monarch of Domination.

“That sight makes my blood boil,” he said, getting ready to act. “I’m not sitting this one out. Not this time.”

The moment Yuri Orloff had become a sacrifice, he’d vanished, his role complete. There was no longer anything for Thomas to do here. He refused to be a powerless spectator like in the past, watching from the sidelines as history was written around him. He wasn’t powerless anymore.

“Time to get going, then.”

And just like that, the Monarch of Domination vanished, headed straight for the Arctic base where the battle was still raging. When he arrived, he saw the base had been completely obliterated, razed to the ground. Only two figures remained: Beru and the massive eye, still locked in deadly combat.

As Thomas briefly glanced at the Outer God’s eye, he could clearly sense its agitation. However, as a Monarch, he could also sense other emotions behind that gaze.

Clicking his tongue with a frown, he muttered, “It seems relaxed. I guess that’s not surprising. It’s only using one eye.”

Indeed, this god had manifested such devastating power using just a single eye. Its full form hadn’t even crossed into this world yet. Such were the Itarim that they would be up against. Beru was holding his own impressively at the moment, but ultimately, he was going all-out just to fight a single eye. On top of that, Beru’s incredible power came at the cost of steadily draining mana.

At a glance, it was clear this would be a challenge. Victory would not be gained like this. At this rate, even as all of humanity looked on with hope, Earth would end up swallowed entirely by that Outer God. The god knew how this would end, which was why it could afford to take its time. Though it was startled by the unexpectedly fierce resistance from Earth’s creations, it knew the outcome was only a matter of time.

“But what happens,” Thomas asked, “if I join the fight?”

The first thing he did upon arriving at the shattered base wasn’t to aid Beru or attack the Outer God. He searched for Suho.

The battle’s intensity made it difficult to pinpoint Suho’s location, as he was all but hidden amid the chaos, and the Outer God didn’t seem to care about him at all. It was actually impossible for the god to pay attention to him, since every single “gaze” the god cast toward Suho was immediately cleaved apart by Beru. The loyal commander was shielding Suho completely, protecting him from the Outer God’s sight like the guardian he had always been.

However, Thomas was different. The moment the Monarch arrived, the eye turned to him.

“Ah. Another interesting creature.” The Outer God licked its lips as it looked at him. It couldn’t help but find him curious.

Like Suho, Thomas was strange. He somehow contained the primordial darkness in a human body. Still, that was all. The god had already noticed his presence when it first scanned the planet. In fact, it was thanks to Thomas killing Yuri, the sacrifice it had prepared, that it had been able to fully manifest its power in this universe.

Even if Thomas entered the battle now, it didn’t matter. The result would be the same. The primordial darkness, and the fact that he was a Monarch, meant nothing at all. The Outer Gods were gods. No matter what title they bore, they were merely creations.

“I will eat you first,” the Outer God said.

In that instant, several of the gazes that had been attacking Beru sharply changed direction and shot toward Thomas Andre like bolts of lightning. Beru didn’t bother trying to block them. What mattered most to him was Suho’s safety. Thomas didn’t want Beru’s help, either. He could handle this much on his own.

He raised his armored fists and deflected each of the god’s lightning-like gazes. Then, smirking as he met the Outer God’s eye, he said, “You there. Haven’t figured it out yet? Maybe it’s because you’ve only got one eye. You’re not seeing the full picture, huh?”

The god’s eye flickered with confusion at Thomas’ cryptic remark. The attacks resumed, flying toward Thomas from every direction. Thomas merely continued to deflect them with ease.

“I mean, I just got here, but I’m not the only Monarch in this dimension. Far from it. Wanna guess where the others are right now?”

At those words, the eye widened. This was something the gods truly hadn’t anticipated. They had been too focused on watching the struggles of the ant to notice. According to the reports from the Apostles they had dispatched earlier, there were more than a few of these so-called Monarchs in this world. In fact, the Monarchs had been working together thus far, and—

The god began to wonder what those Monarchs were up to now. Naturally, one would assume they’d be here, fighting alongside the others.

“Too late,” Beru growled, continuing to rip the attacks to shreds. He bared his teeth, and his words were meant not only for the Outer Gods, but for Thomas as well.

Thomas responded playfully, “Now, now, no need to get upset. I got here as fast as I could.”

Finally, he had found Suho. He stood behind the barrage of attacks that Beru had destroyed, the one blind spot on Earth that the Outer Gods couldn’t see. It was the very place where Suho and the other Monarchs had been fully shielded. Thomas walked over.

“Hey! I hope I’m not too late,” he said.

“Welcome!”

“Slowpoke.”

“Right on time.”

A low growl came from Gray. All the Monarchs who gathered around Suho greeted Thomas, each in their own way. They all appeared to be suppressing the fiery urge to leap into battle. They had been waiting for Thomas—the final piece in Suho’s plan.

The moment Thomas joined them, a brilliant white gleam lit up in Suho’s eyes.

“Let’s not waste another second,” he said.

Each Monarch, who had been holding back their strength and remaining hidden behind Beru, unleashed their power all at once. At the same time, Beru, who had been holding off the god’s gaze with all his might, was finally overwhelmed by the force of the Outer God and was sent flying.

In that moment, the Monarchs were finally revealed in full. It was as if the curtain had risen, exposing the stage Beru had so carefully kept hidden until now.

The eye widened in shock. Every Monarch of this dimension was here, standing with Suho. All of them had triumphed over Nidhogg’s tribulations and inherited the primordial darkness. Each and every one of them were successors. At the same time, they were the next generation of Monarchs who gathered around Suho, their shaman, with one mind and one purpose.

“Activate domain,” Suho said.

[Skill: “Monarch’s Domain” has activated.] 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

A pure white shadow spread from beneath Suho’s feet. Though born of darkness, this shadow was pale as snow, drawn from the World Tree itself. It unfurled across the land, stretching far beyond the Arctic base and capable of blanketing the entire Arctic continent. The World Tree was vast, after all. At the heart of that whiteness, Suho’s deep gaze met the alien eye with unshakable confidence.

“He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.”

He was quoting a famous philosopher, words that also served as a prophecy from Norma Selner. Standing beside the other Monarchs, Suho met the eye’s stare and delivered the final word of that prophecy.

“And from this point on,” he declared, “I will be your pale abyss.”

The entire world turned blinding white—or at least, that was how it appeared to the Outer Gods. Beyond that light, Suho wielded a shadow power that only he could access.

“Arise, all of you!”

At that resolute command, something began to stir within every Monarch whom Suho had aided in their succession. Monarch-level beings had no shadows of their own, but the primordial darkness inside each of them reacted to Suho’s authority. Each darkness obeyed the Protector of the World Tree and the Monarch of Transcendence.

“Arise, Shadow Nidhogg,” Suho said.