Solo Leveling- Ragnarok-Chapter 370

The moment the Itarim, the absolute gods, descended, everything came to a halt. The fractured sky, breaking apart like a shattered window, the cracked and crumbling earth, the angels locked in fierce combat above—all froze. Time itself had stopped for all of it.

”I’ve lost interest.”

The voice of the Itarim was flat, but within it was clear fury, and a deep exhaustion with this entire game. The raw force of those emotions cut deep into the souls of every creation.

“This is the end. All of you, disappear.”

In that moment, something unbelievable happened. All of humanity—billions of avatars locked in fierce combat—exploded like fireworks on the spot. It was as if the final act of a grand, planet-sized performance had just ended. Not a drop of blood was spilled. There was no resistance, no screams. This was the power of a god. With a single command from the Itarim, the entirety of the human race had vanished like stage props that had outlived their use.

However, there were still those who, daringly, could defy even such an absolute command. The Monarchs who bore the primordial darkness inside them still stood, along with Beru.

“Time for the rest of you to die as well.”

From high above, the Itarim’s gaze fell upon those who still remained. The overwhelming presence of a god pressed down on them.

“You dare speak of death in front of me?”

It was Beru who spoke, having returned to Suho’s side. He glared up at the Itarim with burning eyes. The once-roaring battlefield had fallen deathly silent. The earth, emptied after the disappearance of billions of humans, now lay still.

Kandiaru surveyed the devastation, then turned to Suho. “Hmm. This great god has taken it a little too far. Forcing a logout command, of all things. The souls of the humans have all safely returned to Earth. The system’s been quite well designed.”

Thankfully, the moment the players’ avatars exploded, their souls were forcibly transferred back into the game capsules on Earth. They’d been protected by magic circles created for exactly that purpose.

“Not even a god can easily destroy billions of souls all at once.”

Yet for the first time, Kandiaru’s voice, usually laced with amusement, betrayed unease.

“Unless... they created a new law powerful enough to do so.”

“You understand well.” The Itarim beamed.

It was a cruel smile, and the eyes held no joy. After all, they were gods—absolute beings far removed from human emotion. Even now, a stream of blood still dripped from one of their eyes. It was the wound Suho had inflicted when he first crossed into this world. The Itarim could have healed it at any time, but chose not to. There was no real reason. To such an ancient being, even pain could be a source of amusement.

Then, with a nerve-wracking shriek that grated against the mind, a new law born from that very pain began to form. Watching the outrageous new law take shape, Kandiaru clicked his tongue as he hovered around Suho.

“This is where the fight truly begins. When that law is completed...”

“You mean we need to end this before that happens,” Suho said firmly.

The Monarchs stood around him. Lifting his gaze, Suho met the bloodstained eyes of the smiling Itarim. Its presence was so immense it could be felt just from looking. However, the Itarim had made one crucial mistake. By forcibly expelling all of humanity just now, they had shattered the Lonely Stage of the Divine. That meant only one thing.

“My shadow... is back,” Suho said.

The stolen shadow had returned. A dark tide bubbled at his feet, rippling like molten stone.

“Arise.”

At his command, every soldier that had lain waiting in his shadow began to rise. Their war cries were completely different in tone from those of the humans who had fought up until now. This was the requiem of a cruel battlefield, a funeral dirge howled by the souls of the dead. Suho’s entire army began to fill the world once more. Among them were even creatures originally from this world, beings created by the Itarim themselves, now engulfed in black vapor and reborn as part of Suho’s legion.

The Itarim frowned.

“The Itarim who created you... deserved to die.”

There was clear displeasure in the voice.

“To think a mere creation has been given power beyond its place!”

At their will, the angels who served them swarmed forward like thunderclouds, once again filling the sky. These followers, more powerful and terrifying than before, stood against Suho’s shadow army. Unfortunately for them, they were not meant for battle.

The Itarim devoured them all—offering them up as raw material to complete their new law. They were ripped apart, their screams echoing through the air, sacrificed to forge this new divine rule.

“This one is truly out of its mind,” Thomas muttered, visibly disgusted by the scene.

Kandiaru quietly ground his teeth. “That is not the worst of it,” he said. “There were so many materials, the law is already complete.”

It was clearly a law of annihilation, the most certain form of destruction a god of creation could wield.

An inevitable, unstoppable death had now come to stand before them.

The ashen angels hissed and rushed at Suho’s army like demons. They were well aware that if they remained behind, they’d only become fodder for the new law. To survive their own god, they had to kill their enemies and prove their right to exist. However, it was too late.

“Begone from my world.”

Unseen teeth tore through the air behind them, and in their wake opened a rift to yet another dimension. The angels that had been flying there vanished without a trace. The invisible teeth began to tear the world apart. There was no order or pattern to it. Even the grey angels were not spared if they got caught up in it. In fact, their deaths only strengthened and accelerated the fangs.

“Scatter, all of you!”

“Spread out and aim for the Itarim’s body!”

All the Monarchs gathered around Suho desperately unleashed their powers at once. As Monarchs, they instinctively understood the true nature of those fangs.

“If you get bitten, you’ll return to nothingness!”

At that moment, Kandiaru recognized the name of the law.

Ding!

[The Itarim has activated God’s Tool: “Devour World.”]

A series of harsh crunching noises followed. There was nowhere to run. The Teeth of Nothingness the Itarim had created were consuming the entire world, forcing a reset. Rather than defeat the pests that had infested their home, the Itarim had chosen to burn it all down.

“Suho!” Arsha shouted urgently. “Let’s return to our dimension for now! My Void Insects are opening a path!”

She was the weakest of the Monarchs in battle. Desperately, she directed every one of her Void Insects to create an escape route, but it was futile. Once the teeth had finished devouring this world, they would move on to Earth as well.

“Young Monarch! I shall try to hold it off as long as I can! Please get to safety in the meantime—” Beru shouted to Suho.

He grabbed one of the angels and hurled it at the approaching teeth of the void. It was no use. The teeth had no eyes, no intelligence, and no instincts. They merely existed to consume everything. The only way to deal with them was to run.

All around, the grey angels screamed in agony. Those who had flown too close to the Itarim had no chance to avoid the fangs, and knowing that this was their god’s will, they had no desire or intellect to resist it. They could only feel pain as they were devoured, to be ground down as materials for the powerful new law.

“Young Monarch!” Beru shouted again in a voice full of urgency.

Suho stood motionless, silent even as death approached. He clenched his teeth, summoning every ounce of strength within him.

The grinding and crunching noises continued.

Think! He strained to find a way out of this situation. Figure out what I can do!

He pushed his mind to its limit. The damned Outer Gods had turned him back into an ordinary human. That was an experience he hadn’t had in a while, and his head felt clearer for it.

I’ve already spent enough time just helplessly blaming the situation...

He knew all too well now that if he did nothing, took no action, nothing would change.

The teeth continued to feast.

What can I do here?

Hadn’t he already prepared for this? It had been a given, starting from the moment he was level 1, that he would fight the Itarim. He had known it from the very beginning! Suho had been fighting for this precise end goal, thinking of all the things that could happen when he faced the divine in battle. He had grown step by step, believing without a doubt that every one of those steps brought him closer to his father, who was fighting alone in the far reaches of outer space.

What would my father do in a situation like this?

Then, in that instant, he saw him—his father in the distance.

The teeth continued to eat, and Suho wondered if it had been his imagination. One of the openings that looked out onto the void seemed to have given him a glance of his father’s back as he faced the powerful Itarim. The head slowly turned, and their eyes met.

“Found it...” Suho said.

He grinned. It was a faint smile, but one filled with certainty. He had considered so many ways to fight the Itarim, to get one step closer to his father. He had now, at last, arrived at the one and only way to kill the Itarim.

Suho launched himself from the ground, narrowly evading the advancing teeth. At the same time, he sent a message to the small creature resting in his shadow.

“Ragna!”

The being that had silently watched everything from within opened his eyes.

[Antares, King of Dragons]

It was the former Monarch of Destruction who awakened inside Ragna.

Suho called out again. “Kandiaru! Transfer all the experience points I’ve earned here to Ragna!”

Suho currently had two status windows. One contained all the history of every battle that he had fought on Earth, which had granted him progress. The other was the result of leveling up from scratch in this dimension—a vast trove of accumulated experience.

“I... I don’t know what you are planning, but understood!”

Kandiaru immediately complied.

There was a chime.

[The experience point sharing system has been applied to pet: “Ragna.”]

[Pet: “Ragna” shows explosive growth!]

Ragna came into view from within the shadow, no longer a fragile, tiny baby dragon. Now, he towered above them all.

“Heh... That feels much better.”

He too had grown, and immensely at that. He spread his enormous wings. The King of Dragons, now cloaked in destructive flame, had returned. He was Antares, the former King of the Dragons, the Monarch of Destruction, the strongest of all the Monarchs. He had once faced the armies of the gods at the front lines, leading the charge more than any other Monarch.

The King of Dragons drew a deep, mana-filled breath. The moment of destruction had come.