Solo Leveling: Ragnarok

A true disaster had begun. The entire village, including its buildings, twisted and waved like it had become some kind of roiling sea.

“Harmakan’s spells are not simple illusions! They have actual physical power, so you must be careful!” Arsha shouted as Beru held onto her. His magic circle, completed by many deaths, was the epitome of illusions and their potential.

“You who have inherited the power of the Iron Body Technique!Try what you will!” A strange laughter rang out, filling the red sky.

One of Harmakan’s giant hands ripped a building out of the ground and slammed it down on Suho. The young hunter, who had been charging forward, swung a sword and split the building in two. Directly above it was a large bus that Harmakan had tossed afterward, which exploded right in front of him. Bits of sidewalk flew in all directions, and the armored death knights began their full-fledged assault on Suho with mighty groans.

“Oh my God!”

“Wh-what the hell are those things?”

The villains who’d surrendered to Suho were aghast as they began blocking the attacks of the death knights. No matter how they looked at it, however, they saw no way of winning. The ground rippled underfoot and buildings were falling overhead. Fantastical chaos surrounded them. On top of that, there were at least hundreds of death knights charging over that unsteady soil. The villains, on the other hand, were no more than several dozen. They were overwhelmingly outdone both in terms of strength and numbers.

“Th-this has to be a dream!”

“No, it’s a nightmare!”

The villains were inexperienced with fighting monsters, and they had no idea how to go about defeating death knights at all.

“Those suits of armor are completely empty!”

“I’ve heard of this before! People call them living armor!”

“What does the name matter, damn it?! Tell us how to kill them!”

“The armor! You gotta destroy the armor!”

“I know that! How do we destroy it?”

“Th-the tanker should take the front, while the damage dealers—”

“It’s just too tough, damn it!”

The villains shouted desperately to one another as chaotic fighting broke out. That was when one villain with some dungeon experience recalled something and shouted, “No! You need to aim for the gaps in their armor when fighting monsters like these!”

“The gaps!”

This sounded like somewhat useful information, at least. The villains grew encouraged.

“Th-that’s it! We’ll go for the openings in—”

“Out of the way!”

Suddenly, Suho’s voice broke in from overhead. The villains looked up, shocked.

“R-run!”

Suho had grabbed another bus that Harmakan had tossed at him and was floating in the air, grasping it in his hands. He slammed it down onto the group of death knights below. They were sent flying in all directions like bowling pins. Those who had been near the center of the mass were crushed entirely.

Suho landed in front of the villains, who had scattered in alarm. He grinned, baring his teeth. “These are my trophies,” he said. At that, the Vulcan’s Horns from his inventory appeared in his hands again. He shot forward once more, and the villains who had narrowly escaped had trouble keeping their mouths shut.

“Th-that’s nuts…”

“Did we really try to fight a guy like that?”

“Maybe the world outside the prison is hell.”

They were genuinely regretting having escaped at all.

Despite Suho making some progress, reality was not so forgiving. Suho’s swords repeatedly bounced off the suits of armor.

I can’t seem to do as much damage as I expected, he thought. The death knights were dented by the blows, but they were not taking much actual damage. Their defense seems pretty high. Their armor was not only thick, but it was also slippery, often causing his blades to glance off.

The death knights roared.

“You didn’t think such measly attacks would really take down my death knights, did you?” Harmakan gave a strange laugh, and the death knights who had been sent flying got up unharmed, attacking Suho once more. One of them swung its sword in a vast arc at Suho. He ducked to avoid it and at the same time bounded forward, releasing the Vulcan’s Horns from his hands. He used his bare hands to grab the death knight’s head and tear it away by force. The helmet was pulled away, and Suho could see the hollow interior of the armor. An ominous, rippling energy was inside—a soul.

Suho glared at it, grinning widely. “That’s more like it. If the exterior is a hard shell…” The Vulcan’s Horns, which had left his grip for a moment, flew right back into his hands. “It means the interior is bound to be soft and squishy.”

Suho held one sword in a reverse grip and shoved it into the neck opening. A silent, pulsing scream erupted from inside, and as Suho yanked his sword out, a system notification appeared.

[Death knight has been defeated.]

Suho grinned. “All right. So that’s how it feels.”

“That’s just one of them. There are scores more,” Beru said.

Suho nodded. “I know. By the way, these don’t seem reusable.”

“No. It seems their souls have already been consumed by the demonic spirit’s evil spell, Young Monarch,” Beru replied, licking his mandibles.

A message had appeared above the death knight that Suho had just killed.

[It’s impossible to extract its shadow due to the tainted mana.]

It was just like before with the demon souls.

“Does that matter? I can still use them, just differently.” Suho stared into the empty suit of armor, now missing its helmet, and gave a mischievous grin. “Que?”

“Yes, Master.”

“Go inside.”

“As you command.” Que moved out of Suho’s shadow and into the husk of the death knight, and Suho placed the helmet back on the armor.

“Now, you are a recycled knight, Que.”

“That name sounds a bit… Hmph.” Que seemed to want to protest but said no more. Despite the name, he looked quite impressive wearing a death knight’s set of armor. The way dark smoke trailed out of the gaps in the solid armor made him look similar to but also distinct from Harmakan’s death knights.

“Your enemy is my enemy, Master.” A long spear made of dark energy appeared in Que’s hand. He swung it, shoving the tip into the head of a death knight that had just lunged at them. “Master! I, Que, have your back! Please feel free to fight as freely as you wish!” Que thought to himself that Suho must find him so reassuring as he confidently began to fight.

Beru marveled and clapped his hands together. “That’s our Young Monarch for you! At this rate, we could increase our numbers as freely as we desire!”

Before Beru even finished his comment, however, Taeshik had disappeared into thin air. The head of a death knight nearby suddenly popped off, and Taeshik jumped inside and began an invisible struggle with the soul within. There were multiple violent noises, like those of daggers slicing into something, and soon a message popped up.

[Death knight has been defeated.]

“You’re pretty good!” Suho said, impressed.

Taeshik had already rushed off to decapitate another death knight, and Suho imbued the empty suit of armor with Mino, the shadow soldier. The armor’s size would not have been a fit for Mino at all, but these suits of armor had been specially crafted by the Supreme Chief of the demonic spirits, so it adjusted its size automatically.

Mino mooed, rushing headlong at the enemies with a shoulder bash as soon as the armor was on. Suho quickly did the same for Tau.

As more and more of the shadow soldiers equipped the armor, Harmakan was greatly taken aback. “Wh-what kind of dark magic is this?How did my death knights…”

“Too late for regrets,” Suho said.

Harmakan yowled, and his massive hand angrily began tossing buildings at Suho again. While the attacks themselves were random and prompted mostly by rage, they were impressive in their power. Suho was still as outnumbered as before.

But at leastI’ve got a hang of the pattern now, he thought. He rode around on Gray’s back, skillfully evading the buildings that flew at him. Because these large attacks were all aimed at Suho, his shadow soldiers were able to diligently work on reducing the death knights’ numbers.

“I don’t believe it…”

The villains who had scattered, trying to get away from the violence, found themselves at a loss for words.

Arsha, however, was even more shocked as she remained in Beru’s grip. “How in heaven…” The hunter who had interfered with her business in the past and the current Suho seemed like completely different people. He was now much stronger and faster, though his changes were not limited to those things.

“He’s become… a higher being. How is this possible for a human?” Arsha was terribly confused. “What exactly happened before this point?” The realization then sank in—she had believed that humans were the lowest and weakest race, but some of them were not to be provoked in any way, for any reason. She could never hope to oppose Sung Suho, no matter what she did.

[Death knight has been defeated.]

[Death knight has been defeated.]

[Death knight has been defeated.]

[…]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

“All right!” Because of how many death knights there were, Suho was leveling up very quickly.

“He’s very useful, to be sure,” whispered Beru as he concocted a plot to use Harmakan’s abilities. “Why don’t we capture him and put him to work as a shadow soldier? Have him turn the remaining villains into death knights, too, and kill them all.”

Beru was not human to begin with and couldn’t care less what happened to the villains. Because Harmakan could apparently only turn evil spirits into death knights, the shadow ant couldn’t help but find the idea charming. The polluted spirits inside the armor could not be turned into shadow soldiers, but whether it was possible with Harmakan himself remained to be seen.

“We’ll first have to kill him to find out, Young Monarch,” Beru said. He’d been waving his antennae about for a while, sounding out his surroundings. His eyes flashed as he said, “Aha, I’ve found him.”

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