Solo Leveling- Ragnarok-Chapter 367

Suho was powerless in this world, a world crafted under the laws dictated by the Itarim. All of his strength, every ounce of growth, meant nothing here. Still, something remained. It wasn’t truly his power, and it never would be. It was a primordial darkness that had no master, a single fragment, and the only one that escaped the laws of the Itarim. Suho reached into the deepest depths of his soul, to a realm even the Itarim could not touch.

“Awaken, Kandiaru.”

The quiet voice became the spell which contradicted the rules of this world.

Suddenly, the world stopped. Every last zealot who had surrounded and mocked Suho froze in place, just as they were. The echoes of their scornful laughter fell silent. The laws of the Itarim that had bound Suho in place also ceased. It was as though someone had pressed pause, and then slowly, it all faded to white. The texture of reality itself disappeared.

When Suho opened his eyes again, he found himself standing in a space he knew well. It was a pure white expanse, stretching endlessly into the horizon. This was the realm of the dead Monarchs, the world of nothingness. At the far edge, a dead Monarch stood, staring blankly into the air.

[King of Demonic Specters, Monarch of Transfiguration]

It was Kandiaru’s spirit, now long dead and consumed by the primordial darkness. He looked around vacantly and muttered to himself, “This place...”

Where was he? Why was he here? Kandiaru tried to recall. The last thing he could remember was...

He had become an Apostle of the Outer Gods and had been facing off against the Shadow Monarch’s son—Sung Jinwoo’s son. He was just about to steal that cursed boy’s body and make it an immortal vessel. Then, without warning, his consciousness had broken, and now, he’d opened his eyes in this unknown space. Only now did he realize that his body had turned into a transparent spirit.

“You!” he cried. Kandiaru finally noticed Suho standing before him. In that moment, the last of his missing memories surged back with perfect clarity.

Nidhogg.

Billions of humans had flown toward him, and all that energy had torn his infinite barrier apart. A pitch-black flame of destruction had pierced through his heart. Suho had stood at the center of it all, his eyes coldly glowing.

“You! You killed me!”

The dead Monarch’s resentment burned through the air like fire. He had sought eternal life. The dream he had devoted his entire life to had been shattered once by Sung Jinwoo, and now again by his son.

“Why? Why must you and your father stand in the way of my immortality?”

A murderous array of magic circles surrounded Suho in an instant, but he didn’t flinch. He stood with his arms folded, calmly taking in the rage. It was a familiar sight, but things were different now. Now, Suho was the true master of this world.

“That’s all for your final words?” Suho asked.

“What?!”

At Suho’s provocation, Kandiaru’s rage reached its peak. However, just before his attacks reached Suho—a single sentence stopped everything.

“I’ll make you immortal.”

Kandiaru’s spells froze midair, hanging inches from Suho’s face.

“What...? What nonsense is this?”

“Your wish. I’ll grant it.”

“Ha!”

At Suho’s brazen claim, Kandiaru scoffed. The laughter drained from his eyes in an instant, and suddenly, his face was very close to Suho’s, glaring, grinding his teeth.

“Do you even know? Monarchs have no shadows. That was why not even your all-powerful father, the Monarch of Shadows, could ever control them as his servants. When a Monarch dies, they return to nothingness. So what makes you think you could do such a thing? You think you can do what your father could not?”

Despite Kandiaru’s open mockery, Suho simply nodded, relaxed.

“That’s right. I’m not my father. I can’t become him, and I have no intention of trying. It’s impossible anyway.” Suho shrugged casually. “Why, you ask? Because he’s there, above me. Even if I used the leveling system you made to its fullest, I could never become the Monarch of Shadows.”

The more Suho spoke, the more unsteady Kandiaru’s gaze became. These words had deep ties to Kandiaru’s own life. Suho noticed his expression and let out a dry chuckle.

“Why the shocked face? Do my words sound familiar to you? You lived as the arcane world’s second-in-command. But in those final moments, you were different. I’ll give you that. You got what you wanted. You’re dead now, but at least for a moment, thanks to all your efforts, you became the Monarch of Transfiguration and the King of Demonic Specters.”

“Wrong...” Kandiaru said, gritting his teeth. His voice reminded Suho of a racehorse, tired after endless running. “My dream was not to become a Monarch. What I wanted, all I ever wanted, was eternity. That was why I was willing to become a follower of the Outer Gods if necessary to—”

“Yes! That’s exactly what I wanted to hear!” Suho said, interrupting him. He grinned. “So it doesn’t matter if you’re not a Monarch, as long as you live forever?”

“What? I don’t follow...” Kandiaru looked bewildered.

Suho clenched his fist and thumped it to his chest. “In that case, let me reintroduce myself.”

With that, his self-introduction began.

“My name is Sung Suho. My hobby is drawing. My job is, well, the Protector of the World Tree, the Monarch of Transcendence, and... the World Tree’s Shadow. The tree is now dead, by the way. And as for what I’m good at...” His smile only grew broader. “Disrupting the eternal sleep of the dead Monarchs. The same Monarchs not even my father could awaken.”

Suddenly, Suho thrust the fist he had been pounding against his chest forward toward Kandiaru and made an offer he could not refuse.

“Now, let me make my suggestion again. That dream you couldn’t fulfill in life, you can achieve with me. That is, as long as you don’t mind what form you will have to take.”

Kandiaru fell silent. His eyes wavered violently between greed, doubt, and the faintest flicker of hope.

Eternity?

In the face of that desperate craving, the humiliation of joining hands with the very enemy who had killed him meant nothing.

“All right... I accept.” Kandiaru gave a sinister smile and reached out his fist, meeting Suho’s.

“A wise choice,” Suho replied, their eyes locking. “Then let’s begin.”

Suho, his gaze serious, made his declaration, and the words turned into an invocation of power.

“Primordial darkness without a master. As the World Tree’s Shadow, I command you to return to Nidhogg. Stay there, forever, until your next master appears.”

“There will not be a next one. If that happens, I will tear them apart,” Kandiaru stated as he chuckled darkly, eyes gleaming with malice.

At that instant, the world of pure white that surrounded him, the World Tree’s Shadow, collapsed, swallowing the dead Kandiaru whole. It became a vortex that spun madly with him at the center. The dead Monarch was no longer there, however. In his place was a different creature.

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

The massive serpent cloaked in pure white scales now gazed down at Suho in all its splendor. It now had just a single head containing the primordial darkness, but this was not the same Nidhogg driven by mindless beastly instinct as it had been in the past. It was now the primordial darkness, and the spirit of the dead monarch, Kandiaru. With the blessing of the Monarch of Transcendence, he now controlled the serpent’s sole head.

Suho looked up at the colossal creature and shrugged. “But what now? The World Tree you were supposed to eat is already dead.”

“Then bringing it back to life shall be the first thing on the list.”

From within Nidhogg, Kandiaru flicked his long tongue and snickered. His voice dripped with venom. The corners of Nidhogg’s enormous mouth split wide into a grotesque grin.

“To grow the World Tree anew so I can gnaw on it forever, I will need a great deal of nutrients. For example...”

“A god, maybe?” Suho gave a sly grin in return. His cold eyes gleamed. “Now, finally, we share the same goal. Shall we get started?”

With that, there was a sudden flash, and the frozen time began to surge forward once more. In the blink of an eye, everything changed. The Itarim widened their eye in shock. This simply was not possible.

“How...?”

Suho had broken free of the perfect prison the Itarim had created and now stood glaring back at them, a brilliant white Shadow Nidhogg coiled protectively around him like a living cloak. Suho didn’t answer their question. Instead, he spoke to Kandiaru. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

“Do you see it, Kandiaru?”

“How disappointing,” Kandiaru muttered. “This world is a rushed project. Too many vulnerabilities.” He clicked his tongue.

The Itarim were creators. If they wanted to fight, they made weapons to do it for them. If they wanted to create laws, they crafted tools to design them. It was more efficient that way. In that sense, Kandiaru had once been the most effective of the “designers” they’d made.

“I shall begin the design.”

Countless magic circles bloomed around Suho in an instant in obedience to Kandiaru’s will. They spun like clockwork as they began to overwrite the laws of the Itarim. There was a phrase for this in human terms.

[Hacking the system.]

“Well now,” Suho said, “I’ve never been so glad to see you.”

Suho smiled as he watched the familiar system messages reappear before his eyes. Meanwhile, the Itarim’s face turned bright red with rage.

“How dare you tamper with my laws!”

The Itarim’s fury shattered some of Kandiaru’s magic circles, but Kandiaru didn’t stop.

“Let me ask you a question, Suho,” he whispered like a demon. “What do you think is easier, painting a picture or tearing it apart?”

The system chimed repeatedly.

[Hacking the system.]

[Hacking the system.]

[Hacking the system.]

“The answer is tearing it apart, of course.”

At last, a fracture appeared in the perfect world.

“It’s what you humans refer to as a gate.”

A sound echoed—the sound of something breaking.

[Hacking successful.]

A small rupture had formed in the world hand-crafted by the Itarim. From within that opening, a pitch-black hand burst forth, a jarring contrast to the bright and radiant sky. Two hands, shrouded in black smoke, gripped the edges of the crack and struggled to pull themselves through.

“KIEEEEEEEK!”

“There,” Suho said, grinning as he looked up at the scene.

“Young Monarch!” called the voice from within.

Once the fracture began, it spread uncontrollably. The once-peaceful sky began to splinter like a spiderweb.

“This can’t be!”

At the sight, the Itarim suddenly vanished. For a split second, Suho saw it. The peaceful classroom had turned into a grotesque, mucus-covered cave, and the students who had been smiling brightly turned into hideous monsters before reverting again.

“That’s how these cobbled-together worlds are,” Kandiaru said. “Just a shell draped over an existing structure.”

He was right. The Itarim hadn’t had time to do things properly.

“Had they more time, even I might’ve struggled. But this? This is nothing. Wrecking it is quite enjoyable.”

Kandiaru’s form expanded around Suho’s body, then opened his massive maw and roared toward the sky. A beam of black light blasted out in a straight line.

“The magic itself is complicated, but the basic principle is not,” he said. “First, create a crack. Then strike it. Hard.”

His target was the dimensional rift where Beru was starting to force his way through.

“As an architect, my role is done. Now it’s time for the weapons to enter the stage.”

The darkness exploded. In that eruption of light, Beru descended like a bolt of lightning. He landed in front of Suho.

“Young Monarch,” he said firmly, “Commander Beru, reporting for duty. From this point on...” He rose to his full height, black energy crackling across his entire body, more ravenous for battle than ever before. “I will put an end to this miserable little god.”

A deep rumble thundered.