Solo Leveling: Ragnarok - Chapter 132

A storm of white lightning rumbled forth.

Lightning… Suho looked up at the sky and noticed dark clouds that roared with energy.

“Take a good look, son,” Haein said with a smile, slowly walking toward the center of the swirling clouds. “Your mother was a different kind of woman back in the day.”

Or should I say back in my previous life? she wondered. She didn’t really know how to describe the way she felt at the moment. She’d met her son for the first time in quite a while, and she wanted to impress him if she could.

Rippling lightning gathered along her blade, then she moved. The power of Sword Dance and Storm of White Flames. Flashes of light shot forth from the tip of her sword and split into a hundred different bolts, blanketing her surroundings. They descended like rain upon the follower of Itarim.

Suho watched in amazement. His mother evoked feelings of sheer admiration inside him now that they’d been reunited. She’s strong. That seemed to be the only way to describe what he was witnessing at the moment.

Countless prongs of lightning flew toward the giant. Each one held immense power, and at each moment of contact, there was a massive shockwave that made the forest shake.

“Ugh! You lowly creation!” The giant squirmed with pain and swung its blue wings about. It wasn’t simply flapping its wings, however. Blasts of powerful wind tore the very air and made the spirits scream. The wind bore a freezing cold inside it, and it soon turned into a wave of gigantic ice thorns that resembled pillars, collapsing in on Haein like a tidal wave. It was an attack that a human could not possibly prevent—a natural disaster of sorts.

But Haein’s sword was special. There was a rumbling noise, and the eyes of the giant bulged. She was raising the Demon King’s Longsword in the air, and the many bolts of electricity coming from it suddenly coalesced into one, shooting into the sky.

Now, weslice. She used Sword of Light in combination with Storm of White Flames. The gigantic bolt became a sword of its own and swung down in a straight-line trajectory. It was a killing blow that would cut anything and everything in two. The blinding light seemed to swallow up the entire universe as it simply sliced the icy tsunami in half. It did not stop there, as it also separated the blue-winged giant into two pieces.

***

A heavy silence fell on the frozen forest. Haein’s sword had cloven the giant perfectly in two, killing it. Its huge body was fading, scattering with the cold snow blowing around it. This was not death, but utter destruction. The follower had been in its spiritual state, and the moment it died, it had returned to nothingness. It did not even leave a corpse.

Suho noticed system messages appear in his vision.

[Follower of Itarim has been defeated.]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

I didn’t really do anything this time, and yet… Suho hadn’t really played much of a role in this battle. Given his low contribution, it was only natural for him to receive only a small amount of experience points—yet he’d just leveled up twice. This was a testament to just how strong the giant had been.

Suho couldn’t believe his mother had defeated it with a single swing of her sword, even though he’d seen it with his own eyes. Unlike Suho, who had received a part of his father’s power and the blessings of other Monarchs to become stronger, his mother had reached her current level through her own efforts.

Is this what an S-rank hunter is capable of? Suho had not missed a single second of the battle, and he could still feel the thrill coursing through him. He balled his trembling fists. One day, I’ll also… A resolute light appeared in his eyes.

It wasn’t just Suho who was oddly moved by what he’d seen. There was a mysterious frown on Thomas Andre’s face.

“Huh?” Beru narrowed his eyes, noticing the change that had come over Thomas’ body. He had absorbed part of the energy left in the air after the giant had been destroyed.

Suho picked up on this as well. “Did he level up like me?” he asked Beru.

“No. This is different. The way I’d put it… He’s recovered some of the power that he’s lost.”

“What power?”

“In the timeline that no longer exists, Thomas was a National Level Hunter, stronger than even an S-rank hunter.”

The Kamish raid, the first ever S-rank gate and the deadliest raid in history, had nearly driven the United States to the brink of destruction. The five hunters who completed it successfully and survived had been given National Level Hunter status, meaning each of them was as strong as an entire country in their own right. But there was a secret to the power of the first National Level Hunters—they were vessels selected by the Rulers and granted power. In other words, it was thanks to a Ruler that Thomas had been able to outperform S-rank hunters.

“But that’s no longer the case,” Beru said. The current Thomas Andre was not a National Level Hunter, but simply an S-rank hunter.

In order to get back everything he’d lost so he could fight, Jinwoo had turned back time with the Cup of Reincarnation. He took on all the pain it caused to erase the world of any trace of the Monarchs and the Rulers. In this new timeline, there were no magic beasts or hunters, and Thomas and the other National Level Hunters were no longer recipients of the Rulers’ power. However, all this meant was that their vessels were now emptied of something that had once been there. Thomas was still the powerful vessel he had been, and this was the source of the emptiness that had plagued him all his life.

“It seems that the energy of that follower of Itarim has seeped inside him. He was once able to hold the power of a Ruler, so it stands to reason that he can do the same with that of the follower.”

Suho nodded in understanding. “So Thomas can absorb power that nobody else can, simply because nobody else has the capacity. Was my mother also a National Level Hunter, then?” he asked, looking up.

“Oh!” Beru belatedly turned to Haein, only to wince in shock. The same energy was also flowing into her body.

“What is this energy?” Haein asked.

“Lady Haein! A-are you all right?”

“Yes. In fact, I couldn’t be better.”

Beru made a fuss, inspecting Haein’s state, but she seemed unharmed.

The first National Level Hunters had been chosen by the Rulers as their vessels, which meant they were capable of harboring a Ruler’s power. If an ordinary human were to attempt to harbor such energy, their bodies would be destroyed. Surprisingly, however, Haein did not look at all uncomfortable after taking in the follower’s energy. It was impossible to figure out how that could be.

[Sillad clicks his tongue and says the reason is obvious.]

“Sillad, do you know something about this?” Suho asked.

[Sillad explains that just as other humans were empowered by the Rulers, there was something similar inside her as well.]

Suho was taken aback. “What? There was a being like the Rulers inside my mother? Who?”

“Oh.”

“Oh.”

Both Beru and Haein turned to Suho at the same time. Then they looked at each other again, nodding as if they’d understood something.

“Huh?” Suho said, puzzled. Then it hit him. “Wait, me?”

Beru nodded confidently. “You, Young Monarch, are the son of the Monarch of Shadows. Lady Haein once held you in her womb. Naturally, it affected her as a vessel.”

Haein nodded as well. She knew better than anyone how different Suho was. “He really was something. He kicked so much while I was pregnant that I thought I was about to give birth to a baby dinosaur.” She smiled playfully and gave Suho a warm look. “That’s my son for you.”

***

After the giant’s huge body had completely vanished, the Glacier Dungeon went still, no longer in the throes of imminent destruction. The entire dimension was already in tatters, but even that damage was being undone rapidly. There was still some instability, however. While Sirka had been acknowledged as the next Monarch, she was not yet ready.

[Sillad tuts and says that Sirka has a long way to go until she can accept the primordial darkness.]

The primordial darkness was a fundamental energy that the Absolute Being used to create the Monarchs. Receiving this power required that one be ready as a vessel.

“What’s this ‘vessel’ talk again?” Suho asked. “It seems you need to be one to do anything around here.”

“Vessel? You need bowls, plates? Let’s go to shop!” Rio Singh had come up to Suho, brandishing his corporate card. Suho stared at him, starting to see why the man hadn’t been promoted in his guild yet.

Unlike Rio, who seemed to be very relaxed, the other hunters of the Scavenger Guild were hard at work as they followed Thomas’ commands. They were here to clear a dungeon, and they couldn’t return to the United States empty-handed. It seemed unlikely for them to hunt the ice elves in Sirka’s village, so all they could do was take as much of the Echo Forest Spring Water as they could.

“Don’t let a single drop go to waste! It’s a very effective antidote!” Thomas barked.

“Yes, Boss!”

The spring water came from underground, which meant that it would not run out. Each drop of water would equate to profits for the guild, and they were quite excited at seeing their hardship rewarded. Also, because Sirka had located the gate through which the ice spirits had traveled to Earth, they now had an exit. Suho had fed potions to the injured hunters, and none of them were hurt anymore. It was a happy ending for everyone.

Just as that old woman prophesied. Thomas nodded, recalling Norma Selner’s advice for him to take Sung Suho to the Glacier Dungeon no matter what. After he was done ordering his subordinates about with a satisfied smile on his face, he went over to Suho. “I’ll take this water and give it to the hunters who were once National Level,” he said.

“That’s a great idea,” Suho said, nodding. If they had received the power of the Rulers in the past, just like Thomas, they were also potential targets for the followers of Itarim. They would be S-rank hunters again in this life, of course, and if they sided with the Itarim, they would be considerable threats. If Thomas fed them the water—even if it was by force—that danger could be prevented in advance.

Something worried Suho, however. “Oh, but some of them might already have been possessed. I think you should be ready—” He stopped as he realized something, staring at Thomas.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Thomas, don’t tell me…”

The old man grinned broadly, showing all of his teeth. “Yes. I remember now. All of it.”