Solo Leveling: Ragnarok - Chapter 165

“O Sillad, the Monarch of Frost and the King of the Snow Folk!I, Sirka, your descendant, pray to you in desperate need!” Sirka, who had left with Haein a long time before to enter the Grave of the Dragons, prayed to Sillad, and it seemed her voice had reached him.

The prayer of a descendant, at its root, was supposed to be praise and admiration given to a spirit long dead. Sillad more than willingly responded to that prayer. He had selected Sirka himself, and he wondered just how much respect, devotion, and love she’d put into the prayer she was offering him for the first time.

“Uh… Well, to start…”

There was none of that, of course.

“Sillad, if you don’t mind…We’re in a bit of a bind here. Would you relay a message to Suho for me?”

[Sillad doubts what he is hearing.]

“Oh!And if you could, show him what we’re seeing right now, as well.Maybe that’s not possible, though, not even for you…”

[Sillad looks indignant at this provocation from Sirka. His mouth has dropped open.]

The prayer was nothing reverent. It was clear why Sirka had prayed in the first place—she wanted Sillad to perform the role of what would be called, in today’s world, a text or video message. This descendant of his was rude enough to use him like a messaging app. Not only that, but this was the first prayer she had ever made. He would have liked a gift or some kind of polite formality, at the very least.

[Sillad seems to sink into regret.]

[He heaves a deep sigh.]

“What’s all this noise?” Suho was tutting at the messages that appeared in his vision, but for a different reason than Sillad. Since he couldn’t hear Sirka’s voice, it seemed as though the Monarch had suddenly started muttering at random.

The moment Suho dashed forward, slamming into some frozen skeletons that stood in his way and smashing them, another notification popped up with a ding.

[A message has arrived.]

A message? A window appeared in front of Suho. Is it a new quest? Quests meant levels, and he eagerly opened the message.

[There is one unread message.]

[A Letter from Mother] (Unread)

“A letter from my mother?” Suho’s eyes sparkled. First, there had been something about a prayer from Sirka, and now a real message had arrived, not a quest.

Why was it from his mother, of all people, when she had gone to the Grave of the Dragons? Has something bad happened to her? he wondered as he urgently shouted, “Read message!”

There was a ding, and Haein’s voice played from across the dimensions. “Suho, it seems we found something here. Could you ask Beru about it for us?”

“Huh?” Beru’s tiny head popped out of Suho’s clothes.

[Sillad activated the skill: “Frostbloom Illusion”.]

The cold blizzard all around Suho suddenly seemed to gather into a single spot, forming flowers of ice. They seemed to move like ripples of air in spring or mirages in the desert. They showed Haein and Sirka in the Grave of the Dragons as if they were right in front of Suho and Beru.

“Kieeek!” Beru screeched in shock, and their eyes widened.

The vision seemed to zoom out, showing the general surroundings that Haein and Sirka had found themselves in. The bones of enormous dragons rose out of the ground like monuments or perhaps pillars. Sirka and Suho’s mother were surrounded by Spartoi who were attacking them.

“My god! Those are Spartoi!” Beru cried. He didn’t seem to be able to believe his eyes. “Young Monarch, this means trouble!” Realizing immediately why Haein had wanted to show them this scene, he explained, “They are born from the teeth of dragons. The moment the owner of the teeth dies, they die as well! So how—”

“Wait. Does that mean there are a lot of dragons alive in that place?” Suho asked.

“No, that’s impossible! Antares’ armies died out long ago, and they were incorporated into our shadow army…” Beru realized something, stopping short and opening his eyes wide. “Don’t tell me the descendant of the King of Dragons has…” He was forced to trail off.

The King of Dragons was none other than Antares, the Monarch of Destruction. He was the strongest of the eight Monarchs born from the primordial darkness, and the only one that had defeated Sung Jinwoo, the Monarch of Shadows. Antares had been the true embodiment of destruction, one willing to give up his own life in order to wage war filled with blood, screaming, madness, and annihilation. That was why Jinwoo had been so thorough about attacking his army, and not a single dragon that encountered the shadow army had survived. He was merciless because he had feared a descendant of the King of Dragons might appear anew someday.

“So how could a descendant have appeared?” Beru couldn’t believe what was happening right now. And yet the swarming Spartoi were proof.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, Suho said quickly, “Sillad! Please tell my mother to get out of there as soon as—”

In the icy vision, Haein raised her sword, and muted lightning reached out in all directions, slamming into the Spartoi. Her cheery voice sounded again. “By the way, you aren’t worried about me right now, are you?”

Both Suho and Beru fell silent. Haein was carrying the Demon King’s Longsword, no less—the weapon of Baran, the Monarch of White Flames. Few things were a threat to an S-rank hunter with such a dangerous weapon. Even if the Monarch of Destruction’s descendant had appeared, they would only be a descendant at this stage and nothing more. They couldn’t possibly be a match for her.

“In any case… There’s something strange about this place.There are so many Spartoi, but we can’t find a single living dragon.”

Beru seemed shocked out of his reverie as Haein’s message continued. Considering the size of dragons, it was impossible to hide their bulky bodies in that open terrain.

“But I’ve been watching these Spartoi, and they give me the impression that they’re trying to defend something.That’s the situation, anyway. Beru, can you provide some advice?”

“Ahem, I understand the situation now.” Beru calmly studied the vision.

In the meantime, Suho continued to flit between the Skeletons, accompanied by Blistering Blizzard. He continued to search for traces of the hidden gate.

Beru finally spoke. “First of all, all dragons gather their mana in their hearts. If anything is important, chances are, it’s worn or kept close to the heart.” Even if nothing remained of the dragons but their bones, their bodies could not have shifted much. The huge skeletons were like vast historical sites. Beru was pointing to the hearts of these skeletal structures.

[Sillad nods, saying he will convey the message as you said it.]

Sillad was about to relay Beru’s words to the letter when a voice sounded. “Who dares to use such sorcery in my presence?!”

Crash!

[Skill: Frostbloom Illusion has been forcibly canceled.]

Sillad’s skill suddenly vanished, and the entire beach covered with Skeletons began to ripple like the surface of the ocean.

“Oh, no!”

“Oh, god!”

“Wh-what in the world?”

The hunters who had been fighting the Skeletons were confused and did their best to maintain their balance on the shaky sand. The white sand at their feet, however, soon began to funnel into a huge vortex that sucked in the Skeletons as well as everything else. This affected even the citizens who were watching from afar.

“V-viewers! Something strange is happening right now— Oh, no!” A streamer who had gotten too close to the restricted region, distracted as he controlled a drone, was unable to run away. His legs were sinking into the moving sand. “Aaaah! S-save me!”

The more he struggled, however, the faster his body was sucked underneath. I’m going to die! His entire life had been one of bravado. Death had never entered his mind even once, but now it cast its shadow over him.

Suddenly, someone’s hand grabbed his collar forcefully and plucked him out.

“Oof!” He inhaled sharply, struggling to recover his balance as he found himself on solid ground again. Instinctively, he turned to the person who had saved him. “Th-thank you, kind stranger— Whoa!” Before he could finish, his body was tossed out of the sand entirely. “Aaaaaah!”

“S-someone catch him!”

The hunters from the association who were nearby thankfully pulled him out of the air, and the streamer was able to avoid crushing his skull on the pavement.

He turned around, looking for his rescuer. As it turned out, this was only the beginning. The streamer could see others just like him, writhing as they were thrown this way from afar, screaming as they flew through the air. Looking past the association hunters, who were only just barely managing to catch them, he saw the person responsible for their rescue.

“Sung Suho…!” It was the guild master of the Woojin Guild, the same person who had caused a blizzard to appear out of nowhere. That wasn’t all, however. There was a guild member with him who was also impressive.

“Dogyoon!” Suho shouted.

“Sure thing! Leave the rescue to me!”

Surprisingly, Dogyoon had evaded the sinking sand faster than any other hunter and was already pulling people from the beach. His dexterous legs refused to lose balance even atop the chaotically moving sand, and he was rescuing even hunters of a higher rank than himself.

I mean, he really is unmatched when it comes to running, Suho thought. He didn’t even want to imagine what kind of torture—that was to say, training—Ammut had subjected him to. But as a result, Suho was able to focus solely on fighting amid the pandemonium that had broken loose around him. A vortex of sand was no problem for someone like him.

“Iron Body Technique!” Unlike usual, he applied the technique to his two legs as he ran toward the center of the sand funnel.

“Young Monarch!”

“Yes?” Suho replied to Beru, his eyes shining intensely. He sensed a familiar energy coming from the direction he was heading. This was an illusion, a type of ability most used by an evil race from arcane worlds.

“It’s a demonic spirit,” Beru said.

[Sillad frowns at his spell being broken.]

While Sillad seemed unhappy about this, it seemed that the Monarch’s spell had provoked the demonic spirit out of hiding. Suho charged toward the center of the funnel, where the demonic spirit had to be lurking, and shouted, “Sillad! Tell my mother what Beru said!”

Sillad had already done so, however. When Haein heard the words, she had arrived near the heart of a dead dragon that the Spartoi were defending.

“What in the world are these?” she murmured as she and Sirka looked at countless eggs gathered there.

Sirka groaned. “They’re dragon eggs.”