Solo Leveling: Ragnarok - Chapter 166

A dragon’s nest was probably a good name for what they were seeing. The location the Spartoi were guarding was stocked with eggs, each the size of a human being. Though they couldn’t count the eggs because they were busy fighting off the swarming Spartoi, it was easy to tell at a glance that there were hundreds of them.

“Did the Spartoi move them here?”

“It seems that way. The dragons couldn’t have come here to lay eggs during a war.”

This was true. Judging from the situation, it seemed that the Spartoi had gathered the eggs that had been hidden away somewhere. Wherever they’d originally been, perhaps the magic beasts had decided that it was easier to guard them this way.

Or perhaps it’s an instinct of theirs, Sirka thought. Suddenly, she felt an odd doubt arise in her mind. “Why did your husband leave these be?” she asked Haein.

“What do you mean?”

“Think about it. The Monarch of Shadows is famous for having all his enemies join his shadow army after his death.”

“Oh!” Haein exclaimed, realizing something. The souls of the many dragons that lay dead in this place had become shadow soldiers for Sung Jinwoo, their king. She wondered why these eggs were kept secret. The dragons might have hidden them before they started serving Jinwoo, but he was bound to find out eventually. As Sirka had said, Jinwoo must have found them but left them here.

Why? Haein wondered, but she soon realized the reason. The moment she accidentally touched one of the eggs, the seemingly rock-hard surface began to turn to dust. “Wh-what?”

Haein and Sirka both grew wide-eyed, since the egg was completely empty.

“There’s nothing in it.” Sirka seemed greatly taken aback as she quickly touched the other eggs in her vicinity. They immediately turned into ashes and scattered. It was so quick that it was a wonder they’d retained their form at all. The ashes resembled the gray snow that filled this place. “These are empty, too!” she remarked.

“What in the world is going on here?”

“Maybe your husband also knew they were dead, and didn’t bother with them.”

Sirka seemed to be onto something, but Haein still looked grave. “Sirka, is it normal that a dragon egg that failed to hatch ends up empty like this?”

“I-I can’t say for sure…” Sirka was an ice elf, and she didn’t know much about dragons. She did have her own guess that seemed plausible. “Maybe the eggs were just about to hatch, and your husband took the souls from the eggs as shadow soldiers.”

“Even if he did, the bodies would be still in the eggs.”

“I guess you’re right,” Sirka said with a sigh.

Haein was silent for a moment. Putting aside general knowledge about eggs, like whether they were viable or not, it was suspicious that these eggs, while completely normal on the outside, were empty. And why were the Spartoi guarding them?

“First of all… Let’s check each one,” Haein said.

Haein and Sirka began to touch every single egg they could see. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, other than the eggs in the nest turning to dust one after another.

Even as they did this, Haein was coolly studying the Spartoi. Their numbers haven’t diminished at all.Does that mean they don’t serve these eggs? But there had to be some kind of link, since they seemed to grow increasingly upset as more of the eggs disappeared. Perhaps some other entity owns them. Maybe some of the eggs are still alive. Haein considered various hypotheses in her mind as they continued to reduce the number of eggs.

She finally found something. “This… This one is rather small.” Haein’s eyes glowed at the sight of an egg the size of an ostrich egg, previously obscured by the huge eggs that were the size of human beings. Unlike the ones with the other hollow shells, this one gave off a faint trace of mana. When she picked it up, it was quite heavy. It didn’t turn into dust, either, and the moment she held it in her hands, the Spartoi seemed to lose their minds.

“Cha Cha! Something is happening to them!” Sirka shouted. “We should first escape to a safe location— Huh?”

It was at this moment that the shadow wyvern, Kaisel, woke from his sleep with a growl. From where he was perched on Haein’s shoulder, he stretched his wings and yawned. Then he pulled the egg into his embrace, coiling around it like it was a precious object. It was almost like it was his own egg.

“Oh?”

The overwhelming malice of the Spartoi suddenly vanished. Haein and Sirka looked around, confused by the sudden change. The monsters had been rampaging angrily, but they suddenly began to drop to their knees. It wasn’t Haein and Sirka that the Spartoi were looking at, however—it was Kaisel, who cradled the egg.

Haein and Sirka muttered in disbelief.

“Wait… I think we may have just lucked out.”

“Cha Cha, I’m going to pray about this, too. Okay?”

“Yes. Tell Suho.” We might have just found the only living dragon egg in the entire universe.

***

“Young Monarch! The sand vortex has taken over the entire beach!” Beru reported.

As he’d said, Haeundae Beach had fallen victim to an unexpected natural disaster. The vortex not only sucked people down into it, but a sandstorm was raging above it, affecting the surroundings. It was almost like a barrier.

This is similar to what I saw with Harmakan, but much more blatant, Suho thought. Harmakan, also a demonic spirit, had used an instance dungeon to form a barrier around the entire village. It had been so subtle that those who walked inside couldn’t even sense that they’d fallen into a barrier. But this demonic spirit, on the other hand, had made the barrier obvious by trapping people inside a sandstorm—though it was unclear if this was due to a skill difference, or merely preference.

“Sung Suho!” came a voice from behind. Taegyu was running as hard as he could through the storm. “Move aside!” He armed the Fiend’s Bow with mana arrows and took aim at the heart of the vortex. The powerful arrows flew past Suho and exploded inside the vortex.

“Aaaaah! How dare you, human!” A voice screamed out in all directions. It was the demonic spirit speaking.

“So that’s where it is!” Taegyu’s eyes gleamed like those of an eagle who had located its prey. He fired more arrows.

Countless Skeletons emerged from the storm and attacked him from all sides. Taegyu scoffed as if this was nothing and swung at the skeletons with the Fiend’s Bow. The S-rank weapon was tougher than most clubs, and the skeletons broke apart with satisfying noises. “Is that all you got?” he thundered.

“Of course not.” Startled, Taegyu quickly took stock of his surroundings as a voice whispered from right behind him and made him shudder. “You’re quite strong for a human.” The sinister voice was echoing only in Taegyu’s ears, and could not be heard by any other nearby hunters.

“But no matter how much mana you might have… Humans are weaklings.” The voice snickered and said, “Human souls are just not good enough.”

The moment the demonic spirit said this, the scenery around Taegyu changed abruptly.

[Jarvier, the demonic spirit illusionist, used the skill: “Mirage.”]

“Mirage?” The system messages that appeared in front of Suho suddenly told him two things—one was that the demonic spirit behind this was an illusionist by the name of Jarvier, and the other was that a skill called “Mirage” was involved.

“Young Monarch! Beware of the illusions—” Beru’s urgent voice suddenly faded away, and the scene around Suho began to change as well.

***

Jarvier, the demonic spirit illusionist, did not doubt for a moment that he would win. It was inevitable, since he had performed all kinds of experiments with the human souls he had gathered from this beach. It had allowed him to reach a single conclusion—Human beings are weak.

Demonic spirits, by nature, were a race that enjoyed using souls in various kinds of research. To them, souls were material for experimentation with endless potential, and using them could result in some very interesting spells, though some might find this repulsive.

Mirage was a powerful illusion that reproduced the most powerful or terrible memory in a person’s life. It allowed Jarvier to see the various kinds of terror that hid beneath the surface of these depraved humans. What an interesting race. Because humans were by nature weak, the terror they felt was far more fundamental and primordial. All the other races feel is fear of death. But these humans in front of him were already producing a broad spectrum of fear.

For instance… Jarvier had spotted one man.

“Honey… This… This can’t be right.”

Taegyu, who had the most mana out of the hunters affected by the illusions, was actually experiencing the deepest despair. His dead wife, the woman he had killed with his own hands, had appeared before him. Her body was wrapped in blue flame, slowly burning away. She had a terribly sad look on her face as she slowly walked toward him.

“Why are you looking at me like that?You’re the one who killed me…”

“I-I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…”

Jarvier chuckled. It was the most lovely thing to see a soul shudder with despair. The illusionist was experiencing peak levels of enjoyment as he watched Taegyu sink into terror and despondency. “Hahaha!That’s absolute fear you can never resist!How beautiful is that?” he cried.

S-rank or otherwise, these souls were still the souls of insignificant humans. His sorcery was more than a simple illusion. It could not only pull forth a powerful memory from deep within the soul, but it could even exercise physical power.

“O S-rank hunter, do not struggle. Just accept your death.I’m sure you have been waiting for this mo—” Jarvier was snickering and mocking Taegyu when he felt a chill. He quickly turned around, then doubted his eyes. “Wh-what in the world is that?”

The young hunter who had caused a blizzard out of the blue was also looking at a vision that had been engraved deep in his memory. There was something wrong with it, however.

“Whatthe hell is that?!” Jarvier couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Mirage was a powerful ability that released strong memories from deep within the soul, but the sorcery he had been so proud of had revealed a certain being from within Suho’s memories. The figure wore an abyssal darkness all around him.