Solo Leveling: Ragnarok

Chapter 103

Suho was slightly impressed. It seemed that Esil was a noble indeed. He had previously only considered her to be a freeloading glutton, but she was now skillfully commanding the formerly enslaved demons with an impressive air of true majesty.

“Lady Esil, we heed your command.” Nukira, the former servant they had encountered when they first arrived in the demon realm, spoke. The beast had been acting as the horse pulling the cart, but he returned to his original form, ready to carry out Esil’s commands.

Meanwhile, Suho called forth the demons that had been poisoned and removed the toxin from each one.

“Ah, the pain is disappearing...!”

“Thank you. Thank you!”

Suffering from the constant boiling pain of the poison, the demons had lived in perpetual agony. Blood was a demon’s essence. Losing blood was in itself a torment, and boiling blood put one into a dire state that threatened one’s very existence. But as if by magic, those torturous symptoms disappeared the moment Suho detoxified them.

“Th-thank you! I am eternally grateful!”

“Hahaha! I’m not in pain anymore! I’m saved! Truly saved!”

“Ah, wait. You there.” Beru pointed at a demon.

“Yes...?”

“Weren’t you the one who insulted our Young Monarch before?”

The demon hiccuped in surprise.

Beru had already singled out some demons who were rightly deserving of death—the ones who had been nearby when Suho was imprisoned. The ant had remembered the faces of each and every one of those who had vehemently cursed and sneered at the young monarch.

The demons emerged from Suho’s treatment, but trembled as Beru approached with a menacing aura.

“We have committed a crime worthy of death. We must have been out of our minds,” said one.

“Hmph! If you’ve committed a crime worthy of death, then it is only just that you die!” The ant showed no mercy and ruthlessly slayed them.

The imprisoned Mad Blood Demons, while relieved of the pain of the poison, had also been significantly weakened. Take Esil: she had once possessed the strength of an S-rank hunter, but due to a lack of blood, she was now merely at the level of a B-rank.

Even if Beru was in a reduced and weakened state, it was hardly difficult to kill these Mad Blood Demons while they were drained of their power. By consuming them one by one, he gradually recharged himself.

Suho intervened to restrain him. “Don’t kill too many. We need them for the reconstruction of the demon realm.”

The ant gave a touched sniffle. “The Young Monarch is too merciful. How can you have such a noble heart?”

“If you’re going to kill them, do it when they’re stronger. That way, I can get more experience points.”

Beru immediately ceased the slaughter. He couldn’t hinder Suho’s leveling process.

Meanwhile, the old demon who had advised Suho in the prison approached and gave his thanks.

“Ah, elder demon.” Suho immediately detoxified the old demon. His body gave out on the spot.

As Suho attempted to help him up, the demon waved him off with a flap of his thin arm. “Heh. It’s fine. My blood was filled with poison. But don’t worry, I’m not dying.”

The old demon struggled to his feet on his own. Straightening up, he bowed even more deeply than he had just a moment ago.

“Truly, thank you for saving our realm.” His gratitude went beyond a thanks for saving his own life. It was genuinely heartfelt.

Suho observed him quietly for a moment before asking, “Elder demon, were you once a servant?”

“How did you know?” The demon flinched with a look of surprise.

“I get the same impression from you as I do from Nukira over there.”

“You have good senses. Well, figuring out my identity must be trivial to one who killed the Tyrant King. You’re right. I once served a demon noble.”

“I assume you didn’t serve the Radiru Clan.”

“I served... Vulcan.”

“Vulcan?” Suho’s eyes widened in surprise.

As if anticipating such a reaction, the old demon nodded again with a self-deprecating smile. “That’s right. The Demon of Greed, Vulcan. And for the record, he had no son.”

Suho merely laughed. The rumor still circulating among the demons suggested that he was the hidden son of Vulcan. Suho wondered what the old demon must have felt hearing such rumors.

The demon clicked his tongue. “Vulcan never had any lustful desires to begin with. He lived solely by his appetite. That made him rather easy to serve.”

“Easy, you say?”

“Yes. All you had to do was be careful not to be eaten.”

Is this how demons joke? It wasn’t funny but rather filled with tension.

“Do you know what happens to common demons when their noble has vanished from their territory?” the old demon asked.

“I imagine it’s similar to what’s happened here. A world where the strongest rule.”

“No, that’s not it. Demons will try to devour each other by any means necessary, no matter how strong their opponents are.” The case with the Tyrant was thus a very unusual one.

“Then what happens?”

“Usually, they lead one another to extinction. They eat and are eaten until eventually only one remains.”

Upon hearing this, Suho looked at the old demon in a new light. “Are you one of those survivors, elder?”

“No, I was just fortunate. I hid underground until everyone else had destroyed themselves. After everything ended, I crawled out and scavenged their corpses for strength.”

“You seem too weak to tell us such a grand story.” Beru, suddenly interjecting, scanned the old demon from top to bottom.

He laughed pitifully. “Of course. I ended up having all that power taken away by the Tyrant King.”

“The Mad Blood Tyrant?”

“Yes. I was the first one to be used by the tyrant as his host. When he realized my body was old and useless, he did not hesitate to discard me and went in search of someone younger and fresher.”

The demon’s story, about becoming the first host of the Tyrant, was incredibly intriguing.

Even Beru was attentive to his words. The ant probed about the events of that time. “Do you happen to know how that creature entered the demon realm?”

“I remember it vividly. How could I forget?”

It was a meteorite. One day, a small meteorite fell into the demon realm. At the center of the place where the star fragment crashed, a small lantern flame burned blue. This flame was Starfire. It was from there that the realm’s suffering began.

“At first, everyone thought he was just a small flame demon. No one knew he would grow into a tyrant and dominate all of us.”

“A meteorite...” Suho mumbled.

Beru cut in. “Young Monarch, perhaps the followers of the Outer Gods were hidden inside the meteorite.”

“Hidden?”

“Yes. If they had just flown here, our Shadow Army would have surely detected and intercepted them.”

Currently, the Shadow Army was protecting every pathway that the armies of the outer universes might use to enter this universe. But monitoring each meteorite was an impossible task.

“Of course, the more formidable ones are less likely to slip through our detection. But from what I’ve experienced, a creature like this Mad Blood Tyrant was insignificant enough to sneak in without being caught.”

“Insignificant?” The old demon couldn’t help but be taken aback by Beru’s words. He couldn’t fathom how someone could think of the Tyrant King so lightly. But standing in front of Suho, who had bested the Tyrant with an even more astonishing power, there was no room for argument.

“Truly remarkable.” The demon could only chuckle in disbelief.

“Beru... Is there a chance that any other followers of Itarim are still around?” Suho asked.

“I’ve been continuously expanding my senses. As of now, I don’t feel anything in the immediate vicinity.”

“I see. Maybe we should visit the site where the meteorite fell.” Suho sunk deep into thought for a moment. They had finally discovered a trace of Itarim. If they tracked this clue back to its origin, they were sure to find something. “Elder demon, could you possibly guide us to where the meteorite fell?”

“There is no reason why I wouldn’t.”

***

Suho arrived at the spot where the meteorite had landed, just as indicated by the old demon.

“Young Monarch, this is undeniably the place. It is steeped in the energy of Itarim.”

“Hmm...” Suho looked around pensively. Indeed, there was a vast crater left by the meteorite.

Flicking his antennae as he probed the area, Beru scurried back to Suho with a report. “Fortunately, I can’t sense another creature like the Mad Blood Tyrant.”

“Then we just need to check over there.”

Suho approached the center of the crater. There lay the “star fragment” the old man had spoken of. All he could make out was that it appeared to be a huge pile of rocks stuck in the ground.

“Looks like we’ll need to dig.”

Suho glanced around. Confirming that no one was watching, he issued a command.

“Arise.” His shadow spread around him, black steam arising from beneath it.

[Shadow Minotaur - Level 1 - Knight Grade]

[Shadow Minotaur - Level 1 - Knight Grade]

Five enormous beasts rose to their feet. Their sturdy, muscular bodies couldn’t have been more imposing.

The Shadow Minotaurs let out a chorus of chilling bellows. They seemed ready to crush and tear apart an enemy at Suho’s command.

He nodded toward the fearsome creatures and pointed at the meteorite. “What are you waiting for? Dig.”

“Mooo?”

The minotaurs awkwardly crouched and began digging. Gradually, the buried meteorite’s true shape was revealed.

“Master! I’ve found something!” Que, who had been keeping the minotaurs on a short leash as they worked, called out to Suho. “Look at this! There’s a hidden space!”

Interest sparked in Suho’s eyes. Next to what appeared to be just a pile of rocks, there was an unnatural hole. Is it some kind of entrance to a spacecraft?

Crack!

With some force, Suho widened the hole and peered inside.

“Eh?” Beru croaked.

Inside, there was a burning symbol, enveloped in blue flames.

The ant narrowed his eyes and murmured, “It seems to be a magical circle created with the energy of Itarim.”

“A magical circle? What kind of magic is it?” Suho asked.

“It seems to be a sophisticated spell that both increases the meteorite’s durability while creating a secretive, enclosed subspace within...”

“Don’t make it so complicated. You’re saying it’s a storage locker?”