Solo Leveling : Ragnarok - Chapter 103

Suho was slightly impressed.

It seemed Esil truly was a noble after all.

For a long time, Suho had only thought of Esil as a freeloader who ate meat by his side, but seeing her skillfully command the demons, who were once slaves, with such nobility was quite remarkable.

“Lady Esil, we obey your command.”

It was the servant Suho had encountered when he first stepped into the demon realm.

The horse ‘Nukira,’ who had been pulling the cart, finally returned to its original form and began to follow Esil’s orders.

During that time, Suho summoned all the demons in the Colosseum who were infected with the Blood Madness Venom and detoxified them one by one.

“Ah, the pain is gone…!”

“Thank you! Thank you so much!”

The demons who had been suffering from the Blood Madness Venom lived in constant agony, as if their blood were boiling.

Blood was the foundation of demons.

For a demon, lacking blood was agony in itself. Having that blood boil endlessly meant an excruciating state that could collapse their very existence.

Yet all those symptoms disappeared as soon as Suho detoxified them.

“Th-Thank you! Truly, thank you!”

“Ahaha! It doesn’t hurt anymore! I’m alive! I really survived!”

[Ah, hold on. You there.]

“…Yes?”

[You seem like one of the guys who cursed our young master last time, huh?]

“Hic!”

But Beru had already picked out those among them who deserved death.

These were demons who were near Suho when he had been imprisoned.

Beru had remembered the faces of every single one of those demons who had insulted and mocked Suho back then.

The demons who had been healed by Suho now trembled violently as Beru approached with a menacing aura.

“I-I committed a grave sin. I must have been mad back then.”

[Kiieek! If you’ve committed a crime worthy of death, it’s only natural that you should die!]

There was no mercy in Beru. He mercilessly killed them.

The Mad Blood demons who had been in the prison were not only detoxified but had also significantly lost their strength.

Take Esil, for example—she originally had power comparable to an S-rank hunter, but due to her lack of blood, she had been reduced to a mere B-rank level.

Even though Beru was small and weakened, killing the weakened Mad Blood demons was no problem for him.

He began to absorb power little by little as he devoured them one by one.

Suho stopped Beru.

“Beru, don’t kill too many. We still need them for the restoration of the demon realm.”

[Kuhuhuk. Young master, you are too merciful. How can you have such a kind heart…!]

“If you’re going to kill them, you should wait until they’re strong again so you can get more experience points.”

[…!]

Realizing this truth, Beru immediately stopped the slaughter.

He couldn’t possibly interfere with Suho’s leveling up.

At that moment—

“…Thank you.”

An old demon who had given Suho advice in prison approached him.

“Oh, old man.”

Suho detoxified the old demon right away, but the demon’s body lost all its strength and crumbled to the ground.

When Suho tried to help him up, the old man shook his bony arm, indicating he was fine.

“Haha. It’s fine. My body was filled entirely with Blood Madness Venom, so that’s why this happened. Oh, but don’t worry—I’m not going to die.”

The old demon struggled to get up on his own.

Then, he adjusted his posture and bowed deeply to Suho once again.

Even deeper than before.

“Thank you so much—for saving our demon realm.”

It wasn’t just gratitude for saving his life.

It was sincere thanks for saving the entire demon realm.

Suho looked at him silently and asked,

“Old man, are you by any chance a demon servant?”

“…How did you know?”

The old demon flinched and looked surprised.

“You have a similar feeling to Nukira over there.”

“Your senses are sharp. Well, since you’ve killed the Tyrant King, it’s no surprise that discovering my identity would be easy. Yes, I was once a servant of a noble.”

“It doesn’t seem like you were a servant of the Radir family.”

“I was… Vulcan’s servant.”

“Vulcan?”

Hearing such an unexpected answer, Suho’s eyes widened.

Seeing his reaction, the old demon nodded with a self-deprecating smile.

“Yes, that very demon of greed, Vulcan. And by the way, Vulcan never had a son.”

“Haha.”

Suho just laughed.

Right now, the rumor among the demons was still that Suho was Vulcan’s hidden son.

What must this old demon have thought upon hearing such rumors?

“Click-click. Vulcan didn’t have any lust in the first place. He was a demon who lived solely for his appetite. So, as a servant, he was quite an easy master to serve.”

“Easy?”

“Yes. You just had to be careful not to get eaten.”

“…”

Was this some kind of demon joke?

It wasn’t funny, but it was certainly tense.

“Do you know what happens to the demons of a territory when their noble disappears?”

“Isn’t it like here? Where the strongest one rules…”

“No. Demons, no matter how strong, will use any means to devour each other.”

This case with the Blood-Crazed Tyrant was an extremely rare exception.

“Then what happens?”

“They usually self-destruct. They eat and eat each other until, in the end, only one demon remains.”

“…!”

Hearing that, Suho looked at the old man again.

“Don’t tell me that one survivor was you?”

“…No, I was just lucky. I hid underground until everyone else self-destructed. After it was all over, I crawled out and fed on their corpses to gain strength.”

[For someone talking so grandly, you look incredibly weak.]

Beru suddenly chimed in, scanning the old man up and down.

At Beru’s words, the old demon laughed helplessly.

“Of course. All that strength was eventually stolen by the Tyrant King.”

“The Blood-Crazed Tyrant?”

“That’s right. In fact, I was the very first host the Tyrant King parasitized.”

“Then later, when it realized my body had become old and useless, it abandoned me without hesitation and sought out a stronger, fresher demon.”

The old man’s story was fascinating.

To think he was the Blood-Crazed Tyrant’s very first host.

Even Beru paid attention, curious enough to probe about those events.

[Do you know how that thing ended up in the demon realm?]

“How? Of course, I remember it clearly. How could I ever forget that moment?”

A meteor.

One day, a small meteor fell into the demon realm where the old man lived.

In the center of the land where that piece of the star crashed, a small flame was burning.

A blue flame.

A sacred fire.

That was the beginning of the demon realm’s suffering.

“At first, we all thought it was just a small flame demon. No one could have imagined it would grow into a tyrant that ruled over all demons.”

“A meteor, huh…”

Suho mulled over the old man’s words, and Beru chimed in.

[Young master, it seems likely that the Outer Gods’ apostles hid inside the meteor and fell here.]

“They hid in a meteor?”

[Yes. If they had simply flown here, their presence would have been noticed and intercepted by our Shadow Army.]

Currently, all paths leading the Outer Gods’ army into this universe were thoroughly defended by the Shadow Army.

But it was impossible to monitor every single meteor that fell.

[Of course, if it were a very powerful being, it would be easier to detect. But judging by what we’ve seen, the Blood-Crazed Tyrant was such a small fry that it managed to sneak through unnoticed.]

“…A small fry?”

The old man couldn’t help but look shocked at Beru’s words.

How could anyone call the terrifying Tyrant King a small fry?

However, with Suho—the very one who killed the Tyrant King so easily—standing before him, the old man had no grounds to argue.

“Haha. Truly… impressive.”

The old man could only laugh dryly.

“Beru.”

[Yes, my lord.]

Suho turned to Beru and asked,

“Do you think there’s any chance another apostle of the Itarim might still be nearby?”

[I’ve been spreading my senses as far as I can, but I don’t detect anything around this area for now.]

“Hmm. I see. Then maybe we should at least check the place where the meteor fell.”

Suho fell into thought.

This was the first trace of the Itarim he had found. If he could backtrack from this clue, he might uncover something important.

“Old man, can you guide us to where that meteor fell?”

“Of course.”

—

Suho arrived at the location the old man had described.

[Young master, this is definitely the place. The area is saturated with the aura of the Itarim.]

“Hm.”

Suho looked around.

Sure enough, a massive crater had been carved into the ground where the meteor had crashed.

Beru, who had been fidgeting his antennae as he searched for any presence, quickly scurried back to Suho to report.

[Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like there’s another Blood-Crazed Tyrant hiding here.]

“Then I guess we just need to check over there.”

Suho walked toward the center of the crater.

There, buried deep in the ground, was what the old man had called a ‘piece of a star.’ To Suho, it looked more like a massive pile of rocks.

“We’re going to have to dig a bit.”

Suho glanced around, ensuring there was no one else around, then spoke.

“Rise.”

Suho’s shadow spread wide, and from its depths, black mist began to rise ominously.

[Shadow Minotaur Lv.1]

Knight Rank.

[Shadow Minotaur Lv.1]

Knight Rank.

Five massive bulls rose from the shadows.

Their thick, muscular bodies looked incredibly reliable.

[Hmooouuu—!]

[Mooooreee!]

The Shadow Minotaurs let out fierce, threatening cries as though they were ready to crush and tear apart any enemies on command.

Suho tilted his head and pointed at the meteor.

“What are you waiting for? Dig.”

[…Hmooou?]

The Minotaurs hesitated awkwardly before crouching down and using their muscular arms to start digging.

Slowly but surely, the buried meteor began to reveal itself.

[Master! We found something!]

It was Quay who urgently called out to Suho, quietly coordinating the Minotaurs as they worked.

[Look here! There’s a hidden space!]

“…Hm?”

Suho’s eyes glimmered as he approached what Quay had found.

Near the meteor, which appeared to be just a pile of rocks, there was an artificial hole.

‘So this is how they hid inside. Is this the entrance to some kind of spaceship?’

CRACK!

Using force, Suho widened the hole to look inside.

[Kiiek?]

Inside, there was indeed a glowing symbol engulfed in blue flames.

Beru squinted his eyes and muttered.

[It seems to be a magic circle created with the aura of the Itarim.]

“A magic circle? Can you tell what kind of spell it is?”

[Hmm. It appears to be a highly advanced spell that strengthens the meteor’s durability while expanding the secret space inside…]

“Why make it sound so complicated? It’s just a warehouse.”

[…]