Solo Leveling : Ragnarok - Chapter 125
[Shadow Elf Lv.1]
Knight Grade
[Shadow Elf Lv.1]
Knight Grade
[Shadow Elf Lv.1]
Knight Grade
Before Suho stood a formidable battalion of shadow archers, their forms shrouded in flickering black mist.
Each held a bow forged from shadow, and at Suho’s command, they pulled their strings without hesitation, aiming at the enemies ahead.
‘Sssshhhh!’
In an instant, multiple shadow arrows materialized, brimming with lethal intent.
“My goodness.”
Sirka was stunned as she realized the truth.
“You… you stole their souls back from the spirits!”
The Ice Elves’ souls, which had been enslaved by the spirits, were finally freed in death.
Sirka’s eyes widened further as she fully grasped the true meaning behind the title “Cha-Cha’s son.”
Cha Hae-in’s husband, Sung Jinwoo—he was not merely a powerful hunter.
He was the ruler of death, the Shadow Monarch, the king who reigned over death itself.
And now, his bloodline flowed in Suho, manifesting his legacy.
“Advance!”
At Suho’s command, the shadow archer battalion raised their bows and loosed a barrage of arrows toward the enemies ahead.
—
Meanwhile, while Suho was systematically advancing through the outskirts of Echo Forest…
The Scavenger Guild hunters, who had also entered the forest, were wandering deep within its heart.
‘Swish swish swish swish!’
Ice arrows flew at them from all directions.
“They’re coming again! Damn it!”
“Block them!”
“We can’t block them all! There are too many!”
“Then take cover behind those trees—quick!”
Unlike Suho, who had descended from the storm with precision, the Scavenger Guild hunters had fallen directly into Echo Forest during the initial chaos.
If Suho hadn’t used Storm Slash to cut through the blizzard and control his descent, he might have landed here too.
Despite their less controlled landing, the hunters had managed to survive the fall with their lives intact.
After all, they were members of the Scavenger Guild, one of the most elite guilds in the United States.
Just being a part of it was proof of their exceptional skills.
However, even their survival left them no time to catch their breath.
As if lying in wait, Ice Spirits had attacked them from all sides immediately upon their arrival.
“…Possessed Ice Elves, huh.”
Esil Radir, who had also landed in Echo Forest and was engaging in combat, clicked her tongue at the sight of the possessed Ice Elves.
Her expression was one of disbelief and ridicule.
“How pathetic. Ice Elves consumed by Ice Spirits? How weak were they in life to allow this?”
Had the King of Yetis, the Monarch of Frost, seen this, he would have been unable to rest in peace.
“Ice Elves, whose specialty was commanding spirits, being devoured by them instead?”
As a Demon Noble, Esil was well aware of the Ice Elves’ true capabilities.
During the Monarch War, Ice Elf warriors were always accompanied by the blessings of Ice Spirits.
Every arrow they shot and every weapon they wielded carried the Curse of Frost.
If struck by their arrows, the target would freeze at the point of impact.
If cut by their blades, the wound wouldn’t bleed but instead freeze solid.
Accumulating just a few of these cold, relentless attacks would gradually slow their opponents until they were entirely immobilized.
Ice Elves grew stronger the longer battles dragged on, making them formidable warriors.
‘If not for the Ice Bear Robe Suho gave me, even I might be in trouble…’
‘Crack!’
“Aaah! My arm broke! Healer! Healer!”
“W-wait! I’m coming!”
A Scavenger Guild hunter, struck by an ice arrow, cried out as the affected area shattered.
Esil’s eyes gleamed sharply.
Once a wound was cursed like that, normal healing methods wouldn’t work.
‘Shwack!’
Esil darted toward the injured hunter and grabbed his shattered shoulder.
“Aaaargh!”
“Hold still. I need to extract all the frost spreading through your veins before healing.”
‘Shwaaah!’
Using her abilities, Esil quickly extracted the frozen bloodstone lodged in the hunter’s wound.
She turned to the arriving healer and barked a command.
“Regrow his arm now! For the others, cut out the frozen parts first, then heal them!”
“Y-yes, ma’am!”
The Demon Noble’s commanding charisma overwhelmed even the healer, who instinctively obeyed her.
Her authority extended to the other hunters as well.
“Don’t let any arrows hit or graze you! Even a scratch will let the Curse of Frost seep into your body!”
The Scavenger Guild’s hunters were known for their resilience, often tanking through attacks.
However, even the smallest gap in their armor could lead to critical injuries when struck by the Ice Elves’ arrows.
Rallying the scattered hunters, Esil began consolidating their forces and steadily increasing their strength.
Although some hunters were stronger than her, none matched her lifetime of experience as a predator and leader in the demon realm.
Gradually, the tide turned.
The hunters, initially overwhelmed and scattered, began to stabilize and adapt to the battlefield.
“We’re getting the hang of this!”
“Yeah! Just destroy everything that moves!”
“But where is our guild master?!”
“Thomas! Thomas Andre! Can you hear us?!”
As they regained their footing, the Scavenger Guild turned their focus to locating their greatest asset—Thomas Andre.
But the search was far from easy.
The raging blizzard disoriented their senses, leaving them unable to determine his location.
“And where the hell did Suho land?!”
Esil was focusing less on locating Thomas Andre and more on sensing Suho’s presence.
Then, suddenly, a chill ran down her spine.
“What… what is this!”
She abruptly looked up, feeling an overwhelming, eerie sensation.
‘Whoooosh!’
As she wandered aimlessly through the forest, she noticed that amidst the raging blizzard, gray snow was swirling in the air.
“…Gray snow?”
Esil’s eyes widened in shock.
“No! This isn’t snow!”
As a demon accustomed to blood and corpses, she could identify it with certainty.
“This… this is ash! Ash from burned corpses mixed with the snow!”
In this frigid cold, where bodies should freeze solid, something—or someone—had reduced corpses to ashes instead of ice.
But that wasn’t the issue.
The aura emanating from these tiny, gray particles was what filled her with indescribable terror.
“This can’t be… a dragon?”
She could sense it clearly—the remnants of a dragon’s energy lingered in the ash.
Realizing the truth, Esil’s expression turned pale as she frantically scanned her surroundings.
But there was nothing visible nearby. Her instincts pointed to only one possibility.
She turned sharply, staring in the direction where the gray ash swirled most thickly.
“Somewhere beyond that, a dimensional rift has opened… and it’s connected to the dragons’ realm!”
Or perhaps it was another completely different world.
The Shadow Army, under Sung Jinwoo’s command, had waged war against the Monarchs across countless dimensions.
And the only being capable of utterly annihilating dragons to the point that their remains were reduced to ash… was none other than Sung Jinwoo himself.
Surely, dragons wouldn’t fight amongst themselves like this.
“This… this is not good.”
A sense of foreboding gripped Esil.
Of all the dangerous beings scattered across dimensions, two stood out as the most fearsome: the Giants and the Dragons.
The dragons, in particular, were formidable creatures, their bodies brimming with immense magic and power. Even their bones and corpses, left behind in death, were treasures of extraordinary value.
“And now their remains have been reduced to ash, scattered across this land?”
This was nothing short of a calamity.
“The curse of a dead dragon is spreading across this land!”
Esil shouted to the hunters who were still fighting the forest’s spirits.
“Turn back! We need to retreat immediately!”
“What? Why all of a sudden?”
“This forest is cursed! This gray snow—”
Before she could finish her sentence, Esil caught a glimpse of something through the swirling gray blizzard.
“…!”
Her eyes filled with horror as she froze in place.
“A dragon!”
Through the storm, a massive silhouette emerged—a dragon with colossal wings spread wide, flapping amidst the gray snowstorm.
The Scavenger Guild hunters were equally terrified by what they saw.
“Holy—”
“What the hell is that?!”
“A dragon?!”
In the past two years, no dragon had ever appeared among the magical beasts that plagued Earth. The closest thing had been gargoyles, but none had ever been this enormous.
“We have to run!”
“Where the hell is Thomas Andre when we need him?!”
“Retreat! We can’t handle this!”
“It’s impossible for us alone!”
The hunters began retreating in panic, even before Esil could finish her warning.
Compared to this dragon, the Ice Golems they had been fighting felt like nothing at all.
But the chaos they had caused on their way here seemed to have disturbed something deep within the forest.
As they fled, Esil swallowed dryly, her eyes locked on the dragon.
The dragon, soaring through the storm, abruptly turned toward them.
Its massive maw opened, releasing a roar filled with murderous intent.
Gwooooooooh!
“…!”
“…!”
The sheer terror of its Dragon Fear paralyzed the hunters, freezing their bodies in place.
In that moment, they realized the hopeless truth.
Like frogs before a snake, they were nothing more than prey to this overwhelming being.
But just as disaster seemed inevitable…
‘Shwaaaaa!’
From the side of the storming blizzard, another dragon appeared, colliding with the first mid-air.
‘Boom!’
“…!”
“…!”
The shockwave from their impact sent the hunters sprawling helplessly to the ground.
Yet even amidst the chaos, Esil managed to hold her focus.
She saw it clearly.
Her eyes widened in disbelief, nearly popping out of their sockets.
“…No way?!”
The second dragon’s entire body shimmered with black mist.
And as if her vision was playing tricks on her, Esil thought she saw someone riding on the dragon’s back.
Although the blizzard and distance made it hard to discern the details, the silhouette was unmistakable.
A woman wielding dual daggers.