The following contains spoilers for Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-, Episode 7, “The 10th S-Rank Hunter”, available onCrunchyroll.
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In the seventh episode ofSolo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-, Sung Jinwoo’s status as an S-Rank Hunter goes public, but that’s not really what matters to him at all.Nowhe can sell high-level artifacts and items he receives from his quest completions without getting side-eyed for being a low-ranking Hunter with inexplicable access to impeccable gear, but even more importantly, he can prepare his inventory for one final raid on the Demon Castle to obtain thefinal ingredient needed for the Elixir of Life.
What we can say about Jinwoo’s visits to the infernal version of Seoul is that each one has been an incredible ride, with stunning fights, like Jinwoo vs Cerberus, but with this last time, anime-only fans ofSolo Levelinghave no idea of the kind of treat they’re in for.
Drag Me to Hell
Jinwoo Makes One Last Visit to the Demon Castle to Clear the Last 25 Floors
Jinwoo has made two visits to the Demon Castle in the past, with the first one being the most enlightening of his abilities at the time, and of the sheer difficulty of the Dungeon. During his first visit, Jinwoo is forced to face off against the legendary three-headed infernal dog guardian of Hell, Cerberus, an A-Rank monstrosity who pushed Jinwoo to the brink in their battle, unlocking a more primal side to the would-be Shadow Monarch’s combat.
If things were going to be that tough before Jinwoo even made it to the actual “castle”, he was going to need to do it strategically, planning week-long trips dedicated to clearing out its demon hordes. Jinwoo vs Cerberus was a fight for the ages, but definitely eclipsed by some of the series' feats since then, like the visual feast and hype train that was Jinwoo vs Igris, or Jinwoo vs Barca, orthe recently concluded Jinwoo vs Kargalgan(now known as Tusk).
On his first return to the Demon Castle, Jinwoo was much stronger, and more able to dispatch swathes of undead without breaking much of a sweat. Boss-level foes like Vulcan the Avaricious and Metus, the Guide of Souls, weren’t pushovers by any means, but they still had absolutely no hope of beating Jinwoo at his current strength. Prior to killing Metus, Jinwoo asked if the undead experience fear, a callback to the Android Saga ofDragon Ball Z, when shortly after revealing that he’dachieved the Super Saiyan transformation, Vegeta asks Android 19 if machines like himself are capable of experiencing fear. Towards the end ofSolo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-, episode 7, Jinwoo returns to the Demon Castle to clear Floors 75–100, thus pitting him in battle against Demon Knights and, eventually, Baran, the King of Demons; the Monarch of White Flames.
The Next Greatest Fight in the Series
The Actual Story Teased Throughout Season 2 Finally Begins
Season 2 has been rather overtly trying to get the audience to really understand that there’s a lot to suspect about Sung Jinwoo’s “condition”, especially considering the fact that powerful magic beasts and creatures,like the Ice Elf Barca, consider him to be something other than human, or rather, something dressed in human’s clothing. There has been a strange glitching effect whenever Jinwoo’s enemies have come anywhere near addressing that elephant in the room, with the enemies restarting as if from a checkpoint (like in a video game).
This happened with Barca and with the High Orc shaman, Kargalgan, so there’s obviously something about his newfound power that Sung Jinwoo isn’t supposed to know, at least not yet. Jinwoo’s next opponent, Baran, is a Monarch,one of the primordial entities of darknessthat fought in the aeons-long war against the Rulers, beings of light and fragments of the Absolute Being.
Jinwoo’s “Shadow Monarch” Job Class is no mere occupation, but rather, the title afforded to Ashborn, the Shadow Monarch who was once the sole Ruler to defend the Absolute Being when the other seven turned against him. After returning as the Shadow Monarch, he returned to the front lines, only to find that the Absolute Being was already dead, and the Monarchs were on the brink of defeat. He joins their side, but two of the Monarchs turn on him, one of them being Baran, the Monarch of White Flames.
Season 2 also set up another piece that will connect to the lore of theSolo Levelingstory through the return ofSung Jinwoo’s father, Sung Il Hwan, after being MIA for 10 years because he was trapped in a Gate, all of this happening concurrently to the establishment of the Jeju Island Arc, perhaps one of the series' most anticipated, but before that, this upcoming fight against Baran, should things follow the trajectory established in season 2 so far, will be an intense visual spectacle.
Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- is available onCrunchyroll. New episodes update on Saturdays.
Solo Leveling
Cast
A-1 Pictures' Solo Leveling is an anime based on Chugong’s popular web novel. Set in an unforgiving fantasy world where hunters explore dungeons filled with monsters, the vulnerable Sung Jinwoo gains a significant power boost after he is picked to be a solo player by the System.
