Here's another disclaimer that I am indeed an idiot! In the chapter, Broken Slumber, Izuku receives the title of Demon Hunter, which is accurate to the Manhwa of Solo Leveling, but it is obviously not the correct title for my version of the story. I went back and changed it to the more appropriate Angel Hunter.


[You have defeated your foe.]

Izuku's fist was piercing the ant's stomach, gross purple fluid spilling from the wound as its body went limp, its short reign of terror finished.

[You have Leveled-Up!]

[You have Leveled-Up!]

The ant's body fell to the ground as Izuku removed his gauntlet from its guts.

"H-Hey!" Baek shouted in Korean, confusing Izuku for a moment as he looked back just in time for him to switch to Japanese, "Cha Hae-In… Miruko…"

Izuku handed healing potions to everyone but the two girls, "Drink these." He crouched down next to S-Ranks. Both of their faces had gone completely white and sweat ran down their faces as they desperately clung to life. "We can't move them and they're too damaged for my current skills to heal them," He said, referring to his potions, and the Holy Water of Life was reserved for disease only, it couldn't cure wounds from what Izuku understood, "Where's your healer?"

"H-He's dead."

"Shadows! Find and bring me the body of their healer!"

Baek looked up in shock, completely recovered by the potions, "Why… What are you doing?"

"The only thing we can do. I don't have any healers amongst my Shadows, so I need to borrow yours." Izuku raised a finger to point at the A-Rank cameraman, "You, turn off the camera." He obliged almost immediately when he saw the gleam of light in Izuku's eyes.

Within fifteen seconds, a High-Orc had Byung-Gyu's headless body in his arms and he set him gingerly on the ground.

"Izuku," Esil said, "Igris is struggling with Overhaul, he's using the girl as a shield. Neither Karkinos or Igris can do anything."

"Then go help them. I'll follow you soon! At the very least make sure Overhaul remains trapped inside the cave!"

Esil nodded, "Karkinos is making sure of that, good luck here."

"His head is missing… but since I managed to revive Tank from a pile of flesh, it should still work."

[Shadow Extraction is possible on this target.]

"Thank god for that."

"Arise."

For just a moment, darkness oozed from Byung-Gyu's body, but it quickly faded back into him.

[Shadow Extraction had failed. 2 Attempts remaining.]

"Arise."

[Shadow Extraction had failed. 1 Attempts remaining.]

"Why? With my Intelligence Stat, this shouldn't be a problem! It's almost like… he doesn't want to come back… like it's reinforcing my belief that Extracting the Shadows of humans is wrong…" Izuku shook his head as his eyes landed on the pale broken forms of the two girls, "Well… too bad. The living take precedence."

"Arise!"

Shadows exploded from the body as Baek finally grabbed Izuku by the shoulder and screamed at him, "What are you doing to my friend's body?!" Izuku ignored him as a hand shot out of the Shadows, pulling together a mimicked form of the healer.

"You…" Choi breathed out, "Is this the source of your power? All of those Shadows, they are enemies you have killed and brought back as your allies…"

The Shadow of Byung-Gyu didn't even wait for orders from his Liege, instead choosing to brush past him and lay one hand on each of the girls for direct and powerful healing. Izuku smiled, "My Shadows are not the same as what they are mimicking, but they do take on qualities of those they are Extracted from. Which tells me just how kind he was. He acted before I could even ask him to."

Almost immediately, the color returned to the faces of both Heroes, their bones returned to their proper posture, and their wounds closed completely. With the job done, the Shadow Healer stood looking over the rest of the room and ensuring no one else was harmed.

Baek's hand was still holding onto Izuku's shoulder, but the grip was looser, and Izuku could see hints of pleading in his eyes. It didn't take him long to understand what that pleading meant. "Cancel Extraction."

As Byung-Gyu faded away into nothingness, leaving only his physical body as a reminder, he and Baek gave each other a warm smile.

"Thank you."

Izuku nodded and began walking to the same tunnel Esil had gone down, "Tusk, Tank, Hyo, escort them outside, protect them at all costs."

Using his gigantification, Tusk easily scooped up both of the still unconscious Heroes in his hands, allowing them to rest comfortably with him.

"What about you?" Ma Dong-Wook asked.

"The immediate threat is gone, but the girl, Eri, is still trapped by Overhaul. I'll finish it." Izuku said with confidence, sprinting away into the darkness of the tunnels.


At the end of Overhaul's tunnel, a giant Shadowy dragon head peeked into it, white light flowing from its mouth as it prepared to unleash the breath attack. Of course, for now, neither Karkinos, nor Igris could do anything as Overhaul held his hand over Eri, threatening to turn her into nothingness if they came any closer.

Igris understood that Overhaul had taken her for a reason, and because of that reason, he was unlikely to kill her, but at the same time, it was his mission to ensure her safety, he nor Karkinos could take any chances. The same was true for Esil and for a time, the three simply stood there, a Mexican stand-off of otherworldly proportions.

But then, just like that, Eri disappeared from Overhaul's hands.

[Skill: Sprint has been upgraded to its final form: Quicksilver.]

Izuku hugged the shivering Eri tight to his chest, having removed the visual effects of his armor so that she could comfortably feel his warmth. Tears had been leaking from her eyes, but her fear had kept her from fully releasing those sobs, but when Izuku's hand went to pat her head, all the tension in her body was released and she bawled loudly into his shirt.

"Wh-What?!" Overhaul shouted, earning a threatening glare from Izuku.

"You… shut up." Now with the Shadows holding him at blade point, and with Eri safe, Overhaul could do nothing to stop the monsters that were surrounding him. Eventually, Eri's cries faded to tired breaths as she passed into unconsciousness in Izuku's arms. "Now… I want to ask you some questions. How many Monarchs have hosts?"

"What… What do you know of the Monarchs?"

"Here's a hint," Izuku said, "I am a Monarch."

Overhaul stumbled backwards in fear, suddenly realizing why this boy had been so dangerous, so powerful. "T-T-T-There are four of them that I know of, b-b-b-but they spoke of another like he had already found a host."

"Would that be in reference to me or another Monarch? That Kurogiri seemed to recognize me in some way at the USJ…"

"What are their plans?"

"What?"

"Their plans, their next move, what is it?"

"I-I don't…"

Izuku sighed, the Villain Overhaul, who had confidently taken down a Ruler-enhanced being and boasted in front of seven different S-Rank, was now shaking in his boots. "They probably gave him the task to eliminate Mirio and that's it… which means he's useless." Izuku thought for a moment about having Igris kill him right then and there so he could be converted into a Shadow Soldier, but he changed his mind quickly.

He didn't want someone like this in his army. He didn't want to leave a single trace of his disgusting corpse remaining. So as he turned around, beginning to walk the way he came, he gave the only appropriate order, "Karkinos. Once me and the girl are at a safe distance, turn this bastard into ash."

"No… N-" Igris and Esil jabbed their blades through his multiple arms, pinning him in place, making him helpless.

They too could kill him without any trouble, but their Liege had asked for this vile man to be utterly eradicated, reduced to atoms and they were going to do everything in their power to make sure his request was granted.

It only took Izuku a few minutes of walking, re-entering the cavern where the ant-Nomu corpse laid, to hear the massive thrum of energy that undoubtedly came from Karkinos.

[You have defeated your foe.]

[You have Leveled-Up!]

[You have reached the necessary Level for your Job-Specific Skills to increase!]

[Shadow Extraction Lv. 2]

[Shadow Storage Lv. 2]

[Monarch's Domain Lv. 2]

[Shadow Exchange Lv. 2]

"It took me reaching Level 105 to get here, does that mean I have to get to 210 just to get them to the next Level?!" Izuku hoped that wasn't the case.

Igris and Esil appeared next to him moments later, standing at the ready behind their Monarch as he looked over the corpse of the ant.

[Shadow Extraction is possible on this unit.]

Izuku nodded to himself and turned around, gently passing Eri off to Esil, "Make sure she gets out of here and if possible, try to hand her off to one of the Japanese destroyers. All Might already spread the word that my Shadows were an ally."

"Why do we need to hand her off?" Esil asked, honest curiosity in her voice, to which Igris responded by directing her attention to the massive pile of Nomu embryos behind him and the other Nomu that still attempted to escape from the Shadow Army.

"Igris is right. We still have a job to do and this one doesn't deserve to be put into any more danger." He handed Eri to Esil, who took her gently, enveloping the girl with her arms and one pair of wings, as if they were a blanket. "You go, Karkinos will be blanketing the island soon with his attacks, so it'll be safer for her." Esil nodded and shot off into the sky, her feathers creating blades of darkness that eviscerated anything even remotely close to her.

"Well, I suppose we should get started. Arise."

Like all of his previous Extraction events, the ant's Shadow rose from his body, pooling into a sphere in front of Izuku. Izuku couldn't be certain, but it felt far denser than any other Shadow he had obtained before.

[Would you like to use Seraph's Blessed Ashes to enhance the Extraction?]

"Seraph's Blessed Ashes… those were the particles that surrounded Esil's Extract, evolving her from an Angel Noble to a full on Seraph… does that mean I can make this guy even stronger?" Izuku nodded, "Yes."

[Shadow Nomu Commander Grade has evolved to High-End Shadow Nomu General Grade.]

"Two new Grades! So now the list in order would be Normal, Elite, Knight, Elite-Knight, Captain, Commander, and then General."

A/N: I am aware that Commander and General are the same Grades just from different sources. Commander is in the Novel and General Grade is used in the Webcomic, but like I did with Captain Grade, I simply wanted to add more Grades for more possible progression.

The ant manifested suddenly, its body looking far larger than before, with an additional set of arms slightly lower than its other pair. "It looks like the Ashes evolve the creature, so I can't expect the same thing if I just upgrade my Shadows Grade only. It's too bad that I've only got two more uses out of the Ashes."

The ant's aura was far stronger than before, causing Izuku to worry for a moment that he had created something even stronger than himself. But then the ant kneeled to him, "My Liege… kiek kiek," It's mandibles clicked, "It is my honor to serve you."

"He can speak… just like Esil. Does that mean Commander or General Grades give Shadows the ability to speak? If it's Commander then Igris only needs to Rank-Up once more to be able to talk."

[Shadows able to be Extracted: 222/734]

[Shadows able to be Saved: 222/504]

Izuku's eyes nearly bulged out of his head as he read over the numbers. It appeared that Leveling up his Job-Specific Skills had doubled both of the maximum Shadow values.

[What would you like to name this Shadow.]

The System message slightly distracted him from the insane jump in power he had received and he began thinking as quickly as possible, not wanting to waste any time. "Well… he looks like an ant so something around that, right? Oh… what was the name of that author who wrote that novel, The Ants? Bernard Werber… that's kinda a lame name. So how about…?"

"You are Beru."

"Kieeek." A shrill shriek of happiness escaped Beru's… lips?

"There's still a lot of Nomu remaining out there. My sense tells me there's at least a couple thousand."

"Four-thousand and thirty-six to be exact my Liege," Beru stated, still kneeling.

"Hmm, that's a lot for the rest of the Heroes to deal with, especially since they can fly. Karkinos can catch a decent chunk with his wide range attacks but…" Looking over to Beru, Izuku asked a simple question, "If it's you, can you kill the rest?"

Beru stood, a clawed hand held over his chest, "If you give the order, it shall be done."

Izuku smiled, "Good, now exterminate every last Nomu that once lived here."

He disappeared from Izuku's sight the second the demand left his mouth, rushing off at full tilt to fulfill his Liege's wishes. Izuku gave Igris a worried look, "Don't you think he's just a little too strong?" If Igris could sweat, Izuku was sure he would be doing so, Beru possessed an asinine level of raw power and speed now that he had evolved. "Oh well, it was my decision to enhance him. As long as he remains loyal, the only thing I should fear is underusing someone like him."

"Then the only things left," Izuku turned to the pile of Nomu embryos, "Are to finish this off, and to bolster the army." Using Shadow Extraction, he pulled out as many Nomu corpses as he could fit into his Shadow Save, ending up with 282 new humanoid Nomu, all with wings. "Jeez, even if these things weren't at Knight Grade, they'd be great as just basic manpower," Izuku realized as the Nomu got to work, recovering magic cores from the bodies of the Villains. "We're not taking any of those cores," Izuku ordered, "We should leave them so that Korea can use them to rebuild Jeju Island." The Nomu dropped the crystal-like objects immediately, "Besides, this magic core I got from Beru should be more than enough for my financial needs." He looked down at the onyx-black core he had recovered, its color, for some reason, suddenly reminding him of Yaoyorozu, "Ah jeez, I haven't talked to her in over a week and then I'm going to show up on the news having cleared an S-Rank Gate… I hope she isn't too upset about anything… I'll worry about it later." Izuku reached into his inventory, pulling out a white and gold sword.

[Item: Genesis Blade]

Item Class: SS

Item Type: Longsword

+350 Attack

A longsword imbued with the greatest power of the Seraph. A Cleansing Fire effect will activate with each swing.

Effect Cleansing Fire: Summons blazes of white fire that will burn anything in its wide path.

"An SS-Rank?! I've never seen an item with that Class! Well, I suppose now is a good time to test it." Making sure his Shadows were behind him, Izuku stepped up to the massive pile of black flesh and swung his sword, a ginormous blast of powerful exiting it just as it had said. Within mere moments, the entire birthing pile had been turned to ash. Reveling in the insane power stored within the sword, Izuku smiled, walking off deeper into the caverns to eliminate any other nests he could find.


Kiara Taihou was starting to become bored. Stationed onboard one of the Japanese Destroyers she was meant to be a stopgap alongside the dozens of other Heroes against any escaping Nomu. But she thought her talents were being wasted here.

She was Ranked at a low A, but thanks to her Quirk, she was able to break through the S-Rank ceiling. In her opinion, she should've been amongst the Japanese Heroes drawing the attention of the Nomu for the Koreans, or even hunting down the Queen with the Koreans. But no matter what her opinion was, she was still stuck on that damn boat.

It was for those reasons, her boredom the main one, that when she saw a dark shape flying in the sky, heading for them, that she became excited. Charging to the front of her Agency team, she readied her katana, practically shaking with anticipation, but then a call came out from the captain of the Destroyer, "Hold your fire! That's one of ours!"

Kiara began to wonder how such a dark shape could be mistaken for one of them, it was clearly a Nomu, right? But as the figure grew closer, she changed her mind. White patches of light ran throughout their vaguely feminine shape, and two sets of feathery wings sprouted from her back.

"All Might says it's one of the Heroes Summons."

"So is that what people saw when people reported a giant Shadow dragon?" She wondered to herself. She had been below deck when Karkinos had flown overhead.

The Angel, no, the Seraph landed on their deck without making a sound and looked directly to the captain, "Is there a quiet place I may stay?" She asked, unfurling her third set of wings just barely enough to show off the silver hair of Eri.

The entire deck's eyes widened as they recognized the identity of the girl.

"A-Absolutely," The captain waved over one of his underlings and ordered them to escort the Shadow to safe quarters, "Alright people, we've got the girl! We're retreating to Japan, the other Destroyers can handle it from here!"

"What?" Kiara complained to herself, the cheers of the other Heroes overshadowing her disappointment. She was happy that the girl was safe, but she also wanted to fight some Nomu.

"Th-There it is!" A voice suddenly shouted, pointing to a huge wyrm that was circling around the mountain, discharging beams of energy seemingly at random.

"Looks like we might have some action after all!" The captain reported, "The closer Destroyers have already engaged some of the Nomu! Ready yourself!"

Kiara once again got ready, ecstatic when she saw a legitimate Nomu heading their way, "First one is-" A blur shot by all of the Destroyers with such speed it appeared to be in multiple places at once, "Mine!" Kiara finished just as her eyes caught up with the phenomena, watching as the Nomu dropped into the ocean, sliced in half. "OH COME ON!"

But Beru felt no remorse for taking the girl's kill. He only felt joy as he continued fulfilling his Liege's request, carving through thousands of enemies within just twenty minutes.

And so, just like that, with the help of Izuku Midoriya and his Shadows, the Jeju incident came to an end.


Eventually, the flood of Nomu was massacred and all the surviving Heroes were safely on the decks of their countries' respective Destroyers. Ryukyu and Edgeshot in particular were deep in mourning when it came to the Japanese team. While the Koreans had only lost one of theirs, Japan had lost over half of their Top Ten. Hawks, Best Jeanist, Fat Gum, Crust, Gang Orca, and Musha were dead, along with Mirio whose true fate remained unknown. Miruko was still unconscious, recovering below deck after the Koreans had dropped her off. She would make a full recovery. Dabi stood awkwardly behind Ryukyu, his presence being the only comfort he was giving out. Finally, Endeavor sat on deck with his back against one of the massive cannons, his expression slack and unfocused.

With six body bags laid out across the deck, it was impossible to ignore how much of a loss this had been for the Japanese and the shock showed on most of the faces there. These were S-Rank Heroes, the top of the world… right? But instead of triumphing and standing atop their enemy's body, they had been turned into nothing more than a statistic.

After the twenty or so minutes of Nomu killing, it took only another five minutes for Izuku to begin retreating to his country's navy. As Karkinos brought him close, allowing him to hop off the dragon, onto the deck of the destroyer, he noticed Ryukyu's slackened expression. Unbeknownst to him, this was because of her obsession with dragons in relation to her Quirk. She rarely got to see any up close as they were always trying to kill her, so one that was peaceful and under human control made her practically drool over it.

"Should I be jealous?" Dabi asked teasingly. It was perhaps the wrong time for humor, but it was also the only way he knew how to handle tragedy, so believe it or not, it was his best attempt at consoling Ryukyu.

Upon helping All Might down to the deck alongside him and calling back Karkinos into his Shadow, Izuku realized that Ryukyu was stomping towards him. "Should I be nervous? Her expression looks pretty serious. She's not going to blame me for coming in at the last second, is she?"

But instead of words of indignation and anger, Ryukyu stopped one meter from Izuku and with the most perfect posture he had ever seen, bowed at a ninety-degree angle, "Please! Use your power and bring my friends back!"