Highlights
- Solo Leveling Manhwa features a stellar cast of powerful characters, including the Monarchs, who were created by the Absolute Being to destroy the Human Realm.
- The Monarchs are beings of unimaginable power and are only rivaled by the Rulers. They possess unique skills, such as Spiritual Body Manifestation and Truth Inducement.
- Sung Jin-Woo, the main protagonist, becomes the most powerful existence in the universe after absorbing Ashborn’s powers and defeating all of the Monarchs. He inherits every ability and skill of Ashborn, as well as his own developed skills like Bloodlust and Quicksilver.
Famous for numerous reasons, the Solo Leveling Manhwa stands out mainly for its stellar cast of powerful characters. With its immaculate display of power, strength, and the gauging of these powers, it is understandably rightly so famous a series. Its power-flooded characterization divides its characters into four categories: the Rulers, Monarchs, Humans, and Monsters, with the most powerful being the Rulers and Monarchs.
The focus of this piece, however, rests solely on the Monarchs who, like the Rulers, were created from darkness by the Absolute Being to destroy the Human Realm, making them the series’ primary antagonists. Created directly from the most powerful entity in the series, the monarchs are beings of unimaginable power compared to humans and monsters and are only rivaled by the Rulers. So, accordingly, below are the strongest monarchs from the series.
10 Legia
Title: Monarch of The Beginning
Legia, the King of Giants, plays a limited and brief role in the series. Cunning and surprisingly deceptive for an entity like himself, Legia was the first and only monarch to be captured by the Rulers. Captured and imprisoned after the death of the Absolute Being, Legia was used as mana reinforcement for the human realm after being detained on Earth.
Despite being a monarch and considered incomparably stronger than even the strongest humans, except Jin-Woo, Legia displays limited power due to being imprisoned and drained of mana for eons and not having a vessel. His only notable skills are Truth Induceme’ and Spiritual Body Manifestation. Legia meets his end at the hands of Jin-Woo when he tries to betray the latter following the agreement of loyalty the two had.
9 Tarnak
Title: Monarch of The Iron Body
The King of The Monstrous Humanoids, Tarnak, is one of the few monarchs who did not die at the hands of Jin-Woo. An overly confident and egotistical individual, Tarnak, like Yogumunt, was full of disgust and hatred for humans, a trait displayed by his genuine disdain at the fact that Jin-Woo was the second Shadow monarch. A fact he refused to acknowledge as a result of Jin-Woo being human.
Despite being extremely powerful as a monarch, Tarnak had enough good judgment to realize he was no match for Jin-Woo without Antares. His most valuable abilities were his telepathy and spiritual body manifestation skills, as he also did not have a vessel that would allow him to exert his full power in the human realm. Tarnak gets done in when he invades Earth alongside Antares and tries to kill Thomas Andre, who he thinks is alone. To his surprise, he is ambushed by the trio of Beru, Bellion, and Thomas, who quickly eliminate him and continue to battle.
8 Yogumunt
Title: Monarch Of Transfiguration
The King of Demonic Spectres, Yogumunt, was one of the nine monarchs created by the Absolute Being and a being depicted to be prideful. Like other monarchs, he hated humans and thought of them as weak and beneath him, as noted by his calling of Jin-Woo’s father, Sung Il-Hwan, a weakling, a testament to his power.
However, despite his arrogant nature and being, Yogumunt is wise enough to acknowledge the strength of opponents who outclass him, as was the case against Sung Jin-Woo following their first encounter. Due to not having a Vessel, he cannot demonstrate his full power on Earth and can only mostly use the skill of ‘Spiritual Body Manifestation.’ He eventually meets his demise at the hands of Jin-Woo after he uses the Cup Of Reincarnation to rewind time and hunt down all of the Monarchs.
7 Rakan
Title: Monarch of Beast
Aggressively arrogant and viciously callous, Rakan, also known as the King of Beasts, holds a similar disdain and intense bloodlust towards humans, specifically those he considers to be prey for him. Despite his high and mighty demeanor, however, Rakan is rather selfish and outright cowardly when faced with opponents possessing far superior power like Antares and Jin-Woo.
Also, he was a hypocritical figure, as was shown when he offered to switch allegiances to Jin-Woo to avoid being killed. Compared to other characters outside of monarchs and Rulers, Rakan is rather immensely powerful as a monarch. His most notable abilities are Telekinesis, Regeneration, and Spiritual Body Manifestation. Like most of the monarchs, Rakan dies to Jim-Woo in the latter’s quest to prevent the invasion and destruction of Earth by the Monarchs.
6 Querehsha
Title: Monarch of Plagues
Querehsha, the Queen of Insects and another of the nine monarchs, was a sadistic individual with a lust for bloodshed. Unlike Yogumunt, she simply enjoyed killing humans and treating them as prey. Towards her minions, she is of a surprising motherly demeanor. As a monarch, she possessed immense power and several skills, including necromancy, mana manipulation, regeneration, venom inducement, and spiritual body manifestation.
Queresha was one of the first monarchs to die in the series following Christopher Reed’s death, which she was a part of, and Rakan’s rampage across Seoul. Still believing herself to be more powerful than Jin-Woo, and not carefully assessing the threat he possessed by thinking she had enough power to be able to afford being distracted by Beru, ensured she met a fairly quick end at Jin-Woo’s hands..
5 Hochwan
Title: The Frost Monarch
The King of the Snow Folk and one of the first monarchs to appear in the series, the Frost Monarch, much like his counterparts, takes immense pride in himself and his abilities, albeit understandably so is somewhat exaggerated. More than anything, however, unlike other monarchs, the Frost Monarch showed an aversion for conflict and bloodshed, a trait displayed during the Jeju Island Raid Arc following his arrival on the island. Conflict-averse as he is, the Frost monarch is exceedingly powerful, and his most notable abilities are Ice Magic, Sleep Inducement, and Spiritual Body Manifestation, which all monarchs possess.
Powerful as the Frost Monarch is, he is shown to be capable of irrational and fear-induced action in the face of even greater power, as was the case when he tried to coax other monarchs into quickly killing the Vessel of the Shadow Monarch, Sung Jin-Woo, without thinking about how dangerous it was to do so. He ultimately dies at the hands of Jin-Woo, who avenges Go Gun-Hee.
4 Baran
Title: Monarch of White Flames
The King of Demons, Baran, is a somewhat physically intimidating presence despite not having a human Vessel. Known to be cruel and of a bashful aura and demeanor, Baran was an individual who never backed down from a fight, even one he was guaranteed to lose, as was the case against Ashborn in the previous clash between the Rulers and the Monarchs.
As a monarch, Baran was indeed powerful, and it is inferred that since Jin-Woo defeated a copy of Baran created to be the final boss of the Demon Castle, the original Baran is much more powerful than the copy dominated by Jin-Woo. The Monarch’s most notable abilities are Hell’s Army, Lightning Breath, and Spiritual Body Manifestation.
3 Ashborn
Title: The Monarch of Shadows (Former)
The First Shadow Monarch, Ashborn, is also known as the Greatest Fragment of Brilliant Light and is one of the most powerful beings in the series, except for Sung Jin-Woo, Antares, and the Absolute Being. Feared by the Rulers and the Monarch due to the sheer potential of his dark-attributed powers, Ashborn is betrayed amid battle by the monarchs, whom he joined forces with to fight against the Rulers.
Unlike other monarchs and rulers, Ashborn showed great care for life and, despite his power, grew tired of the needless and constant fighting between the rulers and the monarchs. This desire ultimately led to his seeking a successor capable of ending the endless strife between the two races. As an entity, Ashborn is exceedingly powerful and has the potential to be even limitlessly powerful due to the nature of his powers. Unlike other monarchs, Ashborn is also a Ruler capable of many different abilities like the Ruler’s Authority, Monarch’s Domain, Shadow Preservation, Shadow Extraction, and Shadow Exchange. Although seemingly dead, Ashborn is alive and lives on within his successor, Sung Jin-Woo.
2 Antares
Title: Monarch of Destruction
The series’ final villain and the King of Dragons, Antares, is the oldest and most powerful Monarch created. Created with the will of the destruction of all life, Antares is a being that revels in chaos and evil. With a disdainful and condescending view of humans, Antares is rather an entity of honor, but this trait of his is only reserved for opponents who can gain his acknowledgment and impress him in battle.
A gesture he extended to only Jin-Woo in the series. Befitting of his title, Antares was extremely powerful, so much so that he proved to be Jin-Woo’s most challenging opponent throughout the series. Antares possesses many different abilities that earn him the power he is acknowledged, with the most notable being Dragon’s Fear, Breath of Destruction, Spiritual Body Manifestation, and Telepathy. The embodiment of destruction, Antares eventually fell at the hands of Jin-Woo with the help of the Rulers.
1 Sung Jin-Woo
Title: The Monarch of Shadows (Current)
The main protagonist of the series and the infamous Weakest Hunter of All Mankind, Sung Jin-Woo, starts the series at the bottom of the rankings as an E-Rank Hunter. However, he makes his way to becoming the strongest existence in the universe, second only to the Absolute Being, after he gets accepted to become a player of the System and successor to Ashborn. Jin-Woo is showcased as humble and very fond of his family while possessing an insatiable hunger to grow stronger.
After fully absorbing Ashborn’s powers, Jin-Woo has surpassed even the former Shadow Monarch, Ashborn, a feat confirmed after his defeat of Antares and even the second time of asking after the Cup of Reincarnation is used to rewind time. As the vessel and successor of Ashborn, Jin-Woo inherits every ability and skill the former possessed in addition to skills Jin-Woo developed himself, such as Bloodlust, Quicksilver, Mutilation, and Dagger Rush. At the end of the webcomic, Jin-Woo is undoubtedly the most powerful existence alive after defeating all of the monarchs following the time rewind.
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