Chapter 56: A royal decree
Camp Stymphalian stayed quiet for a long time after Em vanished.
No one moved at first.
The lime-oak creaked softly in the wind, its huge branches swaying over the clearing. Steam from the hotpot slowly thinned into the cold night air, and the broth had long since stopped bubbling.
Dominic broke the silence first.
“…Well.”
He scratched the back of his head.
“That was new.”
Janet shot him a look.
“That’s what you got from this?”
Dominic shrugged helplessly.
“I mean, what else am I supposed to say? We just negotiated with… whatever the hell that was.”
No one argued.
Phong stayed near the chili perimeter, staring into the forest where Em had disappeared.
After a while, he finally exhaled.
“Alright.”
Everyone turned toward him.
“The Halloween plan stays.”
Jake blinked.
“You’re serious?”
“Yes.”
Phong nodded firmly.
“We’re not changing our lives because that thing showed up.”
The others exchanged looks.
Alex crossed her arms.
“You’re saying we just… ignore it?”
“As much as possible,” Phong said.
Dominic grinned a little.
“Spite strategy.”
“Exactly.”
That drew a few quiet laughs.
Even in the face of cosmic horror, stubbornness was still a valid human response.
Alex wasn’t fully convinced.
“What happens if it tells Josh and Olen the truth?” she asked.
That settled over the clearing like weight.
Everyone knew what she meant.
If their enemies learned the truth about this place—
The plants.
The defenses.
The alliances.
The monster network protecting this territory—
Then armies would march into Floor One.
Governments.
Corporations.
Private militaries.
Every major power on Earth would want a farmer who could weaponize dungeon ecosystems.
Phong rubbed his chin.
Then shook his head.
“It won’t.”
Dominic frowned.
“You sound pretty sure.”
Phong looked back toward the forest.
“That thing understands humans.”
“Too well.”
Then he turned back to the group.
“And that’s exactly why it won’t leak anything.”
Janet raised a brow.
“Explain.”
Phong gestured around camp.
“If the truth about this place gets out, what happens?”
Dominic answered right away.
“Every superpower on Earth storms Floor One.”
“Exactly.”
“And that would wreck the dungeon ecosystem,” Phong said.
“The Sky Emperor wouldn’t allow that.”
They all remembered the roar.
The authority in it.
Even Em had backed off at once.
Phong nodded slowly.
“That thing acts like it doesn’t care.”
“But I saw it.”
“It still fears the dragon.”
Alex’s eyes softened a little.
“You’re saying it won’t risk being punished.”
“Right.”
“It wants entertainment,” Phong said.
“And getting its face smashed by the Emperor probably wouldn’t be entertaining.”
Dominic snorted.
“Fair.”
Phong finished calmly.
“So it won’t leak anything.”
“And Josh underestimating me stays my biggest advantage.”
That, everyone agreed with.
Josh saw Phong as weak.
A harmless farmer.
A disposable nobody.
And that mistake had already saved Phong more than once.
Séline stretched her arms with a satisfied smile.
“Well.”
“Then Halloween in Lyon it is.”
Camille nodded fast.
“You all come.”
“Our city will love you.”
Dominic grinned.
“I already have costumes planned.”
Janet sighed.
“Please tell me you’re not forcing couple costumes again.”
“Too late.”
Laughter slowly returned to camp.
The tension loosened.
Bowls were refilled.
Jokes came back.
One by one, people drifted toward bed.
Late that night, camp grew quiet.
Most of them slept soundly.
Alex didn’t.
She could feel it.
Phong had held himself together during the talk.
Kept everyone calm.
Acted like this was manageable.
Now that they were alone…
The mask cracked.
He was trembling a little.
Not enough to see.
But enough to feel.
Cold sweat.
Uneven breathing.
Alex wrapped her arms around him tighter.
“You don’t have to pretend with me,” she whispered.
Phong didn’t answer.
He just pulled her closer.
His heartbeat slowly steadied against her chest.
That thing—
Em.
For the first time since the Phoenix incident…
Phong had felt truly powerless again.
Alex gently ran her fingers through his hair.
“You’re not alone,” she murmured.
Eventually his breathing evened out.
He fell asleep.
Still holding her.
No one noticed when Little Fireball slipped out of camp.
The tiny chick hopped quietly through the grass, wings fluttering a little as she left the safety of the chili perimeter.
She followed a trail only she could sense.
Mana residue.
Ancient.
Alien.
It led deep into the dungeon.
All the way to the edge of Floor Three.
Where Em was waiting.
The chick chirped sharply.
Clear.
Annoyed.
Em turned.
Still wearing Emma’s face.
“Oh?”
“You came all the way here just to complain?”
The chick chirped again, louder.
More offended this time.
Em burst out laughing.
“Oh, Suzaku.”
“I didn’t expect you to get sentimental.”
The chick’s feathers bristled.
Em leaned casually against a broken stone pillar.
“You used to hate the test subjects.”
“And now you’re protecting them?”
That did it.
Flames burst outward.
The tiny chick vanished.
In her place rose a colossal figure of burning red and gold.
Six wings spread wide across the cavern.
Nine peacock-like tail feathers blazed with divine fire.
The Monstrous Phoenix.
Suzaku.
Her eyes burned with fury.
The dungeon floor shook.
Em’s illusion shattered.
Emma’s shape dissolved.
Its true form spilled out.
A grotesque mountain of pulsing purple flesh.
Countless eyes opened.
Mouths split across its body.
A living nightmare.
And the two Pillars attacked.
The battle was catastrophic.
Floor Three shook under every impact.
Flames turned whole forests to ash.
Reality warped where Em’s monstrous flesh slammed against Suzaku’s fire.
Stone melted.
Mountains cracked.
Whole stretches of terrain were erased.
Neither held back.
The fight escalated too fast.
Then—
A roar thundered across the dungeon.
Everything froze.
The Azure Dragon arrived.
The Sky Emperor.
Its immense jade-scaled body coiled across the sky like a living storm.
Golden eyes glowed with pure irritation.
Without a word, it ended the battle.
Reality bent.
The Emperor raised one claw.
And the dungeon answered.
A massive Shifting hit instantly.
The scorched battlefield of Floor Three—
Charred earth.
Molten rock.
Burning ruins—
Was ripped from where it stood.
And dropped half a mile from Camp Stymphalian.
On Floor One.
The Azure Dragon looked down once.
Then vanished.
Back at camp, Phong’s menu flashed.
A new request appeared.
Simple.
Polite.
Almost absurdly polite.
Request Received
Please fix this land.
— Sincerely, the entity you call the Sky Emperor
Morning light filtered through the branches of the lime-oak, scattering pale gold over Camp Stymphalian.
The camp gathered under it slowly, one by one, pulled by the same message that had appeared on Phong’s menu.
Dominic arrived first, still half asleep and carrying a mug of coffee.
Janet followed with her usual calm face, though the slight crease between her brows gave away her curiosity.
Jake and Jack whispered theories to each other.
Séline and Camille stood together, visibly excited in the way divers always got when the dungeon did something completely insane.
At the center stood Phong.
His menu window hovered in the air for everyone to see.
The message was still there.
Request Received
Please fix this land.
— Sincerely, the entity you call the Sky Emperor
No one spoke for a few seconds.
The silence felt heavy with disbelief.
Finally Dominic scratched his head.
“…That’s not a quest.”
“No,” Janet said quietly. “It isn’t.”
They all knew what system quests looked like.
Formal.
Structured.
Numbered.
Rewards listed.
Requirements defined.
This was different.
This was a request.
From a floor boss.
And not just any floor boss.
From the Sky Emperor.
Jake let out a long whistle.
“I don’t think the Divers Association has anything like this on record.”
Jack nodded.
“Floor bosses usually don’t send polite messages.”
Alex leaned lightly against Phong’s shoulder, studying the floating text with narrowed eyes.
Then she poked him in the ribs.
“Told you.”
Phong looked down.
“Told me what?”
“That you’re way more special than the rest of us.”
He groaned softly.
“At this point I’ve given up arguing.”
He waved one hand.
“Call me an anomaly. Call me a glitch. Whatever.”
That broke the tension.
The camp burst into laughter.
Even Dominic nearly spilled his coffee.
Once the laughter faded, Phong crossed his arms and thought out loud.
“There’s something else.”
Everyone turned toward him.
“You remember the first quest I ever got?”
Janet nodded.
“Plant potatoes in the dungeon.”
Phong looked back at the message.
“…I’m starting to think that quest also came from the Sky Emperor.”
The group blinked.
Dominic slowly lowered his mug.
“That… actually makes sense.”
The Sky Emperor represented order.
Balance.
Ecosystem control.
Encouraging a farmer to cultivate sustainable growth instead of reckless slaughter…
That sounded exactly like something an entity of order would do.
Jake exhaled.
“So the Emperor has been nudging you since the start.”
Phong shrugged helplessly.
“Looks like it.”
Séline suddenly snapped her fingers.
“We need Selena.”
Everyone nodded at once.
If anyone could process this properly, it was their resident dungeon theorist.
The call connected a few minutes later.
Selena appeared on screen.
Hair messy.
Glasses crooked.
Vanessa’s shoulder visible behind her, clearly listening.
Phong began explaining.
Halfway through, Selena stopped breathing.
By the time he finished describing Em disguised as Emma…
Selena nearly fainted.
Vanessa grabbed the chair before she slid out of it.
“Thirteen…?” Selena whispered weakly.
“Did you say thirteen catastrophe-level entities?”
“Apparently,” Dominic said.
Selena stared into the camera like someone whose entire academic framework had just been run over by a truck.
“My whole model…”
“My trinity…”
She rubbed her forehead.
Before this, Selena had been building a theory.
Three fundamental dungeon forces.
Life.
Order.
Death and rebirth.
Represented by:
Horns of the Earth.
Sky Emperor.
Monstrous Phoenix.
Now?
A fourth entity had appeared.
And it was something else entirely.
Selena’s eyes slowly lit up.
“Wait.”
She sat up so suddenly her glasses slipped.
“What was its personality like?”
Phong thought for a moment.
“Playful.”
“Manipulative.”
“Enjoying chaos.”
Selena’s eyes widened even more.
“That’s it.”
She grabbed a notebook at once.
“Chaos.”
“Order versus chaos.”
She started writing like her hand might catch fire.
“If the Sky Emperor represents Order…”
“Then Em may represent Chaos itself. That would explain why it seems to hate the Emperor. They’re fundamental opposites.”
Vanessa leaned into frame.
“Please do not encourage the cosmic horror.”
Selena ignored her completely.
“Thirteen Pillars… thirteen floors…”
“Oh my god…”
“This changes everything.”
While Selena spiraled into theory mode, Little Fireball slept peacefully inside Phong’s hood.
Her tiny body rose and fell with soft breaths.
No one suspected anything.
No one knew that only hours earlier she had stood before the Azure Dragon in her true form.
The Monstrous Phoenix Suzaku.
And had been thoroughly scolded.
The Sky Emperor had not been amused.
Fifty square miles of dungeon terrain had been flattened during her fight with Em.
Whole herds erased.
Ecosystems wrecked.
The punishment had been swift.
Most of Suzaku’s power had been sealed.
For now.
Em had received a much less subtle punishment.
The Azure Dragon had personally beaten the chaos entity into submission before forcing it to retreat.
At the moment, Em was licking its wounds somewhere deep on the Eighth Floor.
Recovering.
Quietly.
Back at camp, Phong decided it was time to inspect the damage.
He walked to the edge of the newly shifted territory.
The land was a ruin.
Blackened earth stretched across the horizon.
Charred stone.
Cracked ground.
Pockets of molten rock still glowed faintly.
Heat rolled off the soil like an open furnace.
Phong stared at it for a long moment.
Then sighed.
“This is impossible.”
Everyone behind him silently agreed.
Nothing could grow here.
Not yet.
So Phong did something no one had ever tried before.
He opened the menu again.
And typed directly under the request.
With his finger.
Reply:
Land is too hot to do anything right now.
I need to wait for it to cool down first.
He closed the menu.
The camp stared at him.
“You can do that?” Dominic asked.
“No idea,” Phong admitted.
Five seconds later, the menu blinked again.
A reply appeared.
Response:
Understandable.
Everyone froze.
Then very slowly turned toward Phong.
The Sky Emperor…
Had replied.
Casually.
Politely.
Janet rubbed her temples.
“I think I preferred it when floor bosses just tried to kill us.”
Dominic laughed helplessly.
“Same.”
None of them realized something important.
The Sky Emperor seemed calm.
Reasonable.
Even polite.
But it had been shaping events long before they understood it existed.
The bamboo ant siege.
The ecosystem balance.
The silent enforcement of dungeon order.
All of it had moved under its gaze.
And now—
It had personally asked the farmer of Camp Stymphalian to repair a battlefield created by two fighting Pillars.