A Shift in the Hierarchy
The Subjugation Headquarters, the Five-Color Magic Tower, and the Solar Church. It was an unprecedented event for the top leadership of the Empire to gather in one place. Dozens of figures sat around a massive round table. Not a single voice spoke, as if the room were filled only with the mute. The only sounds were a succession of heavy sighs and low groans—faint leaks of the bleak despair gripping their hearts. Even the funeral of His Imperial Majesty could not have been more somber.
Amidst the silence, the Cardinal turned his gaze toward the Master of the Violet Magic Tower and spoke. "Is there still no word from the Grand Sage?"
"...None, Your Eminence."
"Then it is certain."
The Grand Sage's final moments had been spent alongside Margrave Astoria. And that very Astoria had been turned into an undead, forced to serve the Tomb of Faith. It was now a foregone conclusion that the Grand Sage had also been turned into a Lich. Even the Masters of the Five-Color Magic Tower, who had dismissed such rumors as nonsense until now, could no longer deny it. Every piece of evidence pointed to the undeniable truth of the Grand Sage's demise.
"Say something, commander." The Cardinal's sharp gaze locked onto Commander McDmill. Although this was not a formal tribunal to assign blame, strictly speaking, the responsibility lay on McDmill's shoulders. It had all started with the death of Valmonk. In a bid to avenge him, they had deployed Wilhelm and the Holy Knights. McDmill regretted that decision so bitterly it gnawed at his very soul.
The Cardinal let out a sigh that seemed to shake the very foundations of the room, rubbing his weary face with dry hands. It was no illusion; he had aged years in just the last few days. "The Four Heroes and the Grand Sage have all been slaughtered by that bastard, Lucas. The rising star you all boasted of has defected to his side. Surely you all realize what this means? It would not be far-fetched to call this the harbinger of the Empire's ruin."
"Your Eminence, please, calm yourself."
"Calm myself? In a time like this?" the Cardinal snapped. "From the Solar Holy Sword to the Moonlight Sword, we have lost every shred of Solari's grace! No, 'lost' is too gentle a word. They have fallen directly into the hands of the Mugangung!"
"..."
"Am I wrong? If we continue to sit idly by and take these blows, humanity will face utter extinction!"
To agree aloud would utterly destroy what little morale remained. Yet, in their hearts, everyone in the room agreed with the Cardinal. The heroes who bore the weight of the Empire were all dead. The hope of the next generation had turned her back on them to stand with the Abyss. To make matters worse, both the Holy Sword and a Holy Relic had been seized by their enemy. The Tomb of Faith, a mere Rank 7 dungeon of the 7 Abyssal Palaces. It was an undeniable, terrifying reality that a single dungeon had brought the entire Empire to the brink of collapse.
"We must finally accept it," the Cardinal muttered. "The curse of Lucas is coming to pass."
The monster of the Abyss was none other than the Empire's former hero, Lucas. In the minds of everyone present, the words of Lucas's final curse echoed like a death knell.
"You are not humans."
"You are the true children of the Abyss."
"God shall punish you, and all of humanity."
It was an era where witches were officially declared the enemies of humanity. The execution of Lucas, who had shielded a witch, had seemed like the only logical course of action. But they should never have done it. Lucas's death had come back to haunt them, dragging humanity toward the grave. Though that execution ten years ago was the root of all their current misfortunes, regretting it now changed nothing. The leadership had gathered here not to assign blame, but to find a way forward. McDmill slowly closed his sorrowful eyes.
"We can no longer cover up our defeats with promises of subjugation," McDmill said. To do so would only hasten their doom. In the first place, they had no elite forces left to deploy against the Abyss Palaces. "Our absolute priority must be to quell the unrest among the citizens."
"And how do you propose we do that?"
"Before that, there is something you must understand. The citizens are currently fixated on the rank. They see that the Empire has suffered consecutive, crushing defeats at the hands of a mere Rank 7 dungeon. If a Rank 7 is this terrifying, then what of those ranked above it...?"
A single Rank 7 dungeon of the Abyss Palaces had brought humanity to its knees. This meant that even if they somehow neutralized the Tomb of Faith, the threat of extinction would persist. As long as the higher-ranked dungeons remained, the populace would shiver in perpetual terror. Furthermore, clearing the Tomb of Faith would only trigger the birth of a new Abyss Palace. To break this cycle, the Empire had constantly developed its power by utilizing dungeon byproducts as its core. Through this progress, humanity believed they had finally gained the strength to challenge the Abyss Palaces. They thought the gap was closing, especially after they successfully cleared Bango's Dark Abyss. But that had been nothing but a delusion.
"There is a rumor spreading like wildfire among the citizens," McDmill continued. "They say the Abyss Palaces merely toy with humanity for amusement. That once they grow bored, they will wipe us out. And they believe that moment has finally come."
Perhaps it was the truth. If the 7 Abyssal Palaces truly desired their destruction, humanity would vanish from history in the blink of an eye. Yet, they could not simply sit back and wait for death.
"Right now, we must do what we can. We must announce to the world that the Tomb of Faith we fought is not actually Rank 7."
The Tomb of Faith was a single-entity dungeon. While the ranks of the 72 Dungeons were determined by the collective military power of the entire dungeon, for a single-entity dungeon, only the boss's personal power was reflected in the rank. The Tomb of Faith they had faced did not consist of Lucas alone; it now included the children of the Abyss. This meant they had not merely fought a Rank 7 threat. It was a logical argument, far from a cheap excuse.
"Of course, this won't completely erase the citizens' anxiety, but it will ease it," McDmill argued. The public's panic was focused on the terrifying reality that a mere Rank 7 dungeon had caused such chaos. Reclassifying and announcing a new rank under the pretext of it being a single-entity dungeon would alleviate that specific fear, even if only slightly.
"So, what you are saying is..." the Cardinal murmured, "we should justify our failures?"
The Abyss Palace we fought is not actually Rank 7. Because its true rank is far higher, our defeat was an inevitable outcome. Depending on who was listening, it could certainly sound that way.
"Your Eminence, it is not a difficult task," McDmill pressed. "We must use this small shift as a starting point to devise a real countermeasure."
"..."
"We must officially re-declare its rank. We will estimate it based on the dungeon's total military power."
Until now, humanity had only recorded the names of the 72 Dungeons. Arbitrarily changing and announcing a new rank was completely unprecedented. It only proved that the Tomb of Faith was an anomaly among the Abyss Palaces—a dungeon existing on an entirely different plane. The assembly nodded in agreement with McDmill's proposal. Naturally, they began to discuss the new ranking of the Abyss Palace with a unified mind. Before long, a majority consensus was reached on the revised rank. While it served to justify their defeats, it was also a highly rational ranking, given that they had felt the crushing weight of that absolute evil firsthand.
"Then it is decided," McDmill declared. "The Tomb of Faith is now designated as Rank 2 of the Abyss Palaces."
By order of the Imperial Subjugation Headquarters, the entity formerly known as Rank 7 of the 7 Abyssal Palaces is hereby reclassified.
Tomb of Faith: Rank 2
This adjustment reflects the true, catastrophic threat level of the single-entity dungeon and its associated forces.
The news of humanity's arbitrary re-ranking of the 72 Dungeons eventually reached the ears of Roxanne, the Lord of the Ten-Tier Abyss.
BOOM!
At this moment, the boss room of the Ten-Tier Abyss was filled with nothing but deafening explosions. A pair of small fists was unleashing a devastating, tyrannical force. The sheer volume of the impacts could easily be mistaken for artillery fire or magical detonations.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
With every strike of her fists, piles of gold and silver treasures crumpled and shattered, scattering wildly into the air.
"Those insolent!" BOOM!
"Insignificant insects!" BOOM!
"Who do they think!" BOOM!
"I am?!" BOOM!
Roxanne finally stopped her punching, huffing and puffing with rage. Just because humans drew up some arbitrary list didn't mean her actual power had changed. However, it was proof that humanity now feared the Tomb of Faith more than her own Ten-Tier Abyss.
WHOOSH!
Roxanne unleashed a torrent of dragon breath, sweeping it across the room. The moment her ink-black flames touched the treasures, they melted like ice. Among them was her favorite amethyst tiara.
"Ah!"
Realizing her mistake too late, Roxanne scrambled forward, but the tiara had already dissolved into a puddle of molten slag. She stood frozen, staring blankly at the ruin. A moment later, her face contorted in sheer fury.
KICK!
With a single kick, a mountain of treasure collapsed. Roxanne's jaw dropped as she watched the cascading gold. In her panic and rage, she let out another roar—WHOOSH!—and her black breath instantly vaporized the falling treasures.
Roxanne slumped to the floor, panting heavily. "Insolent fools! Brainless simpletons! They dare ignore who I am...!"
The hierarchy of the 72 Dungeons was not something mere humans had the right to dictate. Those insects clearly had no idea how sensitive a topic rank was to the 72 Lords. Let alone how much pride the lords of the Abyss Palaces took in it. And for Roxanne, it was her ultimate source of dignity.
...Of all the lords, how dare they place that Death Knight above me!
BOOM!
"Every single one of them...!" she shrieked.
Memories of the 72 Lords' assembly drifted through her mind like smoke. A mere Rank 7 Lord had dared to claim he could kill her—Roxanne. And not long after that insult, even the humans were pulling this nonsense. It was just an arbitrary ranking decided by worthless mortals. There was no reason to let it sway her, and wasting her emotions on it was beneath a Lord. If she had her way, she would slaughter every last human—
"Slaughter them all?!" she muttered to herself.
A pathetic empire like theirs wasn't even worth using as entertainment. There was no need to mobilize the forces of the Ten-Tier Abyss. Roxanne could easily bring about the extinction of humanity all by herself. She wanted to massacre them all, if only to show them what a true Rank 2 Lord was capable of. Unable to contain her fury, Roxanne sprang to her feet.
"..."
But she slumped back down almost immediately. To act on such a childish, impulsive whim... If she marched out alone while the other lords of the Abyss Palaces remained quiet, she would look like an immature hatchling ruled entirely by her emotions.
Dragons were the pinnacle of all creation, endowed with supreme wisdom and intellect. To be swayed by emotion like this was a disgrace to her kind. At that thought, Roxanne squeezed her eyes shut and forced her anger down. The raging fire in her chest slowly began to cool.
"For the sake of dragon pride..." she whispered. I am a wise and noble Dragon Lord. Intellect is the inherent birthright of the dragon race, Roxanne consoled herself.
"..."
BOOM!
The more she thought about it, the more her blood boiled. To suggest a dragon could be killed by a mere Death Knight! To claim a Death Knight was Rank 2 when a Dragon Lord was right here! The throne at the pinnacle of all creation belonged to dragons and dragons alone. Even coveting it was an abomination, so how could they possibly claim he had already surpassed her?
BOOM!
She was the Lord of the Ten-Tier Abyss. A Dragon Lord. The Undead Dragon of a Thousand Calamities. Yet, her dignity had been trampled in an instant by a mere Death Knight.
"Bargore, you bastard...!"
An illusion of Bargore's face seemed to materialize in the air before her. Roxanne threw a furious punch straight at it.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
For a long time, the Ten-Tier Abyss echoed with nothing but the sound of her thunderous wrath.