Chapter 94: Chapter 94: The Law of Command

The eastern gates of Ironhold were bustling with activity.

Dante materialized in a blinding flash of blue light. He landed smoothly on the cobblestones just outside the massive steel doors.

Lila and Mei were already there. They had arrived a few minutes earlier via their emergency extraction talismans.

"Boss!" Mei cheered and waved her massive cast-iron frying pan in the air.

"You made it! I thought the big spooky skeleton was going to keep you for dinner!"

Lila let out a long and shuddering sigh of relief. She leaned heavily on her wooden staff.

"You took your time. The regional chat has been going completely insane."

"The three armies have officially blockaded the entire perimeter of the eastern swamp. They think you are still trapped inside the Necropolis."

"Let them wait," Dante said and casually adjusted his dark purple gauntlets. "The necrotic corruption is neutralized. The quest is complete."

Pip fluttered down from the shoulder of Mei and landed on the cobblestones. The tiny red dragon looked suspiciously at the empty hands of Dante.

"Where is the loot, shiny boy?" Pip demanded.

"You did not leave the boss drops in the crypt, did you? Because if you did, I am going to write a highly aggressive complaint on the forums."

"I vacuumed it all up," Dante assured the dragon. "It is in the void ring. We will split the gold and the standard materials once I turn the quest in to the City Lord."

"Excellent," Pip grinned and rubbed his tiny claws together. "Our hotpot fund is practically overflowing."

Dante didn’t immediately turn toward the city gates. He opened his system interface and navigated to the pet tab.

"I picked up a new companion while I was down there," Dante said casually.

Lila blinked. "You tamed a pet in an SSS-Rank containment zone? Was it a skeletal hound?"

"Not exactly," Dante said.

He tapped the summon icon.

A small spatial rift tore open in the air next to him. Erebus stepped out of the rift.

The ancient Celestial boss was still wearing her dark gothic dress. Her stark white hair fell in messy tangles.

She looked around the bright and sunlit plaza outside the city gates and blinked her solid blood-red eyes.

She was currently holding a half-eaten [Magma-Seared Meat Bun] in her pale hand.

Mei gasped. "Oh my god. She is adorable. She looks like a grumpy little porcelain doll!"

Pip took one look at the solid red eyes and the sheer overwhelming cosmic weight radiating off the small girl. He instantly flew behind Lila and shivered.

"Mei, do not touch her," Pip hissed from behind the beginner robes of Lila.

"That is not a doll. That is a localized apocalypse. I can feel my draconic instincts screaming."

Lila took a slow step backward and her grip tightened on her staff. "Dante... why is there a boss out here? Did you break the dungeon seal?"

"I exploited a loophole," Dante explained smoothly.

"I bound her to my master-servant space. The system recognizes her as a pet now, so the locational seal does not apply to her coordinates."

"Meet Erebus. She is a Half-Soul Celestial."

Erebus took another bite of her meat bun. She completely ignored the introductions. She looked up at the towering steel walls of Ironhold.

"It is bright here," Erebus stated flatly. "I do not like the bright."

"You will get used to it," Dante said.

He didn’t want to dismiss her back into the pocket space immediately.

He wanted to see how she interacted with the open world. More importantly, he wanted to see if the system would flag her presence in a populated area.

They turned away from the city gates and began walking down the wide dirt path that led toward the outer commercial farms. They headed for a quieter and less monitored entrance to the city.

The walk was surprisingly peaceful.

The chaotic mob of players that usually crowded the immediate safe zone boundaries were all currently marching toward the eastern swamps. They hoped to catch a glimpse of the massive guild alliance hunting Dante.

The dirt path curved around a large stagnant pond filled with thick mud and tall reeds.

As they walked past the pond, the mud violently erupted.

A massive hulking figure ripped itself out of the muck and completely blocked the path.

It was twelve feet tall. It was covered in thick hardened gray mud and dripped with swamp water. It carried a massive uprooted tree trunk like a club.

[Monster Spawn: Swamp-Troll]

[Level: 20]

[HP: 8,000 / 8,000]

It was a standard mid-tier hazard designed to jump-scare low-level caravans traveling between the city gates and the farms.

The Troll roared and beat its muddy chest. It raised the massive tree trunk high above its head to flatten the party.

Dante didn’t draw [Dawn-Breaker Blade]. He didn’t need to.

Lila raised her staff. She was prepared to drop a chantless [Gravity Well] to pin the beast.

Mei shifted her stance and brought the indestructible frying pan forward to absorb the kinetic impact.

"I have got this, Boss!" Mei cheered and was ready for batting practice.

Erebus finished chewing her meat bun. She swallowed and wiped a smudge of barbecue sauce from her pale cheek.

She looked up at the towering Swamp-Troll.

She didn’t use telekinesis. She didn’t trigger a massive flashy Zenith-tier skill or a localized burst of cosmic energy.

Erebus simply raised her small pale hand and pointed a single finger directly at the roaring monster.

"That mud is tired," Erebus said. Her voice was perfectly flat and entirely devoid of emotion. "And it wants to be my backpack."

The combat engine of the Zenith Protocol completely hitched!

There was no damage calculation. There was no defense mitigation. There was no status effect applied.

The Swamp-Troll didn’t roar in pain or stagger backward.

The massive Level 20 monster literally shimmered!

Its physical form glitched rapidly. The gray mud and localized pixels violently compressed inward.

The giant tree trunk vanished into thin air.

In less than a second, the twelve-foot-tall Troll collapsed in on itself.

The monster hit the dirt path with a soft heavy thud.

But it wasn’t a monster anymore.

Lying in the mud exactly where the Troll had just been standing was a sleek impeccably crafted black leather backpack with glowing silver buckles.

[System Event: Reality Altered.]

Dante stared at the backpack. He stared at the empty space where the Troll had been.

He didn’t draw his sword. He didn’t move. He just slowly blinked.

Mei slowly lowered her massive frying pan. Her jaw was practically touching the dirt. "Did... did she just turn a monster into luggage?"

Pip flew out from behind Lila and hovered over the backpack. He poked it cautiously with his tiny claw.

"It is real," Pip squeaked. His voice cracked. "It is a physical localized item."

Dante walked over and picked the backpack up. He activated his appraisal skill.

[Item Appraised: Troll-Hide Haversack]

[Tier: Mythic]

[Description: A high-capacity storage unit. Grants 500 extra inventory slots and reduces the physical weight of all stored items by 90%.]

Dante looked at the heavy leather bag in his hands, then looked back at the little girl in the gothic dress.

Erebus had just bypassed the entire combat engine, the loot table mechanics, and the fundamental laws of digital physics. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

She hadn’t killed the Troll and forced it to drop an item.

She had looked at a living entity and casually rewritten its localized reality to suit her immediate preference.

"The Law of Command," Dante whispered. He remembered the incredibly vague lore text regarding Celestial authorities.

It wasn’t a combat skill. It was a developer command hard-coded into her half-soul.

She could literally tell reality what to do, and reality had no choice but to obey.

"I have pockets now," Erebus stated flatly. She walked over and held her small arms out.

Dante numbly handed the Mythic-tier backpack to her.

She awkwardly slid the straps over her tiny shoulders.

The bag was almost as big as she was, but the 90% weight reduction passive meant she carried it effortlessly.

Lila was gripping her wooden staff so tightly her knuckles were white. She looked at Dante with sheer panic in her blue eyes.

"Dante," Lila whispered. Her voice trembled.

"She did not use mana. I did not feel a localized energy spike. She just talked to it."

"I know," Dante said.

"That is not an ability! That is a system exploit!" Lila hissed and gestured frantically at the little girl currently trying to stuff another meat bun into her new backpack.

"If the developers see her doing that, they are going to patch her out of the game! Or worse, they are going to wipe your account for harboring a glitch!"

"The developers do not run this game, Lila," Dante reminded her and glanced back toward the towering walls of Ironhold.

"The system does. And the system allowed the binding contract. She is localized to my coordinates. As long as I do not let her turn a city guard into a hat, we should be fine."

Mei walked over and poked the leather backpack with a curious finger.

"Can she turn a boss into a hotpot?" Mei asked. Her eyes lit up with terrible and chaotic ideas.

"No," Dante ordered instantly. "We are not weaponizing the reality-warping toddler to make soup."

He turned back toward the main road leading into Ironhold.

He had expected the [Band of the Void-Walker] to be his most broken utility item. He had expected [Voidsever] to be his ultimate trump card.

But Erebus was an entirely different category of power. She was a walking cheat code.

If Valerius and his disciplined militaristic Legion of Blades ever managed to actually corner him, Dante wouldn’t need to use a Zenith-tier skill or burn his stamina.

He could just ask Erebus to turn their armor into wet noodles.

"Come on," Dante said and led the party toward the secondary city gates.

"I have a quest to turn in to the City Lord. And we need to figure out exactly how we are going to deal with the three armies waiting for us in the swamp."

Erebus happily skipped behind him. Her massive Mythic-tier backpack bounced against her gothic dress.

She was completely oblivious to the fact that she had just permanently broken the minds of her new party members.