Chapter 46. Chaos Hierarchy

The cave smelled nice. A faint, smoky heat clung to the air as steam curled from fire-warmed rocks near the firepit. We’d built a rough half-circle of flat rocks to hold a makeshift grill, and the fish I caught, somehow still perfectly intact, were now crisped golden and lightly salted. The real highlight, though, was the glorious aroma of beer-steamed crab.

I told them the secret recipe. Clean the crabs, heat the pot, throw them in. No water needed, just beer. Sprinkle a little salt and some spring onion, which Kevin found just outside the cave. Then close the lid and let it cook for fifteen minutes. When we opened the pot, the smell hit us like a miracle.

Umm. What was the word again?

MARVELOUS.

The smell hit like divine revelation. The meat was sweet and juicy with a faint trace of beer. Kevin even helped peel some crab for me as payment for learning this sacred technique. At first, both of them were skeptical and hesitant. But after hearing my humming and the perfectly normal, totally appropriate climax sound I made after tasting the crab, they broke.

Kevin and Levin got curious, then hungry, then converted. Both started feeding themselves non-stop now. Which was very predictable and very satisfying to watch. Their eyes lit up the moment they tasted it. The two of them immediately ascended to culinary heaven, mumbling praise between mouthfuls like they were chewing sacred scripture.

It hadn’t started like this, though.

We’d just gotten back from the river, still at the cave entrance. Lyra looked grumpy and maybe a little concerned about something. That’s when Levin finally woke up. Kevin was sitting beside him. Levin sat up slowly, still groggy, eyes squinting in confusion. Then Kevin froze at the one question he wasn’t ready for.

“What happened? Where’s Lyra and Dan?” Kevin just stared at his son, completely silent. So I bumped Lyra’s arm. “Breakfast time. Dump the catch~” She rolled her eyes and popped open her ring, dumping the fish and crab onto the cave floor. The question could wait. Full belly first, drama later.

Now, soft pops and sizzles rose from the fire again. Our glorious feast was already halfway to extinction and for a while, it almost felt like things were normal. Everyone was enjoying themselves.

Except Lyra…

She sat just outside the warm glow, quietly chewing on a cold piece of roast chicken from yesterday. She didn’t even glance at the golden fish or the crab I’d risked life, limb, and dignity to catch.

“…Hey,” Levin said suddenly, breaking the comfortable crunch of food. “Lyra. Why aren’t you eating the fish? Or the crab? It’s really good.”

Kevin nodded, raising his thumb. “Especially the crab. I didn’t even know you could steam crab with beer. Tasted amazing.”

My core buzzed with pride. “Thank you,” I said, doing a slow, majestic float. “What you’re tasting is called Dice-Boil: Drunken Shell Requiem. It’s a sacred technique passed down through zero generations.”

Kevin raised a brow and mocked me. “Zero generations? So your whole family’s… Dice?”

“That’s not the headline, Kevin.” I considered throwing a crab at him.

Levin pointed his skewer at Lyra again. “Still, seriously. It’s very delicious or are you feeling unwell Lyra?” Kevin gave a small nod, more serious now. “If it’s something else, you can tell us.”

Lyra didn’t answer right away. Her gaze wandered between chicken, crab, fish and me like she was rating disappointment. “…I’m fine,” she muttered. “I just don’t want to eat fish today.” She looked away, feeling guilty.

Inside, I smiled. Hohoho nice girl good girl. I loved you for playing along.I smirked inside. She was playing it cool, saving my pride. Truly... the best girl.

Or was she just punishing everyone else? Lol.

“Well,” I said, floating closer. “That just means more crab for the rest of us.”

But the laughter didn’t last. The warmth of the fire felt thinner now, and Lyra’s eyes weren’t joking anymore. The fire cracked once. Steam curled above the pot, then Lyra’s voice cut through it.

“So, what happened exactly yesterday? The last thing I remember was the Tusk’s hoof was over me.”

Kevin stopped eating and looked at me. I knew exactly what that look meant. So I did what I had to do.

“How about you, Levin?” I asked, turning. “Do you remember anything?”

This time, Levin stopped eating too. He stared at the fire, closed his eyes, as if reaching for something just beyond memory. Then he opened them again.

“I remember Lyra,” he said. “She was lying there. The hoof was already above her, just a second away from crushing her completely.”

Levin took a deep breathe before he spoke again.
“And then… I… I scre—”

He caught himself.

“I don’t know. I can’t remember. Everything just went blank.” His gaze dropped to the ground. “Next thing I knew, my heart had stopped.” The words cut through the cave air like smoke slicing through stillness. Kevin’s fingers clenched around a half-eaten crab leg. Lyra looked stunned.

“Yes...” I said quietly. “I saw you lying there. Breathless. After I tumbled the Mega Tusk and carried Lyra out.”

“I remember the darkness. The heat. I wasn’t in my body anymore. I think… I was already dead.” He took a quiet breath. “But then I woke up in a place that didn’t feel like anywhere. Just darkness and someone who looked exactly like me...”

His fingers curled slowly.

“He didn’t say much. But then a voice came after him. Not from him, a fire. Black fire. It offered me power.” His eyes drifted to the cave wall. “I walked into the flames. It burned everything inside me and somehow, when it ended… I was still standing. The other me… that was the Shadow Phoenix. Its name is Fyred.”

He tapped the back of his wrist, where the mark had formed.

“I woke up different. I don’t know how else to say it. I stood, and the Tusk was there. I felt something shift inside. When I raised my arm, the wolf came out. Scorch Fang.” Levin’s voice faltered at the edges. He shook his head. “But after that… it’s all blurred. I remember black flame. Then just flashes. Smoke. It’s like… I’m watching someone else. I can’t see what I did clearly.”

“You… really don’t remember?” Lyra asked softly. “Did you actually die?”

“I think so,” he said. “My heart wasn’t beating. But somehow, when the Shadow Phoenix merged with me, I was… reborn.”

There was a long pause after that, Levin just looking straight at the burning fire in front of him. I floated a little closer. “So, after that… here’s what we saw. You looked possessed. It was like something else had taken over you. Then, you went berserk. You smashed everything, flew up into the sky, and fired a massive beam that flattened the entire inner forest. Where the Mega Tusk stood, just a pit remained. Deep enough I couldn’t see the bottom.”

I glanced toward the others. “That blast should’ve taken us too. The only reason we’re still standing is because of the fog. She protected us.” I gave them the full story, though I left out the spicy bits.

Levin’s detailed demon arc and Kevin’s bedtime trauma didn’t make the final cut. I only shared what I could. Some things weren’t mine to tell. I figured it wouldn’t help anyone anyway, and I had promised Kevin. But the moment that thought crossed my mind, Lyra glanced at me.

Panic.

I immediately started spamming my mental mantra like it was a sacred firewall:
“Lyra Airlines. Lyra Airlines. Lyra Airlines. Lyra Airlines. Lyra Airlines. Lyra Airlines. Lyra Airlines. Lyra Airlines. Lyra Airlines. Lyra Airlines. Lyra Airlines. Lyra Airlines. Lyra Airlines. Lyra Airlines. Lyra Airlines. Lyra Airlines. Lyra Airlines. Lyra Airlines. Lyra Airlines. Lyra Airlines. Lyra Airlines…”

Over and over, like a defense loop to block out any potential mind-reading attempts. She didn’t say a word, but her brow furrowed as she stared at me like I’d just licked a crab shell. I forcefully changed the subject. “So hey, Levin… what exactly did you dream about when you stepped into the forest? You looked like you were in deep pain. You said something… about Lyra being dead?”

He flinched, not much but enough. There was a pause. He looked at me for a long moment, then glanced down, then up again. Our eyes met. Just for a second. Then he looked away.

“Oh… okay.” I shrugged it off, trying to sound just as relaxed. After that Kevin spoke. “Son, do you feel anything different? Anything strange? Can you try using the black flame?”

Levin’s eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open. Honestly, I wasn’t even surprised. The man hardly ever called him son, and hearing it from Kevin must’ve hit deep. I couldn’t resist.

“OWOWOWO, so sweet, the father called his son ‘son’. I could melt like butter right now.”

Levin’s cheeks turned pink with a mix of shock and bashfulness at the sudden nickname upgrade.

“Levin, you know Kevin was worried sick. You were literally dead, and after nuking the Mega Tusk, you just collapsed like a broken action figure.”

Levin rubbed the back of his head and muttered shyly, “Umm… thank you, Dad.”
Kevin’s brow lifted for just a moment, barely noticeable. Then he gave a quiet nod and looked away, but not before I caught the faint smile tugging at the edge of his mouth.

Levin was back. No more Shadow Phoe—nope, not saying it.
Chaos magic.

I corrected myself. The mind police are still watching and her expression said it all. Something along the lines of You’re not off the hook. She smelled something fishy. Unsatisfied and sooner or later, she’d interrogate me in private. I could only pray for my safety.

After a while Levin took a slow breath and extended his right hand, eyes fixed on his fingertips. The rune on the back of his hand 【ש】began to glow faintly. For a brief second, black flame licked down the length of his pointer finger.

Then he screamed.

The fire vanished as quickly as it came, but the damage was already done. The top of his pointer finger had burned. The smell of burnt skin hit the air. No one moved.

We could all see it, the skin was trying to heal. New tissue formed slowly, layer by fragile layer, but it was sluggish, crawling to repair what had been ruined in an instant. It was regeneration. I drifted a little closer above the healing skin, pretending I wasn’t silently impressed. “You can regenerate...?”

Kevin answered for him before I could ask anything else. “We phoenix bloodliners develop passive regeneration after awakening,” he said, already pulling something from his space ring.

It was a small knife.

Kevin sliced a thin line across his own palm. Blood welled up and dripped to the ground, but almost immediately the wound began closing. “If you focus mana into it,” he added, shifting his stance slightly, “the healing becomes stronger.”

Right as he said it, the cut on his palm sealed completely. The bleeding stopped at once. The skin looked untouched, not even a scar left behind. Kevin glanced back at Levin. “Your healing works, but your mana coat probably isn’t dense enough yet to handle the fire. The black flame might be something different. A normal mana coat won’t work.”

Levin nodded faintly, still gripping his burned hand. He took a deep breath, then tried again. This time, mana formed clearly around his finger, shimmering like a second skin of glass. It pulsed, focused, and for a moment, it looked like he had control.

But the moment he summoned the flame again, the energy burst wide. It flared too fast, too violently. Black fire surged up his entire arm in a sudden eruption. Levin staggered, clenching his jaw as the flames consumed his forearm and shoulder, biting into the skin beneath the mana shell.

The flame vanished again. Leaving only one stubborn flicker still crawling on Levin’s shoulder. A tiny black flame clung there as if it belonged. Lyra shot to her feet, her eyes locked on him, tense and unsure what to do.

Kevin stepped in immediately. Without hesitation, he pressed his hand over it, forcing the dark ember flat against Levin’s skin. There was a sharp hiss, the air warping as golden-orange fire erupted across Kevin’s palm. His Phoenix flame spread outward in a controlled surge, washing over Levin’s arm and shoulder smothering the residue completely.

The regeneration came instantly. Levin’s charred skin gradually knitted back together under the warmth of Kevin’s flame until not a trace of the wound remained. He exhaled with relief.

Kevin pulled his hand back slowly. The golden light faded from his palm as he exhaled and glanced at Levin, smoke still curling from his son’s arm. Then his brow tightened. On his palm, a faint mark remained where the black flame had burned him, a small charred scar seared into the flesh. Mana flickered across his skin. It looked like his Phoenix regeneration was trying again and again to erase the wound, but the scar refused to fade.

He closed his fist and looked at Levin. “It seems the scars from the black flame will not heal on others. But on your own body, they can.”

“You can’t control the power yet. Not even close. For now, it’s still a double-edged sword, more likely to burn you than help you.”

He stood straighter, eyes narrowing. “I think you’d need to reach at least Stage Four before you can safely use even a small portion of it. Trying to wield it now will only kill you. Stage Five would be a safer bet.”

“But why did the Shadow Phoenix use it without burning up?” I asked. “His body looked fine.”

Kevin shook his head. “No, it wasn’t. You didn’t see it properly. His flesh was tearing apart and healing at the same time. And remember, it wasn’t Levin in control. It was the Shadow Phoenix. At the core of all this is one thing: mana control.”

I hesitated before asking, “So… is the Shadow Phoenix actually alive? Is it something with a mind of its own? What about you, Bro? Is your Phoenix alive too?”

Kevin crossed his arms, thoughtful. “No. Bloodlines don’t work like that. At least, not for me. I’ve always known the Phoenix was there, but I’ve never heard a voice or felt anything conscious. I’m not sure why Levin’s is different or why it could take over like that.”

Levin looked down at his hand, the glow of the rune still faint. “I can feel Fyred inside me. I tried talking to him… but he doesn’t respond.”

“Bro, I think I know what makes it different,” I said as I casually hopped onto Kevin’s shoulders. Both Lyra and Levin stared, wide-eyed.

Their faces were hilarious. Hmph. These kids had no idea what kind of bond I had with Kevin. Time to teach them some respect. Kevin tilted his head slightly to glance at me. “What is it, Dan?”

“It’s the True Fate Seed. The fog mentioned it before, remember? I think we need to visit her again, bro. Give her a proper interview this time.” Kevin’s brow tightened, eyes narrowing. “I’ve been thinking the same. But it’s risky. If that fog turns on us, I can’t stop it.”

“Relax. If she meant harm, she would've let us die already. But she didn’t. I think the fog can’t touch me. And besides—” I gave him a knowing look, “I’ve got a way to pull us out if things go bad.”

That’s when I caught it, both Lyra and Levin were forming perfect “O” shapes with their mouths. Their expressions were priceless. Feigning innocence, I tilted my cube-head just a little. “What? Why are you both looking at me like that?”

Lyra blinked rapidly. “What… what happened to you two?”

Levin stammered, “Dan… when did you and my dad get so close? Or am I hallucinating?” But even with that dumbfounded look, the guy still looked like a protagonist. Ugh. Stupid handsome face.

Damn it, my face. Why are you so aggressively plain? I needed revenge. I floated smugly toward Levin. “Boy. From now on, you call me Uncle Dan.”

Then I turned to Lyra. “And you, little gremlin. Kevin’s your master. I’m his brother. That makes me your master’s brother.”

I paused dramatically. “So technically… I outrank you. Call me Master, sweetie.”

I spun in the air like a smug, glorious spirit guide, then rotated my core. A surge of mana puffed me up slightly, projecting pure pride from every corner.

Visual Dominance: Achieved.

“Now both of you, come on! Pay your respects! Uncle and Master Dan is listening.”

“MUAHAHAHAHAHA!” I laughed maniacally like a cartoon villain.