I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

The shocking conjecture was like a punch to Duke's brain.

"Is the Pope's reason for launching a holy war to punish heretics?"

"Yes, you have five left..."

Before the World Will could finish reading its stance, Duke interrupted it and asked the next question: "Are the so-called heretics that the Pope and the Knights Templar are fighting against normal faiths and normal cities, with no cultists or heretics in them?"

"Yes, you have four questions left."

After answering these questions, Duke had basically confirmed the issues surrounding the Pope and this so-called Knights Templar. He turned to Cecil and shouted, "Lightbao!"

"What's wrong?" Cecil wasn't feeling much pressure at the moment. She was still easily repelling the knights charging at them. Although the Pope had taken a fighting stance, he hadn't joined the battle yet. "Duke, what are you trying to say?"

She frowned slightly.

The Radiant Witch seemed to sense something from Duke's series of questions.

"What would you do if you grew up in a place that looks glamorous but is actually a den of iniquity?"

Cecil closed her eyes. She had a premonition when she faced these "former friends"... no, she had vaguely sensed something when she left the Knights Templar because of that unjust holy war.

"If it were the Cecil I know, you would definitely..."

"No need for these euphemisms, Duke." Cecil interrupted Duke, raising her spear. For the first time since entering this world of memories, a chilling killing intent emanated from her: "Just tell me the answer."

Duke understood Cecil's answer. He nodded, looked up at the sky, and said, "Do the Pope and the Knights Templar worship some kind of evil god who controls light?"

"Yes, you have three questions left."

After Duke asked the question, the Knights Templar's naked, muscular bodies began to swell strangely. The holy light that Duke had seen as brilliant and holy began to distort... No, it was the knights and priests' bodies that were truly distorted. Their muscles transformed into terrifying lumps of flesh, and the holy light outlined magnificent armor on these distorted human bodies, but it gave off an indescribable sense of eeriness, like that of Cthulhu.

The mass of flesh sprouted fleshy buds, which were quickly covered by holy light, and then even more fleshy buds grew.

The physical deformities and the holy light advance in tandem.

In the square in front of St. Mary's Cathedral, the "holy" light created a large group of monsters. They roared and bared their fangs, their eyes shooting out terrifying holy light as they stared at Duke and Cecil, as if waiting for someone's command. They silently stopped in their tracks.

Until the apostle of the evil god raised his scepter.

The Pope flapped his three pairs of wings and leaped into the sky. The brilliant holy light on his body was exceptionally heavy, settling down layer by layer and gathering on his scepter, transforming it into a spear. The spear's shape was somewhat similar to Cecil's Spear of Thought, but Duke and Cecil both knew that his spear could never possess the power of "I Think".

The three pairs of wings made of holy light gradually grew new arms from each feather. These arms formed three pairs of six terrifying arm wings, and these arms were covered with feathers of holy light, and the feathers grew arms in turn.

The thousand-armed monster announced loudly:

"Kill these two heretics."

Cecil stared at the monster, as if she had never seen the Pope before. She stared blankly at his face, his狰狞 expression making it almost impossible for her to recall any pleasant memories of the past. Cecil shook her head vigorously and muttered to herself:

"This is truly a nightmare..."

However, upon witnessing this horrifying scene, Duke began to recount the truth:

"The reason the Pope was unhappy despite winning the Holy War was that he failed to achieve his goal in launching it. The Holy War may have been successful, but it attracted the attention of an unknown powerful being... I guess this powerful being is Carol, the lord of the floating city who is currently traveling the world. Because of the Time Witch's attention, even though the Pope won the Holy War, he could not achieve his goal. And after the Holy War, the important Cecil took the initiative to leave, protected by Carol, and escaped the Pope's control."

Cecil and Carol met after Cecil left the Knights Templar, but if there was something fishy about the Pope's faith in the Knights Templar, it would be strange that she was able to leave smoothly at that time... The only explanation is that the Time Witch, who was watching this Holy War, secretly protected Cecil until they arrived in a new city, and then Carol took the initiative to contact her.

"The answer is correct but incomplete."

"As expected, the correct answer requires stating the specific objectives the Pope failed to achieve." Duke frowned, voicing a guess he had deliberately omitted in his previous answer: "The purpose of the Pope's holy war is... to appease his god through large-scale blood sacrifices?"

"No. You still have two questions left."

Duke sighed. He only had two questions left, and he had to be extremely careful with each one. He couldn't let Cecil and Blackie ask the questions for him—once he voiced his guess, that damned world will would think he was asking a question and wouldn't wait for them to speak.

The reason he kept this guess to himself when answering the question was that he felt it was not very reliable at the moment.

If the Pope really showed signs of a large-scale blood sacrifice, Carol would have noticed it. If she really wanted to meddle, she wouldn't have only taken Cecil away. In other words, in Carol's view, the problem of this Holy Light Cult could be solved simply by taking Cecil away.

He raised an eyebrow.

"The truth is... the Pope wants to become a god. He wants to use Cecil's innate ability to use holy light. The holy light of the entire Templar Knights is actually a poor imitation of Cecil's holy light. He wants to use this inferior holy light to create himself from nothing into a 'God of Holy Light'. So Carol thinks that as long as she takes Cecil away, this guy's path to godhood will be difficult to continue."

"This holy war was originally his chance to complete all the rituals, but it attracted Carol's attention, and everything was ruined. No wonder he can't be happy!"

The World Will remained silent for a moment, then gave its answer:

"Correct answer!"

At the moment the will of the world spoke, the "Apostle" in Cecil's nightmare ascended the path to godhood.

The Holy Light Evil God was born.

Chapter 248 A Nightmare Cage from which there is no escape

In reality, the cult pope, whose entrepreneurial ventures failed halfway through, successfully ascended to godhood in this witch game by using Cecil's memories as a foundation and Duke's speculations about the truth as sustenance.

This is one of the challenges of the "Turtle Soup" witch game. It creates a nightmare based on your memories, and then gradually alters this nightmare based on facts and your guesses, thus creating a monster that could never have been born in reality, giving you a huge surprise.

In fact, while Duke hesitated, the Pope was already charging forward on the path to godhood, but ultimately he was unable to complete all the rituals of godhood before Duke recited all the answers.

Duke and Xiao Hei simultaneously sensed the spatial fluctuations. Duke realized that they would soon enter the next "Turtle Soup" game according to the arrangement of the world's will. Those who successfully answered the questions would not receive any reward, only "enter the next game," thus falling into an endless marathon.

However, of the two people and the cat, one of them did not sense the spatial fluctuations.

Cecil looked up at the Holy Light Evil God.

From His wings grew a thousand arms, and from those thousand arms grew wings.

The thousand-armed monster's countless terrifying arms each gripped a spear made of holy light and pointed it at Cecil, who stood on the ground. It let out an ominous roar; after ascending to godhood, its voice was no longer understandable to mortals, but only to its followers.

His followers were naturally the other knights and priests in the square. They too had transformed into holy light monsters, roaring as each of them grew wings and wore an ominous halo, becoming the followers and subjects of the holy light evil god.

Cecil felt nauseous. The precious memories of her past and childhood in her mind were transformed into a hellish picture under the influence of the scene before her. She faced this nightmare with a clear mind, closed her eyes in disbelief, and then looked back at Duke.

"This is not true; it is the result of the world's wicked sense of humor." Duke noticed Cecil's emotional fluctuations and said loudly, "Perhaps only the Pope and a few key figures knew the truth; the others were simply deceived! They used that fake holy light simply because they believed the cult leader's words and genuinely thought they were worshipping a real and authentic god."

After hearing Duke's words, Cecil's tightly furrowed brows slowly relaxed. These words were indeed useful. She realized that her past was not entirely steeped in lies and falsehoods, and that she had already left that place because of their different paths, and was no longer on their side.

"Duke, it's so good to have you by my side."

"No need to be so mushy, I just did what I was supposed to do..."

Duke's words came to an abrupt end.

"Huh?"

Cecil was slightly taken aback, because Duke and the little black boy in his arms had abruptly disappeared from her sight.

They moved on to the next memory world, leaving only Cecil, the creator of that memory world, there. After answering correctly, he remained there.

This is where the real difficulty of this witch game lies.

The Turtle Soup game is challenging, but not entirely unsolvable. There are many intelligent criminals among those who entered the Tower of Babel; if Duke could guess the truth within ten questions, surely others could too. Furthermore, the abrupt distortions in the memory world caused by guessing and answering questions can be managed. As long as the guessing speed is fast enough, one can leave the memory world before the situation becomes unmanageable.

Is this witch game really that simple?

of course not.

After answering correctly, only others can leave for the next world and begin an endless journey. The creator of the memory world will be forever trapped in the original world, just like Cecil, who is trapped in the nightmare.

This is a nightmare cage from which there is no escape.

Cecil heard the lament of magic, which had been forcibly altered by powerful and evil divine forces, becoming something that resembled her holy light but was not, and was now in the hands of those cultists.

The Thousand-Armed Holy Light Evil God pointed his thousand holy light spears at Cecil and then hurled them!

"call out--"

Surrounded by the mournful cries of magic, Cecil, though gazing at the thousand holy light spears, no longer pondered matters concerning the Pope or the Knights Templar. Her mind, capable of operating only in a single thread, was now preoccupied with only one thing:

If it weren't for me, those two guys, Duke and Black, wouldn't have been able to survive in this dangerous witch game at all!

No, I have to get to them as soon as possible!

Guangbao's confusion and fear vanished as he worried about Duke.

"boom--"

A thousand holy light spears crashed down on the ground where Cecil stood, the dazzling holy light effects engulfing her figure.

The Holy Light Evil God nodded in satisfaction and was about to retract his thousand-armed form when a voice rang out:

"I want to destroy this nightmare."

"I want to break down the barriers of space."

"I want to go back to Duke."

Then, a magnificent spear pierced through the brilliance of the false holy light, crossed the gap of time and space, and pierced the chest of the Holy Light Evil God, causing the true holy light to ignite His body and trigger a violent explosion.

"boom--"

The Holy Light Evil God's agonizing roar echoed throughout the entire world of memories, but Cecil's voice and murderous aura quickly suppressed it:

"Get out of my way, you ugly freak."

……

Cecil!

Duke, who had just arrived in the new world, stared wide-eyed. The moment he realized that Cecil hadn't come with them, he understood the unsolvable nature of this witch's game. But the world's will did not give him and Little Black any time to rest.

This world of memories resembled a bizarre dungeon, with ten crude cages before them, each containing a shadowy creature—if Duke wasn't mistaken, they were close relatives of Little Black, both being shadow creatures among the elemental beings.

"The former lord of the floating city, known as the 'Shadow Witch,' conducted experiments on ten shadow creatures in her laboratory, but eleven shadow creatures eventually left the laboratory."

"why?"

Clearly, this was a world constructed from Xiao Hei's memories. Nine out of the ten simple cages imprisoned shadow creatures, while only one was empty. Xiao Hei, still nestled in his arms, stared blankly at that cage; it was obviously the cage where it had once lived.

"Little Black, do you know why?"

"Meow... I don't know, meow."

Xiao Hei made a somewhat confused sound, but at that moment a third voice spoke up:

"Of course it didn't know; it had no self-awareness at that time."

Chapter 249: Former City Lord

"Of course it didn't know; it had no self-awareness at that time."

Upon hearing the voice, Little Black, who had been nestled in Duke's arms, suddenly jolted and darted out of his embrace, hiding behind him. Only then did it cautiously peek out with its small head, looking at Duke with considerable fear. Its eyes were filled with confusion, as if trying to recall whose voice it was. But after a few seconds, Little Black still couldn't come to any conclusion; it seemed to have simply instinctively felt fear.