I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

"why?"

After discussing the issue of the world's will, Duke looked at the world they were in. The scene before him was very familiar; it was the street of the floating city, but it was slightly different from the bustling floating city. Although it was daytime, the streets were deserted.

He asked curiously:

"So, whose world of memories is this, between the two of you?"

Duke, Xiao Hei, and Monica all came from the floating city, so they had all been to this street. However, since Duke came later, he was certain that this was not his own memory world.

"It's probably not Little Black's, is it? It's only been hopping around in the floating city for a few years. Before that, it was still confused and didn't have much self-awareness... In other words, this memory world belongs to you, Monica?"

“I don’t know.” Monica shook her head and pointed to the floating city streets in front of her. “You two have lived in floating cities before, and there’s no one here now, and nothing special has happened. How would I know if this is my memory world?”

As soon as Monica finished speaking, a commotion erupted from the deserted street. They turned their gaze in that direction, and Little Black, who had somehow reverted to his cat form, suddenly bristled and leaped onto Duke's head, warning him, "She's here! It's that terrifying woman's scent!"

"Huh?" Duke was slightly taken aback, but quickly realized who Xiao Hei was talking about. "Annie's here?"

"Annie?"

Monica blinked, reacting somewhat to the name Duke mentioned, but she didn't think much of it. After all, there were countless people in the world named Annie, and even in the floating city, there were dozens of people with the same name. How could she know if the Annie Duke was talking about was the child she knew?

They looked in the direction from which the riot had started, and after a few seconds, they witnessed a surprising scene.

They didn't see Anne; instead, they saw a calamity of the dead.

Countless skeletons ran through the streets of the floating city. Some were the bones of humans and humanoid creatures, but others were the bones of animals such as horses, hunting dogs, and cats. These running skeletons transformed into a massive army of skeletons, surging towards Duke and his companion, along with the cat.

"Humph."

Monica snorted coldly, took a step forward, and stood in front of Duke and Black. The Shadow Beast then materialized from her shadow, and the two of them blocked the skeleton army. As a legendary spellcaster, she herself could contend with an army, let alone these skeletons of varying quality before her.

But before the army of skeletons could collide with Monica, they abruptly stopped. Then, a girl wearing a dress made of skulls appeared from the skeleton army. Without even glancing at Monica and Little Black, she immediately spotted Duke in the crowd and couldn't look away. Her eyes lit up, and then glistening tears welled up in them. She lifted her skirt with both hands and lunged powerfully towards Duke.

"Duke!"

That's right, the girl in the unusual dress was none other than Annie, whom we haven't seen in a long time.

That yandere who always maintains a negative value of hatred towards Duke and has no intention of giving Duke any reward for his affection!

The thought of Annie's past affection level being "Intimacy" caused Duke unbearable heartache. Back then, the affection system hadn't been officially launched yet, so even if Annie's past affection level was "Intimacy," Duke wouldn't receive the "Passion" and "Intimacy" affection rewards. But after it was officially launched, this yandere experience awakened her perverted self, and the affection level reversed from "Intimacy" to "Hate," completely denying Duke any chance to exploit her.

Thinking of this, Duke was overcome with grief. Just before Annie pounced on him, he subtly sidestepped, causing Annie to leap and crash to the ground.

"Whoa! Duke, what are you doing!" Annie struggled to her feet, scratching her head and angrily shouting, "Why did you move away?"

“I have a girlfriend, so I need to avoid suspicion,” Duke said expressionlessly, then asked the question he was concerned about: “Where’s Amber?”

Amber is a master of spatial magic, and Duke originally thought she could defy the rules of this witch's game, so she and Annie should stay together. But he didn't expect to hear an unexpected answer:

"She was taken to the next world by Norton."

"Huh? Why?" Duke's eyes widened. "Why?"

“I don’t know. Do you think we can fight back against that terrifying guy?” Annie shook her head, but she didn’t seem too worried. Her eyes darted around, and then she said with a grin, “Don’t worry, the situation isn’t out of control.”

"What do you mean?"

“In this witch game, Amber, who can move freely and jump freely between multiple memory worlds, is the one who has the initiative. You don’t need to worry so much.” Annie snapped her fingers. “Besides, Norton can use Amber as a hostage, and we also have people in this world that we can use as hostages to threaten him.”

"You mean... Megan is here?"

“That’s right, Saint Megan.”

Annie clapped her hands, delighted by the tacit understanding between Duke and herself. She quickly put away her seriousness, pouted her lips, and pressed her face against Duke's, saying, "Come on, here's a sweet kiss for you."

"No."

Duke held Annie down expressionlessly, refusing to let go despite her frantic struggles.

He was about to ask more about the world and the skeleton army around her, but before he could, Monica, who had been staring blankly at Annie, finally spoke up: "Annie?"

Anne finally managed to tear her gaze away from Duke and look at Monica, who was standing right in front of her, before uttering a dreamlike voice: "Mom?"

"What?! Your mom?!"

Chapter 261 Candy Castle - Replica

Duke pointed at Monica, then turned to Annie and asked:

"Your mother?"

"?" Annie: "Why are you swearing?"

Duke ignored her, turned to look at Monica, and pointed at Annie:

"You motherfucker?"

Monica: "Are you going to insult me ​​again?"

Duke's gaze shifted back and forth between the two "beautiful girls".

As "mother and daughter," they look like sisters of the same age.

The average appearance and strength of the witches in the floating city are extremely high. In addition, the floating city is full of long-lived species. Over the course of thousands of years of intermarriage, the average lifespan of witch families living in the floating city has gradually become ridiculously high.

In the societies of long-lived species, it is perfectly normal for parents and children to look young and similar in appearance, and this could happen in every witch family in the floating city.

So, Duke could understand that Annie and Monica looked about the same age, but he really couldn't understand why they looked so different—they had completely different styles of beauty, and didn't look like they were related at all. But judging from the way Annie addressed her by that name, it was what she truly meant to Monica.

What's going on? Could it be that Anne's father is such a handsome man that he possesses such strong genes?

"We're not in that kind of relationship! We're not related by blood at all."

Monica glared coldly at Duke. Seeing his gaze, she immediately understood what he was thinking. She directly denied any mother-daughter relationship with Annie, then turned to Annie and asked with a cold smile:

"I really didn't expect that you would call me that in private, Miss Anne."

In front of Duke, Annie was a fearless, super-shy young lady, but faced with Monica's cold and sarcastic words, she suddenly shuddered, quickly lowered her head, and stammered an apology:

“I’m…I’m so sorry, Ms. Monica.”

Now that he's seen this, Duke finally understands what's going on.

It turns out that Anne was an orphan adopted by Monica years ago, so in this sense, Monica is indeed her "mother" without blood ties.

"...However, the relationship between the two of them, mother and daughter, seems very tense."

Duke muttered to himself. To be honest, he had never seen Annie so timid before. However, it was a good thing for Duke that someone could keep this unruly yandere in check.

He coughed, then asked the question that concerned him most at that moment:

"Alright! Let's leave the exciting reunion story here and get to the things I'm more concerned about. Anne, could you tell me more about Amber's situation?"

After Duke asked his question, Annie, as if grasping at a lifeline, quickly moved away from the imposing Monica and hid behind Duke, first answering the question he was most concerned about:

“You really don’t need to worry about Amber. Although Norton is very strong, his power is pure brute force, which is difficult to utilize in this Turtle Soup Witch Game. He could easily get trapped in his own memory world and unable to leave. Therefore, in order to avoid being imprisoned in the Tower of Babel, Norton doesn’t dare to lay a hand on Amber. The fact that Amber can move freely within her memory world is enough for her to protect her life… Besides, even Norton can’t harm Amber when she’s conscious. What is there to worry about?”

"But……"

“No buts, instead of worrying about Amber, you should think of a reason for disappearing without a word before you meet her again.” Annie rolled her eyes. Having spent a few days with Amber, she seemed to be somewhat on Amber’s side. “Besides, I heard you eloped with Cecil. Speaking of which, haven’t you seen that glowing idiot? Where did she go? Never mind, I’m not interested in finding out. It’s better that Cecil isn’t around.”

"Uh."

If they were still in the floating city, Duke would still be unable to reunite with Amber, or even have much conversation with Annie, otherwise the long-dormant fragments of Talia's soul would go berserk again... But this is the Tower of Babel.

Amber and Annie, having trespassed on the Tower of Babel, are now wanted criminals in the floating city (whether Carol will pardon them on the spot after they leave is another matter). This has given Talia's mindless soul fragments the green light for them. In other words, Duke can finally be with his girlfriend again.

Unfortunately, the amber is not here now.

Duke shook his head and continued, "How long have you been in this world? What is the situation with this world of memories? Whose memories are these? Is there anything special about this place? Have you answered the questions from the world's will?"

“No, I don’t know who this memory world came from, nor have I found out much about it. It’s just that it is indeed different from other memory worlds.” Annie snapped her fingers. “Here, it seems that not answering questions won’t change anything. Moreover, we haven’t seen anything related to the questions asked by the world’s will in this world so far.”

Is that so?

"Besides, with Amber around, things went very smoothly for us. We didn't even seriously try to complete the Turtle Soup game a few times. We just skipped class to finish it all."

Anne said this with a hint of pride.

The rules of this Turtle Soup game are not difficult. Although it can create monsters such as the Holy Light Evil God and high-dimensional shadow creatures, the soup itself is not hard to guess. For smart people like Duke and Annie, it is easy to come up with all sorts of ways to skip class and minimize the impact of the memory world.

What makes this game truly terrifying is its endless journey through a world of memories, and the possibility of being forced to remain within one's own personal world of memories.

The latter was enough to trap a veteran legendary spellcaster like Monica, while the former could prevent Amber, who was proficient in spatial magic, from finding her way back to the floating city's gate.

It is precisely this nature that made this witch's game the cornerstone of the Tower of Babel, a prison.

"To be honest, I've been busy commanding the Bone Legion and the Candy Legion in battle, waiting for Amber to bring Norton back. I haven't had time to try to solve the Turtle Soup problem. I only asked one of my ten questions."

The Bone Legion is the skeleton army and undead scourge that Annie brought... but what is the Candy Legion?

Duke blinked.

These familiar words reminded him of a witch game he had once participated in.

Candy Castle.

It was in that witch's game that he met the saint Megan.

But this is a floating city! Why would the two factions that achieved a dynamic balance in the witch game appear here?

Chapter 262 Two Flowers Bloom, Each Telling a Different Story

After listening to Anne's story, Duke roughly understood what she had been doing all this time.

Anne and Amber, one intelligent and the other with superb spatial skills, are a perfect match for each other in this witch game. Their speed in conquering the memory world far surpasses that of clumsy combinations like Duke and Cecil.

They encountered Norton in a previous memory world, where he was trapped and unable to escape. Thanks to Annie and Amber, Norton was able to break free.

In fact, they had reached a certain level of cooperation with him. Norton needed Anne's brains and Amber's spatial abilities, while the two of them needed his powerful strength. Originally, a delicate balance had been achieved between the three of them.

However, this balance was disrupted after he came into this world.

"Because Saint Megan is here, we must use the Saint to get the Mute Ones to look at us, and according to Norton, we must rely on the power of the Great Mute Ones to leave here."

"But Megan is in terrible condition. She seems to be on the verge of losing control, which has caused this memory world to go berserk. She has even reproduced the contents of other memories here. As the commander of the Candy Legion, she has occupied the empty floating city."

“You don’t need to tell me the story of the Candy Castle in the Witch Game. I already found out after you brought Gret out of the Witch Game. The Candy Legion, which can evolve infinitely, is terrifying. I didn’t even dare to let Norton fight against the Candy Legion. Instead, I found a way to take control of the Bone Legion and became its commander.”

"Norton and Amber actually went to search for his memory world. To leave this witch's game, we must rely on the power of the mute, and to awaken Megan, we need to make some special preparations. So, we temporarily split into two groups. I stayed here to hold off the Candy Legion, while the other two went to find something that could awaken Megan."

"As for the World Will and Turtle Soup, to be honest, when we came in, this place had already been occupied by Candy Castle Replica. I didn't see this street quiet down, nor did I hear any wailing. To be honest, I'm not interested in solving puzzles, and as long as Amber is here, we don't need to solve any, right?"

That's roughly the situation.