I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

Anne paused for a moment, then turned to look at Stephanie, who had said those words. She stared at her for a while before suddenly asking, "You're not a native of the Floating City, are you?"

"That's right, I didn't live in the floating city when I was a child."

For natives like Annie who have lived in the floating city since childhood, the floating city is their whole world. The floating city is no different from other cities built on the ground; they are solid cities that will never have problems. But for the new citizens who move to the floating city later, the floating city is more like a giant airship.

Since it's an airship, it's susceptible to damage. Even though it's not broken yet, it could break down in the future if something unexpected happens.

That's why Stephanie could ask such a question, because in her view, placing a burning sun inside a sophisticated magical mechanical structure would easily create danger. But for Annie, this safety hazard wouldn't be her first thought.

If it were just an ordinary fireball, that would be fine, but this sun possesses a touch of divinity!

If it explodes here, could it possibly sink the floating city directly?!

The thought of this possibility made Anne's heart tighten, and an ominous premonition filled her heart.

But soon, she began to comfort herself. Whoever created this sun, whatever her purpose was... at least it wasn't to destroy the floating city! Whether the person who created this sun was the mute Ida or Carol, they probably wouldn't want to see the floating city destroyed.

Unless, there is a third-party force here that wants to destroy the floating city.

Just then, a short explosion occurred not far from Anne and Stephanie. Anne turned her head in surprise to look in the direction of the explosion, and then she saw a familiar figure burning in the flames—it was Zun, whose body was mostly engulfed in flames.

Annie was startled. She knew, of course, that Zun had gone out with Duke. Seeing the half-damaged mechanical dragon girl but not Duke excited her. Annie sped up on all fours and ran to Zun, pulling out her bone staff and beginning to cast a spell.

She fired an ice ray at Zun, easily extinguishing the flames on her body.

"Zun, what's wrong? Where's Duke? Is he alright?"

Zun's lower body had been burned to ashes by the flames, revealing a slightly damaged power unit. She lowered her head to check her badly damaged body, and after confirming that she wouldn't suddenly explode, she raised her head to scan the person who had spoken to her:

"Analysis complete. Character: Miss Anne, hello."

Having said that, she suddenly raised her damaged head, looked up at the sun in the sky, and let out a piercing alarm cry: "Warning! Warning! Warning!"

"What's wrong?!"

“Mr. Duke is in danger.” Zun used electronic voice synthesis, but the voice produced a lot of noise. “The elf princes Bain, Monica, Ida, and Alice attacked Mr. Duke. Miss Amber appeared and rescued him, but she could only escape with Mr. Duke. The former city lord Monica and Miss Black disappeared after Ida’s sudden attack, and Miss Amber and Mr. Duke are currently missing.”

"What? What is that?" Annie exclaimed in surprise, because the barrel's narration was filled with a lot of background noise. She struggled to make out what it was saying, but was also overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information. "What's going on? Where did Bane come from? How did Ms. Monica reappear? Why did Ida attack Duke?! What happened to Bane after that?"

Zun couldn't answer Annie's question. She stretched out her mechanical arm and slammed it hard into her head, punching it into her skull. Then she pulled out a chip-like device, handed it to Annie, and stopped moving. Annie took Zun's last chip and put it in her pocket before gritting her teeth and considering the current situation.

Amber taking Duke away doesn't mean Duke is safe. Amber's talent and ability in spatial magic are beyond doubt; yesterday she even did something incredible—connecting space and time, bringing her future self and her physical strength into her present self on this timeline.

In most cases, amber can roam freely without any natural enemies.

But at this moment, it might be one of those rare exceptions, because their enemy is Date.

Aphasic.

It's not surprising that a top-tier deity can do anything. If He could stop Amber's spatial magic, it wouldn't be incomprehensible. After all, there are precedents for this. Amber's spatial abilities were disabled in the Sleeping Beauty game and the Turtle Soup game. If the world will of those witch games could do it, there's no reason why the Mute One couldn't do the same.

If she could, Anne would have loved to know why Ida had suddenly turned on Duke, but the situation was too urgent for her to think about it. She removed the two long, white-boned exoskeleton legs from her body, tossed them to Stephanie who was standing nearby, and then lifted the curse from her.

"Huh?" Stephanie was taken aback; she clearly hadn't expected Anne to so readily lift the curse from her. "Why?"

"For no reason, you're just getting in the way in this situation. Just run away. I don't have time to deal with you."

Anne said coldly, her gaze fixed on the blazing sun in the sky, her brain working at lightning speed. At the same time, she controlled the Bone Transformation to recklessly modify her body. A pair of white bone wings unfolded from behind her. At the same time, she looked down at the vibrant plants at her feet, or more precisely, at the metal ground beneath them.

As the only healer in the rebel squad, Annie is actually falling behind the meta. While her signature heal and revive spells are powerful, they come at a cost, and her other resources aren't strong enough. Frankly, Duke is facing legendary-level difficulties, and he's only barely keeping up thanks to system-provided items. As for the rest of them… aside from Cecil, who can truly be effective on a legendary battlefield?

That's why Amber rushed into the Gate of Truth in such a hurry. Otherwise, do you really think she did it for... well, maybe that's part of the reason, but definitely not the main reason.

Amber went so far as to storm the Gate of Truth, what about Anne, who was already even crazier than her?

"call--"

Bone-Changers can only control their own skeletal structure.

So, what if she further expanded the concept of her "body" to the point where she could influence the entire floating city? If she could achieve that, even without comprehending any legendary destiny, she would still be an existence capable of contending with legends and gods.

She turned to look at the wrecked mechanical dragon girl's body, paying particular attention to the interface inside her smashed head where the chip was directly installed. She quickly grasped the basic structure of the interface, and then, using her bone-modifying technique, created a bone interface on her collarbone and full chest.

Then, without hesitation, Annie inserted the mechanical chip she was holding into the newly made interface.

"Zun, lend me a hand."

"it is good."

The synthesized voice of the bottle echoed in Annie's mind.

As expected, this super artificial intelligence, as the greatest masterpiece of the ancient magical empire, possesses a soul, and it is indeed one of the most important core elements of the floating city.

Annie, who was one with Zun and possessed two souls, narrowed her eyes and sensed a faint connection between herself and the floating city. She could not directly control the floating city through this connection, but it was enough to "deceive" Bone-Changing into believing that the entire floating city belonged to its body.

Just then, a full moon suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the sky, facing the blazing sun across the distance, filling the already cramped underground world to the brim.

While fleeing, Amber and Duke were inexplicably forced back into the air, and suddenly appeared in Annie's sight. With Duke's reappearance, a dazzling starry sky suddenly appeared on the uneven ceiling of the underground world, outlining a vast and complete star map that was enough to inspire everyone's longing for the starry sky.

Then, Ida appeared, held in Alice's arms, and suddenly appeared in the air. She... She stretched out her right hand towards the sky where the sun and moon shone together and the stars were dazzling, spreading her five fingers as if she wanted to grasp this magnificent scene in her palm.

He exudes a strong divine aura.

Anne, who was gazing up at the sky, suddenly froze.

The mute Ida is already a complete god, so why would she waste time constructing such a diagram of the sun, moon, and stars? Is it to reclaim her power? Or... is her goal not to regain her divine status at all!

“Her goal is to make another person a god.” Anne understood Ida’s intentions. “This path of mythology is for Duke! She wants Duke to become a god!”

Does Duke want to become a god? Perhaps. He doesn't mind taking the path of mythology in pursuit of power, but now is definitely not the right time! His true level is not yet at the hero level. Forcing him to grow too fast now will only turn him into a mute, a divine machine with divinity but no humanity!

Isn't this tantamount to sending Duke to their doom?!

Anne panicked. She began to control the floating city through bone transformation. Spears made of white bones were scattered throughout the underground world of the floating city, piercing through the sea of ​​plants made of flowers and grass, and were aimed at Ida and Alice in the air.

The cyberpunk-style necromancer has hijacked the entire floating city and sounded the horn of counterattack against the city's guardian. Her face began to turn as pale as bones, and most of her flesh and blood began to turn into bones. Meanwhile, the chip in the bottle and the bone interface created by Annie began to emit blinding sparks.

Zun's soul inside Annie's body let out an uncontrollable scream, but even as she screamed, she managed to squeeze out a voice of agreement: "Continue! Miss An... Annie, continue!"

"I...of course I know we can't let this ceremony continue!"

The Queen of the Scourge waved her trembling arm, unleashing a volley of skeletal arrows. Each skeletal spear embodied her painstaking efforts; in terms of sheer quality, these spears were no match for the legendary Spear of "I Want," but quantity could lead to quality, and this was the only method Annie could employ—to wear them down with sheer numbers!

But at this very moment, another turning point occurred.

A third-party force that wanted to destroy the floating city stepped forward.

Bain followed behind Amber, Duke, Ida, and Alice, riding a magnificent griffin, and soared into the air like lightning to appear before them.

He held a jade-green longbow in his hand, shimmering with a vibrant life force, while the arrow nocked on the bowstring also exuded a divine quality. At the same time, his aura reached an unprecedented peak. In the Sleeping Beauty game a month ago, he had never shown this move in more than ten reincarnations, but now, Bane was using the legendary Destiny!

Bain didn't aim for Ida or Duke; he aimed for the Sun.

Draw a bow and shoot at the blazing sun.

This elven prince, who constantly talks about "deals with the floating city" and "exchanges of benefits," was once a heroic forest ranger who worked hard in the floating city and climbed to the top of the Witch Game's overall rankings. At this moment, he finally reveals his true colors, showing the secret he can't tell his younger sister: an assassination attempt from the elven kingdom.

Bain intends to detonate the sun, causing it to explode in the underground world of the floating city. The power plant that keeps the floating city afloat is located not far below in the underground world. If he can detonate the sun, he can trigger a massive explosion that could destroy the entire floating city!

The intense vitality amplified the divinity, and the taut bowstring released the arrow, which, almost invisible to the naked eye, tore through the air.

A light green trajectory transcended spatial distances and escaped the constraints of time.

It struck the blazing sun.

Chapter 339 Union

Time stood still at the critical moment.

Carol stood in the sky, looking with amusement at the arrow that stopped before the blazing sun. She stretched out a finger, wanting to touch the emerald green arrow, but before she could touch it, she was stung by the rich life force and divinity emanating from it, and quickly withdrew her hand as if she had poked a cactus.

"That must have hurt quite a bit." She clicked her tongue, then lightly tapped her feet, traversing space in a time-frozen environment to stand before Duke, who was also frozen in time. "Do you know why Bane tried to destroy the floating city?"

"why?"

Duke put away the World Watch in his hand and said with a frown.

This time stop wasn't Carol's doing; it was something he did at the last second using the World Watch, which is why Duke was able to move freely during it. However, the world should only stop for 9 seconds, but his perceived time had already exceeded 9 seconds, yet the time stop still hadn't ended.

It's clear that this was due to Carol's appearance and intervention.

“Because the Tree of Life in the Elf Kingdom is nearing its end, and Bain has his eye on the Tree of Life that was catalyzed by the Mute. Of course, using such methods is somewhat extreme, but as long as he can destroy the Floating City, he has his own way of taking the Tree of Life away.” Carol pointed to the towering tree in the distance, then looked at Duke, who seemed hesitant to speak, and raised an eyebrow: “What’s wrong? You seem to have something to say?”

"As expected, for someone like you who is a master of time manipulation, time and space are interconnected."

Duke narrowed his eyes and said that if Carol could still display "teleportation" skills during time stop, it would only prove that she was using genuine teleportation.

"Well, the interconnectedness of time and space isn't exactly a secret in the floating city, after all, a legendary spatial witch once lived here. Given that you've set a precedent, it's not surprising that I'm trying spatial magic, is it?"

Carol smiled and said that although she had already broken ties with Duke, she spoke to him as if they were old friends. But Duke didn’t feel that he was that familiar with her. Even before the social death incident, he and this city lord who was always slacking off under a disguise were not really friends.

In comparison, Duke felt that he was closer to Eve, after all, he was going to Eve's clinic every day during that period (meaning he was carried in).

"So, you deliberately let us into the witch game back then?"

"Of course, that's where the myth of the mute begins, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what kind of chemical reaction your arrival will bring. But the reality seems to be even more interesting than I expected. You actually cleared the witch game that even the mute couldn't solve back then, and completely inherited the legacy of that lost world."

Carol said with a smile.

It was clear that Carol was in a very good mood. Her smile was not a polite or pretentious one, but a genuine one. Duke was infected by her smile and could feel the joy and pride in it. If someone was faking a smile, it would be impossible for their eyes to be filled with such a bright and cheerful emotion.

Her gaze remained fixed on Duke, never wavering. Duke would occasionally meet her eyes, and then he could see his own reflection in her eyes and a kind of surprise hidden deep within them—even a simple glance was enough to make him feel genuinely happy.

why?

Duke was familiar with Carol's gaze; Amber, Cecil, and Anne often looked at him the same way.

But why?

Duke was completely baffled as to why Carol would look at him like that. Let alone being compared to the "Intimate Trio" of the lewd elf, the light treasure, and the certain yandere, Carol probably couldn't even compare to friends like Natasha and Gret who were still just friends.

To find the answer, Duke even opened the system panel and looked at the section on Carol that belonged to the favorability system.

Carol's favorability rating: Average.

Good heavens, Carol's affection level towards him wasn't even "friendly," just "ordinary." Keep in mind that even Miss Joan, who has Joseph, her inseparable fiancé, has a "friendly" affection level towards Duke right now!

No, big sister, you're just an "ordinary" person, why are you looking at me so affectionately?

Carol completely ignored Duke's wary and suspicious gaze. She finally looked away reluctantly and turned to look in another direction, at another person who could move freely in time-stopped air, hovering ten meters away.

Ida looked away, seemingly disdainful of meeting Carol's gaze and completely uninterested in their conversation.

The mute man simply stared thoughtfully at the arrow, silently waiting for time to begin flowing again.

"Alright, it seems my lovely god doesn't want to talk to me, then never mind." Carol shook her head helplessly, then looked at Duke again. This time she was a little more serious, cleared her throat and asked, "Duke, do you know what happens to the alternate dimension that was originally connected to the floating city after the Witch Game is defeated?"