I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

"It seems the city lord is quite greedy; he doesn't want me to die, but he's also unwilling to give up Amber..."

Duke jumped a few times, his body adapting much faster this time, requiring no further familiarization. Annie, noticing his movements, realized Duke was awake. She quickly went to his side, about to tell him about the animal chess game, the witch's game, Amber, and the Little Prince, but before she could speak, Duke reached out and ruffled her hair, praising her:

"Well done, Annie."

The poison of the poisoned apple was indeed potent, but it wasn't as strong as the backlash from a god. The latter would reduce him to ashes, leaving not a single trace of flesh and blood for a necromancer to save him. However, the poisoned apple that Duke had survived in the last reincarnation left him with a usable body. If Annie hadn't realized what was happening, she could have easily resurrected Duke using necromancy.

But because Anne realized what Duke wanted to do, she not only did not "revive" Duke, but also shattered Carol's hopes by committing suicide, forcing Carol to start the time loop.

"Huh?" Annie looked up at Duke, somewhat flattered. Her previously calm expression suddenly brightened with a hint of excitement. She didn't know what she had done, but she happily cupped her face in her hands because of Duke's gesture. "Hehe..."

Amber will always be behind Duke, his most trusted partner. Cecil will always stand in front of Duke, becoming his sword against his enemies... But their more crucial role is to stop Duke, so that before he does those crazy things, he will still clearly remember that there are people who care about him, and that he should remember to leave himself room for error and a way out.

But now, Cecil is gone, and Amber has been kidnapped by Carroll... When the two of them were around, Duke was seen as a madman. But now that Amber and Cecil are gone, Duke has lost the safety valve that prevents him from going completely insane—don't look at Annie next to him, that little madwoman will only go crazy with Duke.

How crazy will Duke go without its safety valve?

Carol, is this what you wanted to see?

Duke sneered, then strode towards the main body of the vessel.

Chapter 457 Chess Player

Duke woke up.

Upon realizing this, Ida, who was casually toying with the earth elemental lion, immediately turned her head to look at Duke, who had finally woken up. She was already powerful, and now, as the "elephant" in the game of animal chess, even if she diverted most of her attention to Duke, the stone lion couldn't cause any trouble.

But seeing Duke's aggressive demeanor, Ida felt a little guilty.

Amber and the Little Prince were kidnapped by Carol right under her nose. Logically, Duke brought her along to prevent this from happening, but while Duke was unconscious due to acquiring the body, the situation still developed in the worst possible way. Ida completely failed to act as a stabilizing force.

To be honest, although she hadn't promised Duke anything, she still felt a little guilty for betraying Duke's trust.

Ida and Duke were not very familiar with each other.

Although she was resurrected by Duke, and although they once shared a destiny, they had only known each other for less than a month. Ida didn't have a clear feeling about what kind of person Duke was. From the parallel world journey, Ida's image of Duke was that of a wise, calm, and terrifying man with a great gambling spirit.

The nickname "Madman Duke" is quite apt.

Ida didn't know that the "madness" she witnessed during her journey through parallel worlds was perhaps just a limited view, a glimpse into the bigger picture, and that much of the madness... was hidden by Duke because of the existence of Amber, Cecil, and the others.

Even so, Ida could clearly see that something was wrong with Duke… She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but something was definitely off. Ida watched as Duke woke up, exchanged a few words with Annie, patted Annie’s head, and then strode over to the supercomputer. He raised his hand towards the supercomputer that kept the floating city running—clearly, he was going to smash the main body of the vessel.

Upon seeing this, Ida was immediately horrified. Without saying a word, she grabbed the stone lion and rushed to Duke's side, smashing the stone lion between Duke and the main body of the vessel. Then, somewhat panicked, she questioned, "Duke, are you crazy? What are you doing?"

"Move aside, I need to confirm something."

Duke curled his lip, then clenched his fist and slammed it into the stone lion in front of him. This elemental creature was given the rank of "lion" by the Beast Chess. No matter what Duke's current strength and realm were, he was just an ordinary "rat" now. As long as he could not use the legendary destiny, he could not resist the world rules of the other dimension.

His punch did not cause any damage to the stone lion; instead, the recoil caused him to feel a sharp pain in his arm.

In Animal Chess, lower-ranking pieces cannot damage higher-ranking pieces, while higher-ranking pieces can deal significant damage to lower-ranking pieces. Pieces of the same rank... In normal Animal Chess, the first player always wins, but in this Animal Chess Witch game, there are no power-up bonuses whatsoever.

Duke nodded, immediately stepped over the stone lion that had been overturned to the ground, and then clenched his fist and smashed it into the body of the vessel.

"Stop, stop, stop!" Ida quickly stepped in front of Duke again, but unexpectedly, Duke punched her—she was now playing the elephant and Duke the mouse, and the punch made her wince in pain. After a while, Ida continued irritably, "What exactly are you planning to do? Can you explain yourself clearly?"

The floating city in the parallel world was created by the Little Prince's legendary destiny and the Star Chart System, while the floating city in this world is a top-tier city that Lady Scarlet copied from the original floating city and replicated through magical technology.

Within this floating city, the 5497th magical supercomputer is responsible for its daily operation. Its daily work involves directly participating in the floating city's flight, controlling its speed and route, etc. If the 5497th magical supercomputer were to malfunction, the floating city would likely crash directly to the ground.

Duke has already destroyed the floating city in the parallel world, and Ida doesn't want Duke to replicate that operation in his own world!

"It's simple. Why would these elemental creatures suddenly appear here and become 'pieces' in the game of Animal Chess? Of course, there's a 'player' controlling these 'pieces' to attack us. If we're only talking about this room, who is most likely the 'player' who created these elemental creatures?"

Ida tilted her head, looked around at the others, and quickly came to a conclusion: "Me?"

Other spellcasters are either incredibly eccentric, inexperienced, or too weak to perform such a sophisticated operation as summoning elemental creatures. If there were to be a Lich King, by process of elimination, it could only be Ida himself.

Duke glared at her, pointed to the bishop symbol on the back of her hand, and said irritably, "Don't you know whether you're this player or not?"

"Then who else could it be?"

Duke turned his head and pointed to the 5497 Magical Supercomputer.

As Ida exclaimed in surprise, Duke finally found his opportunity and punched the magical supercomputer—a punch that, of course, couldn't damage the magical supercomputer that had been working for thousands of years. Duke didn't feel the "ineffectiveness" of hitting the stone lion, nor did he feel the "critical hit" of hitting Ida.

After Duke finished punching, he withdrew his fist and urged, "Ida, why don't you try punching it too? Just don't really break it."

Ida rolled her eyes, but she did as she was told. She extended a finger and lightly flicked the 5497-level magical supercomputer, causing the chassis to dent. Ida herself felt nothing afterward, and even asked:

"Nothing happened, what do you mean?"

"Nothing happened, which is exactly the result I wanted."

Ida's attack ruled out the possibility that the Magical Supercomputer No. 5497 was the "Rat" in the Animal Chess game. If Duke's attack on it did not receive any bonus or reduction because it was of the same rank as Duke, then Ida's attack would not have any effect.

In the previous cycle, Duke cleared the Witch Game by having Zun concede. Zun's true form had already participated in the Animal Chess Witch Game, but instead of becoming a chess piece, it became a "chess player".

The news itself wasn't anything special; after all, even if Duke couldn't confirm that player number 5497 was the player, he could still clear the Witch Game by having Zun resign. However, this information could help Duke deduce another fact.

"If our opponents have 'chess players,' then what about us?"

"Who are our 'chess players,' and where are they?"

Chapter 458 You Don't Dare to Bet, But I Do

"Neither you nor I are chess players, that much is known."

Duke curled his lip and magically produced a golden apple in his hand. However, he did not regard the precious golden apple as a treasure at all. Instead, he treated it as an ordinary apple, tossing it up and catching it casually, without any intention of handling it with care.

In the previous cycle, he used two single-draw tickets obtained from completing the Witch Game to draw a Golden Apple and a Poison Apple. However, with each cycle, all the single-draw tickets and two apples he obtained from the Witch Game were wiped out due to time reversal. But the time loop also gave Duke a single-draw ticket, which he used to draw a Golden Apple again.

"Furthermore, Carol, who kidnapped Amber, has been watching this place the whole time, at least she was aware of it the moment I died."

"Death?" Ida looked puzzled. "You mean the time you died during the day?"

“No… if you’re referring to that one time, that doesn’t make sense. Besides, judging from your behavior, Duke, you know far more than you should.” Annie, who was quicker to react than Ida, leaned in and asked with a frown, “Duke, did another time loop occur after you woke up?”

“That’s right.” Duke nodded to her, then continued his deduction: “Carol started the time loop after I died, which means she has been observing us from the shadows. Combined with the ‘chess player’ theory… we might arrive at a very interesting conclusion.”

Anne raised an eyebrow: "Our 'chess player' is Carol?"

"Oh."

Duke chuckled softly, not directly agreeing with Annie's guess, but judging from his expression, he thought so too... Soon, he turned his gaze to the magical supercomputer number 5497 beside him and softly said to Carol, who was observing them from somewhere:

"Release Amber, or I'll keep you stuck here for life, Carol. If you want to force me to act, don't expose such an obvious weakness to me, my dear Lord."

No one responded to Duke's words, and silence enveloped the core chamber of the floating city. But Duke was not in a hurry at all. He smiled and continued, "As the initiator of the time loop, you must have complete memories of the loop. Since that's the case, you must still remember what I did in the last loop, know what I did in the parallel world, and know what you did before sending us to the parallel world."

"At the time, I didn't understand why you dared to use the Tree of Life that had exploded to threaten us into entering a parallel world. Now the answer to that question is obvious. You have the ability to rewind time, which allows a period of time to enter an infinitely repeating closed-loop universe. So you don't have to worry about the floating city being destroyed by one or two self-destructions. You just need to save the floating city—as long as there's no roadblock, right?"

"You moved the save point of the time loop forward to after I obtained the body, in order to prevent me from taking back the amber through the time loop. But have you ever thought that the original body of No. 5497 is still in front of me? It is like the Tree of Life that was about to self-destruct on that day. Once it is destroyed, the entire floating city will be destroyed along with it!"

“I can destroy it at any time. I can destroy No. 5497 and the floating city countless times. Even if you fix my possibility at the time after you obtain the body, I can repeat it countless times and make you completely stuck here... unless you give up and push time to an earlier time.”

"Perhaps you have no shortage of time, after all, you are the Time Witch Carol, and you think you can push time forward as much as possible. But I also retain my memories in the cycle of time, perhaps because of the existence of the Star Chart System, and now I will not easily let you erase my memories."

"And I must warn you, the fate of destruction bound to the floating city is an even more fatal obstacle."

"I don't know how many times or how much time you've spent in this cycle in order to clear the game... but you're just a mortal, and the possibilities you have are ultimately limited. In a cycle that lasts for hundreds of years, how many possibilities can you, as a mortal, actually find in the complex and ever-changing real world? I'm afraid you're unwilling to give up this cycle, aren't you?"

"I may look like a pretty boy named Duke, but I carry the Star Chart System, becoming the final and most important piece of the puzzle for you to overcome the Destruction of Fate. You don't even know which of your actions caused the butterfly effect. If we push the timeline of reincarnation back to before I arrived at the Floating City, you can't guarantee my reappearance at all."

“Carol, you don’t dare to gamble.”

"But I'm willing to bet."

"Show yourself, or let's remain stuck here, Carol."

Despite the fact that no one responded to Duke's words at this point, Duke was not discouraged at all. Instead, he raised his hand and conjured a small flame, aiming it at the 5497th magical supercomputer. Ida and Annie didn't fully understand what Duke had just said, but neither of them stepped forward to stop him. Even Zun didn't make a move—oh, she had no idea that the supercomputer in front of her was her true form.

"You win, Duke."

Carol's voice suddenly appeared in the core cabin of the floating city. A moment after the voice rang out, the figure of the city lord appeared in front of Duke and the others. The Witch of Time sighed and stood in front of Duke.

She wasn't wearing the signature robes and witch's hat of the Floating City witch, but rather a thin garment. This garment looked so flimsy it resembled white pajamas, exposing her shoulders, abdomen, and navel to the air, while the hem ended abruptly, paired with knee-high boots that beautifully showcased her "absolute territory." However, in contrast to this garment was a somewhat conservative design: her arms were encased in white gloves, her neck was covered by fabric resembling blooming flowers, and she wore a pristine headscarf.

This outfit, both revealing and conservative, makes Carol a contradictory figure, brimming with both allure and purity.

Upon seeing Carol's attire, Ida's pupils contracted slightly. As a former deity, she recognized numerous ritualistic elements in Carol's clothing: holiness, elegance, allure, and decadence—all common elements in high-level magic and even forbidden rituals. Carol's choice of this outfit was certainly not merely for aesthetic purposes, but also for a significant magical ritual effect.

But Duke completely ignored Carol's stunning entrance; his focus was solely on Amber, and he didn't even notice her.

Without hesitation, Duke raised his hand and launched an attack on number 5497.

"boom--"

Chapter 459 Jealousy

"I knew you were crazy, but I never imagined you were this crazy."

Before Duke could even open his eyes, he heard Carol's somewhat helpless voice. He struggled for a moment, opened his eyes, and then realized that he had returned to the transparent coffin. He then looked through the lid of the transparent coffin and saw Carol with a helpless expression.

A little further away, Annie anxiously approached their location, while Ida instantly killed the stone lion and then turned her attention to the suddenly appearing Carol. For the two of them, who lacked memories of the previous two time loops, Carol's sudden appearance was clearly aimed at Duke, so their reactions were naturally strong—especially Ida's. Having already felt guilty towards Duke for losing Amber, she panicked upon seeing Carol arrogantly appear before him.

Are you trying to provoke me?!

Carol glanced at them, then clapped her hands lightly, and the world paused. Annie, who was anxious, froze in place... but Ida was completely unaffected by the time stop.

Even though Ida was no longer the mute god who guarded the floating city, she was still one of the city's most outstanding legends, a top legend capable of contending with and fighting against Lady Scarlet. Instead of being stopped by the time stop, she accelerated backwards during it, stomping her foot and rushing to Carol's side in a single stride. Then, she clenched her fist and slammed it down heavily on Carol's face!

Carol raised an eyebrow, recalling her own childhood through Ida's charisma—back then, Ida was the "other people's child" her parents always talked about. Despite being almost the same age as her, she led an organization to contend with Lady Scarlet and her allies, causing chaos throughout the floating city. Even though Ida later perished in Monica's sneak attack, she fulfilled her own wish, becoming a god who protected the floating city.

If it were Carol back then, she would never have thought she could compare to Ida. But that was then, and hundreds of years have passed since then. And what Carol has experienced... is hundreds of repeated "hundreds of years." In the tens of thousands of years of effort over these years, Ida no longer holds any special meaning in Carol's mind.

In Carol's view, the so-called mute person was nothing more than a somewhat difficult pawn to use.

So, Carol met Ida's fist with a punch of her own.

"boom--"

After exchanging punches, Carol had to roll awkwardly on the ground, while Ida was sent flying backwards. However, Ida was at a disadvantage because she was suspended in mid-air shortly after flying backwards—Ida was still captured by the time stop after exchanging punches and was trapped in a state of time stop.

“Her attack seemed a little too hasty. If it were a legendary destiny, I would probably be forced to cancel the time stop.” Carol’s outfit didn’t get dirty or dusty from rolling around on the ground; instead, it remained holy and clean. She looked at the only person who could still move freely in the time stop and casually explained, “But it’s normal that Ida doesn’t use a legendary destiny. She can’t use her legendary destiny casually.”

Duke sat up from the transparent coffin and asked curiously, "What type of legendary destiny does Ida possess?"

He was able to move freely within Carol's time-stop, but this was not due to his own ability—it was clearly a result of Carol's deliberate control.

“It’s incredibly powerful and terrifying. If I could, I wouldn’t want to see Ida use her legendary destiny at all.” Carol shrugged. “Compared to that, although the mute’s divine half-body power is stronger, I would much rather fight Him.”