I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

"Stop pretending to respect this persona." Duke suddenly waved his hand and said fiercely, "Who exactly are you?!"

"How rude!" "Qiong" pouted and said irritably, "Why don't you call out that saint you've been raising and ask him?"

Megan.

As Duke called out, the saint's soul emerged from the lucky dagger. She looked at Duke in front of her with a blank expression, clearly still half asleep inside the dagger and experiencing low blood pressure from just waking up (Duke will leave the reason why souls can also have low blood pressure for now). She asked weakly, "Why did you wake me up again?"

Joan smiled and said, "It's been a long time, Megan."

Upon hearing her greeting, Megan's expression immediately changed, and she turned around in astonishment, asking, "Talia?"

Talia, who had taken over Joan's body, nodded: "It's been a long time, Saint Megan."

"So your title among the mute people back then was really 'saint'?" Duke teased from the side, "Aren't you ashamed?"

"Shut up." Megan snapped irritably, then turned to Talia. "Why are you here... or rather, aren't you dead?"

“Weren’t you dead too? Why are you here?” Talia shrugged. “Do you think I would need to occupy this useless body if I were still alive?”

"Then why—"

“I don’t want to talk about these things,” Talia interrupted the saint. “Never mind, you should just go to sleep.”

As she spoke, Megan collapsed instantly and also fell into a deep sleep.

Once again, only Duke and Talia remained conscious.

"Did you guide me to call Megan so that you could take control of her first?"

“There’s no one bothering us anymore, aren’t you happy?” Talia looked at Duke with great interest. “Mr. Duke, do you know why I kept you here?”

Duke shook his head.

“Because you’re very interesting. My abilities have repeatedly failed on you. And your memories of Jasmine are much slower to fade than Miss Cecil’s, right?” Talia said with a smile. “I’m very curious about what secrets you’re carrying.”

Is it because of the system?

Duke let out a breath and asked in return, "Then why did you wait until now to make your move?"

Talia stopped laughing.

"If possible, you actually wanted to end everything in the first playthrough, am I right?" This time, it was Duke who smiled, and he bluntly revealed Talia's secret. "The reason you didn't show up in the eleven playthroughs wasn't because you didn't want to, but because you simply couldn't. Joan died too quickly in those eleven playthroughs, and you simply couldn't confront me like this at the last moment... As for the reason, didn't you expend too much power in the first playthrough?"

Duke felt that Talia's possession looked very familiar, and just now it suddenly occurred to him—what's the difference between this and the saint possessing Grete? Megan, who possessed Grete, couldn't use her full power, so how come Talia is so strong that she can kill Kagetsu single-handedly and still have energy left?

If Duke hadn't been so determined to save everyone and had taken Joan with him the whole way, Talia would never have had this opportunity.

"So what if that's the case? I've already accumulated enough power."

Talia frowned.

“It’s too late. It’s already the thirteenth cycle. You’ve missed a full twelve days.” Duke snapped his fingers, and a long arrow appeared in his hand. “I’ve been planning this ever since I dragged you into the endless cycle of reincarnation in the first cycle. At this stage, no one can stop me.”

[Quest Acquisition: Golden Experience Requiem]

[Mission Objective: Reach a reality you can never reach!]

[Quest Reward: Insect Arrow.]

This daily mission is a crucial part of Duke's plan, and the so-called unreachable reality... is the midnight he has never truly stepped into during these dozen or so playthroughs. Apart from the first playthrough, the survivors of the other eleven restarts have not actually stepped into midnight again. The "clear" and "restart" options they saw were the wishes Duke made at the end of the first playthrough.

In the Witch Game, only Duke and Talia, who survived to the end of the first playthrough, truly witnessed midnight. And when Talia put the entire Witch Game to sleep, she also arrived at the real midnight.

When all miracles cease.

The moment when the all-powerful wish-granting machine was born.

A reality that no one else can ever reach.

[Task completed, reward available.]

【receive.】

The reward has been generated.

[Insect arrow has been generated.]

[Prop name: Insect Arrow. 】

[Item Description: Let the requiem for the soul be played.]

[Item Effect: Those wounded by the insect arrow can undergo a soul-level evolution if they gain the arrow's approval.]

Without hesitation, Duke gripped the insect arrow and plunged it into his chest. The arrowhead pierced the skin covered in black runes, and then a magnificent requiem resounded in Duke's ears—the voice of his soul.

The jet-black runes that mutated on his body due to the neon lights began to twist and distort as the requiem played, gradually peeling away from his entire body, thinning, and moving, converging at his chest and composing three lines of musical score at the location of his heart.

When Talia saw Duke stab her with an arrow, she was initially surprised, but fear quickly followed. She too heard the majestic requiem echoing throughout the alternate dimension—the voice of Duke's soul, making his wish known to the world in the otherwise tranquil midnight.

"Destroy it, rest in peace, power that should not exist in this world."

The real all-powerful wish-granting machine is the world itself.

An individual's willpower is insufficient to wish for its self-destruction. If Duke had truly wished for the world's destruction, he would only have achieved a seemingly successful illusion. However, when the requiem of Duke's soul resonated throughout the entire alternate dimension, the one making the wish was no longer Duke himself, but the entire world touched by the power of his soul.

The alternate dimension is beginning to collapse.

At the core of the alternate dimension, the wish-granting machine that responds to everything also begins to collapse.

"I give up." Having witnessed this scene, Talia sighed in complete defeat. "I have lost completely."

The Mute Ones sent Joan in with the aim of seizing control of this world. To achieve this goal, they even went so far as to have Talia secretly possess Joan's body and act alongside the pioneering group, striking when the time was right.

In the first playthrough, things actually went very smoothly.

Faced with the rampaging Song Moon, Talia possessed Joan's body, defeated the near-legendary opponent, and gained the trust of Duke and Amber. Meanwhile, the remaining two hero-level professionals, Cecil and Bane, remained underground and did not encounter them at all. This start can be described as perfect.

The only problem was Joseph. He could tell that something was wrong with Joan, but he had long suspected that his fiancée had joined a strange organization behind his back. Joseph probably thought that this was the power she gained from the mute, which was why he hadn't told her the truth.

And so, they made it smoothly to the eve of midnight. Joseph and Amber both perished in an "accident." Duke began frantically thinking about how to save them, while Talia, who had taken over Joan's body, was only thinking about how to seize the power of this world.

That's where things took a sharp turn for the worse.

Arriving at midnight, the two chose completely different paths in front of the all-powerful wishing machine.

But in the end, it was Duke, whose obsession was stronger, who succeeded. He started a reboot, a plan that lasted for thirteen cycles, and then, through the arrangement of these thirteen cycles, he defeated himself completely.

“Mr. Duke, I hope that one day you can join us, the Aphasic. We need a genius like you.”

"I refuse."

That's a real shame.

Talia sighed sincerely.

Then, the alternate dimension collapsed, and this long, crown-level witch game finally came to an end.

All players returned safely to the meeting room where they had set off.

"W-what happened?" Cecil opened his eyes in confusion, looked around, and after a long while, concluded, "We're back? We've cleared the game?"

“Hmm.” Bain, who was beside her, narrowed his eyes. “It seems so.”

Everyone else was jolted awake from their dream upon returning to reality, but Duke remained fully conscious. Once back in reality, he prepared for battle and suddenly looked... looked at whom?

Duke was slightly taken aback. He clearly felt that he had forgotten something, but he couldn't remember what it was.

There are seven players in the conference room: three witches and four players... Is that right?

He rubbed his temples in annoyance, but then he suddenly heard a voice calling out:

Duke.

"what happened?"

Duke subconsciously looked down at the amber in front of him that was calling out to him.

When his gaze fell upon those amber eyes, he heard Amber speak earnestly, enunciating each word clearly:

"I like you."

At the same time, the elven girl reached out and grabbed Duke's clothes, pulling his upper body down a little.

Then, she tiptoed, raised her head slightly, and clumsily pressed her lip print onto the corner of his mouth.

Chapter 89 Sugar, Spices, and Something Wonderful

The meeting room was quiet.

Amidst the varied expressions of witnesses, Amber and Duke quickly parted ways.

Amber pouted, seemingly very dissatisfied with her first kiss, because she hadn't controlled the pressure well, and most of it landed on Duke's lips, unlike Natasha's "Kiss of Truth" which hit the bullseye.

In picture books, kissing is so simple, and people can kiss each other in all sorts of difficult poses. So why is it that when I take the initiative, the kiss is so awkward?

How could my first kiss be such a failure!

The little witch was so angry that she jumped up and down, stood on tiptoe again, stretched out her hands, and tried to grab Duke's clothes, repeating her trick to kiss him again.

But at this moment, the people around finally reacted. Joseph, Geyue, and even Cecil were all making a fuss. Natasha blinked in shock, while the brother-obsessed elf prince, whose face had darkened, rushed in front of the two of them and squeezed out the syllables bit by bit: "Amber, Duke."

"Wow, here it is!"

Feeling guilty for doing something wrong (and failing at it), Amber was not prepared to confront her brother directly. She teleported behind Duke on the spot, leaving Duke completely bewildered as he faced his brother-in-law.

To be honest, Duke is still in a daze.

When Natasha took the initiative to kiss him, he was stunned. However, at that moment, a large amount of information flooded into his mind with the "Kiss of Truth," so much so that Duke focused most of his attention on what had happened in the previous twelve cycles and didn't actually have time to properly feel the touch between his lips.

But now that Amber had taken the initiative to kiss him, there were no more distractions to keep Duke's attention. This tender, youthful kiss, imbued with the courage Amber had finally mustered, made Duke's heart flutter and his mind go blank. In his chaotic state, only one sentence could be uttered:

Girls must be made of sugar, spices, and something wonderful.

“Duke.” Bane stood in front of Duke, slapping his shoulder hard with his remaining hand. His face was expressionless, terrifying as Amber had been when she witnessed Natasha kissing Duke, making one wonder if the two were truly siblings. “Do you have anything to say?”

His question sounded no different from asking, "Do you have any last words?"

"I……"

Duke opened his mouth, but hesitated for a long time before stopping.

"Hmph." But Bane didn't seem to have any intention of killing anyone. He snorted coldly, first glaring at Amber, who was hiding behind Duke and only peeking out with half her head, and then said indifferently, "Go back and prepare for your wedding with Amber."

"Huh? That's a bit fast... No, that's not the point!" Amber exclaimed in surprise. "Bane, what's wrong with you all of a sudden?"

"Huh? You're asking me what happened? You've treated him like this, of course I have to make him take responsibility!" Bain's tone suddenly rose eight octaves, and he glared at his disobedient little sister again before turning to Duke with murderous intent: "Duke, you and Amber should get engaged in the next couple of days."