I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

Before the countdown of "ten, nine, eight..." had even begun, Duke bid farewell to Amber and the others.

He opened his eyes.

……

Duke opened his eyes.

A piercing pain shot through Duke's chest, and he instinctively reached for his chest, only to find a gaping, bloody hole.

What excruciating pain? He doesn't even have a heart anymore, so where does the pain come from?

How come I'm still alive? Lady Scarlet's power must be incredibly strong, right? This is a bit outrageous.

Duke gave a wry smile, looked down at his body, and saw a few sprouts twining around him, providing him with precious life force after losing his heart. More plants had also crawled into the hole in his chest, tangling together where his heart used to be, and supplying him with blood in place of his heart.

A cheap miracle happened to Duke, which was clearly the work of Ms. Faye, and something Duke specifically asked her for before the war.

"Ms. Fei, if nothing unexpected happens, I will die once in a moment. Do you have any way to revive me?"

Duke had only asked casually and didn't have high hopes. He was originally planning to avoid the death flag, but he didn't expect that resurrection seemed to be nothing to the Witch of Miracles.

Fei casually gave her answer:

"Here, eat it."

She took out a seed.

The seed of a miracle.

This seed is the core of Duke's entire plan. The power it contains not only protected Duke, who had lost his heart and saved his life, but also accompanied his soul into the dream world, becoming bait to lure the mute into it.

The plan is down to its final step: kill Talia before the dream is shattered and the world is destroyed!

Duke glanced silently at Talia. His right pupil had turned an eerie blood red at some point, and blood tears quickly condensed in it... tears as fiery as flames.

"Sulfur fire".

The flames coalesced into a pillar and struck towards Talia.

Chapter 172 Awakening from a Dream 4k1

Talia learned something during her long soul journey: even legends have their limits, and the harder one tries, the more likely one is to lose oneself in a sense of helplessness.

To save the world, you must surpass the legend.

She raised her head and looked at the azure sky. Although the world was only deathly silent, she could still see the vitality of life beyond the slumber.

No one could have imagined that when the dream ended, this world would face its end.

"The only way is to take everyone to other worlds, into reality, or to other alternate dimensions. But whichever the possibility, this place needs to become a 'Crown-level Witch Game'."

To date, the Crown-level Witch Game has taken place ten times in the Floating City. Talia has experienced six of them and even had in-depth contact with one or two of the alternate dimensions, directly participating in the process of conquering them.

For example, the last crown-class witch to date: Cinderella Game.

In that world, Talia once thought she had found a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. With the all-powerful wish-granting machine she named "Cinderella," she finally gained the possibility of saving the world.

However, Duke ruled out this possibility.

From Duke's perspective, his actions were understandable. At the time, he didn't know what the "members" of the Aphasic were, and he was afraid that Talia would take Cinderella away to destroy the floating city (not to mention, there are quite a few lunatics with this tendency among the followers of the Aphasic).

Even if we take a step back and assume the worst, Talia's actions will indeed have unpredictable consequences for the floating city. One or two individuals might be manageable, but what would happen if everyone from the entire alternate dimension immigrated into reality? Nobody knows.

But for Talia, this was undoubtedly a heavy blow to the hope she had just seen, slamming it to the ground and stomping on it.

This made Talia want to kill him with her own hands—in fact, she did just that in the next witch game.

Talia was overjoyed countless times afterward, glad that she had acted so impulsively out of momentary anger and fleeting curiosity.

Therefore, she was able to discover the secret within Duke's Soul Requiem.

Talia stared at the beating heart in her hand and softly hummed the melody written on the three lines of the score. Although it was a requiem, compared to the solemnity and heaviness of traditional requiems, these three lines of a tune sounded a little lighter and had a more "all-encompassing" grandeur.

She kept repeating these three lines of a tune, and the sound of a soul-soothing melody began to play, gradually resounding throughout the world, echoing in the highest heavens, resounding in the rivers and seas, and resonating deep within the earth's core.

Even within that grand dream, born from the world yet independent of it, the song of a soul-soothing hymn gradually began to resonate.

Amber, Joseph, Anne, and the others looked up in the dream. Having heard the Soul Requiem before, they immediately realized what the song was.

Unfortunately, none of them expected that the person who used this Soul Requiem would be Talia. Under the influence of their conventional thinking, they all thought that the Soul Requiem was Duke's call to strike back.

The sound of the Soul Requiem disregarded the constraints of space and time, resonating and stirring every corner of the world, and uniting the Sleeping Beauty world into a whole, with decisive control falling into Talia's hands.

This is the true nature of the power of the Soul Requiem.

Through soul-stirring songs, the world resonates, ultimately influencing the world's core rules and seizing ownership of those rules.

This ability might not be of much use to the complete and vast main world, but it is an all-purpose solution for fragmented, incomplete alternate dimensions where power is more concentrated on a single rule. It is even simpler and faster than the Gate of Truth opened by Natasha.

It can be said that if Duke understands the principles of Soul Requiem and can use it freely, then he will be the best witch game player in the floating city.

Unfortunately, even after his heart was removed, Duke never fully understood the usage and true function of the Soul Requiem.

Compared to the power of Soul Requiem itself, the power seeds from the previous Witch Games contained within it seem insignificant.

Even the power seed of the "Cinderella Game" is only better than nothing.

Talia sighed.

"Thank you, Duke."

To save the world, you must surpass the legend.

Talia knew of only two beings who transcended legend: one was a deity whose status surpassed all mortals, even legendary beings like the Scarlet Lady: the Mute; and the other was the embodiment of "I am the world," the owner of her body: the Goddess of Creation.

She couldn't be the second mute; Talia was far from qualified. But the goddess of creation... as a soul born because of that goddess, she was qualified to inherit her mantle.

Talia looked at the heart in her hand and chuckled softly, saying, "Duke, I'm not going to be a legend anymore."

Then, she swallowed Duke's heart in one gulp, chewing it only a few times before closing her eyes.

It is clearly a soul, yet it can swallow food.

Such an absurd scene, in the world that immediately follows it, becomes perfectly natural.

She ripped open the front of her dress, revealing her alluringly slender figure and her ample bosom. Soon, the three lines of the Soul Requiem lit up on her chest. As Talia consumed Duke's heart, she inherited this power.

At the same time, her aura collapsed like a punctured balloon, plummeting from the standard legendary level to just hero level, and soon even below hero level... But as her aura rapidly weakened, Talia's temperament and status underwent a dramatic change.

She is about to become a higher-ranking being, completely controlling everything in this world; she is about to become the goddess of creation worshipped by the vast majority of life in this world.

When Talia attacked Duke, she didn't choose to steal his body, the one she got from Truth or Dare, because after using a "soul" bullet, she found that its potential wasn't high enough and its compatibility with her wasn't good enough.

She did not seize the body of the goddess of creation because she was naturally afraid of something; she feared that if she entered this body, she would lose her own will.

But now things are different. Without hesitation, she entered the body of the "Goddess of Genesis." The conditions were all met; she was determined to save the world, even if it meant becoming someone else herself.

However, at this very moment...

"Sulfur fire".

Blood flames ignited before Talia's eyes.

……

[Item Name: Sulfur Fire]

[Props Description: "Then the Lord sent sulfur and fire down from the Lord in heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah, and destroyed those cities and the whole plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities and everything that grew in the land. When Lot’s wife looked back, she turned into a pillar of salt. Early the next morning Abraham went to the place where he had stood before the Lord and looked down on Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain. Behold, there was smoke rising from that place like that of a kiln." — Genesis, Bible]

[Item Effect: Demon Eye effect, shoots out burning tears of blood.]

Duke received this item through his miraculous resurrection. It has no physical form, but once used, his right eye will turn into a blood-red demonic eye.

This "Burning Fire" magic eye is perhaps the most lethal weapon Duke has ever obtained, whether from the system or other sources.

Because of the blood and tears it sheds, even legends cannot stop its burning; once ignited, it will burn the body and soul to ashes.

Fire of Destruction.

It also originates from the original text of Genesis in the Bible, which gives it an additional special effect on the status of the goddess of creation.

Duke was unaware of this layer; he simply returned to his body at the opportune moment, seized the right opportunity, and chose the appropriate method to launch his attack.

The destructive fire that most restrained Talia struck the nascent goddess of creation.

"Duke!!!"

Blood inflammation ignited the body.

Talia's eyes widened, and she screamed in pain. Murder and anger filled her mind, but a few fragments of calm thought reminded her of the final battle in the Clothing Kingdom.

Back then... she lost because of a series of low-probability events that weren't even coincidences. That kind of deus ex machina scenario was the root cause of her PTSD with Duke.

And this time...

"Whether in dreams or in reality."

"Regardless of life or death."

"Duke and Talia will stand at the center of the world and fight to the death on level terms."

"It was a clash of souls, a confrontation of wills, and a contest of enlightenment."

The tape recorder in Duke's hand slowly narrated the final scene's script, until it finished reading "Deusex Machina," at which point it clicked to stop playing.

[Item Name: Deus Ex Machina]

[Item Description: The technique of deus ex machina will break the story's logic and ruin the viewing experience, but it can save the protagonist, such as you, from a desperate situation.]

[Item Effect: Creates one "Deus Ex" (Cooldown: One Final Act).]

It wasn't until the second time Duke used it that he finally understood what the prop's "cooldown time: one final act" meant. This prop could only be used when the story was nearing its end, and the script for the "deus ex machina" had to be interesting and have a strong sense of mission.

This item has many limitations, but despite these restrictions, it is still ridiculously powerful.

The blood flames seared Talia's soul, causing her to scream in agony. The Soul Requiem acted as a megaphone, amplifying the cries of her soul throughout the world.

This also directly affected the process of further crowning the Sleeping Beauty game.

"Not enough."

Excessive blood loss caused Duke to feel dizzy. The miracle of Ms. Faye may not have brought him back to life, but only given him time to prolong his life and have a brief moment of lucidity before death.

If this drags on any longer, he will truly die!

Talia, on the other hand, was in relatively good condition, except for being ignited by sulfur fire. As the goddess of creation, her battle with Duke was hardly fair.