CHAPTER 541: CHAPTER 266: MAY EVERYTHING BELONG TO THE KING OF GOLD

In her last choice, Cynthia decided to carry her bow and arrows, facing alone the ruler who came from God knows where.

This was not a meaningless effort. People who had just experienced the Old God War could no longer endure another war of the same scale. Until McCarthy Delin and her former comrades fell one after another, they never realized that the King of Gold had once come. To them, it seemed as if Cynthia was merely embarking on a journey—as she stated during the final farewell meeting, she had no interest in becoming a god, only wishing to live a free and easy life.

Regrettably, they ultimately couldn’t live the life they wanted.

Ethan saw Cynthia once again pick up the bow and arrow, holding the totem belonging to the Hunting Goddess in her hand. The silver radiance was turned gold, and the smiling golden mask signified she was now a subject of the King of Gold.

A millennium later, her will to resist was almost completely worn away, descending upon this plane as the messenger of the King of Gold.

Yet beneath that mask, Ethan caught a trace of unusual emotion.

A fervent passion, which was the first time the electrical element ever heard her inner voice after their meeting.

Things were heading in the direction Cynthia least wanted to see. Ethan was a stubborn person, just as she once was.

Therefore, before returning to this plane, she had made two preparations.

If she could persuade Ethan to abandon his research on the mage network and return with her to the Golden Throne, that would naturally be the best outcome; but if Ethan refused...

She then only had one last solution.

Follow the will of the King of Gold and resolve this plane’s historical legacy issues once and for all.

Bid farewell to what McCarthy Delin created with her own hands, never needing to return to this plane again, although humanity would pay a great price, compared to the long-term future, all of this was within the acceptable range.

"Mr. McCarthy Delin has been dead for over a millennium."

Ethan was surprised by that fervent emotion.

For Cynthia, nothing was left here—not just McCarthy Delin, but those comrades who once fought alongside her had also exhausted their last life in various ruins, and the academy was no longer the main character of this world. She knew nothing about the rising Empire and the Henry Royal Family.

Yet even so, she still wanted this world to continue, to avoid it becoming another territory ruled by the King of Gold.

The King of Gold enjoyed the process of conquest; it was his pleasure in a long life, but once the conquest was completed, the spoils became boring toys, to be casually discarded to the side, stored in a corner where they might never again be noticed.

And those collections would end up as puppets on strings living out their lives, repeating this cycle endlessly over the millennium.

"Even so, do you still intend to do this?"

Cynthia didn’t speak; that fervent emotion had already expressed her determination.

Destroying the island’s surface could utterly obliterate the remaining magical network, which also meant she would personally erase the last traces McCarthy Delin left on this plane.

The war started because of the mage network’s prophecy, and a thousand years later, she would personally put an end to it all.

Cynthia suddenly realized, this was the fate the King of Gold had written for her.

At the same time, in the distant Golden Kingdom, everyone in the great hall was intently watching the image in the white sphere.

The people wearing golden masks had mixed feelings.

That day had finally come.

They watched the negotiation between Cynthia and Ethan, and couldn’t help but feel a tinge of complex emotions arising within. The concept of time had long since become extremely blurred for them. It seemed like only yesterday that the girl with the bow and arrow stormed into the Golden Kingdom alone. As those who had been through it, they knew what Cynthia’s choice meant.

Completely severing all ties with the past, fully accepting the fate of being a subject of the King of Gold.

They saw Cynthia leap high, the bowstring she pulled bursting forth with dazzling golden light—this was the King of Gold’s gift to each of his subjects. Even across the crystal ball, separated by the barriers of the plane, they could still sense the terrifying energy of the bow and arrow.

The next arrow would destroy the island’s surface.

The figure on the throne had not spoken for a long time; he focused intently, as the image reflected in the white sphere was the climax of this drama.

The golden radiance caught the attention of the elemental shapers on the island; they looked up but couldn’t see the scene at the center of the light.

High-ranking elemental shapers felt the threat of the arrows. They waved their magic staffs, casting elemental magic they were familiar with towards the sky. This was a familiar scene for the residents of the Golden Kingdom; no matter how mortals struggled and resisted, they could not rewrite their predetermined fate. They all knew that the other protagonist of this performance was not the academy’s elemental shaper.

The man standing as the target of the arrow and opposing Cynthia was the "culprit" of everything and the only variable in this performance.

Ethan looked up at the increasingly powerful energy above his head.

Faced with the trolley problem, Cynthia decided to let the academy sink in exchange for the peace of the world outside the island.

If McCarthy Delin were still alive, perhaps he would make the same decision.

Cynthia gathered her strength slowly, giving him enough time to reconsider. As long as he expressed his regret before she finished gathering strength, accepting the fate arranged for him by the King of Gold, the disaster hanging over the academy would end, and before leaving the plane, he still had to finish some follow-up work with Cynthia.