When Ethan stepped out the gate, the capital of Siwalant had become unprecedentedly lively. Looking around, people wearing golden masks surged towards Duke Stan's manor like a tide, their bodies swaying, akin to a horde of zombies in a movie, with countless "Hunters" weaving through the crowd, emitting sharp, piercing sounds.

The entire city had come.

Ethan had no doubt that if the spiritual connection of the golden masks hadn't been severed, with one command from the Six-Person Council, everyone in Siwalant would march towards the capital in the same manner.

Vivian hid fearfully behind Ethan. Even though she had long known that Siwalant had completely fallen, when these walking dead came onto the streets wearing the same masks and approached her, her inner fear still peaked.

Within them might be people she knew, who were originally residents of Siwalant.

As a princess of Siwalant, maintaining the kingdom's stability and ensuring the safety of its people was her responsibility, but now...

Vivian looked up to the silhouette in front of her, her feelings extraordinarily complex.

This was King of Ban Shi, who earlier was angrily pelted with rotten eggs, yet now, there was none more trustworthy than him, truly filled with a sense of dissociation.

If, and she was saying if, Ethan's actions of King of Ban Shi were set aside, this person would perfectly align with her imagination of a "hero."

As a descendant of Gallog, she had read countless stories about Merlin, a steadfast hero who was still viewed as one by many Siwalant people. Those books recorded various wars, and Vivian couldn't help but imagine, whether Merlin, facing thousands of enemy troops, sky-obliterating dragons, and the twisted creations left by the Evil God, was also like the current Ethan?

But, even heroes get tired, and there are times they let their guard down.

Merlin was just like that.

He won countless victories, but ultimately was pierced through the heart by a cursed spear, Vivian disliked the story's ending, she remembers being sad for quite some time when she read the chapter of Merlin's death as a child, unable to eat for several days.

And now, everything she saw was a thousand times more real than the book's descriptions.

There was a disturbance at their feet, the disassembled "Hunter" began to operate again, using its sharp limbs to support its massive body, teetering upright.

A bell tolled from the clouds, making the all-encompassing light increasingly intense.

Would they too, just like Merlin, be enveloped in the endless sea of people and submerged in the brilliance of the Golden Kingdom?

"That's the effect of the Reviving Branch."

Ethan introduced to Vivian the Divine Artifact Cynthia mentioned, which was also the source of eternal life for the residents of the Golden Kingdom. The King of Gold had discovered a strange plane during his early conquests, where there was no trace of life, only a giant tree extending to the clouds, where everything in this plane would become the tree's nourishment.

The Divine Artifact was the branch extracted from the Divine Tree by the King of Gold.

Wherever the King of Gold's will reached, the souls of the fallen would come back from Hell and return to the battlefield, until they completely crushed their enemies.

The mind control device's brainwashing ability was akin to the organization ability of a swarm, even if a small number of people survived the King of Gold's first wave of attack, these infinitely revivable soldiers of the Golden Kingdom would become their nightmare.

Ethan increasingly understood Cynthia's decision back then.

No normal plane could withstand the invasion of the Golden Kingdom.

But fortunately, he was not a normal person.

Teacher Cat had said, the humanoid form of Elemental Elves was a result of Meditation, theoretically, a powerful Elemental Shaper in a meditative state would already have the ability to communicate with Elemental Elves, but if you find Elemental Elves appearing in the real world during Meditation, where you not only can see them but interact with them, it's a precursor to a mental breakdown.

Some academic research books on magic addiction pointed out that many Elemental Shapers showed similar hallucinations before completely falling into madness.

However, Ethan felt that his "mental illness" was much more severe than any magic addiction patient.

Severe to the point that not only he could see them, but the people around him could see them too.

Henceforth, Elemental Elves were no longer merely abstract concepts understood through the mind, the literary girl, the electrical element senior, the yellow little potato, and the cold ice element senior sister all truly existed.

Yet Ethan never understood the significance of this war.

He felt maybe even the residents of the Golden Kingdom didn't know; the Six-Person Council was merely executing orders left by the King of Gold before he left, even if they realized the upcoming battle might not be beneficial to them, they would stubbornly deploy all their forces in one sweep.

Upon sensing his arrival, as expected, the members of the Six-Person Council chose the most common "F2A" strategy.

Everything happening now seemed like a pre-set program, with the Six-Person Council faithfully executing it.

"Be careful, it might get a bit cold next."

Ethan turned his face to Vivian and said.

During the summer, snow suddenly began to fall, red snowflakes descended upon the capital of Siwalant, landing on the golden residents in action and the war machines incessantly converging here.