Vivian reached out her hand and curiously caught a few red snowflakes.

She had never seen such snowflakes, enchanting, yet somewhat... evil.

Staring at them for too long, a sense of inexplicable fear welled up inside her.

The next moment, Vivian understood the source of her fear—the "Hunter" that had been lunging at Ethan suddenly halted its movement. Its forelimbs hung suspended above the heads of the two, stopped by another appendage with a similar structure, writhing like flesh and blood, which had grown out from the "Hunter's" body.

The same body seemed to possess two different souls at this moment, wrestling for control over the body.

And it was even more haunting when it happened to the residents of the Golden Kingdom.

Vivian saw people with four arms, the newly grown arms exposing their muscular tissue, which didn't stop proliferating, more and more parts emerging from those people's chests, with no facial features, maintaining only the human outline of flesh and blood. Some gripped the throats of the Golden Kingdom's residents, while others tugged at their limbs.

The residents of the Golden Kingdom wrestled with themselves, part of their bodies becoming their enemies at this moment.

Such a transformation happened equally to every resident of the Golden Kingdom, the hellish sight made Vivian want to retch. Even the parts of her palms stained by the red snowflakes became intolerably itchy, as if something was growing beneath her skin, wanting to break out and turn her into a monster like the chaos not far away.

The once dazzling golden light was now stained with an unclean red.

"What have you done?"

Vivian's voice trembled.

She felt like she was under an illusion earlier. Ethan was never the great hero; his ways of solving problems always seemed more like those of an Evil God.

Now, even if Ethan's eyes suddenly became six, and inhuman appendages grew from his body, she wouldn't be surprised anymore.

"I attempted to resolve the overwhelming disparity in forces."

Ethan said.

The descent of the King of Gold quickly advanced the world to the level of "rules" and "causality," so he had to keep up with the times, and now it seems the effect is quite good.

"As you can see, no matter how many enemies there are and how many times they can come back from the dead, we now have the same number of forces as they do."

Vivian looked up at Ethan, feeling like the smile on this man's face was indistinguishable from that of a devil, "In this way, the manpower shortage issue is completely solved."

After three months of cultivation, Ethan's skill panel finally changed:

『Ice Element (Demon)』

There was no hint of proficiency or skill description; instead, there was a beautifully drawn illustration. A white-haired, red-eyed woman stood under a blood moon, slightly angled, looking at the one flipping the card with a faint smile, red snowflakes falling on her shoulders.

She was in a forest, and upon closer inspection, one would find the branches of the trees were composed of human limbs, leaves with eyes, and the rough texture of the bark resembled cracked mouths.

"Bazatous..."

She pointed at Ethan with a cry, at this moment she finally understood, "You are Bazatous!"

......

At the same time, a woman wearing a mask of worry also sensed the city's change.

After the heavy snow arrived, the windows of the Royal Palace were also coated with a layer of frost, but intuition told her that it was not only the "Hunters" and the residents of the Golden Kingdom who had changed; the houses they were in, the land under their feet had become strange at this moment.

If forced to explain, it was as if everything around came alive.

The ground, the houses, these human creations were equally granted life by the sudden heavy snow, and they were swallowed into the belly of some creature.

She could hardly believe her eyes or Cynthia's actions.

"You awakened the Old Gods?"

Her questioning pierced through the mask directly to Cynthia's mind.

There should be no one who understands the terror of the Old Gods better than Cynthia. The people of this world paid an extremely painful price to seal them away, and even the King of Gold was wary of their existence.

So, Cynthia should also know the consequences of doing this.

Fueled by the betrayal of humankind, even if they won this war by using the power of the Old Gods, destruction was the only outcome awaiting this realm.

"Come with me, now that the devoted followers of the King of Gold should have no mind to pay attention to this place anymore."

Cynthia just calmly explained, her figure slipping into the shadows, the silver-white energy guiding the way for the woman wearing the mask of worry.

Ethan fulfilled this seemingly impossible promise—he severed the mental link, drawing all the attention of the Golden Kingdom's residents.

After a brief hesitation, the woman followed that silver trail.

At the end of this path was another unexpected person.

Following the long-sealed secret passage of the Royal Palace downward, a man seemed to be waiting there long ago.

He wore a mask of terror, intently controlling the King of Siwalant.

This clearly violated the orders of the King of Gold. After the mental link was cut off, he ventured here alone.

The man had been plotting for a long time. Before the mental link was cut, he never revealed the existence of the secret passage in the mental link.

"Yoda, you've also betrayed?"

She questioned him through the golden mask, the direction made her both anxious and lost.

Yoda not only concealed the Royal Palace's secret passage, but he also likely conveyed false information to the other members of the council; he was the last to know the King's whereabouts.

He claimed the King placed great importance on the Gallog bloodline, especially Princess Vivian, whose bloodline flowed with extraordinary significance for the King's plan.

But shortly after, followers of the Old Gods infiltrated the Royal Palace, orchestrated by Duke Stan to take Princess Vivian away from Siwalant. In retrospect, those rebels succeeded so easily because there was a mole within the Six-Person Council.

Facing her questioning, Yoda did not immediately heed her. He was intently inserting a needle into the back of the King's neck, the needle linked to a transparent tube, the tube linked into a hidden groove in the stone wall. Soon, the crimson hue began to trickle into the wall.

This was the end of the secret passage. If not demonstrated by Yoda himself, she might not have noticed the trickery here even if she reached this place.

With the mental link severed, she couldn't see through Yoda's mind, nor could she fathom his thoughts at the moment.

"Was cutting the mental link also part of your plan?"

"It was a proposal by Charman." Yoda finally responded to her, "Kara, if you had listened more carefully yesterday, you would have known this."

Charman, Crowley...

She should have thought long ago that the severe injuries were just an excuse they came up with. If you count Cynthia, wouldn't it imply that more than half of the Seven-Person Council betrayed their King?

Could this be one of the King's plans?

The noise from behind the stone wall interrupted her thoughts, as the blood was injected, some mechanism was activated.

The ground began to tremble slightly, and an unusual light emanated from the left wall.

"You can make your judgment after witnessing these secrets."

The King, used as a key, had lost his value and was casually discarded by Yoda to the side.

Kara's heart pounded fiercely. She seemed to understand that Vivian Gallog herself was also a decoy, her escape, the betrayal of Duke Stan, and the chaos in Oak City were all bait used by Yoda or Charman to divert others' attention. Their real target had always been within the Royal Palace of Siwalant.

She saw Yoda walk towards the part of the wall emitting light, stepping forward and walking straight through the faint light.

Kara followed closely behind.

On the other side of the wall was an alchemy chamber.

Or more accurately, where Merlin once lived.