The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death

Haydn couldn't be blamed for his ignorance. The feasibility of soul storage might have been proven long ago, but the darkness and loneliness one would have to endure as a bodiless soul was not something most people could endure.

When the feasibility of soul storage was initially proven, many people tried to attach their souls to objects to continue existing past their expiration date. However, when people tried to extract these souls from their containers a few years later, they found that almost all of these souls had long dissipated. Meanwhile, the cause of their dissipation was due to the crumbling of their consciousness.

If it was incredibly rare to even see souls surviving for more than a few years, who would possibly expect to find a Demon King's soul in modern times? After all, any Demon King's soul would have to endure hundreds, if not thousands, of years of solitary confinement to survive until this day.

So, it was only natural that Alice's "I've seen plenty of them before" behavior would cause Haydn to fall into self-doubt. He couldn't help but wonder if he was the strange one for not meeting with the souls of multiple Demon Kings.

In addition, Haydn had kept a close eye on the demon realm due to his interests, so he knew that the radioactive crystal that had been plaguing the demon realm's Demon King Castle for hundreds of years was destroyed a few months ago. Hence, he didn't think Alice was lying about having previously eliminated a Demon King's soul.

Upon coming to this realization, Haydn instantly felt demoralized. Originally, he thought that Alice still refused to reveal her identity as the Hero to the public because she had yet to grow to her peak strength. Hence, he had considered using a veteran Demon King to keep her in check. Yet, it turned out that not only did Alice meet with the souls of other Demon Kings long ago, but she had even eliminated one before.

This put Haydn in an awkward situation. Now that the tables had turned on him, if he didn't think of a way to chase Alice away or eliminate her, it'd be game over for him.

Nothing needed to be said about the Hero's reputation. Even if Alice caused a blunder, so long as she didn't bring great harm to the human realm, the human realm's inhabitants would forgive her. Not to mention, the fact that Alice had chosen to take action now most likely meant that she had already grasped evidence of his wrongdoings.

Haydn's expression tensed up when he thought up to this point. Immediately, he extended a hand to Alice, his action causing countless magic arrays to appear on the living room's walls and floor.

These magic arrays appeared to have been drawn using some kind of translucent magic material. It was why Alice didn't notice them when she first entered the living room. It was only after Haydn had activated the magic arrays, which caused them to glow because of the flow of mana, did Alice notice their existence.

By the looks of things, Haydn had made ample preparations for the unlikely event that an intruder broke into his mansion. Moreover, from what Alice could tell, these magic arrays carried a significant amount of mana. The average intruder would be making a one-way trip into the mansion if they stepped into the living room. Even Gunst would suffer heavy injuries if he was caught off-guard.

However, these magic arrays weren't simply designed to cause destruction. Under Haydn's manipulation, the mana in these magic arrays transformed into countless magic ropes that extended toward Alice.

Haydn knew he was not a match for Alice in a frontal confrontation. So, instead of butting heads with the Hero, he thought of restraining Alice's mobility. If he could limit her strength sufficiently, he might just have a chance at winning.

Unfortunately, Haydn's plan was doomed for failure.

Based on Alice's observation, the magic ropes weren't just restraints. She noticed these ropes vibrating at high speeds while rapidly closing in on her. Most likely, these ropes relied on high-frequency vibrations to achieve a powerful cutting effect. It might not seem very impressive, but combined with the magic ropes' toughness, they should have no trouble cutting through objects such as steel. Although Alice doubted she would be cut into pieces should these magic ropes latch onto her, injuries would be inevitable.

Before any of the magic ropes could reach Alice, a semi-translucent prism formed around her. Although the ropes carried destructive power close to rivaling taboos, when they struck the barrier erected by Enochian Prism, a bona fide defensive taboo, they didn't even manage to leave a crack on the barrier, let alone break it.

Dammit! A defensive taboo?

Unlike Heroes and Demon Kings, Haydn did not study many taboo books, so he failed to recognize the identity of the barrier protecting Alice. However, seeing that his attack had failed to leave any traces on the barrier, he could still tell it was a taboo-level defensive spell.

Unfortunately, it didn't matter even if he knew he was going up against a defensive taboo. Although he had drastically improved his combat power in recent months, he didn't have the talent of Heroes and Demon Kings to learn taboos in a matter of days. He'd need months or years of continuous research to learn a taboo. So, even until now, he had yet to learn how to use a single taboo.

"If that's all you got, just surrender," Alice said as she stood within her Enochian Prism. Due to her lacking mana, the Enochian Prism she just used was an incomplete version of the defensive taboo. Yet, even then, Haydn still couldn't break through it.

This situation caused Alice to pay even closer attention to the Demon King's soul backing Haydn. Moreover, she also had an idea of which Demon King was backing Haydn. After all, Haydn had gone out of his way to steal the Demon King's Shadow book. Meanwhile, Demon King's Shadow was a taboo designed to create a projection of the Tenth Demon King. So…

"The one backing you is Fugallo Fold, the Tenth Demon King, right?" Alice voiced her conjecture as she looked at Haydn's solemn expression. "It's best if you have him come out. You can't stop me by yourself."

Alice couldn't be certain if Fugallo Fold planted any countermeasures on Haydn's body. If she recklessly tried to apprehend Haydn without taking care of the Demon king first, her actions might end up backfiring on her. So, she decided that the safest course of action was to eliminate the biggest risk first. Then, she would apprehend Haydn.