NOVEL WEB Chapter 409: You Know Nothing
So he had such a card up his sleeve.
Alice narrowed her eyes at the blades coming for her right hand. She could feel the mana contained in Fugallo's arms-turned-blades, so she knew Fugallo must have used a taboo to achieve this transformation. Even with the constitution of a Hero, if she got hit, there was a good chance the attack would heavily injure her.
Alice didn't wish to gamble at such a chance, so as soon as she realized Fugallo was trying to cut off her right hand, she immediately responded to the attack. Under her control, the Feathers of Silver instantly wrapped around her entire right arm, forming a thick layer of defense.
Subsequently, Fugallo ruthlessly slashed Alice's right hand with his blade arms. Sure enough, it was as Alice expected. Fugallo must have used a taboo to convert his arms into weapons. Although Fugallo's arms were still corroded to a certain extent, they had no trouble breaking through the Feathers of Silver's defenses.
The next moment, Alice could feel two sharp blades making contact with her right hand and threatening to break past her skin and flesh. However, Alice did not panic. This was because she noticed that her reinforcements had arrived already.
"You must have noticed I arrived long ago, right? Is that why you are so fearless?"
A teasing voice suddenly appeared next to Alice and Fugallo. Before Fugallo could react to this sudden turn of events, he felt a huge force coming from his side, breaking through his wind armor and hitting him squarely in his chest.
There was originally already a bone-deep wound in Fugallo's chest. After he suffered this powerful hammering blow, his blood splattered all over the place, and his body flew back and away from Alice. Ultimately, all he managed to accomplish with his suicidal attack was leave two shallow cuts on Alice's right hand.
"Who is it?!"
Fugallo panicked. His fight with Alice was a fight between the Demon King and the Hero. How dare anyone intervene? Moreover, what shocked him even more was that the attack that hit him just now was incredibly powerful, so powerful that it had overwhelmed his defenses and sent him flying.
This was not strength that the average person could have.
Hurriedly, Fugallo relied on the power of wind to stop and stabilize his body. Then, he spat out a mouthful of blood against his will, a testament to his severe internal injuries.
Afterward, Fugallo looked to Alice's side, trying to see who was responsible for attacking him with such a powerful blunt attack. Then, he saw a hammer the size of his arm hovering next to Alice, the sight stunning him for a moment.
It was obvious that the floating hammer was responsible for attacking his chest just now, but...what? Was the hammer self-conscious? But that shouldn't be possible. Even among Artifacts, he had never heard of any being self-conscious.
"You look surprised."
While Fugallo was feeling confused, the hammer suddenly spoke up. It was the voice he had heard just before he was hit, and it sounded like a cheeky female voice.
"What? Don't recognize the 'Weaponized Body' you just used?"
As soon as Fugallo heard this question, he saw the floating hammer melting and transforming into the shape of a miniature person. When he saw this miniature person, he faintly recalled seeing the other party's appearance before. If he remembered correctly, he had seen this appearance in a report Haydn had previously shown him.
However, that wasn't important right now. What was important was that Fugallo finally realized that the floating hammer was actually a transformed product of the taboo 'Weaponized Body.' It was similar to how he had used Weaponized Body to transform his arms into blades. Only, the other party had taken things one step further and transformed her entire body into a hammer.
Moreover, to make matters worse, Fugallo could feel a familiar presence in the miniature person.
"Dark mana? You're a Demon King?"
Without the assistance of specialized devices, Fugallo couldn't be certain whether the other party's mana was demon mana or not. However, he could still tell that the mana coursing through the other party's body was of the dark element. Moreover, it was an incredible amount of dark mana. Combining this point with the fact that the other party could use taboos, it wasn't hard for Fugallo to figure out the other party's identity.
"What are you doing?! Do you have any idea who that person is?! How can you be helping her as a Demon King?!" Fugallo yelled at Andusia while pointing at Alice.
"Of course I know. She's the Hero, right?" Andusia nonchalantly answered as she glanced at Alice. Then, she returned her gaze to Fugallo.
After getting brought back up to speed by Alice, Andusia already knew who Haydn was and how the Rhine King looked. So, when she saw Haydn's body bursting with dark mana, she immediately understood that a Demon King was currently possessing Haydn's body. And going by what they've learned about Haydn's actions, she quickly concluded that the Demon King possessing Haydn was the Tenth Demon King, Fugallo Fold.
"You know she's the Hero, yet you're still helping her?" Fugallo asked, dumbfounded by Andusia's response. "Aren't you supposed to hate humans?"
"That's back during my era. Times have changed, kid," Andusia responded with a sneering.
Demon Kings were all prideful creatures. This would remain the case even when they were dealing with other Demon Kings. Andusia might keep her pride in check when dealing with Alice, but she naturally had no reason to be polite against a Demon King who was hostile to Alice.
Moreover, it wasn't exactly incorrect for Andusia to refer to Fugallo as a 'kid.' Andusia was the Ninth Demon King, while Fugallo was the Tenth Demon King. Strictly speaking, Fugallo was her junior.
"During your era… I see. So you're one of those Demon King's souls this Hero here has spoken about meeting?"
Fugallo had naturally overheard Alice's previous conversation with Haydn. When he first heard that Alice had long since met the souls of other Demon Kings, he thought Alice was spouting nonsense. However, he now realized that might not be the case after all. The palm-sized Demon King hovering next to Alice appeared to be the soul of a former Demon King as well. Only, for some inexplicable reason, the other party had ended up in such a tiny body.
Regardless, this wasn't good news for Fugallo. He already had enough trouble facing Alice. Now, he had to go up against a Demon King as well.
Fugallo frowned and clenched his fists. It might be true that Demon Kings were prideful creatures, but being prideful wasn't an excuse to kill himself. With his current strength, there was no way he could go up against a Hero+Demon King combination.