The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death

"What is that guy trying to do?"

Andusia had arrived late to the battlefield, so she didn't know what was happening inside the mansion. So, when she saw Fugallo suddenly fleeing into the mansion, she couldn't help but grow confused.

"That guy…"

Alice's expression suddenly turned serious as two possibilities appeared in her mind. The first possibility was that Fugallo was already grasping at straws and trying to use the hypnotized magicians as hostages.

However, the likelihood of this being the case was smaller. After all, Fugallo was a Demon King. Alice doubted his pride would let him do something so tasteless. Although Demon Kings despised humans, there had never been a case where Demon Kings would use despicable means, such as taking hostages when fighting against the Hero.

The second possibility was that Fugallo planned to carry out his original plan. Although Alice had already disrupted the taboo draining Luna's mana, by the time she did so, the taboo had already depleted Luna's mana dry and then some more. As a pseudo-Demon King, Luna's mana pool was at least hundreds of times larger than the average demon. So, the mana the taboo absorbed might just be enough for Fugallo to start his plan.

Although Alice still wasn't fully certain what Fugallo's plan was, when she thought about the Demon King's Shadow taboo and how it could be modified into a possession-type spell, she couldn't help but get a bad feeling. Thinking up to this point, Alice hurriedly chased after Fugallo, going as far as to use psychic power to propel her forward like a bullet and instantly smash her way through the mansion's roof.

Why is she in such a hurry?

Andusia grew even more confused when she saw Alice's panicked reaction. She had been stuck in Lilith's home the entire time Alice was going around looking into the incidents taking place in the Rhine Kingdom. Although she had learned about the general gist of the situation from Alice, she still didn't clearly understand the situation's severity.

However, after seeing Alice throwing caution to the wind and smashing through the mansion's roof at high speeds, Andusia knew that the situation must be much more dangerous than she thought.

Unfortunately, Andusia was a step too late. Before she could reach the mansion, a frightening amount of mana suddenly exploded from the mansion. Andusia was shocked when she sensed this mana. This was because she had not only sensed the dark element in this mana, but she also sensed that its strength had seemingly reached the standard of Demon Kings already.

To make matters worse, when Andusia carefully inspected the mana fluctuations coming from the mansion, she could feel three particularly powerful mana sources. Of them, one belonged to Alice, and another belonged to Fugallo. Alice's mana source was a powerful yet strange one that lacked the presence of light and dark elements. Meanwhile, although Fugallo's mana source was the weakest of the three, Andusia could clearly sense the dark element's presence in it.

As for the third power source, which was responsible for the burst of mana, it was the strongest of the three mana sources that Andusia could sense. The volume of mana contained within this mana source was practically on par with a full-fledged Demon King's mana source. Moreover, the mana fluctuations this source gave off were strikingly similar to Demon Kings.

However, the fact that Andusia could sense both Alice's and Fugallo's mana sources right now meant that this third mana source did not belong to either of the two but from another person instead.

Or…maybe it's not from a person?

Andusia recalled the information Alice had shared with her previously. If she remembered correctly, Haydn and Fugallo had stolen a taboo out of the Royal Magic Tower, the taboo's name being "Demon King's Shadow." Although a Hero or a Demon King didn't invent the taboo, it could summon a Demon King's projection. Or, more specifically, the Tenth Demon King's projection.

The taboo could only summon the Tenth Demon King's projection because theveloper had used a sample of Fugallo's mana as the basis of Demon King's Shadow. However, even though the taboo was theoretically proven usable, nobody had ever successfully cast.

When Andusia linked Demon King's Shadow's function with the Demon King-level dark mana she just sensed, she quickly concluded where this frightening mana originated from. Most likely, Fugallo had successfully cast Demon King's Shadow and summoned a projection of himself during his prime.

At the same time as Andusia reached this conclusion, the mansion's roof suddenly exploded. Then, Alice's figure came flying out of the building.

At this time, the Feathers of Silver in Alice's right hand had disappeared already. When she got struck by the Demon King's Shadow in the mansion, her grip over the Feathers of Silver broke. Hence, control over the taboo had now returned to Fugallo.

Subsequently, under Alice's and Andusia's gazes, Fugallo flew out of the mansion. Although his body retained the injuries he had previously sustained, his expression had loosened up significantly. He even revealed a victorious smile when he looked at Alice and Andusia.

Meanwhile, hovering next to Fugallo was a pitch-black figure. Apart from having a body similar in shape to Fugallo's, this pitch-black figure did not look like a person. Not only did this figure not have any distinct facial features, but it also maintained a stiff and straight posture as it hovered next to Fugallo. In addition, there was also a layer of pitch-black fog constantly surrounding the figure.

However, based on the mana fluctuations this stiff figure radiated, Alice and Andusia did not doubt even for a moment that this was the product of the Demon King's Shadow taboo. Apparently, the taboo that had only ever been theoretically proven to be feasible could indeed be used in the real world.

"Whoever developed this taboo is a fucking genius…" Andusia said with an ugly expression.

When Andusia first heard about Demon King's Shadow from Alice, she highly doubted the taboo could create a replica of a Demon King like Dragon's Shadow could create a replica of a dragon. After all, while dragons were powerful creatures, Demon Kings were even more powerful. At best, she thought Demon King's Shadow could create a slightly stronger projection than Dragon's Shadow.

However, it turned out that she was wrong. Demon King's Shadow was truly capable of creating a projection with a full-fledged Demon King's mana and physique…

Fortunately, the Demon King's Shadow looked stiff and lacked self-consciousness. If it could only rely on Fugallo's commands to fight, its actual combat power would definitely be far weaker than Fugallo's. It might have a slight advantage in the first one or two exchanges, but once the fight extended, its stiff and delayed movements would quickly get it killed by a real Hero or Demon King.

"Andusia, don't forget what I told you before." When Alice saw Andusia's expression relaxing, she instantly knew what was going through the other party's mind. So, she promptly reminded Andusia, saying, "Fugallo's trump card isn't as simple as something like the Demon King's Shadow… Did you forget why he drained Luna's mana?"

Andusia was briefly stunned by Alice's words. Then, she quickly remembered that Haydn and Fugallo needed a large amount of demon mana to modify the Demon King's Shadow taboo.

They were trying to alter the taboo that was originally designed to summon a Demon King's projection into a possession-type taboo that allowed them to gain the projection's strength!