The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death

Without any resistance, Fugallo ate a punch from Andusia's Dark Hand with his face, the impact instantly shattering Fugallo's nose. Fugallo's nose breaking was also clearly audible, the sound reaching Alice's and Andusia's ears without fail.

Fugallo was fortunate that he was only struck by Andusia's Dark Hand. Because of how weak Dark Hand was as a taboo, it failed to cause any significant damage to Fugallo. All it managed to accomplish was break Fugallo's nose, corrode a portion of Fugallo's face, and send Fugallo flying. Had Fugallo been struck in the face with a stronger taboo, such as Dark Sunburst, he would probably be ready for his funeral right about now.

Unfortunately, with the situation just now, Andusia didn't have any time to gather more mana for a stronger taboo. Had she tried to go for a stronger attack, she definitely wouldn't have achieved as good of a result as she just did. Regardless, the fact that Fugallo got hit squarely in the face by her Dark Hand must mean that Alice's plan worked.

After crashing into the distant ground, Fugallo quickly stood back up. At this time, his face was completely disfigured. Haydn's face originally had a gloomy appearance already. Now that the bridge of his nose was caved in and a large part of his face became corroded and wrinkled by dark mana, his face looked somewhat comical.

"What did you do?!"

Fugallo shouted in a panic. This development was beyond his expectations. He never expected Alice to directly create a Forest Crystal in his body and seal off a portion of his mana. Because of the Forest Crystal, he had lost access to all of the extra mana he gained from possessing the second Demon King's Shadow.

This situation didn't make sense. If Alice wanted to condense a Forest Crystal into his body, she would first have to inject a sufficient amount of mana into his body. However, he was sure he didn't have any physical contact with Alice previously. In that case, since when did Alice inject her mana into his body?

There was also no way Alice had injected her mana into him across a distance. His senses weren't dead. Had Alice pulled such a stunt, he would have noticed it immediately.

"You still haven't noticed it? And to think you are a Demon King."

Alice breathed a sigh of relief. It would seem that the senses of a veteran Demon King weren't flawless. This realization allowed Alice to gain a little confidence. She might not be a match for veteran Demon Kings when it came to combat experience, but when it came to trickery, it turned out that she wasn't completely outclassed. At the very least, the tricks she pulled wouldn't necessarily be noticed by a veteran Demon King.

Unfortunately, Alice failed to sneak enough mana into Fugallo's body. Hence, the Forest Crystal she created could only seal around half of Fugallo's mana.

Even so, this was already enough. Now that Fugallo's strength had reverted to when he had only absorbed one Demon King's Shadow, Alice and Andusia had a chance to defeat him.

Of course, the injuries Alice and Andusia sustained during this period couldn't be ignored, either. If Alice and Andusia were in their peak states, they could defeat the current Fugallo with 100% certainty. In their current states, though, their chances of victory were only 50%.

"I see. I understand now." After pondering in silence for a moment, Fugallo looked up with a look of realization on his face. "I was wondering why I lost hardly any mana when I summoned that Dragon's Shadow to possess… It turns out that it wasn't my Dragon's Shadow."

"So, you've finally noticed?" Andusia said as she put herself between Fugallo and Alice, the mana around her boiling. "That's right. The Dragon's Shadow you absorbed was Alice's creation."

Fugallo had made it clear that he could and would possess Dragon's Shadow to boost his melee prowess when forced into a melee. So, Alice came up with the idea of taking advantage of this point.

More specifically, Alice's plan was to have Andusia engage Fugallo in a melee. At the same time, in anticipation of Fugallo's reaction, she would create a Dragon's Shadow behind Fugallo a split second before Fugallo would create his own. This was so that she could have Fugallo mistakenly possess her Dragon's Shadow, thereby allowing her to introduce her mana into Fugallo's body.

Of course, the plan did not come without risks. There was a chance that Fugallo would notice that the Dragon's Shadow that appeared behind him had actually finished forming earlier than it should have. However, in the heat of battle, the chances of that happening were very low.

Fortunately, Alice's gamble paid off, and she successfully introduced her mana into Fugallo's body. Although a portion of the mana she invested was exhausted by Fugallo's possession magic, what remained was enough for her to construct a complete Forest Crystal and seal half of Fugallo's mana.

"Now that your strength has plummeted, it's our turn to attack," Andusia said, sneering as she gathered a black ball of mana in front of her. The spell she was preparing to cast this time was none other than the Dark Sunburst that had previously exploded half of Fugallo's waist into smithereens.

Previously, Andusia could only afford to use simple taboos like Dark Hand since Fugallo was too quick and strong for her to achieve any effective results with stronger and more complex taboos like Dark Sunburst. Now, though, she was confident that her Dark Sunburst could chew through any defensive measures Fugallo could put up.

In the meantime, Alice also started to gather her mana to attack Fugallo together with Andusia. Although a two-on-one fight might seem unfair, Fugallo was relying on his "Possession Magic - Demon King's Shadow" to strengthen himself. So, Alice and Andusia needed to work together if they wanted to have any chance of winning.

Moreover, Alice was concerned that Fugallo might be preparing to use more instances of his "Possession Magic - Demon King's Shadow." Who was to say that a third Demon King's Shadow wasn't in the midst of being created in Haydn's mansion? Once that third Demon King's Shadow finished forming and merged with Fugallo, Fugallo would receive another massive boost in strength.

Hence, they needed to eliminate Fugallo as quickly as possible to avoid such a situation.

Thinking up to this point, Alice couldn't help but fall into a dilemma as she looked down at her skirt.

Must I really use it?