The Tale of Hero Alice's Social Death - Chapter 317

Chapter 317 – I Can’t Breathe

Generally speaking, while psychic power had a broad range of uses, because it involved the magician’s spirit, psychic power was vastly different from mana. So, in the eyes of the average psychic magician, the action of replacing mana with psychic power to activate a spell was infeasible.

However, Alice’s psychic power was different. Her incomparably psychic power could theoretically penetrate the world’s laws. So, it was naturally capable of accomplishing feats outside the imaginations of psychic magicians like Mador.

If one were to describe spirit and mana as two types of powder, then the average magician’s psychic power was the product of mixing these two types of powder with water. Although the combined product could still be considered psychic power, it would be crude and nowhere near as fine as powder.

Alice’s psychic power, on the other hand, was created using a special method that combined the two types of powder without the use of water. This method would not only lead to the mixing of the two types of powder, but it would also allow the two types of powder to retain their exquisiteness. Because of this, the resulting psychic power could be used in place of mana to activate spells. In addition, doing so would cause the activated spell to take on the properties of psychic power.

Of course, Alice naturally didn’t activate Dragon’s Shadow with psychic power because she had nothing better to do. She had done so because Mador had run too quickly. Moreover, she guessed that Mador had used some kind of spell to boost her speed. By the time she reacted to the situation, Mador was already close to reaching the vent ahead.

Had Alice activated Dragon’s Shadow using mana, the process would require her to release her mana out of her body, transform it into a dragon, and have the Dragon’s Shadow fly after Mador. If she did that, Mador would have long since disappeared into the vent before her Dragon’s Shadow could reach the demoness. Hence, Alice decided to use psychic power to construct her Dragon’s Shadow. After all, psychic power had the property of being able to separate from the user’s body.

So, Alice tossed her psychic power to Mador’s side and activated Dragon’s Shadow. With this, she could ensure that the Dragon’s Shadow would appear next to Mador immediately after it took form. Then, it could use its large body to stop Mador’s advance.

It was fortunate that the Royal Magic Tower’s corridors were incredibly spacious. The ceilings as well were sufficiently high. So, after Alice restricted her Dragon’s Shadow’s size as much as possible, she managed to avoid destroying the corridor here. However, judging by the commotion her Dragon’s Shadow’s stomp had caused, Alice guessed that other people in the tower had already noticed the commotion.

Although Dragon’s Shadow was a taboo, it wasn’t specialized for mass destruction. The magic stone at the top of the Royal Magic Tower would only restrict spells with great destructive properties. Hence, the magic stone did not activate against Dragon’s Shadow. It was similar to how Alice could operate her Consciousness Transformation normally just now.

Of course, if Alice were to have her Dragon’s Shadow self-detonate, it could absolutely cause mass destruction. At that time, the magic stone would activate.

However, Alice did not need to take such drastic action. She didn’t use Dragon’s Shadow to kill Mador but to block the demoness’s escape route instead. While she was at it, she could also use Dragon’s Shadow to restrict Mador’s movement.

Under Alice’s control, the invisible psychic power dragon pressed Mador to the ground with its other paw. However, Alice made sure to be as gentle as she could when doing so. Although she had downsized her Dragon’s Shadow, it was still a dragon, and a dragon’s physical strength was no laughing matter. If she used too much strength, she might accidentally kill the demoness.

Alice’s idea was simple. Her first priority would naturally be to explain the misunderstanding she had created for Mador. Meanwhile, the way she could do this was also very simple. All she needed to do was give Mador the same excuse she gave to the Four Heavenly Kings: that she was a human with light affinity selected by the Demon King’s Power to become the new Demon King. Hence, she became a Demon King with light and dark affinities.

Mador might find it hard to believe initially, but Alice was confident she could change Mador’s mind so long as she showed the demoness that she was capable of wielding both light and dark mana. After all, Demon Kings were former humans chosen by the Demon King’s Power, so although unlikely, it was theoretically possible for a Demon King to have an affinity for light magic. However, a Hero could not be a demon, so a Hero couldn’t have an affinity for dark magic.

Meanwhile, someone with an affinity for both light and dark magic could only be a Demon King. This was also why the Four Heavenly Kings did not suspect that Alice might be the Hero even after learning that she had a light affinity.

Unfortunately, although Alice’s plan was to capture Mador first and then explain the misunderstanding to her, Alice’s actions took on a completely different meaning from Mador’s perspective.

Mador had no idea that Alice was trying to clarify the misunderstanding regarding her identity. In her opinion, she was a demon spy captured by the Hero. Even if this Hero wasn’t a bloodthirsty person, this Hero would definitely hand her over to the Rhine Kingdom’s authorities.

When Mador thought of what kind of treatment she would receive should that happen, she felt that she might as well have the Hero kill her right here and now. After all, going by the past reputation of Heroes, it was highly unlikely that Alice would torture her. However, if it were the Rhine Kingdom’s king… Anybody capable of becoming a king in this day and age wouldn’t be a soft-hearted pushover. The Rhine King might be kind to his people, but he absolutely would not be lenient toward his enemies.

When Mador thought about how the Rhine Kingdom would subject her to various inhumane tortures to get her to spill information on the demons, she struggled even harder to break free.

Unfortunately, the thing holding her down was a dragon’s paw. Even if Alice’s current Dragon’s Shadow was slightly weaker than a complete Dragon’s Shadow, it still wasn’t something Mador could struggle out of. Even after using her psychic power to assist her, Mador had only managed to cause the Dragon’s Shadow’s paw to wobble slightly.

“Honestly, can you stop being so excited? You’re making it look like I’m the bad guy here,” Alice said, feeling a little frustrated when she saw Mador’s desperate struggle. The psychic power dragon’s paw was transparent, so Alice could see every movement Mador made. After sighing, Alice crouched down next to Mador and asked, “How do you feel? Do you have trouble breathing?”

Mador looked at the little girl crouched next to her and chose to remain silent. It was true that Alice wasn’t a bad person. To humans, the bad guys were the demons trying to invade the human realm.

However, as a demon, Mador knew that the actions of her race were necessary. If they didn’t seek better land, the demons’ future would only grow worse as time passed. It was also because she knew this that she was resolved to fight the Hero to the death.

Even so, Mador still couldn’t help but feel afraid. Anybody would feel afraid when they were going up against an opponent they knew they couldn’t defeat, and she was no exception. However, despite her fears, she had no intentions of betraying her race.

“But it’s going to be a pain to bring you away if you keep struggling like this…” Alice muttered under her breath. Although she could have her Dragon’s Shadow carry Mador with her, her Dragon’s Shadow was a massive creature. Even if it was currently invisible to the naked eye, it would still make a huge commotion when it walked down the tower’s corridors that barely fit its body. “For convenience’s sake, I’m going to have to ask you to have a nap.”

After saying so, Alice pulled out the unconscious Milu Rabbit from her double-layered dress. Then, under Mador’s confused gaze, she smacked the demoness in the head with the Milu Rabbit’s cranium.