Chapter 202

PHA – Chapter 202

Rosa and Alice were currently left alone in the villa with Elodie’s mother. After ensuring that Alice had everything she needed, Elodie left the villa to meet with other people. Alice wasn’t the only person willing to help treat her mother, so Elodie still needed to meet with those willing to help. Of course, unlike when she was dealing with Rosa and Alice, she wouldn’t be exposing her true identity to those people. So, before leaving, she had put on a cloak that hid her face completely.

Meanwhile, five hours had already passed since Alice began studying the Sunset Bug Erosion. It was still morning when Alice and Rosa arrived at the villa. Now, it was already afternoon. Alice didn’t feel particularly bored since she was focused on researching the taboo, but Rosa had nothing better to do than play with her phone to pass the time.

Fortunately, this boring atmosphere didn’t continue for too long. After another half an hour or so had passed, Rosa noticed Alice closing the magic book in her hands and setting it aside on the table. However, before Rosa could open her mouth to ask about Alice’s progress, she saw Alice lifting her hand and gathering mana in it. Then, under Roa’s horrified gaze, a black carapace started growing around Alice’s hand and forming a blade-like shape.

The black carapace enveloping Alice’s hand resembled the carapace covering Elodie’s mother’s body. However, unlike the carapace on Elodie’s mother, the carapace on Alice’s hand did not try to erode Alice’s body. On the contrary, Alice seemed to have complete control over the carapace as she continuously manipulated it to change shape.

Eventually, after Alice grew tired of playing with the carapace, she dismissed the spell, and the black carapace faded out of existence.

“Is that…the Sunset Bug Erosion?”

Rosa’s eyes widened in shock as she looked at Alice’s tender and delicate hand. She found it hard to believe that this hand was covered in caparace that could easily shatter boulders just a moment ago. Seeing that the carapace was much larger and thicker than the Sunset Bug, it must also be stronger than the Sunset Bug’s carapace.

“Yes, this is the taboo’s initial form.” Alice nodded. However, a moment later, she shook her head and sighed, saying, “I have to admit that the person who came up with this taboo’s design is a very imaginative researcher. It’s a pity that he failed to account for the Sunset Bug’s cells.”

Alice could freely manipulate the taboo without having her body eroded because God had personally created her body. The life rating of her body was far superior to the Sunset Bug. So, the Sunset Bug’s cells naturally couldn’t erode her body.

However, even if the taboo posed no threat to Alice, it wasn’t particularly useful for her. After all, if she were to engage in a full-blown fight with someone, wouldn’t attacking with ranged taboos be a much better option? Also, who’d be willing to melee someone fully clad in an insect’s carapace?

Of course, the taboo wasn’t completely useless. For example, Alice could conceal her identity if she covered her entire body in the Sunset Bug’s carapace. Though, it would probably be quite traumatizing for some people to see a human-sized Sunset Bug.

“Anyway, I think I can reverse the taboo now,” Alice said. Although she couldn’t say that she was proficient in the Sunset Bug Erosion yet, she only needed to get the basics down to reverse the taboo’s effects.

It was similar to solving a math equation. It didn’t matter whether a person spent one minute or one hour solving the equation. It was fine so long as the answer reached was correct.

But this mana…

Alice walked up to Elodie’s mother and injected some of her mana into the woman’s body. Then, a somewhat stern expression appeared on her face when she sensed the mana used to fuel the Sunset Bug Erosion. Her senses weren’t mistaken. This mana definitely belonged to a Demon King. It was mana that the Demon King’s Power had transformed.

Alice had engaged in three intense fights since transmigrating to this world. Among them, two were with Grant and Luna. So, she had a deep impression of the Demon King’s mana, and there was no way she would mistake it for something else.

The person who had cursed Elodie’s mother with the Sunset Bug Taboo was undoubtedly a Demon King. However, considering that the Demon King’s Power was still hiding somewhere recovering its strength, Alice determined that she was dealing with a former Demon King who had left behind their soul.

It was true that out of the twelve generations of Demon Kings that had existed in history, most of them had both their bodies and souls destroyed by the Hero using magic. However, there were also a few special outliers, such as the previous generation’s Demon King.

While harboring such thoughts in her mind, Alice penetrated deep into the Sunset Bug Erosion taboo’s core with her mana and began neutralizing the remnant Demon King’s mana inside Elodie’s mother’s body. Then, she began trying to revert the changes made to the woman’s body cells.

So long as Alice cast aside the general knowledge she had learned before transmigrating, it was relatively easy for her to reverse the principles of such taboos with her current learning capabilities. So, she quickly found a solution to the problem Elodie’s mother faced. All she needed to do was take apart the woman’s cells and reconstruct them. While this sounded like a complicated process, it was still within the realm of feasibility with her current abilities.

The only concern Alice had right now was her lacking mana. While reversing a taboo’s effects only cost a small fraction of what it did to cast the taboo, it still wasn’t a measly amount. To make matters worse, the person who cast the taboo had seemingly prepared a countermeasure for when someone tried to reverse the taboo’s effects.

When Alice was about to begin treating the converted cells, something within Elodie’s mother’s body began sucking away her mana.

Alice’s expression instantly changed upon noticing this situation. She felt as if her mana was being drawn into a large mechanical shredder.

Although Alice had no idea where this suction power had come from, she knew that she lacked the strength to break free from this suction power with her current mana. Thus, she needed to rely on external aid to increase the volume of her mana pool.

While holding Elodie’s mother’s hand with her left hand, Alice lifted her right hand and tried to reach for one of her “hair ties.” However, when her hand touched the “hair tie,” she quickly realized a problem.

To prevent others from noticing that Alice’s hair ties were actually panties, Luna had placed special care when tying Alice’s hair. Thus, the panties were bound very tightly around Alice’s hair.

If Alice had access to both her hands, she could’ve easily undid the hair ties in several seconds. However, she neither had access to both of her hands nor several seconds to waste right now.

Thus, Alice had no choice but to settle for a pair of panties that she could easily strip off.

Thinking up to this point, Alice set her sights on Elodie’s mother.