The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death

It wasn't surprising for Gunst to think that Alice was an elf. After all, Forest Crystal was a taboo unique to the elves. It was also unrealistic to think that a race as isolated as the elves would teach their taboos to other races.

Although the elves had started to change their isolationist behavior since the battle between the Hero and the Demon King outside the Elven Forest, these changes only started to occur two months ago. Even if the elves had started to take greater initiative in conducting diplomacy with the various human kingdoms and welcoming human technology into elven society, there was no way the elves had already opened up to a point where they were willing to share their taboos with others.

It might be a different story if the other party in question was someone important such as the Hero or human royalty, but for everyone else? Hoping that the elves would share their taboos with them was nothing but a fantasy.

Not to mention, every person had different talents. This meant that the taboos they could learn were also different. Take Catherine and Gunst, for example. As the royal guard captain of their respective kingdoms, they were required to have superb talent in melee combat. Hence, the taboos they learned and developed were mainly focused on cultivating their magic swordsmanship to the extremes.

As for taboos developed by the elves, they had a very strong elven flavor. Although it was theoretically possible for other races to learn elven taboos, the difficulty would be several times higher than normal.

For these reasons, Gunst naturally assumed that Alice was an elf. Moreover, although Alice's sun hat had covered more than half of her face, Gunst could still see her delicate mouth and chin. The beauty of these features was in line with the elves' good looks.

"Unfortunately, you've guessed wrongly. You wouldn't have had such an assumption if you paid attention to my ears," Alice said as she turned her head slightly to show Gunst her normal human ears. She still had a relatively favorable impression of Gunst because of the upright-sounding words he said previously, so she didn't ignore Gunst's conjecture.

"I guessed wrongly? No matter."

Gunst frowned, finding it confusing as to how a human had managed to learn one of the elves' taboos. However, he didn't dwell on the matter for long as he focused his attention back on the Forest Crystal trapping him. Although Forest Crystal wasn't a well-known taboo, he still knew about it since it was his job as the Rhine Kingdom's royal guard captain to analyze all possible threats that could be used against the kingdom. This naturally included the taboos of other countries and races.

The Forest Crystal could not only create a crystalline hexahedron to trap its target, but it also possessed mana-sealing properties. In the short time he talked to Alice, Gunst could already feel the flow of mana in him growing sluggish. Right now, his mana felt like mud trying to pass through a pipe that was only meant to transfer clean water. If he allowed the Forest Crystal to continue taking effect on him, he was certain that his mana would freeze up and stop moving in less than a minute. Hence, he needed to figure out a way to destroy the Forest Crystal as soon as possible.

Taking a small step back, Gunst gripped his longsword tightly and poured all the mana he could muster into the weapon's blade. As someone capable of casting taboos, Gunst naturally had access to a huge mana pool. Even if he could no longer access everything, the amount he had access to was still significant. So, the fact that his longsword could withstand such a large amount of mana showed that it wasn't an ordinary item. Moreover, instead of breaking from mana overload, the surface of the longsword's blade started radiating a blinding light.

"Rainbow!"

After letting out a soft shout, Gunst swung his longsword forward with all his might. Following his actions, sword waves instantly spread out from the longsword in all directions. Every one of these sword waves radiated blinding light of various colors. If one paid close attention, one would notice that all of these colors represented the colors of a rainbow.

It was obvious that the move Gunst just used was part of his magic swordsmanship, and the attack already carried the power of taboos. After blocking a number of sword waves, Alice's Forest Crystal quickly broke apart. Then, numerous other sword waves escaped from the shattered crystal and shredded the nearby street and buildings. Even the street next to the one Alice and Gunst were fighting on was not spared from destruction.

If it weren't for Alice's Forest Crystal dampening Gunst's attack to a certain extent, the attack could have most likely destroyed the entire neighborhood. The attack was undoubtedly at the level of an AOE taboo already.

Sure enough, he can use taboos.

Alice had previously heard from Hatter that Catherine was capable of using taboos. Although she had never seen Catherine using taboos in person, she doubted Hatter would lie to her. In that case, it stood to reason that Gunst, who was also the royal guard captain of his kingdom, could also use taboos. "This move is called Rainbow? What a simple name."

"Moves meant for combat do not require complicated names." After learning that Alice was also someone capable of using taboos, Gunst immediately started to take her seriously. So, even as he talked to Alice, he did not stop his movements for even a moment. Instead, he promptly filled his longsword with mana again and swung it at Alice. "Aurora!"

When Alice saw Gunst swinging his weapon at her, her instincts immediately warned her of danger. So, almost at the same time as Gunst swung his blade, Alice stamped her right foot on the ground and created a golden prism around herself.

Unfortunately, Alice was still nothing more than a half-baked Hero-cum-Demon King right now. Even though the taboos she used were already nearing perfection, her body's lacking mana caused her taboos to be slightly weaker than the original versions. This was also the case for the Enochian Prism she had used this time.

The taboo named "Aurora" was similarly an attack that relied on Gunst's longsword to release. Almost instantly, a white sword wave arrived before Alice, the combination of a sharp sword wave and Gunst's immense mana allowing the white sword wave to instantly cut through Alice's Enochian Prism and land a direct hit on Alice.

When the white sword wave struck Alice's waist, Alice felt like she was about to be cut apart. Fortunately, Enochian Prism had dampened a significant portion of the white sword wave's power. So, although the sword wave's remaining power was powerful enough to injure Alice's sturdy body, it wasn't enough to cause significant damage.

However, the buildings behind Alice weren't as fortunate. Although most of Gunst's sword wave was concentrated on Alice's body, not all of it landed on Alice. Some of it got past her, and this led to the demolition of multiple buildings behind her. Alice could even hear the buildings crumbling one after another, sending large dust clouds into the air.

This neighborhood would most likely be in ruins by the end of their battle, and King Haydn would definitely have to empty his pockets to rebuild this neighborhood.

"Hiss… It really hurts."

The sword wave named "Aurora" was considerably concentrated. Even after making contact with its target, it did not randomly release its power. So, although the powerful sword wave struck Alice, only a cut appeared on the left side of her shirt. The rest of her shirt remained intact.

However, the sword wave's precision also meant that it had enough power to cut through Alice's physical defenses and reach Alice's internal organs. If it weren't for Enochian Prism weakening the sword wave, Alice might have been bisected.

"So, it's Enochian Prism this time?" Gunst noticed the golden prism that had briefly appeared to stop his attack. He also recognized the prism's identity. "However, it seems your Enochian Prism isn't strong enough to stop my attack. You must be out of combat power now, right?"