Chapter 84: Maou no Pantsu (魔王のパンツ)

"That's…my underwear?"

Luna was briefly stunned when she saw the panties in Alice's hand. Then, she hurriedly looked down at her lower body and found that her panties had indeed gone missing.

Alice's attack just now wasn't as simple as it seemed. She was fully aware that the stat bonuses the Hero's Sword presently provided were not enough for her to cause any substantial damage to Luna. So, despite her attacks looking like they were meant to kill Luna, they were merely meant as a distraction.

Take the upward slash Alice executed against Luna's neck, for example. That attack was meant to have Luna shift all of her attention onto her neck. If Luna's attention was focused on her neck, she would be less likely to notice what was happening to her lower body. Meanwhile, taking advantage of this situation, Alice had swiftly torn off the flimsy piece of fabric from Luna's body.

Unlike the time Alice faced Grant's soul, she currently wielded the Hero's Sword in her right hand. Even though the Hero's Sword had been weakened significantly due to Luna's seal, it still provided Alice 4000 points in Strength. So, tearing off a pair of panties was no trouble for her at all.

Meanwhile, before Luna could make sense of why Alice had stripped her of her panties even at such a crucial time, Alice clenched her right hand and tightly gripped onto the pair of black lace panties.

Afterward, turbulent dark mana burst out from Alice's right hand like water gushing out of a broken dam. Then, the dark mana transformed into a thick black mist that flooded the area.

"What?!"

Luna was having a difficult time keeping calm right now. Even as the Demon King, her heart couldn't help but start beating violently when faced with such immense dark mana at such close distance. After all, the vastness of that dark mana surpassed even that of the dark mana within her.

What's going on? Aren't I the Demon King? Why does she suddenly have more dark mana than me?

Luna suddenly felt that she didn't have enough brainpower to process this situation. As the Demon King's Power's host, she had never seen someone with stronger dark mana than herself.

However, Alice did not pay attention to Luna's confusion. Honestly, she was similarly shocked by the volume and concentration of dark mana that had burst out of her right hand. Even though she had used various types of panties previously, she had never experienced such a huge reaction before.

In the past, when Alice had wielded Rosa's black lace underwear, even though she had indeed witnessed dark mana spewing out of her hand in the form of black mist, the rate at which the black mist formed was significantly slower. Now, though, the black mist had spewed out of her hand like juice from a crushed tomato. A large volume of black mist had appeared instantaneously, shrouding the area around the panties.

Meanwhile, only after all of this had happened did Alice's right hand relay the weapon information to her mind.

…

[Weapon: Black Lace Underwear Tainted by the Demon King’s Power]

[Quality: Law]

[Effect: Strength +7000, Constitution +7000, Speed +7000, Mind +11000, Control +11000, Mana +11000]

[Additional Effect:

Mana Cancellation (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by offensive magic and law magic);

Absolute Defense (Passive Skill. You will not be hurt by physical attacks and law-type attacks);

Demon King's Grip (Active Skill. Upon use, releases a hand of darkness that can erase the target's soul.)]

…

So there's such an effect from having something tainted by the Demon King's Power…

Although Alice was surprised to see a pair of Law-grade panties, she quickly accepted the situation. It was an item tainted by the Demon King's Power, after all. When she first transmigrated, she had seen tree branches and stones having their quality elevated after being dyed by the Wolf King's spit. During her stay at Mana City's church, she had also heard stories about items having their quality elevated after being bathed in holy light.

In that case, it should be reasonable that an Artifact would have its rank elevated to Law after getting tainted by something as strong as the Demon King's Power…probably?

Although Alice still had many complaints in her mind, she knew that now wasn't the time to have such inconsequential thoughts. Although Luna was currently shocked by the dark mana flooding out of her right hand, Luna would probably get over her shock quickly if she stayed idle for too long.

Unfortunately, even though the black panties provided much greater stats than the weakened Hero's Sword, it still didn't change the fact that Alice had no knowledge of magic or martial arts. So, her only form of attack was still to make use of the panties' active skill.

Alice remembered that when she used Rosa's black lace panties previously, the active skill's name was Destruction Grip, and the skill was described to release a hand of darkness that crumbled the target's soul. Meanwhile, Luna's panties actually had a similar but evolved version of the skill. Now, the skill was named Demon King's Grip, and the skill was described to release a hand of darkness that erased the target's soul.

Of course, Alice understood that this simply meant that the skill dealt greater damage to souls. It didn't mean that it could crumble or erase the target's soul with 100% certainty. At the very least, Destruction Grip had failed to achieve its described effect when Alice had used it against Grant's soul.

Thus, even though Alice was holding onto a pair of Law-grade panties, she dared not treat Luna lightly at all. After several thoughts flashed across her mind, Alice swung the black panties gripped in her right hand in Luna's direction without hesitation.

Meanwhile, although Luna was a little confused by the situation, when she noticed Alice swinging her right fist in her direction, she immediately responded by swinging her black sword at Alice's right hand. In a situation where both parties had equal strength, a fist should lose out against a sword.

However, a frown appeared on Luna's face immediately afterward.

Contrary to Luna's expectations, her sword did not cut Alice's fist in two. Instead, during the instant her sword was about to cut through Alice's fist, a gigantic palm made out of mana had appeared and devoured her sword instead. Meanwhile, the moment the gigantic palm enveloped her sword, Luna could feel corrosive dark mana decomposing her sword.

Moreover, there was also an oppressive force coming from the gigantic palm that pushed Luna back. Yet, despite this situation, Luna couldn't take the initiative to step back or move out of the way because she could feel the immense power contained within the gigantic palm. Should she stop fighting back this power for even a moment, the dark mana making up the gigantic palm would devour her immediately.

As the wielder of the Demon King's Power, Luna knew very well what would happen should she let herself be consumed by so much dark mana. Best case scenario, she would faint and lose her combat power. Worst case scenario, the dark mana would kill her on the spot.