Chapter 160

PHA – Chapter 160 – God Asked Me to Pass Along a Message to You

Alice’s words were like a signal, and Luna promptly understood it.

The battle had already gone on for long enough, and her performance had long since shown that the “Demon King” was at a disadvantage. She had been the only one getting hit by taboos throughout this entire fight, and none of her attacks managed to touch the Hero. At this time, even a fool could tell that she wasn’t a match for the Hero.

Had Luna escaped before, others would have suspected that the Demon King was a coward. It would also affect Alice’s image among the Four Heavenly Kings. However, now that the Hero had stated that “he” would end the fight with this last move, it meant that he would be going all-out in this last attack. If Luna escaped now, it wouldn’t be because she was cowardly. Instead, it’d be because she was conserving her life to fight another day.

After letting out a cold snort, Luna promptly descended onto the ground and transformed into a cloud of dark fog that enveloped Davis and the demon soldiers. Then, after the fog disappeared, Alice and the elves noticed that the army of several thousand demon soldiers had disappeared along with the mist.

“She escaped?” Alice muttered, stating the obvious.

After seeing Luna disappearing, Alice lowered the Hero’s Sword in her right hand and secretly sighed in relief. The act they had put on should be more than enough to trick everyone. After all, while their fight might have been an act, the taboos they used were the real deal. In the battle before, both the demons and the elves only dared to watch as the two of them exchanged taboos with each other. It was unlikely that anyone would notice that she and Luna were acting in such a situation.

Over on the demon’s side, Luna followed Alice’s instructions and simply left without a word after retreating with Davis and the demon army. That’d remove the possibility of Davis noticing that the person under the cloak wasn’t actually Alice.

Alice had also thought up a good excuse for Luna’s abrupt departure. She would simply message Davis afterward and say that she had exhausted too much of her mana and that she would call Davis after she recovered. It was a completely reasonable excuse since people who exhausted her mana would typically lose consciousness on the spot.

Over on Alice’s side, things were also relatively fine. Although she had expended a lot of mana, it wasn’t to a point where her mana pool had hit rock bottom. She had mostly been spending the bonus mana she received during the initial boost, and she had hardly used any of her own mana. Thus, even after putting down the Hero’s Sword, she didn’t have to worry about losing consciousness from mana exhaustion.

To put it into perspective, assume that Alice’s original mana pool was at 500/500, the bonus mana she received from the Hero’s Sword was 8000/8000, and the total mana she expended during the fight was 7800 points. She might have expended a lot of mana, but she had only been spending the bonus mana the entire time, reducing the bonus mana to just 200/8000. She hadn’t actually touched her own mana. So, even if she let go of the Hero’s Sword and lost the bonus mana, her own 500 points of mana wouldn’t disappear.

“Lord Hero.”

When Patriarch Elway saw that the Demon King had already left with the demon army, he anxiously walked up to Alice. Although he had lived a very long time and seen many Heroes before, he hadn’t actually interacted with any Heroes other than the Elven Hero Abel. Thus, he couldn’t help but feel a little stressed when conversing with the Hero of this generation.

“I am Elway, the current Elven Patriarch. Thank you for repelling the demons for the elves… I really can’t thank you enough for this.”

“Don’t worry about it. Elves and humans have always shared a good relationship, so doing this much is nothing,” Alice said in a low male voice. Although speaking like this was incredibly uncomfortable, she didn’t have to keep it up for very long, fortunately.

Patriarch Elway nodded in response to Alice’s words, his anxiety fading a little when he realized that this new Hero was easy to talk to. Then, he said, “There should still be some demons based around the forest. Lord Hero, should we take action against them?”

“That won’t be necessary. The main part of the army has already left. The other branches should receive the order to retreat soon, so there’s no need to slaughter them to the last man. Not to mention, the Demon King remains the crux of the problem,” Alice said, shaking her head. She naturally wouldn’t go out of her way to kill a bunch of normal demon soldiers. “Isn’t that how wars worked in the past? All we need to do is defeat the Demon King. There’s no need to lay our hands on normal people. The demons have never committed massacre after occupying our lands, either, right?”

“That is true. It seems I have become a little too radical,” Patriarch Elway said, sighing. He felt that what the Hero said was correct. It’d be meaningless to slaughter the ordinary demons. They’d simply be spilling blood for the sake of spilling blood.

Although the enmity between the elven race and the demon race couldn’t be resolved easily, he had heard many of the younger elves’ opinions on the demon army. The soldiers in the demon army were just as stern and disciplined as the elven warriors. They were not at all barbaric or cruel like the elves thought in the past. The only problem was that they had a leader hellbent on waging war against the world.

“The demons surrounded the Elven Forest this time to acquire four Seeds of Nature.” After a moment of silence, Patriarch Elway opened up about the crux of the problem this time. “If you need them, we will gladly offer the four seeds to you, Lord Hero. However, you might need to wait for a day to get all four seeds. The Tree of Nature’s fruits have seemingly begun to grow faster, and they should be ready for harvest by tomorrow.”

“Hm? Do you not need them anymore?” Alice asked as she turned to look at the elven patriarch curiously. The other party had stood quite some distance away from her, probably out of respect, so she didn’t need to worry that Patriarch Elway would notice that her body was actually just a suit of power armor.

“We do. Our race has constantly researched the Seed of Nature’s mana production capabilities to develop our technology. But…our race is simply too weak,” Patriarch Elway said, sighing. “Our original plan was to reduce contact with the outside world as much as possible to maintain a stable living environment. However, this latest situation has given us a wake-up call. We will simply weaken ourselves even further if we continue to isolate ourselves. So, after discussions, we have decided to introduce human technology into the Elven Forest. Hence, we no longer have to rely on the Seed of Nature as much as before.”

“That’s a good thing.” Alice chuckled. Then, under the elven patriarch’s gaze, she shook her head and said, “But I don’t need the Seeds of Nature. Give them to those who need them. Actually, it wasn’t a coincidence that I appeared in the Elven Forest. I came here to pass a message to your race. It just so happens that I came across the Demon King, so I decided to exchange a few moves with her.”

“Something to tell us?”

Patriarch Elway was a little stunned. He was certain this was his first time meeting this Hero, so he couldn’t figure out what the other party had to say to the elven race.

“That’s right. God asked me to pass along a message to you.” After secretly learning the elves’ taboos, Alice naturally had to leave something behind. “The fruits growing on the Tree of Nature are called the Fruits of God. They used to disappear for some reason after getting plucked, right? That won’t happen now. God has decided to leave those fruits for you, so you can try researching them alongside the Seeds of Nature.”