Stein thought that with his new power, he could defeat Alice. He thought he was finally at the top of the world and would spread his name the way Alice did. A momentarily flawed dream of someone who wished to make it big without working hard.

Such a big dream for someone who could not even scratch his claws through Alice’s jacket or her hand.

He was plain pathetic, struggling as she kept him at arm’s length, watching him as he flailed his entire body, trying to attack her.

"Hey, quit it." She glared at him, tightening her grip around his neck and choking him.

But since he wasn’t a simple human anymore, merely choking him wouldn’t kill him. It would only force his airways to get blocked and give him a hard time.

"The sight of pathetic things like you disgusts me." Alice said, her eyes raging. "I feel like I’m going to throw up the meal I just had."

"Are you, though?" Leo asked as he landed on the roof but she waved it off with her other hand.

"What? No way. Not for a pathetic thing like this." She said and he nodded. "Did you find anything?"

"No, there was no single trace." Leo said, folding his arms and thinking deeply. "It’s very odd."

"Maybe they left as soon as possible so we wouldn’t get them. I can’t feel their presence around even if I use perception."

"Can they teleport?" Leo asked and Alice looked at him with blank eyes.

"And who are you asking that?" She asked him. "Do I look like I know a bunch about demons? If anything, I should be asking you."

"Then, should we ask someone who has a little more knowledge of demons?" Leo suggested and they both looked up at the same time, only one person coming to mind.

He did have relatively more knowledge than the average person which was weird in a way. But if it was helpful to them, then why bother digging into it?

(Grave mistake)

"Haa!" Alice sighed in exhaustion.

"What’s wrong?" Leo asked.

"The demons are still distributing these ’miracle potions’ to humans in order to control them. I had completely forgotten about it." She said, looking at Stein who was still struggling. "I was focused on the monsters and didn’t recall that the monsters weren’t the only issue. Once the second calamity comes, they’ll use the humans who have consumed demon blood to cause even more chaos. More so if they’re powerful awakeneds. How do I deal with that?"

Leo fell silent. He watched as Alice assumed a sense of responsibility in this matter of saving the world, unlike her nonchalant and carefree self who did not want to care about anything.

She had changed quite a lot.

Though it was only as a means to clear her head after discovering the truth about her mother and her relationship with Adolf, it brought about a good result and ’calmed’ her down a bit.

She was still crazy, though.

Once again, she sighed but it seemed more exhausting than the previous one, while dropping her head.

"What’s this for this time?" Leo asked.

"I just recalled I promised him a favor." She said, looking at Leo like she had been forced to do what she didn’t want to. "I mean, I did promise him but thinking about it now, I feel so exhausted. He wouldn’t think I was avoiding him all this while, right?"

She was referring to Michael. And while it was true that she cut off contact with everyone she knew during the period of her worldwide raid, his was a special case.

She had promised to spend an entire day with him but then disappeared without a word.

Though they didn’t fix a date, it still wouldn’t have felt nice to be ghosted after a promise was made.

"If we go to him for information now, he’ll probably remind me about the ’date’, right?" She asked and Leo nodded.

Once again, she sighed.

"Alright, let’s finish things here and head for Carolina." She said, finally giving attention to Stein, who had foam bubbling in his mouth and eyes rolled back, but he was still struggling.

Even if they wanted to interrogate him, the only answer he could give them was that he had met a strange man in an alleyway.

It didn’t look like he had a tragic backstory so that was probably it. Someone who took life for granted and wished to be at the top despite putting in not an ounce of effort.

He was beyond pathetic and she would not regret killing him.

She would be doing the world a favor, after all.

"Now, say bye-bye." She said, and his eyes widened until the moment she snapped his neck, releasing her hand and letting his lifeless body fall.

Once she turned around, she found Leo looking at her with a bland gaze.

"What? I had to." She said, darting her eyes away. "And it’s not like I’ve been killing people frequently either. You won’t be able to kill him for me either so this was the only way."

Leo checked her status window and found the stats of the demonic energy increasing rapidly.

It was nothing compared to the rest of her stats, but the rate at which it was growing was very alarming, and it only grew once she took the life of a human, be it someone inflicted by demonic powers or an evil person.

So long as it was a soul that was neither human nor monster, it would increase. And that included demons, he was sure of it.

They hadn’t tested it out, but from how it was greatly influenced, if the human killed had demonic energy was proof.

Alice had killed a total of five humans who were influenced by demon blood during her worldwide subjugation, and each of them gave her a hundred points in her stats, while the regular humans gave her something close to 20 to 50.

In any case, he didn’t even need to worry about her demonic energy amassing, so long as she did not go on a killing spree.

What he needed to worry about was her using the demonic energy. Once she did, she got influenced like someone who was walking on thin ice while being drunk.

They think they can do anything, until they take the wrong step and fall into the cold water, and only then do they wake up to reality and realize that they’re drowning.

He wanted to help Alice so she wouldn’t fall into the cold water before coming back to reality, that was why he suggested no more killing and no more usage of the demonic energy, unless it was an emergency.

"I thought I saw a familiar silhouette," they heard a familiar voice, and turned their heads.

It was Noah, standing in the air and smiling proudly.

"It’s such an honor to meet the famous Alice Reinhart,"

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com