Chapter 139: 139

In the valley, Snow carried Mare, Ivona, Anastasia, and Kieran on her back, walking slowly. This was so the movement of her body wouldn’t cause any more discomfort to Kieran and Ivona, who were still recovering from the poison.

“Mare, Anastasia, tell me if you notice a suitable place to rest…” Snow said as she looked around.

Soon, Anastasia noticed a big cave, but the wall above it was suspiciously smooth.

“That was probably caused by a waterfall…” Mare commented as she stared at the smooth stones above the cave entrance. “And probably a big one…” she added.

“If it was that big, how come it’s gone now?” Snow frowned as she walked towards the cave. But after a good few meters, she stopped, a frown forming on her furry face. She felt something powerful in the cave.

“We should retreat a bit…” Anastasia said with a frown.

Snow didn’t need anyone to tell her twice and started to walk backwards slowly. The thing in the cave didn’t necessarily have to be a living thing, but the power it emitted showed that the group of five were no match for it — even if it was just an artifact. It exuded too much danger for any of them to dare recklessly approach it.

“I’ll go check it out…” Mare said after a while of silence.

Without giving anyone the chance to object, she jumped off Snow’s back and nimbly landed on the ground before transforming into a small snake, crawling toward the cave.

Once in the cave, she turned even smaller and slowed down as she got so deep she could no longer see anything. To her surprise, spirit energy moved around normally within the cave, so she no longer felt sick as she got deeper and deeper. But she felt the oppressive aura of something in the cave, making her movements instinctively stiffer.

Watching Mare disappear in the cave, Anastasia frowned a bit, not liking it. But she knew she couldn’t do anything with it already. She got off Snow’s back and carefully brought Ivona and Kieran down.

Snow then took on her human form. She felt quite similar to Anastasia. She knew Mare would be okay, but she didn’t like being left behind. It made her feel useless.

“Do we follow her?” Anastasia asked as she supported Kieran to stand by her side.

He was already much better, but he was still quite weak. And Ivona, who was being supported by Snow, was in an even worse condition. Though she was already fully conscious and no more pain was in her body, she was so weak she could barely breathe.

“No… We can’t just leave these two to fend for themselves. And taking them with us would also be impossible.” Snow shook her head. “Let’s just wait for news from Mare.”

In the cave, Mare proceeded toward the place where she felt the power coming from. She couldn’t sense anything living in the cave, so she was nearly certain that she was up against an artifact of some kind. But that didn’t mean it was safer for her.

Soon, Mare stopped in front of a big stone emitting extreme power, making her unable to approach it any further. She wanted to touch it, but she was forced to keep a distance of a few meters.

“What a strange stone…” she hissed as she crawled in a circle around the stone. The power she felt from it was suspicious. Also, though she hadn’t felt it before, she now sensed some kind of life coming from the stone — even though that was basically impossible.

Unable to see in the dark, Mare was unaware that something was engraved over the stone. The engraving was a huge snake, specifically a snake just like Mare when she was in her full form.

But unlike Mare, who was unable to see in the cave, Michelle could see everything perfectly in the basement.

Even though it was useless for her at the moment. Her whole body was still in pain from the threads Alexander sent into her body for a short while, making her frown.

“I should take it that this was your restrained attack?” she asked through gritted teeth as she directed her calculating but tired gaze at that handsome face. She had to admit that though he was sickeningly annoying, his face was perfect eye candy.

“Yes… This was my weakest attack, restrained to nearly nothing,” Alexander spoke with a smile. “Anyway, since you don’t feel any changes now, give it some time before trying anything else. The reaction could be delayed.”

“Uh—” Michelle closed her eyes with a sigh, remaining motionless. But for a long while, nothing happened.

“The time has probably passed already,” she said, as she opened her eyes and took a step forward.

But just as she moved, a strange sensation ran over her. She felt her spirit energy run to her eyes and concentrate around them, and she couldn’t control it or make it return to her dantian.

Still, nothing more happened. Everything stopped there. Though her spirit energy started swirling in her eyes, which made the purple have a light blue hue, no ice appeared, and she could still move.

“It seems it needs more than one condition to be met,” Alexander commented as he walked over to Michelle and grabbed her by the wrist.

“What—” Before Michelle could ask what he wanted to do, Alexander started channeling his energy through her body, forcing her spirit energy out and into the surroundings.

Then, he let out some of his energy into the surroundings too, and started leading her spirit energy around the room. He did it randomly and without a purpose, but Michelle felt the spirit energy in her eyes thicken nearly instantly.

When Alexander retracted his energy, Michelle’s spirit energy remained in the surroundings, and she had to pull it back herself.

And just as she did, she felt a layer of ice appear over her eyes, blocking her vision.

“Does it seem we have succeeded?” Alexander asked, his voice playful. Michelle couldn’t see him, but she could imagine that cocky smile on his lips.

“Unlike before, I can’t see any visions…” Michelle said with a slight frown.

“That’s natural,” Alexander said with a shrug. “You’ve already got back your memories, but your body remembered that under those conditions, it put you in a state like this once. So since we’ve recreated the conditions quite quickly, it got you into such a state again. But your soul no longer needs that state, so you can’t see anything.”

“Does that mean this won’t happen to me again as long as the conditions aren’t met for a while?” Michelle asked as she felt the ice blocking her gaze slowly melt away and her movements slowly return.

“It shouldn’t. This state is something your body can’t remember for a long time because it’s unnatural. So, as long as you don’t end up like that in a day or two, it shouldn’t happen. Also, that’s only if your soul doesn’t get hurt and you don’t lose your memories again. The first time this state was brought to you was because your soul demanded it, so the body complied. So if your soul gets incomplete, it will get demanding again.” Alexander’s explanation made sense to Michelle, so she just nodded as she rubbed the remnants of her spirit energy and thawed ice from her eyes.

“But I still can’t understand why it was catalyzed by your power…” Michelle grumbled as she sat on the ground and leaned on the slowly-melting ice pillar behind her. “Didn’t you say your power has something to do with darkness? Why would my soul react to it?” she asked.

Alexander just shrugged a bit. “I’m not omnipotent. I can’t know everything.”

Hearing that, Michelle narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “I get the feeling you know exactly why… You just don’t want to tell me…”

That made Alexander’s smile widen a bit. “That could also be true, but if I don’t want to tell you, how will you make me?” he asked teasingly.

Michelle stared at Alexander for a long while, her purple eyes still and deep like dried-up wells.

“Forget it…” she finally said.

She had no chance of defeating him, so she wouldn’t waste her energy on him. Once she was powerful enough, she would make sure to beat him black and blue.

Closing her eyes, Michelle let her ice-element spirit energy spread out of her body a bit and freeze the water caught in her clothes. She didn’t like the feeling of being wet all over.

Then, she moved a bit to the side so she wasn’t leaning on the ice pillar. She wanted to check the humidity of the basement, and having something wet behind her could hinder her.

So she just sat on the ground with closed eyes, feeling the vapor from the air stick to her. It wasn’t as bad as when she had first entered the basement, but it was already there.

So it meant that the vapor was leaving the underground lake very quickly. That made her frown a bit.

If she wanted to leave twelve thousand people in the basement, she had to make sure the conditions were somehow bearable, or they would kill her in anger once she returned their souls to them.

“What are you thinking about so hard?” Alexander asked with a smile. He could guess it easily, but he still asked. Because why not?

“I need to permanently get rid of the vapor…” Michelle said with a sigh.

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