Chapter 288: 288

Alexander landed next to Michelle. “What do you want all those Life Stones for?” He was no longer carefree like he used to be. His smile was still on, but there was a cold edge to it.

Michelle frowned. “They are good for making poisons,” she made an excuse within a matter of milliseconds.

Alexander didn’t want to believe that.

It was indeed true that with the nature of Life Stones, no matter what medicine it was mixed into, it could become deadly, but he doubted Michelle was really aiming for that. She had many other ways to create poisons.

Also, if she really wanted to make a poison like that, she would only take a few Life Stones. But she was collecting an astronomical amount.

Michelle knew Alexander didn’t believe her, but she also knew that unless she directly said it or it was undeniably proven that she wanted to experiment with Life Stones, he wouldn’t say anything more about it.

At least that was what Michelle thought from how Alexander had been acting up until then. She didn’t exactly realize that since Alexander confessed his feelings to Michelle, some patterns in his behavior had changed.

Up until then, he was stubbornly persistent, but that was only after he started acting. Which wasn’t all that often. But after the confession, he started involving himself with Michelle’s business much more, basically constantly getting in her way. Forcing her to keep him in her mind.

Michelle summoned Tenether. Since the mantis was dead, it was time to look for another monster.

Seeing that, Alexander’s eyes narrowed a bit. The next moment, he gathered shadow essence on his hand.

Michelle didn’t sense that, but Tenether did. Before Michelle could get on his back, he started transforming.

A moment later, instead of a black raven, a huge black feline creature was towering over Michelle. But its gaze was locked on Alexander.

Alexander briefly glanced at Tenether for a moment, before his shadow essence exploded around him.

Under his control, it activated a chain reaction, causing shadow essence to explode from him to Michelle.

Both Michelle and Tenether were hit by the explosion.

Tenether was mostly hit in his forehead area, in other words, in the area where his Life Stone used to be before he got into contract with Michelle.

Though his Life Stone was no longer there, a hit there still threw him off balance. That caused him to shift back to his most stable form, a tiny black cat, a kitty cub.

The explosion against Michelle acted differently. It tore into the space, creating a rift into which Michelle was pulled.

Alexander then cut open a rift behind him and stepped in.

In the rift, Michelle summoned her own shadow essence and hit into the rift with it. It shook violently. Michelle was trying to shatter the rift and fall into void. Because she could easily navigate through void and get back into the real world.

But before she could hit the rift again, she had reached the other end and appeared in a strange space.

When she glanced around casually, it looked like a normal field, but once she looked up, instead of skies, she saw endless emptiness.

With a frown, Michelle sat up. She was in an alternate space.

She didn’t have enough time to think about it when a rift opened into the space and Alexander walked out.

Michelle turned to stare at him, her eyes colder than usual. “What was that for?”

Alexander walked to Michelle with long strides. Once he reached her, he grabbed her by her shoulder and pulled her to her feet. “What are you really planning with the Life Stones?”

Michelle was surprised. She wasn’t expecting such a reaction.

If she lied, Alexander would see right through her, but she still didn’t want to tell him the truth. And half-truth wasn’t exactly an option either since there wasn’t a way to twist the truth. Experimenting with Life Stones was something that couldn’t be explained differently.

Alexander stood directly in front of Michelle. He rarely did that. Most of the time, he was behind her back, leaning against her.

But this time, he wanted to see every single one of her expressions to notice even the smallest deception.

Confronted by Alexander’s hawk-like gaze, Michelle gave in and started explaining her plans.

When she started speaking, Alexander’s frown eased, but as she proceeded, it returned. And when she finished speaking, his brows were knitted together like never before.

“Don’t do it!” he finally said.

Michelle frowned. That was the response she had been expecting. “Why?” She still decided to try and persuade Alexander.

Alexander twisted his hand and a big black Life Stone appeared on his hand. “Hold it.”

Michelle took it and stared down at it. “I wouldn’t have experimented with ones this big…”

Alexander didn’t say anything. Instead, he just twisted his hand again. Another black Life Stone appeared in his hand, but it was much smaller.

“Watch how they react!” he said before inserting his shadow essence into the small Life Stone.

Nearly instantly, it exploded into a million pieces, most stabbing into Alexander’s body.

Michelle frowned a bit. From the start, she knew Life Stones were dangerous.

Alexander took the big Life Stone back from Michelle. “Spot the differences!”

With that, he inserted shadow essence into the Life Stone, pumping it to the limit.

It took a bit longer, and the Life Stone didn’t even explode. It just cracked on the surface and the spirit energy within it seeped out.

Watching that, Michelle raised a brow. “Why did that happen?” She was intrigued.

Alexander scattered the cracked Life Stone in his hand. “Each Life Stone has a minimum amount of spirit energy it needs to have inside. This spirit energy is extremely similar to external forces, whether pressure or other energies. The small Life Stones are packed with spirit energy to the point when just a small graze can make them explode. They can barely contain the power when they are in a calm state.”

Alexander continued explaining. “Big Life Stones have their insides much calmer. The spirit energy isn’t stuck together and even has space to flow around. They are generally much calmer even though they carry much more power.”

After listening to that, Michelle finally understood what Alexander was trying to tell her. “So, I am allowed to experiment with the big ones?” Her eyes flamed, her right one turning red from excitement.

Alexander didn’t respond. Instead, he just cut a rift open between him and Michelle, letting her out of the space.

Michelle walked through the rift and turned her attention to look for Tenether. She wanted to see what state the cat was in after being struck by Alexander’s shadow essence.

The kitty was actually asleep in Noctis’ arms. Seeing that, Michelle held back a smile.

Walking over, Noctis gave Tenether to Michelle. Considering it was hit with an explosion of shadow essence, its sleep was peaceful.

But that could be understood.

The explosion was controlled by Alexander. And he never intended to hurt Michelle or her monster.

While Tenether was asleep, Michelle decided not to go anywhere. She could put him in her space and summon Cold Flame to fly her over the mountain, but she had the feeling that if she put Tenether into the space, her beasts wouldn’t let him sleep. Especially Snow. She was always active.

So, Michelle decided to check whether she had some big Life Stones.

Of course, she remembered that she had Rivenaar’s Life Stone, and the one she had found in the annex of the duchy in the Land of Exile, but she didn’t want to use those. They were way too overpowered to use. Michelle held them in respect.

Luckily, Michelle had fought quite a few monsters since leaving the Land of Exile, so she had a stock of Life Stones. But most of them were mid-sized, and she didn’t know whether it was safe to use them.

To check how safe they were, Michelle decided to do what Alexander had shown her in his space. Insert her shadow essence and see how the gem reacts.

While Michelle was doing that, Alexander was standing absentmindedly in his space, sinking deeper and deeper into his thoughts.

When he found out that Michelle wanted to experiment on herself with the Life Stones, he immediately wanted to stop her. He even told her not to do it.

But the moment she asked the simple question, “Why?”, his resolve broke and he basically guided her to the least dangerous method to experiment.

Still, just because it was the least dangerous didn’t mean it was safe. Quite the opposite. It was still basically a life hazard.

Alexander felt that he was losing his ability to control himself. Just a while ago, he was still fine, able to keep his thoughts straight. But the more he was with Michelle, the more he found himself doing things according to her will.

He had to admit, he didn’t mind it. He was aware that he was in love with the brat, so he was always prepared to do things for her. But the way even her smallest actions were able to influence him was scary.

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