Chapter 382: 382

When Alexander reached the place Unlucien talked about, he flew up into the air to look at the arrangement of the pendants.

And indeed, he saw the shape of an array.

“Is that a killing array?” he asked when he landed back on the ground.

Unlucien shook his head.

“My Lord, I’m not an Array Master.”

That made Alexander frown.

He had a guess from the shape of the array, that it was a killing array, but as far as he knew, trapping arrays often had similar placements of spirit stones.

So, to confirm what kind of arrangement that was, he would need an Array Master.

So, with a single thought, a stone appeared in his hand.

Putting some shadow essence into it, it shimmered ever so slightly.

A moment later, it connected and a voice came out.

“What?” It was David Elether, not really sounding all that happy that Alexander was contacting him.

“Know of the Ostrich Academy?” Alexander asked.

When David groaned something that meant yes, Alexander continued:

“I need an Array Master here as soon as possible.”

Back in the lower realm, David rolled his eyes.

“Can’t you call someone yourself? I’m busy here as it is already. I don’t need your problems on my neck too.”

Alexander didn’t feel like explaining himself.

“I’m dealing with that damn force challenging us. I’m not splitting my attention on other things.”

To that, David couldn’t say anything more.

So, he retracted his spirit energy from the communication spirit stone and used a different one to do as Alexander asked.

A moment later, it connected and he heard the voice of one of the head executives of the Dark Palace, one that was currently in the upper realm.

He simply told them where an Array Master needed to be sent before putting the stone down.

When the shadow guard heard the order, being aware where the array masters were, he contacted the one nearest to the Ostrich Academy and passed the order.

The Array Master, being a space‑oriented monster, ripped open the space and walked through it to find Alexander.

Once there, he knelt down.

“My Lord, what do you need me for?”

Alexander simply explained what was going on, retelling what Unlucien had said.

The shadow guard listened closely before going to walk around the area of the pendants.

Unlike Alexander or Unlucien, who weren’t Array Masters, he didn’t need to look at the arrangement from up above.

As an Array Master, he had trained his spatial perception to be able to imagine an array like what it looked from above just by finding the spirit stones down on the ground.

So, in just a few minutes, the shadow guard had a mental image in his head, a slight frown on his face.

Ignoring the fact that the array was arranged of pendants, not spirit stones, it was still something he had never met with.

It resembled a killing array, but there were some patterns unlike anything the shadow guard had ever seen before.

“Say, Caelith, what does your nasty eye see?”

There was some rivalry between Noctis and the shadow guard, Caelith, so it was only natural for Noctis to jab.

But he only did it when Caelith was done with his examination.

He didn’t plan on disturbing him since he was working on something for Alexander.

Caelith straightened up and looked over at Noctis before turning to Alexander with the results of his observation.

“My Lord, it does show patterns of an array, but at the same time, there are patterns that would break any array.”

Alexander frowned when he heard that.

“Why would someone bother making something like that? Why so much effort?”

Caelith didn’t have the answer for that.

There were many possibilities.

Maybe it was an inexperienced Array Master who didn’t know that some patterns broke arrays.

Or it was, quite the opposite, an expert Array Master trying to use the breaking patterns for something.

Or the thing just wasn’t an array from the start and was just made to look like one.

Whichever was the case, Caelith was greatly interested in it.

New arrays were something he would want to study.

Who knew, maybe there was a way to create an array using breaking patterns.

And maybe things other than spirit stones could also be used.

Alexander, Noctis, and Unlucien could literally see the fire in Caelith’s eyes as he went to further observe and examine the pendants.

He wouldn’t let such an opportunity slip by.

He wanted to find out as much as he could as soon and fast as possible.

While Caelith concerned himself with the array, Alexander took Noctis and Unlucien with him to observe the other changes in the area.

Noctis studied the other traces of the Night Dwellers, Unlucien scouted the area for anything he might have overlooked earlier, and Alexander paid close attention to the monsters and beasts nearby.

They really were moving around chaotically.

Usually, Alexander, as the Dark Lord, wouldn’t make a move himself, but the Night Dwellers were already getting on his nerves.

Though they weren’t a threat to the Dark Palace, they were like bugs biting from all sides.

That much force couldn’t harm the Dark Palace, but it was fairly annoying.

So, Alexander decided to put in some effort every now and then.

It was like if a person that was being bitten by a bunch of spiders decided to squish a few of them once they got close again.

If they stayed away, he would let them live.

Alexander concealed himself using his shadow essence so the monsters and beasts wouldn’t notice him even if he got close to them, and thus he wouldn’t have to deal with their attacks.

Like that, Alexander proceeded to approach one of the snakes nearby.

Alexander really expected to go unnoticed, so he was fairly surprised when the snake locked its gaze on him.

And then, it lunged at him.

Alexander reacted instantaneously, manipulating the shadow essence in his surroundings.

Within a matter of milliseconds, the snake’s head was wrapped in a tight black hood, blocking its senses.

Like that, it could only fall down to the ground.

Alexander stood over it, watching the creature closely.

It really wasn’t moving around normally.

It was to be expected that if a beast had its head caged and sight blocked, it would try to get out of it, but the snake in front of Alexander was just helplessly lying on the ground.

Like a person who had completely given up on their life.

To check whether that was really the case or if it was just the snake’s technique to protect itself from predators, Alexander decided to do something radical.

Carelessly, he lifted his leg and jabbed with his foot into the snake.

When it still didn’t react, he swung his leg and kicked the snake hard.

The poor creature flew a few meters away from him before landing in the leaves on the ground.

Alexander walked over to the spot and bent down to pick the snake up into his hands.

With a wave of his hand, he let the black cast around the snake’s head disappear to look at its face.

The snake instantly tried to retaliate, but wherever it tried to bite Alexander, a layer of hard black material appeared on Alexander’s skin.

He had his shadow essence work like a living shield around him.

As the snake repetitively tried to bite him, Alexander watched it closely.

“You know, Michelle could like a little thing like you…” he smiled carelessly, twisting the snake’s body in his hand.

“Such a pity that you had been brainwashed,” he added, like he really cared.

But only a fool would think it was because Alexander cared about the creature.

The only thing possible (if ruled out the fact that he could just be joking around) was that Alexander considered it a pity because he couldn’t give it as a gift to Michelle.

She was the only one who could make him care about something or react with something other than strategic indifference and planning.

“You’re coming with me…” Alexander finally decided, throwing the snake into his space.

Since it had potential to be given as a gift to Michelle, Alexander would keep it.

His space was big enough to hold many such snakes.

From the distance, Unlucien saw and heard what His Lord was doing, making him doubt he was seeing and hearing right.

But considering all that Alexander had done for Michelle in the past, a snake gift wasn’t all that shocking.

So, Unlucien returned to his work, deciding not to pay His Lord any more attention.

Much more than Unlucien was surprised, Caelith was shocked.

His mind was blown away and he just stared at Alexander in disbelief.

He had no prior idea that Alexander had a lover, so it completely shocked him that he was talking like he was planning to get someone a gift.

The poor shadow guard started doubting whether he himself was sane.

Maybe he was just hearing and seeing things from being so excited about the research he was doing into the pendant array.

Or, maybe he was just straight up dreaming and he would soon wake up, having never been sent to assist Alexander, the Dark Lord.

What a pity for him that what he was seeing and hearing was real, not a figment of his imagination.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep