CHAPTER 275: 275

Alexander stopped biting Michelle and turned his gaze to his hand around Michelle’s wrist. As if her wrist had turned into a hedgehog, ice spikes erupted from there, stabbing through his palm and fingers. "That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?" he tilted his head a bit. The pain didn’t seem to affect him the least bit.

Michelle stared at Alexander as she rubbed her neck with her free hand. "You were asking for it," she spoke calmly as she retracted the ice coming out of her wrist.

Alexander flexed his fingers, glancing at the holes in his palm. "What if I end up unable to use my hand?" he asked, a smirk tugging on his lips.

Michelle’s eyes went a bit colder. She knew that wouldn’t happen. But if she told Alexander something along the lines of taking responsibility if he couldn’t use his hand properly, he would just as well be capable of crippling his own hand.

So she said the exact opposite of what he wanted to hear. "I’ll cut off your arm, so it doesn’t get in the way!" she smiled brightly. She quite liked the idea.

Even Alexander wasn’t expecting such an answer. "Isn’t that a bit too radical?" He still had his signature smile on his face.

Michelle shrugged. "Why keep a useless limb?" She swept her gaze over Alexander’s bleeding hand. "But your hand will be fine, so there’s no need for it..." she added, clear disappointment in her voice.

For a moment, Alexander didn’t know whether Michelle was just messing with him or if she was really that disappointed that she couldn’t sever his arm.

But when he saw a glint of red in her right eye, he understood she wasn’t the least bit disappointed. She clearly didn’t care whether he could see through her act or not. She just wanted to mess with him. Since he always messed with her.

Of course, that didn’t mean that Michelle didn’t want to cut Alexander’s arm off. Sometimes, he got so annoying that she just wanted to cut him up into pieces.

But those were just whims she never got to realize. And she probably never would. She could just keep them down as sweet dreams and fantasies that would never happen.

After that, Michelle turned her focus to understanding the poison Mavreth gave her. After a few days, she finally understood what it did.

It didn’t work exactly like CO. It just had a similar effect.

So, after Michelle breathed it in, it did connect to her blood for a while, but it didn’t block the binding of oxygen. What it did was that when it got to the cells that needed oxygen, it would form a barrier between them and the oxygen supply. So the cells didn’t get any more oxygen.

As for why the body didn’t detect that anything was wrong, that was because when the blood was about to pass the oxygen to the blocked-off cells, the poison would take the oxygen, reform it into CO2 and give it back to the poison, simulating what a cell would do.

Michelle didn’t think Mavreth had so much knowledge about what was happening in the human body when a person was breathing, so she got quite curious about how he came up with the poison. But she doubted he would ever tell her.

After understanding how the poison worked, Michelle got to coming up with how to remake it.

It took her a few more days to come up with the ingredients, and after something over a week, she had a poison pill in between her fingers. All that was left was to test if it worked like she needed it to.

While Michelle was making the poison, Alexander went somewhere. It was probably serious, because he took even Noctis and Unlucien with him.

But in a week, just when Michelle finished the poison, he was back.

Everything seemed fine, but Michelle still frowned.

"Can’t you get rid of that nasty stench?" It smelled similar to blood, but slightly different.

Alexander lifted a brow. "What stench?" He couldn’t smell anything.

Michelle’s eyes narrowed. "You two too?" Michelle shot a glare at Noctis and Unlucien.

They both shook their heads. They couldn’t smell anything strange.

Michelle took a herb out from her spatial ring and threw it at Alexander. "Can you smell it?"

Alexander took a light sniff, but he couldn’t smell anything.

Seeing that, Michelle frowned. That herb was known for its strong, bitter stench.

"Just what did you do to lose your sense of smell?" Michelle lifted a brow. They looked normal, except for the stench on them and their inability to smell anything.

Alexander returned the herb to Michelle. "Nothing much..." he shrugged.

Michelle stared at him for a while before storing away the herb. "Show me your hand!"

Alexander didn’t protest and stretched out his hand. His palm was still wrapped in bandages from when Michelle’s ice spikes pierced through it.

Michelle was sure that in the heavenly realm, there were pills that could rapidly speed up healing, but Alexander didn’t use them. That made her feel like kicking him.

But she didn’t.

With how he was always acting when she retaliated against him, she really didn’t want to awaken masochistic tendencies within him. Then it would be even harder to deal with him.

Sighing a bit, Michelle put her hand around Alexander’s wrist and sent a wisp of her soul energy through his skin.

Alexander felt a foreign energy invade his blood, but he didn’t move. It was quite uncomfortable, but he was expecting Michelle to do something.

When she asked him to show her his hand, he knew she wanted to examine him. And since she had soul energy, that was the simplest way possible.

Michelle’s soul energy flowed around Alexander’s body quickly for a while before she retracted it with a frown. "I’ll examine them too," she motioned with her chin at Noctis and Unlucien.

The two shadow guards froze in place. They didn’t need to see the expression of their Lord to know he wasn’t happy with Michelle’s words.

Michelle could see Alexander’s face darken, but she didn’t pay him any attention. She stepped away from him and walked toward Noctis and Unlucien. "Hand!" she stared at Noctis first.

He hesitated. Alexander’s gaze was locked on him, like the gaze of an angry predator.

But he didn’t dare defy Michelle. If he let her examine him, Alexander would just be angry, but if he didn’t, who could know whether Alexander wouldn’t get even angrier? Because he didn’t like when someone defied Michelle.

So Noctis stretched his hand out.

Michelle wrapped her fingers around his wrist and inserted her soul essence. For a moment, she closed her eyes.

After a while, she let go of Noctis and turned her gaze to Unlucien.

There was no need for anyone to tell him to show his hand. He just stretched it out.

Michelle examined him too before stepping back. A frown was on her face.

"What did you find out?" Alexander pulled her close to him.

Michelle was already used to Alexander doing things like that, so she didn’t even get angry. "You were poisoned," she concluded. "And I quite like the poison."

Alexander raised a brow. Since the moment Michelle started inquiring about the smell, he knew something was wrong. He had guessed it was a poison. He even knew when they got poisoned. He just hadn’t guessed it would be a poison able to catch Michelle’s interest.

"What kind of poison is it?" Alexander asked.

So Michelle explained.

It was the kind of poison that, when taken by a Shadow Master, would make them lose their sense of smell. Then, the amount of shadow essence within them would start to rise rapidly, but their control would decrease.

But even with more shadow essence within their body, they wouldn’t be able to break through levels. It would reach the point when their body would be unable to store all that shadow essence and they would explode.

And those caught up in the explosion would get infected.

Naturally, only if they were a Shadow Master.

And those newly infected would carry the stench of blood on them. But they wouldn’t be able to smell it with their sense of smell gone.

Hearing that, Alexander’s eyes turned cold and a dreary smile formed on his lips. Even Michelle, with all her experience, felt a shiver run down her spine.

"So the three of us will explode soon?" His black eyes gleamed with frost.

"I can let you!" Michelle shrugged. "Or I could come up with a cure."

Unlucien and Noctis standing behind Alexander stayed calm. Alexander and Michelle were talking about death and impending doom. But the two of them were prepared to die since the moment they started working under Alexander.

As two monsters, their view of life and death was completely different from how most humans viewed it, whether in the lower, middle, upper, or lower realm.