CHAPTER 282: 282

When Alexander finally managed to open a rift through space, he could already see into the middle realm. A smirk appeared on his face as he walked through. He didn’t know just yet where Michelle was, but he was sure to find her quickly.

When the rift closed behind him, he closed his eyes and grasped control over all the surrounding shadow essence. It was night at the moment, so the shadow essence was abundant all around the middle realm.

Quickly, he sensed what he was looking for on a mountain.

Once again cutting through space, he made a rift straight toward Michelle. Walking through, hot air hit him.

Looking around a bit, he raised a brow. "This isn’t a place for someone like you..." He glanced at the sleeping figure nearby.

After Ivona and Anastasia had managed to create their Sensing Nets, Michelle summoned Liquid Shadow and made a big bed from it. Then she laid there, exhausted. Before falling asleep, she told the two they could continue their practice or sleep on the bed. It was big enough.

Kieran stayed awake, practicing the speed at which he could spread the net.

When Alexander stepped out of the rift, Ivona and Anastasia were asleep too.

Kieran sensed someone nearby and quickly turned around. When he saw it was Alexander, he turned silent. He didn’t know the full extent of Alexander’s power, but he knew he wasn’t someone to be messed with.

Alexander sat down at the side of the bed and pulled Michelle so she would be resting her head on his lap. From the fact that she didn’t wake up when he appeared, he could tell that she must have gone through something taxing. He just didn’t know what it was.

With the dream still vivid in his mind, Alexander pressed his finger against Michelle’s forehead. The gem he saw there in the dream wasn’t there.

Glancing down at her hands, he didn’t see claws or any other monster traits.

In her sleep, Michelle felt someone fiddling with her hands, but she didn’t open her eyes. That was the first time in a long time that her exhaustion won against her alertness. The last time it happened was when she collapsed from overuse of her soul energy and slept for a long time.

Seeing Michelle’s peaceful sleeping face, Alexander poked her cheek.

A part of him wanted to see how much he could mess with her until she opened her eyes. But the other part of him didn’t want to disturb her rest.

As Alexander continued poking Michelle’s cheek, her expression shifted a bit, and she mumbled something. She turned her head to the side, in an unconscious attempt to get away from the poking.

But it just resulted in her pressing her face into Alexander’s stomach.

He could still easily poke her cheek, but he stopped.

When Michelle shifted, the movement caused her hair to fall to the side, revealing her bare neck.

Alexander didn’t want to wake Michelle up just yet, but he wanted to see how she would react if he once again formed the Shadow Pact with her.

Would she wake up while he was doing it and stop it? Or would she remain unaware until the moment she woke up?

Placing his palm over the side of Michelle’s neck, he stared at her face. He couldn’t see most of it since Michelle had effectively pressed it against his stomach, but he could still make out whether she was about to wake up or not.

Seeing that she didn’t react much when he placed his hand on her neck, Alexander smiled. A cold, satisfied grin. But if someone looked closely, hidden within Alexander’s eyes they would discover something much deeper and more meaningful. And, in a way, even darker.

Michelle reacted to the shift in the atmosphere. Her brows knitted together and she absentmindedly lifted her hand up. Without any purpose, her hand soon fell down. And because of the position where it was, it fell on Michelle’s neck. In other words, over Alexander’s hand.

Alexander stared at Michelle’s hand over his for a long time. Then, he pushed all his shadow essence to his palm.

He was still being affected by Lavreth’s white mist, so it took a moment longer than it would usually take for him, but he didn’t care. Even though another side effect was that his palm started throbbing when he pushed the shadow essence there.

Michelle was having an overall peaceful sleep when she suddenly felt a flood of foreign shadow essence enter her neck. It was rough and invasive.

She wanted to wake up, but her exhaustion still had the upper hand. Also, her subconscious had recognized a pattern in the shadow essence and deemed it harmless, pushing Michelle’s alertness down a notch.

Seeing that Michelle clearly wasn’t about to wake up, Alexander frowned a bit. She had only stirred a little before sinking back deep into her dreams. He had no doubt that normally, she would already be wide awake, sending a punch his way.

The fact that she wasn’t awake yet made him curious. Just what did she do to be so exhausted?

Shrouded by the darkness of the night, Alexander got lost in thought while the Shadow Pact formed between him and Michelle.

When Michelle woke up, it was still dark all around. Turning her head to the side, her eyes narrowed as she stared at Alexander. He wasn’t looking at her, but that didn’t necessarily mean he didn’t know she was awake.

Sensing that a Shadow Pact had been formed between her and Alexander, Michelle gathered shadow essence on her palm. Clenching her other hand into a fist, she sent a punch at Alexander.

Alexander instantly snapped out of his thoughts and grasped Michelle’s fist.

But Michelle’s attack didn’t stop there.

She yanked the hand Alexander was grasping lower, moving Alexander’s hand along with hers. By that, she got him in a position she liked.

Finally, she lifted her other hand and sent a strike with it to Alexander’s neck.

He wanted to block it with his free hand, but his hand grasping Michelle’s fist was in the way.

He tried to let go of Michelle’s fist, but to his surprise, a black net appeared when he tried to move it. The moment it took him to break it was enough for Michelle to land her strike.

Her palm, coated with shadow essence, landed a slap on the side of his neck.

The moment Alexander broke free from the Sensing Net, he lifted his hand and took hold of the hand on his neck. Specifically, the wrist.

But when he pulled, nothing happened.

Alexander’s eyes narrowed. That wasn’t Michelle’s strength.

She must have done something to stick her hand to his neck.

It didn’t take long for Alexander to realize what Michelle was doing.

Her shadow essence was seeping into his neck like she wanted to form a Shadow Pact.

But that was impossible since one Shadow Pact was already between them.

As far as Alexander knew, no one had ever tried to make a double pact or something like that. It was always assumed that if the one who had received the shadow essence pushed their own into the sender’s neck, the consequence would be horrid.

"What are you trying?" Alexander stared at Michelle’s face.

Michelle smiled, her right eye turning red. It was hard to tell if she was that angry or if it was some kind of twisted excitement to experiment on Alexander.

Not getting an answer from Michelle, Alexander let go of her wrist and reached out to touch her face. "Since you refuse to explain, am I allowed to do unreasonable things too?"

He didn’t even give Michelle the chance to react and pulled her against him. But her hand still remained on his neck.

Michelle frowned a bit. Then, before Alexander could realize what it was, something hit his consciousness.

His gaze blurred, but he stayed awake. "Is this your way of fighting me?" His eyes gleamed with something that resembled excitement as he stared down at Michelle.

Michelle’s frown deepened. She wasn’t expecting to succeed on the first try, but she didn’t like Alexander’s arrogance.

Pushing more shadow essence into his neck, the next time Alexander received the hit to his consciousness, it seriously weakened him.

He was forced to lean against Michelle, his whole weight falling on her.

Finally, Michelle smiled. She pushed just a bit more shadow essence into Alexander’s neck to make sure he wouldn’t get up. Then, she retracted her hand from his neck.

Alexander’s black eyes locked on Michelle. What was she planning?

It wasn’t hard to tell that she was always angry at him and wanted at least some petty revenge for all the times he had messed with her. So was it finally the time?

Alexander couldn’t help but wonder what she was planning. Also, he was curious about what exactly she did with her shadow essence to make him so weak.

But, of course, Michelle wouldn’t tell him. That was only for her to know.