CHAPTER 280: 280

When Alexander was finally done with his business in the heavenly realm, having taken care of the old foggies in the Dark Palace, he wanted to return to the middle realm. But Unlucien and Noctis blocked his way. Even if it cost them their heads, they had to stop him from leaving the Dark Palace. He had just killed all the Palace’s elders.

Seeing the two blocking his path without saying anything, Alexander’s eyes narrowed. He knew what they wanted.

"Very well." He turned back to the throne room. Though he couldn’t care less about the Dark Palace, he was the Dark Lord. David Elether, the other Dark Lord, was still in the Land of Exile in the lower realm, so Alexander was the one to keep order in the Palace.

Alexander hated administrative work more than anything. But he had killed all the elders, so he had to name new ones.

Entering the throne room, he didn’t even look around. Upon opening the giant door, the hallway was short but wide, stretching far to both sides.

And on each side, a throne was placed. On each wall behind the thrones was something engraved into the stone.

One side had a bunch of terrifying monsters. And above the headrest of the throne was engraved a figure of a person.

The other side had numerous figures of people all around the wall. And above the headrest was an intricate engraving of a man extremely similar to Alexander. It was nearly the same.

If someone was in the hall for the first time and saw Alexander, they would think the second throne was his, but he turned his back to it and went to the first throne. The person engraved on the wall behind the throne wasn’t him, it was David Elether. Though unrelated, they looked nearly the same.

Alexander didn’t send a single glance at the engravings on the walls. He had seen them thousands of times. When he sat down on his throne, the figure engraved behind him symbolized him. The Dark Lord wielding shadow essence and never letting anyone see his face.

The figures on the other side of the hall symbolized the shadow guards under David Elether’s rule. Humans who wielded shadow essence. Shadow Masters belonging to the Dark Palace.

The monsters behind Alexander’s throne symbolized the Dark Palace’s monsters under his rule. Most of them had already taken on human form.

Lazily crossing his legs, Alexander glanced at Unlucien and Noctis. "We shall make changes to the Dark Palace!" he started.

For the next few days, Alexander was taking care of the Dark Palace. When he was done, he was prepared to return to the middle realm. But he suddenly felt a presence above the throne room.

Not caring how magnificent the throne room was, he gathered shadow essence on his palm and shot it up to the roof. It exploded upon impact, creating a big hole.

Shadow essence was considered a calm energy. Usually, it didn’t cause direct destruction.

Only with enough control, that of the Eclipse or higher, could one make their shadow essence turn aggressive.

Alexander had that power.

Above the hole he had created, a figure clad in white was floating.

Alexander’s eyes narrowed. "White god... what would someone like you want here?"

Lavreth stared down at Alexander, his eyes cold. "What do you think she is doing now?" The chill in his voice was bone-piercing.

But Alexander didn’t waver. He just stared back at Lavreth. His eyes were deep and profound. He had long known that Lavreth had a strange way to use the light element spirit energy by pushing it into his eyes. So it seemed he had seen something with it.

For a while, silence took over the hall. It lasted until Lavreth lifted his hand and some spirit energy dropped from his finger. Like water, it dripped down towards Alexander.

It fell right in front of him and spread into a thin mist.

With that, Lavreth disappeared.

Alexander turned his gaze to the mist at his feet. It clearly meant something.

But Alexander didn’t care. He stood up and walked out of the throne room. The white mist coiled beneath his feet as he walked until it dispersed.

Alexander lifted his hand to cut a rift open in the space, but as he moved his shadow essence, an image flashed before his eyes.

For the first time in a long time, his legs felt weak.

Frowning a bit, Alexander summoned his shadow essence forcefully and cut a rift into the space. Walking in, he wasn’t going to the middle realm. He felt something was happening. So he would check it.

Once outside the rift, Alexander sat down on the chair already waiting for him. It was his contracted space. He had refined it so much that by opening a space rift, he himself could enter it. And no one else could enter unless he cut open another rift.

Sitting on the chair, he wanted to check himself, but strange drowsiness washed over him. His eyelids turned heavy, closing over his eyes.

Alexander rarely slept. With his level of cultivation, he didn’t need it. The last time he slept was still in the Land of Exile. There, his power was suppressed so even he needed sleep at least once a week.

Logically, it should have been completely unreasonable for him to fall asleep. So the cause must have been the mist of Lavreth’s spirit energy that had been coiling around his legs just a while ago.

In his dream, Alexander opened his eyes and found himself on a field shrouded in shadows. But he could still see. Shadow Masters could see in the darkness.

In the darkness, he saw a figure all too familiar to him. But at the same time, it was completely strange.

The figure turned to Alexander. That beautiful face would always be recognized by him.

Michelle’s face was unmasked. Beautiful and sinful. Her left eye was the same as ever. Glassy purple. And the right one gleaming red with wickedness that only appeared when she was excited for a fight.

But Alexander was already used to it. What he found so foreign was nestled on Michelle’s forehead.

Like she was a monster in a human form, a gem was shimmering on her forehead. A Life Stone.

She didn’t speak. She just stared at Alexander.

Alexander’s legs moved without his command. He stretched out his hand towards Michelle’s face, touching her cheek. It was colder than ever before. Colder than death.

Looking down a bit, Alexander’s eyes widened. Even he was shocked by what he saw.

The hands that used to be small but strong were enlarged into a monstrous, clawed pair.

Michelle lifted the hand and took a hold of Alexander’s wrist. Then she pulled his palm off her face.

With that, the claws retracted into normal nails, and her hands shrunk back to normal.

Continued by that, the Life Stone on Michelle’s forehead started retracting too. As if an invisible force was pushing it into her head.

When it disappeared, just a small wound remained, blood trickling down.

Even though it was just a dream, Alexander could smell the sweet scent of Michelle’s blood.

And the dream could smell it too.

The ground shook as if a great monster had awakened.

With that, Alexander awoke in his space, a frown on his brows. Was what he saw something from Lavreth’s foresight?

In the meantime, on the volcanic mountain in the middle realm, Michelle was staring at the palm of her hand.

"What were you planning?" Ivona checked Michelle’s palm and let some light element spirit energy flow over it to speed up the healing.

Considering Michelle’s extreme healing abilities, it didn’t make much change, but Ivona still did it. She didn’t have many chances to test her healing skills.

Michelle stared at the red blisters on her skin. "I call it a Sensing Net. I push spirit or soul energy into, or on the surface of, the ground and have it spread around like a net. That way, I can check the terrain and feel what creatures are around."

Hearing that, Kieran’s ears perked up. "What if I try it? The heat shouldn’t harm me."

Michelle nodded. "Let me teach you."

Ivona and Anastasia stood guard while Michelle taught Kieran to use the Sensing Net.

It took a while. Unlike Ivona, who had excellent control over her spirit energy so she could use it for healing, Kieran was focused on scaled attacks, so his control didn’t have to be that big.

To create a Sensing Net, one needed to control their spirit energy to form thin strings to connect into a net. And that was hard for Kieran.

But the environment was helping him. Fire element spirit energy was abundant all around, lessening the burden on him.

After a few hours of trying, he had finally created a small net over the ground. It stretched just beyond a boulder nearby.

Kieran closed his eyes to focus on what he could feel with his spirit energy.

And once he did, his eyes widened in shock.

Michelle smiled. "Is there something behind the rock?" She knew the answer. And she was also guessing about what it could be.

The boulder was nearby. And for quite a while, Michelle and Kieran had been making noise. But the thing behind the boulder didn’t notice.

So she could safely assume it was deaf.

There was just one fire element creature like that she knew about.