Chapter 78 Cold Reading
"Keep our opponent in place." Alex said as he slowly approached the shadow monster. "I am interested on asking it some questions."
"Fire away." Alina commented as she sat down on the floor, giving Alex and the shadow monster a bored look. "With me here, you should not worry about the monster moving or even bleeding out to death."
"Nice." Alex replied as he stopped right in front of the shadow monster.
But before he cold give his questions, Alex started to frown, as if he remembered something important.
"Hey Alina, what if this monster has a trump card that it is still waiting to use?" Alex suddenly said as he tilted his head. "Perhaps it will be better if you lock our opponent’s power too."
"You should have said that earlier." Alina drily said as she waved her hands at the direction of the shadow monster.
At the instant that Alina said these words, something shone inside the shadow monster’s body.
This shining thingy then started to flow inside the shadow monster’s body, and in no time at all, a network of branching lines could be seen shining inside the monster’s body.
Alex nodded upon seeing this, with him looking impressed with what he saw. "You really are a godsend to me Alina. No wonder I am always happy being with you."
"Oh shut up..." Alina said with a slight blush on her face. "I will not be swayed with your sweet words anymore! You are still under my punishment!"
"Ok, ok, I get it." Alex shamelessly replied as he shook his head. "I still need to please you more."
"Mind your choice of words Alex." Alina frostily replied, with the warm blush of her face suddenly gone. "I am really not interested with your slightly perverted comments."
"... Sorry." Alex replied sullenly, realizing that he slipped up again. "That won’t happen next time again."
"Hehehe, this adds more to your punishment! then" Alina suddenly giggled, as if her frosty expression earlier was just an act. "You should always be careful!"
"Sigh..." Alex’s only reply to that was a sigh and a weary smile.
"Alina changed a lot already..." Alex thought to himself as he saw the vibrant expression on Alina’s face.
When he first met Alina more than a month ago, what Alex could only feel from her was grit and coldness.
Even after he ’dated’ her in the city, Alina was still holding some dark emotions inside her.
For Alina to be like that is acceptable, since she held the burden to keep her sister alive from anyone that meant her harm.
This could have been bad already, but then Alina’s sister died, making Alex worry about Alina’s mindset more.
Nobody can really stay cheerful in that kind of situation.
But luckily for him, Alina had somewhat taken her sister’s death quite well.
Well, the only reason that Alina was able to weather the grief was the possibility of her sister being revived in the future.
That was the sole crutch that kept Alina away from despair.
Well, Alex had not complaints about it, as long as it will not destroy Alina.
But even with this, Alex thought that Alina will still stay sad and grumpy.
However, it seems like the appearance of the 5 little monsters were able to help Alina
With the nonstop pestering and childishness of the little monsters, Alina’s overall personality had somewhat mellowed out, with her laughing and smiling more often at their presence
She also rarely wore her mask now, as she seemed to feel more free and confident to show her face.
"I have to find a way to thank these little monsters later..." Alex thought to himself as he gave Alina a silly smile.
"What? Is there something on my face?" Alina said as she tilted her head.
"Oh, there’s nothing." Alex replied as he realized that Alina looked really cute right now. "You just look really cute..."
"Hmph, there you go again!" Alina said as she blushed crimson. "When will you learn to keep your flowery talks in place?"
"Well, as long as you deserve to be praised, then I will not stop complimenting you." Alex replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "There’s nothing wrong with that, right?"
Alina’s only reply to that was a shy glare.
"Hey, praise me too Alex!" Of course Asteria just had to talk right now. "I am just as beautiful as my hooman, you know. So come and praise me now!"
"Nope." Both Alex and Alina replied as Alex went back on focusing on the shadow monster.
"Hmph, you two really are jerks!" Alex ignored what Asteria said as he looked at the newest spell used by Alina.
"With the Blood Lock set in place, you cannot use any of your trump cards against me." Alex said to the frozen shadow monster, who looked like it was able to glare at Alex with its eyes. "You can’t use your powers anymore, right?"
"...."
****************
Currently, Blood Lock is Alina’s strongest spell.
Just like Alex, Alina was also training herself to raise her Dark Energy Grade.
However, unlike Alex who had just stepped into Grade 4, Alina had already stepped into Grade 5.
Of course Alex felt slightly jealous about it, but Alina was able to use the fusion of her Esper Ability and her Dark Energy to accelerate her training. Alex had no such luxury.
The Blood Lock Spell is the spell that Alina obtained as she stepped into Grade 5.
For the Blood Lock spell to work, Alina must first take control of the blood of her Target’s body using Blood Warp.
Once Alina uses Blood Warp on her target, she can then activate Blood Lock.
What the Blood Lock Spell does is just simple.
This spell uses the blood of the Target to ’lock’ the source of power inside the Target’s body.
Once this source of power was ’locked’, the Target cannot use its power anymore, unless the spell was broken or Alina allows it.
When Alex heard about the power of this spell 3 days ago, he felt somewhat cheated, as this is seriously a scary spell.
But according to Alina, there is one limitation to the Blood Lock spell.
And that is the fact that Alina’s power will also be ’locked’ too while using this spell.
*************
Because of that limitation, both Alina and the shadow monster were unable to use their abilities right now.
If Alina wanted to use her power, then she had to ’unlock’ the shadow monster first.
Of course this action could pose some problems if Alina was a lone monster...
But with Alex beside her, Alina had no qualms on using the Blood Lock spell.
This willingness of Alina to use a limiting spell just shows how much she trusted Alex.
Alex of course was touched by it, but he did not point it out anymore, as he was afraid of embarrassing himself again.
"Now that we have no worries, I can start talking to our guest now." Alex stared at the shadow monster once more, before saying,
"Come on, open your mouth already. Alina specifically did not lock your moth earlier so that you can speak with me now. Come on, don’t waste my wifey’s goodwill."
"I’m not your wifey!" Alex ignored the flustered reply behind him as his gaze was solely concentrated on the shadow monster itself. "Come on, maybe we can start this by you telling me about your name."
"My name is Carlie." The shadow monster spat out after staying silent for 5 more seconds. "Ask me anything that you want... you won’t even know if what I will tell you is the truth."
"Well, that might be really bad for me if it was just me asking you..." Alex drawled as he glanced back at Alina. "Hey Alina, can you still detect lies?"
"Yes, I can still do that." Alina replied quickly. "It seems like my Blood Lock Spell was unable to lock my lie detection power... Hold on, that is actually confusing me now."
"Of course it can’t lock your All-Seeing Eyes." Asterai muttered at the background. "Your All-Seeing Eyes are extremely powerful, and a paltry spell like that is not enough to suppress it!"
"Thanks for the commentary Asteria." Alex thought idly to himself as he saw the contorted expression on Carlie’s face. It seems like she had already gotten the gist of what Alex and Alina was talking about.
"I will appreciate it if you will not lie to me." Alex said in a low voice as he reactivated his Electromagnetic Saber.
"Hong~"
"You never know... maybe my Saber will brush by your skin every time you lie. "Alex said as he dangled the saber right in front of Carlie. "But it could go deeper too, you know..."
Carlie’s body started to tremble, as if they showed her adverse fear to the saber.
"I can just choose to not answer your questions..." Carlie said as she tried tearing her gaze away from the saber. "If I do not say anything, then you cannot hear me lie."
"Alex, you actually do not need Carlie to answer your questions." Alina interjected as she saw the grim resolution on Carlie’s face. "Just phrase your questions in a way that we can elicit answers from her even without her actually answering."
"Oh... I get it." It took only Alex 10 seconds to get where Alina was getting at.
Alex realized that Alina can just combine the truth power of her All-Seeing Eyes with her cold reading skills.
Even though Carlie was frozen in place due to Blood Warp, her body can still react slightly to external stimuli, including things like intrusive questions.
With this principle in mind, Alina will just have to use cold reading and her All-Seeing eyes to observe Carlie’s bodily reactions to Alex’s questions, and that will be enough for her to see the truth.
After realizing these things, Alex took a minute to change the format of his questions.
Once he was sure that he is ready, Alex leaned down as he slowly said,
"Carlie, are you a loyal servant of the Queen Mother?"
Alex saw a slight twitch on the left eye of Carlie, and surely, Alina noticed it too.
Alex continued talking as he asked Carlie,
"Carlie, are you harboring malicious intentions against the Queen Mother?"
This time, both Carlie’s eyes twitched.
"From what I can observe from her reaction to your questions, it looks like Carlie is devoted to the Queen Mother." Alina commented as she blinked deliberately.
"Hehehe, now that is interesting..." Alex felt great upon knowing that Alina’s All-Seeing Eyes can work this way.
With Alex now confirming that Alina’s eyes can still work by just looking at Carlie’s body language, Alex started to ask more questions.
"Why did you attack me earlier?" Alex asked Carlie as he started to walk around her.
"Did you attack me because you were tasked to kill me?"
Carlie’s nose twitched slightly at that.
"Or you attacked me because you thought I was about to attack you?"
Carlie did not twitch at that.
"Carlie attacked you because she thought that we are about to attack her." Alina said as she shook her head.
"Wait, how can that be the truth? She did not even twitch at that question!" Alex said as he gave Alina a confused look. "Shouldn’t her twitch be the telling sign?"
"I follow what my power sees as the truth." Alina drily commented as she gave a withering look to Alex. "So, don’t doubt what I say, ok?"
"Ok.." Alex replied as he nodded his head. "I won’t complain now."
"Good." Alina replied as she fixed her hair. "That means that instead of playing detective with me, you should just ask the questions and let me do the lie-detecting. It works better in that way, right?"
"...Right."
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