Not long after Alex left, the small forest returned to its inherent silence. A few illusory figures slowly emerged from the air, their white cloaks fluttering in the night wind.
If Alex were still here, he would certainly feel incredibly astonished and terrified.
These illusory figures were none other than a special squad directly under the Luminous Church – the "Arbiter".
They were the sharpest blades of the Goddess of Light, specialized in dealing with dangerous heresies and evil entities. They were the most fanatical believers of the Goddess of Light, and every single Arbiter was an extremely powerful mage.
"The fluctuation has disappeared," a tall man, his entire body encased in golden armor reflecting the cold moonlight, spoke in a deep voice. The sound of metal colliding rang out softly as he moved.
Behind him, a woman completely covered in an ash-gray cloak with a low hood whispered:
"We should report this to the high-level big shots. Energy fluctuations at this level are clearly not something existences of our rank can casually investigate or interfere with."
"Send people to blockade this forest immediately." The man in the majestic armor ordered, his sharp gaze sweeping across the night: "Ask the residents nearby to see if anyone saw anything unusual."
...
The night wind howled outside. Alex used his shoulder to push open the dilapidated wooden door of the house, and the sound of rusty hinges groaning rang out. Without even taking the time to remove the heavy body bag from his shoulder, he hurriedly rushed to the old cabinet, his hands trembling slightly as he took out a matchbox and struck a match to light the oil lamp on the table.
The thin Corpse Collector lived in a desolate place a mile away from the gloomy graveyard, residing in a tattered house leaning against a wind-swept hillside.
Behind the house, there used to be a towering bell tower belonging to the Luminous Church, but several years ago, due to an accident of unknown cause, it collapsed, and now only a pile of moss-covered ruins remained.
The dim firelight slowly brightened, and the dance of the flame illuminated the cramped and dusty room. Alex watched the warm yellow light spread out and finally breathed a sigh of relief, feeling a long-lost sense of security soothing his tense nerves.
This oddly shaped oil lamp with ancient patterns carved on its body was a relic that the respected old priest had left for Alex. It was one of the few precious items, a truly extraordinary item that he possessed.
The lamp, named [Karamor's Tear], contained divine power and could create an invisible purification field within the range covered by its light, dispelling evil entities and filthy things around it. This was an extraordinary item with orthodox origins from the Luminous Church.
Its former owner, who was also the former owner of this tattered wooden house, the kind old priest who had adopted Alex when he was a child, used to be a powerful mage of the Luminous Church, a majestic "Arbiter" who had retired into seclusion.
Alex took the body bag down; the smell of damp earth and the scent of death wafted out. He dumped the boy's corpse inside and the pile of strange white bone fragments onto the cold earthen floor. He only glanced briefly at the cold body, then carefully put the boy's corpse back into the bag for preservation.
[Karamor's Tear] was burning with a crackling sound, radiating a holy warmth. The boy's soul could not approach this house; he could only wait until tomorrow morning, when the sunlight was strong, to figure out a way to deal with these pitiful remains.
More importantly, at this moment, all of Alex's curiosity and attention were attracted by the strange white bones scattered there.
He squatted down, picked up a bone fragment, and narrowed his eyes to examine it carefully under the yellow light. But no matter how meticulously he observed, turning it over and over in every way, this was just an ordinary piece of calcium bone, without anything amiss or any sign of magic. Even the powerful holy aura he had sensed earlier in the forest had vanished completely, as if it had never existed.
Alex pursed his lips in disappointment and placed the bone fragment on the ground.
He stood up, walked to the desk, and held the white skull with both hands. Its empty eye sockets stared back at him.
As a professional Corpse Collector, Alex knew the structure of the human body and the position of every bone by heart. He remembered clearly that this pile of white bones before his eyes, after being assembled into a complete human form, had erupted with a strange power that repelled the fog.
Perhaps, as long as he patiently reassembled these bones into their correct positions, that mysterious power would appear once again. If he had the protection of that immense power, perhaps the terrifying curse of the full moon night would no longer be a trouble haunting him all these years.
Alex pursed his lips, his inner mind struggling fiercely. Obviously, such an action also had a very high probability of bringing him unexpected troubles, or even danger to his life.
The teenager fell into conflict, lowering his eyes to look at the pile of bones, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the smooth surface of the white skull, tapping it lightly one by one, unable to decide.
Out of the corner of his eye, he accidentally saw a frayed yarn end exposed on his thick scarf. Alex shuddered, and finally made a decision. He put the skull down and slowly unwound the scarf loop by loop, revealing the strange and ugly mark hidden beneath the layer of wool.
The teenager's neck was pale and slender, with faint blue blood vessels visible, but near the collarbone, there was a dark black scar, zig-zagging around his neck. It looked as if he had been brutally beheaded and then sewn back onto the neck with black thread for fixation.
Alex touched the cold black mark with one trembling hand, while the other unconsciously clenched into a fist.
There would be no result more terrifying than this ugly curse gnawing at his life.
Thinking of this, Alex's eyes became resolute. He squatted on the floor, cleared a space, placed the skull in the very center of the ground, and then took a vertebra from the pile of bone fragments to begin the work.
The spine, the curved ribs, the long and sturdy thigh bones—bit by bit, Alex patiently restored this monstrous skeleton according to his memory and anatomical knowledge.
These were the bones of an adult man, and the skeletal frame was very large. He was very tall; the body length measured more than ten of Alex's hand spans. Standing next to this skeleton, Alex looked as small as a tiny child.