Alex understood his meaning; he claimed to be God's Angel, so even if the current appearance was just a dry skeleton, the holy aura and faint pressure on his body would not deceive people.
Being one of the twelve powerful Angels, he definitely could do many extraordinary things that humans could not do even if they tried all their lives.
He slightly opened his lips intending to say something then stopped again, fingers twisting tightly the hem of the worn-out scarf: "Then... what about this?" Alex slowly removed the old tattered scarf wrapped around his neck, revealing an ugly congenital black mark.
"This is a birthmark." Alex raised a hand to cover the black pattern that was like blood vessels beating lightly under the skin, voice choked: "They say, this is a curse of the devil, people seeing it will all go mad, will turn into bloodthirsty monsters."
Alex lowered his head, teeth biting the lower lip until it bled: "I have always carefully hidden it, not daring to let anyone see, but I did not know the old pastor would unintentionally touch it, I did not intentionally harm him..."
His voice got smaller and smaller, intermittent, until it turned into soft sobbing sounds full of pain.
The sobbing sound did not last long, Alex strongly used one hand to wipe tears, raising his head with reddened eyes: "You are God's Angel, Sir, definitely an extremely powerful and wise existence. I beg you, Sir, help me break this curse, is it okay? I want to live like a normal person."
Elias raised a bony hand; he was not curious about the tragic story behind that mark; to him, the past of humans was not important. According to the convention of deities, he only needed to help Alex fulfill the wish to repay the debt of gratitude.
"Let me take a look." Elias said, moving closer.
"You won't be cursed by it, right, Sir?" Alex shrank his neck back, very afraid that the terrifying thing like the old pastor turning into a monster would happen again to this benefactor.
"No." Elias answered firmly: "I am already a white skeleton, no longer have flesh and blood to transform, a worse transformation will not happen."
The skeleton had no facial muscles to express emotion, Alex did not even know if this Angel was telling a dark humor joke or not.
He stared at Elias, tears not yet fully dry still circling in the glistening eye sockets. He felt it was a bit funny regarding that sentence, but his nose was stuffy and uncomfortable, the act of switching expressions was too difficult, so he only resigned to stepping back, squeezing out a distorted expression that looked like both crying and laughing.
"Are you comforting me, Sir?" He sniffled and asked.
"No." Elias denied immediately: "Angels do not joke, we only state objective facts."
The answer was overly serious and rigid.
Alex pouted, feeling this Angel's personality was a bit weird, but he did not dare to say it out loud.
"Then that is good." He let go of the hand covering the neck, tilting his head to reveal completely the mark on the neck under the oil lamp light: "It is exactly this."
Following Alex's action of letting go, yellow light shone on the pale skin, and finally, Elias also saw clearly what Alex called the terrifying curse.
More accurately, not seeing with naked eyes, but feeling the ancient aura emitting from it.
The white skeleton's movement paused for a moment, the surrounding space seemed to stagnate. Alex sensed some strange, chaotic emotions from the other party.
"What is wrong, Sir? Is it too difficult?" He looked at Elias worriedly.
"Alex." The ending sound of the name rang out then vaguely dissolved in the air, Alex looked attentively at the skeleton before his eyes, waiting for the verdict.
"Yes?"
"This is not a curse." Elias answered slowly, word by word.
Alex could hardly imagine his expression at this moment, he opened his mouth wide, dazed for a long while, finally uttering a question full of confusion: "Not a curse?"
The damn thing that harmed him to be discarded by the Luminous Church without pity, causing surrounding people to fear and shun, even causing the beloved old pastor to turn into a monster, was not a curse?
Then what was it? Could it be just a harmless normal pigmentation birthmark?
"That is right." Elias gave Alex a firm affirmative answer again: "It is not an evil curse, it resembles... a type of mark of a certain ancient nameless god more..." Elias's voice suddenly stopped, as if he had just slipped and spoken a taboo.
"Of what deity, Sir?" Alex curiously leaned forward.
The skeleton's voice lowered, carrying a slight warning: "Alex, that is not something you can know at this moment. Knowing too much will be dangerous for you."
Elias did not intend to continue speaking, and his attitude showed that this was the limit.
Alex also gradually restored his calm; being intelligent, he already had a speculation. Perhaps that was a secret that ordinary people were not allowed to know, like the great existences that mortals could not know of or call by name in the whispered stories of the old pastor years ago.
He did not continue to curiously question. Just knowing the birthmark was not a curse, this precious information had already caused his mood to fluctuate violently, difficult to calm down.
"This wish, cannot be fulfilled, right, Sir?" He lowered his eyes sadly, voice tiny, unable to hear emotions, shoulders drooping in disappointment.
The skeleton did not answer; his silence and evasive behavior, in Alex's eyes, were synonymous with a tacit admission of helplessness.
Silent for a moment, Elias spoke full of regret: "This matter exceeds my current ability, Alex. I apologize."
The teenager before his eyes carried a secret sufficient to make the Angel of War astonished. Currently, Elias had reasons to believe that the reason Alex could break the extremely strong Evil God's curse on Elias's body was not a coincidence.
This teenager shouldered a part of the power or mark of a certain nameless god yet still grew up peacefully until now; this meant Alex was absolutely not an ordinary person, his body was a special vessel.
"So I have to shoulder this thing for a lifetime..." Alex sighed, then suddenly realized a matter, eyes lighting up: "If it is not a curse, is it true that I can learn magic? I heard that people who are cursed cannot use magic."
"It is exactly that kind of shimmering magic that the Luminous Church pastor taught to apprentice nuns."
"Magic?" Elias stopped for a moment, tilting his head to seriously think about the meaning in Alex's innocent words.
As the great Angel of War of the Goddess of Light, he was one of the strongest existences in the world, one of the few people who understood the truth of the world's operation.
The reason he needed time to think was not because the question Alex put forward was too difficult, on the contrary, because it was too easy, even being basic marginal knowledge to the point that was enough for an Elias who had lived tens of thousands of years to forget.