Karamor's Tear grew brighter and brighter, the flame inside dancing violently.
Alex became noticeably serious; this proved that the filthy things around them had increased in number; they were gathering, craving his life force.
Alex had walked the path to the graveyard thousands of times. It could even be said that the winding small path full of weeds and rubble beneath his feet right now had been trampled out step by step by him and other Corpse Collectors over the years. But Alex had never come to this land of the dead late at night, when the gate between yin and yang seemed at its most fragile.
The graveyard at night was terrifying to a degree that could not be described in language. The crooked tombstones cast shadows against the pitch-black sky like jagged teeth. The foul stench of rotting flesh wafting from shallow graves permeated heavily in the air, blending with the smell of mold to form large patches of pale gray miasma.
Karamor's Tear could dispel evil and repel wandering souls, but it could not dispel these toxic miasmas that affected the living body; Alex wrapped the coarse cloth scarf he had prepared beforehand over his face, covering his nose and mouth tightly.
Actually, after finishing lunch, he had already been here once. Besides scouting the scene beforehand to ensure no wild beasts were digging, he also needed to perform some initial preparations that consumed a lot of effort.
Because it involved Gary, Alex's spirit summoning ritual was a bit different from ordinary spirit summoning, carrying a nature of more permanent binding.
He had to bury Gary first. According to the ancient customs of the Necro-Speaker, the boy's body would be buried six feet deep underground to make contact with the energy veins of the Shadow Realm.
And for Alex with his small and thin stature, six feet was very deep, almost beyond his endurance. In a dark night, Alex absolutely could not dig a hole six feet deep without exhausting himself, so he had prepared in advance during the day.
Alex found the hole he had dug; the freshly turned earth was still damp. He fixed the kerosene lamp on the ground and carefully climbed down into the hole.
Picking up the cold iron shovel that had been left at the bottom of the hole, Alex used his own height to estimate the remaining depth needed and began to dig the soil; each shovelful of heavy earth was tossed up.
When the moon reached the zenith, its weak silver light piercing through the mist, the edge of the earthen pit was about one foot above his head.
Alex clung to the small earthen steps he had left to climb out of the hole; his fingernails were covered in pitch-black mud.
He panted heavily, sweat streaming down; looking down, Karamor's Tear emitted a light as brilliant as daylight, illuminating the dark bottom of the grave clearly.
Midnight, the moment of intersection between the two worlds, the time when resentment and miasma were heaviest.
At the edge of the light, Gary's soul appeared in a semi-transparent state, flickering like a candle in the wind. If his movements were not a bit faster, this pure soul would very likely be polluted by the miasma of the graveyard, turning into a wraith that had lost its reason.
Alex hurriedly threw Gary's body down into the earthen hole. A dull "thud" sound rang out; the sound of the collision between flesh and hard earth made Alex's heart constrict. Time was pressing; he no longer cared about using the shovel to move the earth but bent down, using both his hands and feet to push the pile of earth accumulated at the edge of the hole down in a rush, dust flying blindly.
Having done these things, Alex turned into a small mud man from head to toe, his whole body gray, clothes stained with mud, only his eyes were unusually bright, filled with determination.
After the remains were buried six feet underground, cold air from the depths of the earth began to rise violently; the Necro-Speaker advancement ritual officially began.
Gary, who originally could only hide at the outer ring of the halo of light, fearful of the stalking black shadows, was suddenly pulled in front of Alex by a magical power. His vague, misty feet seemed to suddenly have substance, heavily planting straight into the ground, standing firmly on the small patch of earth that had just been filled to bury Gary's remains.
Alex backed away a step in fear; the candlelight flickered madly. He saw the blank, innocent look on Gary's face transforming into an indescribably grotesque expression; his facial features began to twist due to pain.
It was as if someone had extended invisible hands from underground, piercing through the thick layer of earth, grasping the boy's ankles tightly, wanting to drag the boy into the eerie place where no bottom could be seen, the place belonging to the dead.
Alex took a deep breath; the wet face cloth transmitted the strong, fishy smell of mud mixed between earth and water. He dared not delay, hurriedly taking off the scarf, revealing that dark, ominous black pattern on his neck.
At the moment the black pattern was revealed, the surrounding air seemed to freeze. Karamor's Tear, which was already very bright, suddenly erupted with a blinding light brighter than even the sun, burning the surrounding miasma and making sizzling sounds.
Outside the halo of light, countless twisted human figures piled densely upon one another; they screamed soundlessly, looking inside with craving but daring not cross the boundary of light.
Alex dared not turn his head to look; he recalled Elias's stern instructions and raised his hand to cover the mark on his neck to suppress its outbreak.
The shadow reflected on the ground elongated, dancing along with the lamp light; Alex's movement of covering the mark was distorted into the image of a demon strangling its own neck.
The young man closed his eyes, summoned all his courage, and took a step out; his legs trembled but remained firm as he reached his hand out toward the weak soul that was being dragged away. Gary, seemingly seeing the only life-saving straw amidst a flood, also reached out his small hand to grasp Alex's hand.
The soul in this moment seemed to have substance; a bone-piercing coldness transmitted from the fingertips straight into the spinal cord, running down the spine, causing Alex's body to tremble violently, his teeth chattering against each other.
The invisible forces dragging Gary seemed to sense the abnormal change; the interference of a living person made them angry, and the force suddenly increased manifold. The boy's soul was immediately dragged a large distance down into the earth; his lower body sank into the soil, leaving only his face full of terror and the arm raised above his neck exposed.
Alex was also pulled by this colossal force, falling flat onto the ground; his face hit the cold mud, but he still tightly grasped Gary's hand, his fingernails digging deep into the ethereal flesh.