Through the advancement to become a Necro-Speaker, Alex received two basic types of extraordinary abilities; one called "Taming." and the other called "Enslavement."
In reality, these two types of power were very easy to understand. The effect of "Taming" was using mental power to subdue and suppress spirit bodies, while "Enslavement" was giving orders, commanding these spirit bodies to fight, scout, or protect him.
This type of subdued spirit body was called an Enslaved Spirit.
Typically, an Enslaved Spirit could be any known spirit body floating in nature, even a fierce evil spirit if the Necro-Speaker was strong enough.
Soul spirits had a fundamental difference from Enslaved Spirits; in the world of spirit bodies, a soul spirit like Gary often represented the Necro-Speaker himself, being a separated or symbiotic part of the soul.
The process of Taming a soul was the process of the Necro-Speaker using his own soul spirit to subdue other external spirit bodies.
This sounded completely unsuitable for the identity and the death-filled name "Necro-Speaker." Elias explained more thoroughly that this was because this "Necro-Speaker" pathway had two different schools, developing in two separate directions: "Taming" could tame physical corpses, and it could also tame non-material souls; "Enslavement" was similar.
Therefore, the world of Necro-Speakers was naturally divided into two opposing but complementary schools: "Corpse Enslavement" and "Spirit Enslavement."
The Corpse Enslavement school of Necro-Speakers could use ancient language to converse with corpses, turning them into puppets and making them fight for the user. This school was numerous and seemed significantly superior to Spirit Enslavement, which was mysterious and harder to cultivate, so when the Church of Light named the extraordinary people belonging to this pathway, they chose the name Necro-Speaker.
There was another unofficial reason, which was that the Corpse Enslavement sect often tamed zombies, skeletons, and monsters; those tangible things looked evil and easily attracted attention. Meanwhile, the Spirit Enslavement sect focused on souls and shadows, being much more discreet and leaving no obvious physical traces, thus not fitting perfectly into the Church of Light's rigid and stereotypical classification of heresy regarding Necro-Speakers.
After discovering Alex's talent, Elias had also carefully considered this point. Taking advantage of the small surprise that was the appearance of Gary the soul spirit, Elias chose the second direction for Alex, which possessed high flexibility and was safer for their current situation.
The bone angel could not follow Alex into the city because its appearance was too conspicuous, so just like last time, Elias gave a phalanx of his to Alex to keep.
The small, ivory-white bone phalanx, smooth and warm, lay neatly in the pocket; on one hand, it was convenient for the two to communicate via telepathy, and on the other hand, it was also because **he** could not leave Alex, wanting to ensure **Alex** was always within his range of protection.
The forest path usually taken had been strictly blockaded by the Church. Alex could only take a detour; from afar, **he** saw Church soldiers wearing gleaming silver armor, armed to the teeth, patrolling the edge of the forest. The atmosphere around this area became tense and stifling. Alex knew that this incident would absolutely not pass easily, and although **he** did not know why Elias did not want to be discovered by the people of the Church of Light, if that was what **Elias** desired, then there was nothing wrong with it. **He** trusted Elias unconditionally.
Now, one could only hope that the arrogant idiots of the Church of Light would not find any useful clues from that pile of ruins.
...
"Didn't you say you gave the receipt to that kid?"
Inside Dune City, at the luxuriously decorated foreign affairs office of the Church of Light, a middle-aged man holding a pipe blew out a stream of white smoke, narrowing his eyes at the two young men sitting properly on the genuine leather sofa:
"Why is there still no news from him up to this hour? Does he not need money?"
Hughes lowered his head to look at his fingernails, not wanting to reply as he felt bored. Wood pondered for a moment, his finger tapping lightly on the armrest of the chair, and then said: "It must be soon; that boy's life is very destitute, living from hand to mouth. This amount of money is not a small figure to him; it is enough to change the life of a poor wretch."
The Church of Light naturally would not leave a teenager who was present at the scene on the night the case occurred to continue wandering outside like that without a thorough inspection.
Regarding Alex's previous report, the Judges always maintained a skeptical attitude. He indeed did not lie under the reconnaissance magic, but exactly how much of the truth had been concealed, and which important details had been glossed over, no one could be sure.
Concerning extraordinary events, especially this type of bizarre event exuding a thick aura of evil, the Judges always took it extremely seriously, preferring to kill the wrong person than to let one slip.
The middle-aged man was Simon, the person in charge of the foreign affairs office, who was normally responsible for communicating with extraordinary organizations within the Church and handling mundane troubles. Apart from the stationed Judges, the Church of Light at Dune also had a Sun Believer and a Fate Weaver; they served the Angel of the Sun and the Angel of Fate of the Goddess, creating a solid network of power.
Compared to Judges who specialized in combat and judgment, Sun Believers and Fate Weavers were much rarer, and they often held the roles of advisors or support.
"You lack a bit of patience, Mr. Simon." Wood said, his tone calm but carrying a bit of the condescension of a noble: "Wait a little longer and there will be news. A hungry prey will find its way to the trap on its own."
"Hmph." Simon sneered, putting the pipe down in the crystal ashtray: "Young Master Wood is still too young; you do not fully understand the human heart. How can a person with a destitute life remain so calm upon hearing about money falling from the sky? Unless he has a guilty conscience."
Using the excuse of a "special allowance" to invite a person involved to the Church of Light was a trick they had used many times; for poor people, it was a hundred hits out of a hundred, never failing.
This was the first time someone had not come to collect the money immediately after receiving the notice.
Simon continued, his tone becoming serious:
"Our people followed up at the scene to record the situation. The feedback stated that the money left at the scene showed signs of being eroded and polluted by evil energy; you, as Judges, must know very well that only when magic is mobilized within does such a sign of erosion exist. An ordinary person cannot activate it."
"We have already looked into this point with the pastor of the Church of Wealth." Wood said, maintaining his composure: "The fact that there is the Goddess's blessing inside the gold coin is not a secret, and Pastor Arthur, who adopted Alex, used to be a Rank Seven Judge of the Church, a person of prestige."
Wood replied, his eyes sharp: "Mobilizing the blessing within the coin is not a difficult task for someone taught by him."
Saying that, Wood reached out his hand, and Hughes took a gold coin from his coat pocket and handed it to him.