Alex felt a searing heat spreading from the mark between his brows throughout his entire body; the finger bone belonging to Elias was heating up, responding to the main body.
Alex suddenly realized that he was absorbing those sinister energies into himself, using his own divine body to bear the pollution.
"My Lord - " Alex shouted; he wanted to call Elias's name, but he dared not, fearing he might offend the deity in this solemn moment.
"Angel!"
Elias turned back, amidst a sea of blazing red fire.
He still had no expression, being a bare skeleton, but Alex saw a gentle, comforting look in his eyes; he was telling Alex to rest assured, that everything was under control.
Absorbing so much treacherous power, which even obscured the divine aura on his body, made him look like an evil god who had just stepped out of hell.
Alex gritted his teeth, trying to suppress his anxiety: "Gary!"
The small spirit was telepathically connected to his master; in the gale, the boy trembled as he flew up, clasping his hands together in front of his chest, focusing all of his meager power.
A strange spiral mark, identical to the one on Alex's neck, appeared in front of the boy, emitting a dark light. On the ground, a crack appeared, earth and rocks splitting apart, exactly six feet deep.
The mouth of the hole emitted a deep, dark gloom, like a giant mouth waiting to devour. In the halo of red light, the white skeleton pointed a finger; the skeletons that had been stripped of their curses, becoming clean, white, and peaceful, flew toward the black hole. One after another, floating gently, flying toward the security they should have enjoyed long ago.
The dark clouds grew even deeper, thunder rumbled in the distance, and raindrops fell, freezing cold, dripping onto the tip of Alex's nose, mingling with the sweat on his forehead.
Alex looked at the existence being surrounded by the sea of red light; he knew Elias was helping the souls in this ancient battlefield to reincarnate. He was taking on the sins of war to return peace to the fallen soldiers.
The halos of red light he peeled off were the heavy shackles of hatred and pain, locking these souls to the cursed land, suffering the same torture together for thousands of years.
But even so, how could he absorb those curses so violently? Those filthy things were destroying the sanctity of the angel, dyeing his bones black, dragging him into the dirty mud of the mortal world.
The red light gradually subsided, permeating into Elias's body; the angel in the center slowly stepped out, each step leaving a scorched footprint on the grass.
He was covered in sinister energy; the flames dancing in his empty eye sockets were now mixed with a red hue.
"Alex, I won't be hurt." he explained when he saw the panicked look on Alex's face: "These things are the source of my power. War is inherently blood and fire, death and resentment. Because of the existence of war, I will only get stronger when accepting them."
Alex could not understand that cruel logic; he could do nothing but stand and watch.
"It's alright." Elias comforted him, pointing at the white skeletons slowly moving toward the black hole, the souls that had found a way out: "They can reincarnate because of you. You saved them."
"You and Gary opened the entrance to the Shadow Realm, the gathering place of lost spirits."
The pitch-black passage was still there, emitting a gloomy chill; the spirits moved in order, jumping into the black hole one by one, disappearing into the void.
Alex opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but no words came out; his throat choked up. He didn't know what to say in front of this tragic yet magnificent scene. His eyes fell on those white skeletons, feeling like he was bidding farewell to an ancient army.
Elias straightened up, shaking off the last remnants of the red light, and offered a skeletal hand to Alex: "Let's go, our mission is not yet finished."
"Huh?" Alex turned around, startled out of his train of thought, seeing the large hand in front of him. He hesitated for a moment before grasping his hand. The hand was cold but firm. Gary flew back, sitting exhaustedly on Alex's shoulder, the boy's light dimming a little.
"Are we just ignoring this entrance?" Alex asked Elias, looking back at the pitch-black hole again.
The angel replied, his tone certain: "It will close automatically when the time comes; no need to worry."
"I thought our work was done." Alex said, exhaling sharply. The scene just now had been incredibly shocking, consuming a lot of his mental energy. Alex didn't know what else Elias intended to do in this long, dragging night.
"Have you forgotten?" The angel said, leading him forward: "We came to capture the Driving Spirit for you; that is the main purpose."
"But the spirits have all hidden away." Because of Elias, his pressure was so great that they dared not show their faces.
"There is still one left." the angel replied, his gaze directed toward the center of the graveyard, where the yin energy gathered most densely: "The spirit of this land."
"It is still here."
As if to respond to his words, just as the angel finished speaking, the ground beneath their feet suddenly shook violently, as if a giant monster were turning over.
"Earthquake?" Alex staggered, trying to keep his balance.
"No, it is coming."
It?
The ground shook ceaselessly, rumbling sounds echoing. Alex held tight to Elias's hand to barely stay standing. The land beneath their feet seemed to come alive, cracking into ferocious fissures like gaping scars.
Inside the deep crevices, the smell of rust and sulfur rose pungently; a giant black shadow gradually coalesced, rising from the bowels of the earth. Along with its appearance, the dry skeletons walking toward the six-foot depth all stopped; they confusedly turned their heads, countless empty eye sockets staring, converging on that black shadow, as if seeing their old king.
The black shadow hovered in mid-air, its shape not fixed, expanding and contracting, surrounded by slimy blood-colored soft bodies of unknown nature, looking like severed blood vessels.
Red and black, two dominant colors interwoven in a grotesque manner.
Alex involuntarily looked toward Elias, comparing the two images; those were the colors he had seen on the divine statue, Elias's heterochromatic eyes, exactly left red and right black, identical to this black shadow before his eyes.
This similarity made him shudder.