"Death is worth celebrating, right?" said a man lying on the ground with blood flowing from his nose.
"So your smile is to celebrate your death? Well then," Yamile said as he pulled the trigger of his gun.
"Bang!"
"Arrgh!"
A groan of pain rang out loudly from the man. He was fortunate to avoid a direct hit to his forehead. Yamile didn't seem to have the heart to finish him off, so he aimed his gun bullet at the man's thigh.
The man continued to moan in pain while clutching his right thigh. But the noise made Zhao, Yamile's younger brother, unbearable. He quickly tied the man's hands and feet together, then stuffed a cloth over his mouth to keep the noise down.
"What a tiring night!" said Zhao as he sat next to the man.
Yamile and Zhao had just finished a fierce battle with five men intent on stealing corpses. The two had set up an ambush to prevent the demonic power stored in the corpse from being taken away, but the fight wasn't easy. A sharp object slashed Zhao's arm, while a blunt object hit Yamile, causing fresh blood to ooze from his temple.
The sacrifice paid off, and the theft of the corpse was foiled. Four of the five men managed to escape, while one was taken down for questioning.
But even though they managed to thwart it, minimizing the damage was inevitable. The cemetery, once neatly organized, suffered destruction. The shape of tombstones had deteriorated, and some trees had fallen.
"Let's quickly clean up our work!" Yamile invited his younger brother.
Then they walked hand in hand to a half-dug grave. The two of them immediately continued the excavation with makeshift tools. Yamile and Zhao painstakingly scraped the soil and threw it up.
Slowly a coffin came into view. Yamile and Zhao immediately opened it; the corpse of a beautiful woman was stored inside. Yamile immediately put his right hand into the corpse's mouth and took something out. He took out a white pendant the size of a peanut.
"That's the pendant; it must hold the power of Kalanak," Zhao said.
"Yes!" replied Yamile. He threw the pendant up and shot it with his gun. The beautiful pendant was instantly shattered into pieces.
"Please close the tomb again," Yamile said casually as he came out of it.
"You can't do that," Zhao protested.
"I'm a girl, so I don't have the strength of a man like you," Yamile explained while acting feminine, continuing to moan because he was worn out and injured after the fight.
"Don't act like that; you're a tomboyish woman who doesn't deserve to be spoiled," Zhao taunted.
Zhao couldn't argue anymore; he just grunted in annoyance and resigned himself. With what energy he had left, he closed the coffin and buried it in the ground.
"What should we do with that guy?" asked Yamile to his brother, who was still busy with his work.
"Let's interrogate him; find out who sent him here," Zhao explained.
"It's useless; he must be so loyal to his master, he'd rather die than leak any information. Just leave him here; surely his friend or someone nearby will find him," Yamile emphasized.
"Then how do we investigate this tomb-breaking phenomenon?" asked Zhao seriously.
"From the traces they leave behind, Yamile explained.
"Everyone who does grave-robbing always has a tattoo of a split sun behind their ear. I believe this is the symbol of an organization, and its leader is the one we should be hunting," he added.
***
Yamile and Zhao conducted a more in-depth investigation into the grave-robbing phenomenon. This phenomenon was happening more and more, and the culprit was again the group with the split sun tattoo behind its ear.
After getting some in-depth information, it was revealed that the graves that were uncovered were the corpses of people who committed suicide by hanging themselves.
"From the Demonic Shadow encyclopedia, the white pendant is Kalanak's power," Zhao said as he cleaned his wound to change the bandage.
"That means Kalanak's power is obtained from people who commit suicide by hanging themselves," he added.
Yamile was silent for a long time, looking up information about the split sun group on the internet.
"But strangely, these few days people are committing suicide more and more. Someone appears to be controlling their lives. But this is just my assumption," Zhao said again.
Zhao's intuition seemed to make sense. How could so many people commit suicide in one area at the same time? Even a few days ago, three people committed suicide, but in different places. Every midnight, a split-sun group would be seen dismantling the tomb.
A burst of anger rushed into Yamile's heart. His hands clenched hard, his teeth chattering, his eyes glaring at the roof of his house. He was confused about what to do so that something like this would not happen again.
"I don't know if my assumptions are correct or not, but we must put an end to this phenomenon immediately so that there are no more victims and no more demons are resurrected," Zhao said.
Yamile refocused on his computer and continued to search for information on the group. "There's hardly any information about this group," he explained.
"The only clue I have comes from social media." They are a black market group that sells drugs, human trafficking, and online gambling," Yamile said again.
"Look at me!" pleaded Zhao to his brother, who was still busy with his computer and the internet.
"What?" asked Yamile as he turned his chair to face his brother.
"Use your power!" Zhao said.
Yamile was shocked by his brother's request. He immediately ignored it and chose to get busy with his computer again.
"In the past three days there have been four tomb demolitions, and we've only been able to thwart two," Zhao explained.
"If you have that power, we can easily defeat these bastards."
"And one more fact you need to understand: it also means that a lot of demonic powers have been resurrected. Their power makes no sense to us mere mortals."
Yamile was still silent.
"If you don't use that power, tomorrow, or the day after, or next week, one of us will die."
"In a fight, it's not the power that matters; it's your fighting IQ. I don't need demonic powers," Yamile emphasized.
"I would rather not be a demon like them. I will stop this abomination in my own way," she added.
"Don't be so idealistic; I'm sure you can control that power. Swallow your pendant; our enemies have unreasonable power now," Zhao replied with conviction.
It seemed that this request from Zhao made Yamile angry. In fact, he immediately turned his body around so he could stare at his younger brother. His gaze was as intimidating as a lion about to pounce on a deer.
"Why don't you just swallow it?" said Yamile.
"I can't! That power is only for women, and only you can control it," Zhao replied firmly as well.