At the back of a hill on the far end of Forest Hills Park, in an extremely concealed narrow cave, Shiller bent down and crawled into the somewhat cramped cave entrance, which surprisingly opened up into a spacious interior.
It was a naturally occurring cave at the foot of the mountain. But, at this point, the cave's natural features had been somewhat altered. A workbench and racks sat on the left hand side, while a jumble of equipment took up the right. A lightbulb hung from the top of the small cave, next to a spotlight that served as an illumination aid.
Peter at the front, removing his hood, introduced their new dwelling to the group. "I'm not sure when exactly I began imagining this, I thought finding a cave as a base would be a good idea. It's not far from my home making it convenient for me to change clothes anytime, and it's very secluded."
"Indeed." Steve nodded, looking around the cave and said, "but I think you should strengthen the structure here, the mountains in New York aren't that solid."
"That's next on the list," Peter said, while helping Steve subdue the struggling black sleeping bag he was dragging, which occasionally emitted black smoke.
Strange, standing with hands on his hips behind the group, looked at the bag and said, "This thing seems a little too weak."
"It doesn't appear to be designed for combat," said Steve, throwing the sleeping bag onto the ground. "Peter and I didn't even use a third of our strength, and it's arm snapped off."
Steve unzipped the sleeping bag, inside lay a skull emitting a dark mist. Steve held the skull's neck with one hand, and with another seized one of its ribs giving it a yank. The snapping sound of the rib breaking made Peter shiver.
Strange, and Shiller had gone to the location where Peter had found the skull. Steve descended to help Peter and together they subdued the skull. Meanwhile, Strange had opened a portal and returned to Kamar-Taj to retrieve a book about necromancy.
Shiller also went over and joined Strange in studying the book's content. Neither of the four men had any research experience with this unfamiliar sphere. Shiller and Strange chose a theoretical approach, while Steve and Peter decided to go hands-on with experiments.
Shiller found that the book Strange held recorded numerous necromancer cases. Mages from Kamar-Taj had thwarted countless attempts by these evil practitioners to harm villages and towns, summarising a set of methods to counteract them.
After Shiller had a look at the book, he joined the experiment group. He examined the skull and said, "Let me see... Adult female, around 50 years old, has given birth, cause of death seems to be abdominal trauma, suspected car accident. The right hand was used more often, she must have been engaged in light physical labor prior to death, possibly a cleaner or a kitchen assistant..."
Steve opened his mouth, wanting to ask how Shiller deduced all this but figured the already eerie atmosphere in the quiet cave was creepy enough without adding a few more horror stories.
"We have to collect more information on the deceased for our samples, then we can determine the necromancer's target. Since Peter has encountered skeletons twice in Forest Hills Cemetery, this mysterious necromancer might target the same location again. You might need to stake out here…" Shiller concluded.
"No problem, the supplies here are plentiful, and if we do run out, I can buy more. My only concern is my aunt and uncle live nearby. My aunt was scared by a ghost fire last time..." Peter hesitated.
The last thing he wanted was for his family to be harmed. Steve, crouched on the ground, turned his head and spoke to Peter, who was also half squatting, "So you just need to stand guard against the source of danger, there are no other cemeteries nearby for him to mess with these occult incidents."
As a result, Steve and Peter stayed at the base, keeping watch for the potential return of the necromancer. Shiller and Strange went back to Arkham Sanatorium. Emerging from the portal, Shiller turned to Strange and asked, "What do you think?"
"The situation is more complicated than expected," Strange looked serious, "For one, I can confirm, that this power carries an inherent necrotic attribute, meaning, the source of power must have something to do with death."
"Once we touch the concept of death, the situation becomes particularly thorny and most importantly, I tried to use white magic power to dispel the power of death earlier, but perhaps because I haven't been learning magic for a long time…"
Strange looked at his hand, where a white light suddenly appeared, "This is 'White Magic Rage', the most common magic used by novice mages. It comes from the ancient Spirit of the Stars on the periphery of the Eternal Ruins. The cost of using this power is minimal, almost negligible, but it's relatively weak. Its main advantage is that it's easy to control…"
"When I used this power to dispel that dark power, it didn't work. So, I tried another power…"
In Strange's hand, another, brighter white light appeared with leaves fluttering around it. He explained, "This is the Power of Light from the World Tree, which is closer to us. I don't know why this power is weaker than usual, but the World Tree's Power of Light, which represents life and rebirth, should be able to dispel darkness and death…"
"But it didn't succeed, did it?"
"Correct, this means the caliber of this power is not low and not something a novice mage like me can handle. Even though I inherited some of the White Magic Power from Emperor Mount Wey from my teacher--The Ancient One, I didn't use it casually."
Strange frowned, sat down on the sofa, and said, "When two equally strong powers of opposing attributes clash, there can be significant fluctuations. Peter and Steve do not possess magic resistance and might not be able to withstand the impact."
"So, what are you planning to..."
"Well, after all, being the successor of the Supreme Magician, I can't simply watch an unknown force wreak havoc on my territory and do nothing. I think we need to visit that cemetery again, find another test subject, then find a safe place to conduct the experiment…"
After some thought, Shiller didn't refute Strange's use of the word "we."
He glanced over at the umbrella standing next to his desk; indeed, the latest addition to his collections from the DC world.
To get a durable, non-disposable, and powerful umbrella, Shiller felt it was necessary to amplify the Curse Fetus trapped inside, enabling it to protect his umbrella.
Although he didn't understand the correlation between Dark Death and the Curse, they did sound quite similar in properties and perhaps could be combined.
Thus, Shiller and Strange once again set off towards Forest Hills Cemetery. Strange enchanted a compass, and the pair followed its guidance hoping to find a location with the densest darkness.
The cemeteries in America were quite well kept, and Forest Hills Cemetery was no exception. As it was part of Forest Hills Park, many people would come for walks, or rest on the lawn during the weekends or holidays. However, the enchanted compass led them away from the cemetery, deeper into the forest.
"This isn't surprising, Necromancers need a place to hide too. He can't possibly build a house in the park, so he's likely hiding in the forest." Strange speculated.
As he finished speaking, he glanced at the umbrella Shiller was holding with some confusion and asked, "The snow has stopped, why do you still have that umbrella?"
Shiller brushed aside the surrounding weeds swiftly with his umbrella, making his way unimpeded. Strange had to tread forward, brushing against the weeds that scratched past his expensive trousers and shoes. Shiller merely shrugged at him, and Strange turned to continue on.
"Although it's possible he's hiding in the forest, don't you think we might be going a bit too far?" After about 20 minutes of more walking, Shiller halted Strange.
"We seem to have far exceeded the casting distance of you mages by now, right? He can't possibly be managing a curse all the way from here to the cemetery."
"I think we're very close now." Strange raised the enchanted compass in his hand, and Shiller saw that its pointer was vibrating, as though influenced by some invisible mysterious power.
Suddenly, the pointer stopped abruptly. Shiller and Strange both turned to look in that direction, where a dense forest lay before them. Its dense foliage hid everything past the entrance from sight under the night sky.
A faint light emitted from Strange's fingertips, he rubbed it across his eyes, and with a flash his pupils transformed to that of beast-like vertical slits. Clearly, he borrowed night vision power from some mysterious entity capable of turning into a beast.
Shiller, on the other hand, forfeited his sight entirely. Invisible Gray mist particles dispersed. The world in his mind formed an incredibly clear three-dimensional model, much more accurate than what could be perceived simply by sight.
Strange and Shiller continued on into the forest, but progressing became difficult after leaving the small path – a short distance took them more than ten minutes.
Once they completely entered the forest, Strange who went in first, let out a gasp. Shiller ducked to avoid the overhanging branches and walked in. In the center of the forest, encircled by towering trees, there was a scorched patch of land marked with a unique imprint that resembled a miniaturized magic array.
Strange halted at the edge of the scorched earth, refraining from rushing in. Under Shiller's gaze, he calmly reached into his pocket and pulled out a… mobile phone.
"Hello, is this the Sanctum? Yeah, it's me, Steven. I've found a symbol here that seems to be left behind by a Demon God who controls the powers of death and darkness. Can you broadcast it across a common channel in the Demon God network to see if anybody recognizes who it belongs to?"
The operator responded promptly: "The image has been received, and the cosmic signal has been sent. We've had no responses yet, but it might take around ten minutes..."
After hanging up the phone, Strange turned to show off to Shiller with undisguised pride: "They can't just keep expecting us to help them, right?"
"A portion of the power taken from Nal's previous invasion was channeled by The Ancient One into the magic array beneath the Sanctum. This magic array can send magical broadcasts to the cosmos, which works much like human broadcasts, except more convenient. We don't need any signal towers or base stations..."
"So far, this function has only been used to summon the Demon Gods for meetings or to resolve disputes, but Nick told me that he's planning to launch an entertainment broadcast program for the entire universe. He's found some morally tested directors and scriptwriters in prison, and the plan is about to be put into action..."