Chapter 14: S#3. Heaven’s Razor (3)

“Summer, could you share a bit of your blood with Dad?”

Nancy said.

Her expression was both awkward and desperate.

I owed Nancy a lot.

I was willing to take on dangerous tasks for Nancy’s sake, but…

I couldn’t readily accept this request.

First off, I doubted if that grotesque box really was Nancy’s biological father.

To think he was toyed with by a demon right before dying.

Since it’s a horror movie, demons appearing isn’t out of the question.

In fact, it’s expected.

In films filled with the occult, spirits and demons are regular guests.

However, the box’s claim that ‘drinking the blood of a healthy man could restore its human form’ was suspicious.

I wondered if a more malevolent condition was required to regain its human form.

Like offering the souls of a hundred people to a demon.

Or killing one’s entire family. Those classic conditions.

It wouldn’t just want blood.

“Mr. Strode. How much blood do you need?”

“Just two drops should suffice.”

The mouth on one side of the box spoke.

Now that I looked, the teeth inside the mouth were sharp like awls.

Nancy was desperately hoping to reunite with her dad in his true form.

But I felt that giving blood recklessly wasn’t a good idea.

It smelled of danger.

If things went south, Nancy could be in danger too.

Utmost caution was needed.

Then someone shouted.

“Summer!!!!!!”

It was a booming shout.

We all turned around at once.

Dr. Johnson, whom we had thrown outside, stood there proudly.

He should have been admitted to a mental hospital; why was he back here?

Suddenly, Dr. Johnson pulled down his pants. His underwear came down with them.

“Kyaa!”

Nancy screamed.

I covered Nancy’s eyes with my hand.

Her pure eyes and brain were almost permanently damaged.

Dr. Johnson, unabashed, continued to rave.

“Look, Summer! Behold my mighty genitals!! Am I smaller than you?! Huh?!?!”

“Damn it…! It’s not mighty at all, so pull your pants up!!”

“I showed you mine, now show me yours!!!! Hurryyyyyy!!!!!”

I felt nauseous.

I didn’t want to see a shriveled peanut that was more disgusting than the box.

He was completely insane.

What kind of person was Nancy’s friend who introduced us to this lunatic?

But then, a brilliant idea struck me.

“Mr. Strode! Would the blood of another man work as well?”

“As long as it’s from a healthy man, it doesn’t matter.”

“Then I’ll offer the blood of that pervert.”

If it’s a pervert like him, it wouldn’t matter much if his blood was drained to death.

It was worth a try as an experiment.

Much safer than using my blood.

I approached Dr. Johnson with the box, pushing the side with the mouth towards him like a syringe.

Surprised, Dr. Johnson flailed his arms to block the box.

“Ugh…ugh!!”

Then the box bit Dr. Johnson’s hand.

Contrary to saying it only needed two drops, it sucked a lot of blood.

No, it wasn’t just a lot.

Crunch-

The box chewed on Dr. Johnson’s hand.

It ferociously bit and chewed, tearing off flesh and bone as if starving.

“AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! Ah, AHHHHH…!!!”

Dr. Johnson screamed.

I belatedly pulled the box away.

At the same time, two of Dr. Johnson’s left fingers were brutally torn off.

Blood splattered everywhere.

“My God…! Mr. Strode! There was no need to take the fingers…!!!”

I hadn’t anticipated this.

The box chewed on the fingers, crunching them like a beast starved for blood.

Dr. Johnson collapsed, clutching his severed hand.

I dropped the box.

The box’s flesh-colored surface quivered.

A low chuckle emerged.

“Hehehe… Thank you… Finally… I can come out…!”

The flesh-colored surface ripped open.

Like breaking out of an egg, something rose from tearing the box open.

It was a human skeleton.

From a 30 cm cuboid, a skeleton emerged, unbelievably large.

The skeleton, standing on two legs, had only bits of flesh and tendons attached.

Red bloodstains drew grotesque roots on the yellowed bones.

Eyes were set within the eye sockets, spinning around and around.

Nancy screamed.

“Nancy…! It’s me, me! Your dad!”

The creature that emerged from the box spoke.

The vocal cords clinging to the neck bone trembled.

I would have preferred to just call it Mr. Strode, but it was impossible.

It was a monster. A living introduction to anatomy.

“Don’t be afraid of this appearance! It’s just lacking a bit of flesh!”

It was missing a lot, not just a bit.

The monster, its jaw clattering, approached Nancy.

Nancy shrank back in fear.

I stood in front of her, blocking the monster’s approach.

“Mr. Strode. You said you only needed two drops of blood, but you ended up devouring fingers.”

“I’ve been starved for so long, I wasn’t in my right mind. I was just so hungry.”

“You claimed drinking blood would restore your human form. But, your appearance…”

“Yeah. I exaggerated a bit.”

The monster lowered its head.

Its gaze turned to Dr. Johnson, who lay on the ground, clutching his severed hand and groaning.

The monster grabbed Dr. Johnson’s head with its bony hand.

“Please… save meeee!!!”

Dr. Johnson flailed in a position that was neither sitting nor lying, his lower half embarrassingly exposed.

The monster tightened its grip, and Dr. Johnson’s face compressed like a sponge.

And then his head burst.

Boom-

A bloody explosion.

Skull fragments and brain matter flew everywhere.

Before I could intervene, Dr. Johnson was dead.

Nancy was so shocked she couldn’t even scream.

Dr. Johnson, with his entire head gone, fell with a thud.

The monster licked the brain fragments it clutched.

“Drinking blood isn’t enough to return to my complete form.”

“What… what does that mean…”

“I need souls. The souls of a hundred people.”

It was a classic condition.

—
Raei  Translations
—

The monster approached.

Lungs cringed within the rib cage were visible. The tendons of the whole body were taut, moving the bones.

A grotesque sight.

“We can be happy again, Nancy.”

“Oh, oh… stay away…!!”

“Remember our old memories together. We can go back to those times! We can be a happy family again!!”

Now that I knew the truth, there was no reason to hesitate.

I pulled out hidden double axes.

I threw one at the monster.

The axe, spinning rapidly, lodged itself in the monster’s skull.

But the monster didn’t fall.

“Such trivial efforts, Summer. Interfering in family matters.”

It calmly pulled the axe blade from its head.

The thrown axe flew back towards me, aiming straight for my forehead.

“Die!”

The monster roared.

The eyeballs within its eye sockets were certain of my death.

But the axe stopped in mid-air before it could reach my forehead.

I caught the flying axe handle with my hand.

“No. You’re the one who’s going to die.”

The monster flinched in surprise.

It had underestimated my physical abilities.

The physique of a serial killer in a horror movie is in the realm of superhuman.

It’s not for no reason they keep coming back to life no matter how many times they’re killed.

“Annoying creature…!”

The monster gestured in the air with strange hand movements.

Soon after, evil black smoke rose from the ground.

Dr. Johnson’s body, whose head had exploded and died, twitched as if electrocuted.

But that was only for a moment.

The corpse split apart.

Skin. Muscle. Bones.

As if a skilled butcher had carved it, it precisely divided into three clumps.

“Ugh…”

It was disgusting.

Like a step-by-step human dissection guide.

Dr. Johnson, now divided into three, began to move.

The skin was squishy.

The muscles were firm.

The bones were hard.

Each part walked upright on its own.

How were they moving?

There was no time to wonder.

The skin, muscle, and bones all charged at me at once.

“Damn it!”

I immediately swung my axe.

The hefty blade of the axe sliced Dr. Johnson’s skin in half.

I tore the muscle with my hands and shattered the bones with my foot.

But it was no use.

As if mocking my attacks, the three parts got back up.

The parts I had cut, torn, and crushed had healed as if nothing had happened.

No matter how many times I struck them with the axe, they regenerated.

A regeneration ability. That makes it invincible, doesn’t it?

Is this the power of a demon? I was no match on my own.

“Nancy! Go to Ellen’s workshop! There’s a shotgun there…!!!”

I shouted to Nancy, who had turned pale.

Nancy ran towards Ellen’s workshop, as I had told her.

The monster, Mr. Strode, didn’t just watch her go.

“My minions. Keep the man occupied.”

The monster commanded the skin, muscle, and bones.

It could control them like puppets.

The three parts clung to me persistently.

Taking advantage of this, the monster caught up to Nancy.

“Kyaa! Let… let me go!!”

“My daughter. You shouldn’t resist. It won’t take long to gather the souls of a hundred people. Then I’ll regain my true form, and we can be a family again.”

The monster held Nancy tightly with its bony hand.

Seeing this, I grew desperate.

“Damn it…!”

I kept chopping at the approaching skin, muscle, and bones with the axe.

It was practically like slicing water.

No matter how many times I cut them, they regenerated.

They say a tiger leaves its skin when it dies.

Dr. Johnson left something even worse than his skin.

“Alright, I’ll start by harvesting that annoying soul.”

The monster said this as it approached me.

Dr. Johnson’s bone stabbed my back.

My hand axe fell to the ground.

Dr. Johnson’s skin grabbed my ankle.

I lost my balance and fell.

Dr. Johnson’s muscle stepped on me.

I couldn’t move anymore.

Looking down at me, the monster laughed mockingly.

“Huh. Showing off your strength for a girl. Pathetic.”

But suddenly, Nancy, who had been sobbing in the monster’s grasp, stopped crying.

Her usually gentle face twisted into something terrifying.

Nancy yelled at the monster.

“You’re not my dad…!”

“What?”

“My dad never once called me ‘a girl’!”

Inside the blood-soaked house, Nancy’s anger resonated powerfully.

“Dad always called me his princess or baby!”

“……”

“I may not remember his face or voice…! But I clearly remember his kindness!!”

Nancy shouted.

“You’re not my dad!!!”

…At that moment, veins bulged on the monster’s skull.

Each vein twisted and writhed painfully like dried-up worms.

But that was only for a moment.

The monster began to chuckle.

“It seems I’ve been found out. Right, I’m not your dad.”

“……”

“I am a demon.”

Now it reveals its true colors.

“I’ve never even seen the sock puppet you made, you stupid b*tch!”

Of course, it was so.

This demon wasn’t even Nancy’s dad.

So there’s no reason to feel guilty about killing it.

The story becomes clear.

Just kill everything from now on.

The skin of Dr. Johnson that held my foot.

I tore it apart with my bare hands.

I wrapped Dr. Johnson’s spine around my arm.

I then flexed my biceps, and with a crack, the spine shattered.

The muscle that was pressing down on me charged.

I kicked it in the abdomen, sending it flying into the living room.

“That bastard…”

The demon growled.

It threw Nancy aside like trash and approached me.

I picked up the fallen hand axe.

Now free, Nancy staggered towards Ellen’s workshop.

I called out to Nancy’s retreating back.

“Nancy, not that way.”

“Uh…? But, the shotgun is in the workshop…!”

“Go to the garage.”

The demon was right in front of me.

I twirled the hand axe.

“There’s a chainsaw in the garage.”

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