Chapter 15: S#3. Heaven’s Razor (4)

“There’s a chainsaw in the garage.”

The chainsaw is the ultimate demon-slaying tool, especially effective against demons.

No demon can withstand the destructive power of a chainsaw.

It’s a consistent cliché used in movies, games, and comics.

It’s not the priest that demons fear, but the chainsaw.

“Idiots! Do you think you can stop me!!”

The demon swung its bony hand.

I blocked it with an axe.

Quickly, I kicked its chest to create some distance, then swung the axe blade.

Clang-

The demon’s head was severed.

But after a moment, the severed head regrew.

Dr. Johnson’s skin, muscles, and bones also rose back up and rejoined the fight.

No matter what I did, they didn’t die.

They were truly immortal.

As I wondered how to defeat them, a narration sounded in my head.

-The killer held an axe with a composed stance.

The demons, once dead, did not fall.

It was the wrong choice. It would have been better to fall.

Today, the killer was the captain of the hell-bound ferry.

He would send all the demons back to hell.

To kill a demon, you must destroy its heart.

The killer knew that.

What. To kill a demon, you must destroy its heart?

The weakness is the heart?

Why tell me now?

“Surrender your soul quietly!!!!!”

The demon charged at me.

I raised the axe and slammed it into its chest.

I did the same to Dr. Johnson’s skin, muscles, and bones, aiming for where the heart would be.

But it was useless.

They regenerated just fine.

Destroying the heart doesn’t kill them, contrary to what was said.

“They’re not dying…!”

Was I deceived?

In my moment of panic, Johnson’s muscles attacked me from behind.

Johnson’s skin tied up my arms.

Since they came from the same body, their teamwork was fantastic.

The demon approached me with a chilling laugh.

“It’s over, Summer. You’ll die here…”

Before it could finish, I headbutted it.

Crack, the demon fell backward.

But it didn’t die. It was as persistent as a cockroach.

“This motherf*cker…! I’ll gouge out your eyes!!”

Right before the demon’s bony hand could stab my eyes, Nancy returned from the garage.

In her hands was a big and beautiful chainsaw.

“Summer, I’ll handle this!”

Nancy raised the chainsaw above her head.

In a pose like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Ready to charge at these demons and save me.

But only in spirit.

“But, but Summer, how do you use this thing…?”

“First, you need to start it! Pull the starter handle!!”

“I don’t know which one’s the handle…?”

Nancy started to fumble for the chainsaw’s handle.

I was so frustrated, I could burst.

“Ah, got it! It’s working!”

Finally, Nancy managed to start the chainsaw.

Vrooom───

The fierce engine sound filled the space.

“Let go of Summer!!!”

Nancy charged.

The chainsaw’s chain rushed towards the demon.

With a diagonal strike, the demon’s upper body was split in two.

I tore off Johnson’s skin that was binding my arms.

I grabbed an axe in each hand.

Spinning like a top, I sliced through Johnson’s muscles and bones.

Blood and marrow splattered hotly.

The kitchen turned as red as a tomato festival.

The demons fell to the ground, but it was only a temporary paralysis.

Without destroying the heart, they couldn’t be killed.

Then, I remembered something the narrator had said when I came out of the garage.

‘…The heart of a demon is, its treasure…’

The heart of a demon is its treasure.

Not a muscle organ responsible for blood circulation, but something precious (treasure) it holds as its heart.

I thought about Dr. Johnson for a moment.

Dr. Johnson was an idiot, obsessed with his genitals.

“Wait. Then, could it be…!”

Dr. Johnson’s treasure might be his genitals?

He truly treasures them.

Certainly, for Johnson, his genitals would be his treasure.

If the treasure is the heart, then Johnson’s genitals are his heart.

‘To kill a demon, you must destroy its heart’-

If the narrator is correct, destroying the genitals will kill Johnson.

Dr. Johnson’s skin, muscles, and bones regenerated and rose up.

The risen Johnson muscles charged at Nancy.

“Nancy, aim for the crotch!! That’s where his heart is!!!”

Nancy lifted the chainsaw from below upwards.

Ziiiiing!

The thing attached to the muscle’s groin was severed and fell.

The muscle fell.

This time, it didn’t regenerate or rise again.

I crushed Johnson’s pelvic bones.

I cut off the dangling testicles from Johnson’s skin with an axe.

Then, both of them fell and didn’t rise again.

“My minions…!”

The demon wailed.

It charged at me fiercely like a mother dog who had lost her pups.

I couldn’t avoid the collision. I flew and hit the wall.

The two axes slipped from my hands and rolled away.

The demon strangled my neck with its bony hand.

The wall behind me prevented any retreat.

“Ugh…!”

I reached out to Nancy.

“Nancy…!!”

Nancy caught my gaze.

A thrilling telepathy passed between us through the bloody air.

“Summer, catch!”

Nancy threw the chainsaw.

The chainsaw, soaring in the sky, landed perfectly in my hand.

“Ah, this cool and heavy sensation… It’s been a while.”

Actually, it hadn’t been a while. It was the first time.

But I just wanted to say something cool.

Vroooom-

The pleasant vibration of the engine transmitted through my hand.

I swung the chainsaw and cut off the demon’s arm.

I lowered my stance and cut off its knees.

The demon fell with a thud.

“Gaaaah…!”

I must destroy the heart before the wounds regenerate.

I stepped on the demon’s head and asked.

“Tell me. What’s your treasure?”

“Khh… Go to hell……”

Even in this situation, it was mouthy.

Did it treasure its eloquence?

Then its tongue must be the treasure, hence its heart.

I pulled out the demon’s jawbone and carved out its tongue.

But it didn’t die.

Nancy, wiping the sweat and blood from her forehead, approached.

Her gaze at the fallen demon was as cold as frost in June.

“You piece of trash. You tarnished my memories of my father and made his loss even worse.”

“Kekeke. Need an apology? What exactly do you expect from a demon?”

“I’ll never forgive…!”

Nancy snatched the chainsaw from my hand.

The engine roared once more.

“Dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!”

Nancy split the demon from the crown of its head to its tailbone, exactly in half.

Bone shards flew like sawdust.

It was a ruthless cut, but the split halves regenerated again.

I clenched my fist.

I beat the demon’s body to powder with a series of breathless punches.

Yet, the demon didn’t die.

The crushed and severed parts kept regenerating.

As long as the treasure, the heart, wasn’t destroyed, the demon remained immortal.

I brought a construction hammer drill from the garage and turned the demon’s body into minced meat, but still, its heart wasn’t destroyed.

What could this creature’s treasure be?

“Well, it doesn’t matter. I’ll use another method.”

I brought an unused wooden box from the garage.

I crushed the demon’s body like crumpling a piece of paper.

I compactly compressed it and stuffed it into the wooden box.

—
Raei  Translations
—

Items to sell / not to sell / to throw away.

I tossed the wooden box into the ‘to throw away’ pile.

Then I fetched a hammer and nails.

I planned to hammer about 300 nails into the lid of the box.

The demon, snugly inside the box, was squashed beyond recognition.

“If you had given me your heart, I would have killed you painlessly. Now, you’re going to rot inside that box forever.”

“……”

“You brought this upon yourself, so endure it with your evil and strength.”

Just as I was about to close the lid and nail it shut.

A dry voice came from inside the box.

“…Wait. Hold on.”

“Why? Changed your mind all of a sudden?”

“Yes. I’ll give you my heart.”

Being trapped forever in a box is scary, after all.

The demon inside the box spat out its heart that it had hidden deep within.

“Let’s see the treasure…… Huh?”

I was at a loss for words.

The heart the demon spat out was a single sock.

“What, what’s this…”

A sock stuffed and given shape.

Two plastic eyes were attached to the end.

And on one side, ‘Dad’ was written in crooked letters.

It was the sock puppet that young Nancy made and gifted to her dad…

“How… how could this come from you…?”

“The heart of a demon is its most precious possession,” said the demon inside the box.

“The most precious thing I had… was a sock puppet gifted by my young daughter.”

Then… the demon wasn’t a demon but actually Nancy’s real dad?

Mr. Strode?

“It can’t be… You said you were a demon…?!”

“I am a demon. But before I became one, I was Nancy’s dad.”

I couldn’t understand.

He had clearly said this:

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

to Nancy.

“Why did you lie?”

“I was ashamed.”

During the fight in the kitchen, Nancy had shouted.

‘My dad never once called me a girl!’

‘I may not remember his face or voice…! But I clearly remember his kindness!’

‘You’re not my dad!’

But Nancy was wrong. The demon was indeed Nancy’s real dad.

“I forgot how I used to call the child I loved so much in life.”

The demon said bitterly.

“Seeing Nancy shout that I was not her dad made me realize how hideous I had become.”

“…….”

“The hideousness wasn’t in my appearance. The real hideousness was in my heart.”

He really was Mr. Strode.

Mr. Strode, who tried to regain his true form and his family by sacrificing the souls of a hundred people.

“Keep this a secret from Nancy. If she knew her dad died this way, she would blame herself.”

Because she is kind.

Mr. Strode said that.

I looked at the sock puppet in my hand.

“That’s my heart… my treasure.”

“Mr. Strode……”

“Destroy it, Summer. That’s the only way I can die.”

Dad inside the box closed his eyes.

My hands were trembling.

Very carefully, I tore the sock puppet.

Cotton soaked in tears and blood fell out.

“…Nancy…… my baby……..”

With those last words, Mr. Strode died as if falling asleep.

I carefully placed the torn sock puppet back in the box.

After closing the lid, I moved the box from ‘to throw away’ to ‘not to sell’.

Memories were not for sale.

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