Chapter 89: S#15. From Twilight to Space (3)

The alley of the homeless.

A gigantic figure approached us.

The faint streetlight created an ominous backlight.

“What is that…?”

Rough breathing. Hands as big as a cauldron lid. Muscles covered in ashen fur.

The being that came close was a massive werewolf.

Not like those other alien wolf-vampires with only wolf ears and tails.

It was a full-fledged werewolf, like those seen in <Werewolf of London> or <Dog Soldiers>.

“Damn. The boss is here.”

A drug addict muttered. Brooke reacted calmly as if he had expected it.

The werewolf looked down at us. It was over 3 meters tall. Its nails were so long, it seemed to have borrowed Freddy’s knife glove.

“Uninvited guests… stepping into my territory?”

The werewolf growled at Brooke. Its voice was like nails scraping metal.

The drug addict took a puff of marijuana and opened his mouth.

“Boss. I can explain…”

The drug addict’s words stopped the moment the werewolf stretched out its leg.

A huge paw kicked the drug addict’s head.

Bang-

The skull exploded. Pinkish brain matter splattered everywhere.

The corpse fell. The marijuana smoke he had in his mouth rose like funeral incense.

Brooke wiped the brain matter off his face.

“Damn. Looks like you got a bit too excited, calm down.”

“Calm down? You want me to calm down when two cockroach-like humans have crawled into my territory?”

The werewolf was furious.

It was obvious we were not welcome.

I whispered to Brooke.

“Mr. Brooke, is that bastard the leader?”

“No, Summer. That’s not the leader.”

The werewolf looked at me. Its fierce red eyes were sharp.

It licked its lips and raised its hand. The long nails started to grow longer.

The tips of the claws were sharp enough to slice through the night. The low, heavy voice of the wolf.

“Curious about who I am? Then I’ll tell you…”

—
Raei  Translations
—

“……Ugh.”

The severed wolf head let out a dying gasp.

The body, with its neck ripped apart, was filled with silver arrows.

I grabbed the wolf head. Blood dripped down. This wouldn’t even be fit for an offering.

I threw it straight into the trash can.

“Acting all tough. It was just a piece of sh*t.”

“Yes. That bastard was the king of this homeless alley. We’ve fastened the first button to catching the leader.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Somewhere in Tromaville, there is an alien wolf spaceship.”

It is said that the leader’s only kin resides in the spaceship.

If we reach the spaceship, we can capture the leader’s kin, and then we can find out the leader’s location.

“I saw the spaceship once. But I didn’t see the leader or the leader’s kin. I had to run away immediately because they were chasing me.”

“I see. But what does the spaceship have to do with butchering the homeless werewolf? Can’t we just go to the spaceship now?”

“The spaceship moved its location after it was discovered by me. It’s hidden like a treasure chest.”

Then we can’t find it, can we?

“You’re wrong. The place where the spaceship is located is the wolf’s territory. And in the wolf’s territory, there must be an alpha.”

Wolves live in groups.

A leader is needed in the group, and this leader is called the ‘alpha.’

Brooke’s plan was simple and crude.

Defeat all the alphas in every existing territory in Tromaville one by one.

Then, we can invade the area where the spaceship is located.

If we capture the leader’s kin in the spaceship, we can also capture and kill the leader.

It was a necessary process to turn Ellen Strode back into a human.

Brooke pointed to the decapitated werewolf.

“Now, even if you want to escape, you can’t. We’re on the same boat.”

“With such a clear plan, how come you haven’t captured the leader in the past nine years?”

“Do you think I haven’t tried?”

Brooke took off his red Leon sunglasses.

One of his eyes was missing. Where the eyeball should have been was a hole deeper than despair.

“After my wife left, I hunted alien wolf-vampires like a madman. I swept through the entire city with silver arrows.”

One day, Brooke fought a battle in an outer district.

He killed all the minions and finally faced the alpha.

But it was stronger than he had imagined.

Brooke, overwhelmed by its strength, ultimately lost his eye. He barely escaped with his life.

“No, it wasn’t the wolf that took my eye. It was my rage and recklessness that took it. It was only then that I realized how weak humans are compared to wolves.”

“…”

“Since then, I avoided fights with alphas. I thought it was impossible with a human body. But meeting you changed my mind. You are human but possess the strength of a wolf.”

You can realize my plan. You’ll take me to the spaceship and help me get revenge on the leader who took my wife.

Brooke said.

Hunt down the alphas of the districts to find the location of the spaceship – the hunt started that way.

The axe blade was plated with silver. We carried garlic, crosses, and tap water.

With Brooke, we searched for the alien wolf-vampire’s territory in a secluded street.

When we caused enough trouble, a 3-meter-tall werewolf would appear. The alpha.

The crossbow and axe would jointly attack and defeat it.

By the time we exhaled our tangled breaths and wiped off the gut fragments and blood from the axe, the battle was already over.

We looked around.

The sunken outer walls of buildings. The broken ground. The shattered remains of the beast. The vivid traces of the fierce battle.

Cold moonlight fell on the pool of blood.

Every night, the hunters danced with the wolves. It was a dance that never ended until one side died.

The job was not only to hunt. We also had to feed.

Ellen Strode, isolated in the basement… she was becoming more and more of a beast.

“Ellen, it’s time to eat.”

When I went down to the basement and rang the bell, Ellen stuck out her pink tongue and panted.

Sticky saliva dripped down her slender jawline.

Her beauty remained, but her behavior had changed 180 degrees.

She would either lick me with her long tongue through the muzzle or run at me wagging her tail.

She seemed to be turning more into a dog.

When I gave her a bowl of cereal filled with blood, she devoured it.

“The blood is delicious…! It’s sweet…! Summer, I like it!”

Ellen said with a smile. It broke my heart as she seemed to be regressing to a childlike state.

But it was a relief to see her healthy.

Ellen looked more flushed than before. Her glossy skin became more supple.

It might be the effect of bloodsucking.

Alien wolf-vampires could eat nothing but human blood.

I had to extract blood daily for Ellen.

Nancy offered to donate blood instead, but I refused.

My body is much bigger, so it will yield more blood.

Besides, I recover much faster.

Nancy, perhaps shocked by her mother’s transformation, fell into despair.

She started drinking beer every night. Of course, she would pass out after two sips.

Nancy would drunkenly protest, “I’m not drunk at all,” with a flushed face, adorably pouting.

Carrying Nancy to her room and laying her on the bed became another part of my routine.

Anyway, Brooke and I steadily moved toward the spaceship.

Every night, we scoured the alien wolf-vampire territories and defeated the alphas.

The moon was rising.

—
Raei  Translations
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‘You look tired.’

Hilda Hyper signed with her hands.

She accurately grasped my condition. Under my clothes, there were a lot of wounds left from the fight last night.

I had been slashed by wolf claws and crushed by building debris, bleeding heavily. I already had a shortage of blood, and it became even more insufficient.

The emptiness that couldn’t be filled with iron supplements…

My fatigue level had reached its limit.

‘Don’t come to work from tomorrow’

Hilda informed me. My mind went blank.

Was I fired? Returning to being an unemployed bum?

I was ready to cling to her, even grabbing her pants.

‘I’m sorry. I’ll work harder, so please give me one more chance.’

‘What are you saying? I’m giving you paid leave. Take a week off from the pharmacy.’

It wasn’t a dismissal but a leave recommendation.

I said I was fine, but Hilda insisted on me resting. She was unusually stern.

I had only seen her shy side, so I didn’t know she had this side too.

After leaving work early as Hilda suggested, I came home.

It was a break I hadn’t had in a long time. I had been lacking sleep because I fought werewolves every night.

Just as I was about to go upstairs to catch a bit of sleep, the doorbell rang.

When I opened the door, Mr. Miller was standing there.

“Come in, Mr. Miller.”

Mr. Miller politely thanked me.

He was a man with a plain appearance who lived next door. His nose was slightly stubby, and his eyes looked gentle. He seemed to be in his early to mid-thirties.

I cleared away Nancy’s beer cans from the table. I decided to serve warm tea.

Two teacups were placed on the table.

“What brings you here?”

“I heard you’re partnering with Mr. Brooke.”

“That’s right.”

How much did Miller know?

Since he was a UFO expert, he must know about the alien wolf-vampires.

Brooke, who was usually taciturn, rarely spoke about Miller. I was too busy to get to know my neighbors.

“Today, I came to tell you the truth.”

Miller began.

He had the serious look of a doctor delivering news to a terminally ill patient about their remaining days.

“Stop looking for the alien wolf’s spaceship. You’ll never find it.”

“…”

“Brooke is using you. He dragged you into his revenge for his wife.”

I crossed my arms.

“Why do you think that?”

“The alien wolf spaceship doesn’t exist. Its existence was just my speculation.”

“What do you mean… Mr. Brooke said he saw the spaceship with his own eyes.”

“I only suggested the possibility that they might have come from outer space. That suggestion was a mistake. As you know, Mr. Brooke is not in his right mind. The spaceship is probably a hallucination he saw while fighting the werewolves.”

My head felt dizzy. Was it because of the lack of blood?

Miller’s words seemed to turn into a woodpecker, pecking at my skull.

Miller claimed that Alien wolf-vampire Slayer Brooke was a lunatic and that the spaceship’s existence was just his hallucination.

“Then, Mr. Miller, what are the alien wolf-vampires?”

“They are patients. Suffering from a severe, incurable disease.”

It was an incomprehensible statement.

Without being obvious, I subtly took out a hand mirror. I reflected Miller’s side.

His reflection appeared on the mirror’s surface. He wasn’t a vampire.

Could it be that a family member of Miller was a wolf-vampire?

But thinking about it logically, it didn’t add up.

If he had a vampire in his family, there would be no reason to hinder the defeat of the leader. They would want to return to being human, so they would support us instead.

Besides, vampires maintain their youth. But Miller’s wife was old. Much older than Miller.

What about his daughter?

It’s impossible for a child to be born a vampire if both parents are human. Bloodlines carry on.

Of course, if she was bitten by a vampire, she would become one.

“Mr. Miller. Has your daughter ever been bitten by an alien wolf-vampire?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You know what I mean.”

Miller furrowed his brow.

“I don’t have a daughter.”

At Miller’s shameless answer, I let out a hollow laugh.

“Denying your only child, what would your wife think of that?”

“……”

Miller didn’t open his mouth and stared at me as if I were a strange person.

An awkward silence filled the room.

Ellen’s howling, coming from the basement, echoed in the space.

When the long howling ended, Miller spoke.

“…I don’t have a wife.”

“What?”

“I’m single.”

Before I could grab him, Miller stood up and left.

He didn’t take a single sip of the tea.

—