As he spoke, Roy's pupils turned silver, meaning he'd activated his Eyes of Judgment.
In the vision of the Eyes of Judgment, the Firefly family members were all wicked people, practically glowing red and purple with evil. A lot of demons weren't even as sinful as they were.
It was a safe bet that over the years, the Firefly family had preyed on quite a few travelers passing through.
Captain Spaulding still wanted to act tough.
"Don't think this means you've beaten the Firefly family! We have the Lord's protection!"
Roy just grabbed Captain Spaulding's head and slammed it down on the dining table, instantly making his nose bleed.
"Wrong answer!"
Samantha quickly hugged her younger son, Mike, not wanting the kid to see the bloody mess.
As for Ashley, she was already 18, time she faced some of the harsh realities of the adult world.
Only Elureesa watched Roy's actions with a really interested look, like she was itching to try it herself.
Having his face smashed into the table, Captain Spaulding actually started to chuckle.
"Heh-heh-heh..."
Seeing that this guy wasn't cooperating, Roy was about to rough him up again when Sophie and Baby, still not giving up, charged over waving their dinner knives.
Without a shred of mercy, Roy kicked both of them away again, putting a little extra oomph into it this time. Sophie and Baby slammed into the wall before hitting the floor hard.
"You bastard!"
Captain Spaulding saw his wife and daughters get their butts kicked for the second time and finally lost it. He wanted to fight back, but unfortunately, you can't bridge a huge gap in physical strength with just anger.
"Pipe down!"
Roy slammed Captain Spaulding's head onto the table for the third time.
Even with his head pinned to the table, Captain Spaulding still glared at Roy with a nasty look in his eyes.
"You son of a bitch! I'm gonna kill you, cut off your head and offer it to the great Lord! And I'll slice off pieces of meat from those two little brats and make 'em into steaks! Aaaah—"
Roy punched Captain Spaulding in the cheek, knocking out half his teeth.
That pretty much confirmed that there was definitely something wrong with the steaks they had for dinner. Good thing Roy and the others hadn't touched them.
Roy grabbed Captain Spaulding by the head and lifted him up with one hand.
"You really value family, huh? But you don't seem to have much respect for other people's lives!"
People in rural America really value family, probably because this country was built by families heading west in covered wagons, carving out a life for themselves.
It wasn't until more recently, with urbanization, that this traditional family ideal started to fade a bit, but you still see that "family first" mentality in movies and TV shows.
But Captain Spaulding should probably be called a "family freak" instead.
(The movie House of 1000 Corpses 3 was kind of like this, with a messed-up family of freaks, making the cops' righteous revenge seem just as bad as the villains, which was pretty messed up.)
"Tell me, who's your boss!"
Captain Spaulding had lost half his teeth, and his speech was all slurred, but he was still being a hardass.
"Believe me, the Lord won't let you get away with this! Heh-heh-heh..."
Roy expressionlessly knocked out the other half of Captain Spaulding's teeth so his smile would be symmetrical.
At this point, Samantha had had enough.
"Roy, can't you stop? You're going to scare the kids!"
Roy turned his head and saw that Mike was indeed shaking like a leaf, and Ashley was looking at him with a terrified expression.
Only Elureesa looked totally stoked, even happier than when she watched cartoons.
Roy tossed Captain Spaulding aside, a friendly smile spreading across his face, but Ashley started to avoid his eyes.
"Samantha, why don't you take the kids back to the car for now?"
Samantha understood what Roy was implying.
"Are you going to keep beating them?"
Roy nodded. But he wasn't just being a brute; he suspected that the Firefly family was a cult involved with some kind of demon, so he needed to grill Captain Spaulding.
Besides, if Samantha and the others went outside, Roy could use his special abilities to question Captain Spaulding.
"Samantha, you heard what this guy said. I suspect they're involved in a string of murders. And you saw his attitude. This family's got some serious issues!"
Roy's words reminded Samantha that he was a federal agent, so she didn't question him further.
"Alright, I'll take the kids to the car and wait for you."
Samantha hugged Mike and pulled Ashley up. Elureesa still wanted to keep watching the show, but Samantha practically dragged her away.
"Aw, Daddy, I wanna keep watching!"
Now that the Parker family was gone, Roy could really work over Captain Spaulding.
"Captain Spaulding, ready for round two?"
Roy cracked his knuckles and slowly approached Captain Spaulding, who was lying on the ground and suddenly started muttering something under his breath.
"...Hear my call!"
Because his voice was so quiet, Roy didn't catch the beginning of what Captain Spaulding said.
"What are you saying?"
Captain Spaulding ignored Roy and kept muttering softly to himself.
"Rotting flesh in the grave, break free from the shackles of death!"
It sounded like some kind of spell. Roy immediately used Shadow of Fear on Captain Spaulding, wanting to interrupt whatever he was doing.
But something unexpected happened to Roy. His Shadow of Fear didn't work for the first time.
Captain Spaulding's face was covered in bulging veins, and his eyes were bloodshot, completely red. He'd actually resisted the effect of Shadow of Fear.
"With my blood, forge your bones!"
"Flesh and blood submit, decay gives birth!"
"In the name of the inverted pentagram, awaken, sleeping dead!"
After Captain Spaulding finished chanting, he fell into a terrified hallucination and started screaming in fear. That weird state he was in earlier must have just delayed him being controlled by the abnormal state.
Did this guy actually have some kind of ability?
But even though Captain Spaulding finished his spell, it didn't seem to do anything. Roy cautiously waited for several seconds, but nothing happened.
Was it just some kind of scare tactic?
Roy walked over to Captain Spaulding and ripped open his shirt. Sure enough, he saw the mark of an inverted pentagram burned into his chest.
As soon as he heard the words "inverted pentagram" in the spell, Roy suspected that this guy's boss was his ex-brother-in-law, the Wrathful King Samael. Turns out he was right.
That immediately explained why Captain Spaulding was able to briefly block out the feeling of fear. After all, when someone's super angry, they can definitely stay angry all day... ahem! They can definitely block out other emotions.
As for this spell... it sounded like some kind of necromancy, but why didn't it work?
Just as he was wondering, Roy suddenly heard gunshots coming from outside the house.
Could this necromancy be targeting Samantha and the kids instead of him?
Roy immediately wanted to run outside to see what was going on, but suddenly someone grabbed his leg.
Captain Spaulding had somehow broken free from the effect of Shadow of Fear, and he was the one holding Roy's leg.
"You damn pretty boy, I'm gonna make you regret this for the rest of your life!"
Roy's face went pale. He kicked Captain Spaulding in the chest with all his might, not holding back at all, and his kick caved in the guy's entire chest.
Captain Spaulding stopped breathing instantly.
No system notification? Was this guy still not dead?
Or was this fate box like the one at the Gospel Sanatorium, based on the whole family?
Just then, the other members of the Firefly family stood up, their eyes red as they frantically lunged at Roy, trying to stop him from leaving.
These guys probably had no idea how strong Roy really was. After all, to avoid freaking them out, Roy had been holding back before.
But now, Roy was worried about Samantha, so he didn't hold back anymore. His inhuman physical abilities were on full display.
It was basically one punch per person. The Firefly family members dropped dead as soon as he touched them. In a matter of seconds, he took out the roadblocks and managed to run out of the house.
He saw a bunch of mud-covered zombies slowly walking towards them from all directions, while Samantha stood in the rain, holding a revolver and constantly shooting at the approaching zombies.
Ashley hugged her younger brother and sat trembling in the car, while Elureesa was just clapping and cheering, looking like she was having a blast.
Maybe the revolver wasn't powerful enough, or maybe the mud on the zombies was acting as some kind of armor, but Samantha fired several shots and couldn't take down a single zombie. Things looked pretty bad.
"Roy, hurry up and find some gasoline! We need to get out of here!"
"No need to worry so much!"
Roy took out a Smith & Wesson Model 629 from his inventory and kept pulling the trigger.
.45 Magnum bullets really pack a punch. One shot blew off the mud-covered head of a zombie, but the zombie just wobbled a bit and kept coming.
"Wh-what the heck is going on?"
Samantha watched the scene in disbelief. Ashley and Mike were also terrified.
This situation was even harder to believe than the giant spiders from the eight-legged monster incident. At least the giant spiders had some sci-fi element to them, which Samantha and the others could kind of wrap their heads around.
But this situation was completely beyond scientific explanation. Samantha had absolutely no idea what to do.
"It's okay, Samantha. You take the kids back inside first. Leave the rest to me!"
Roy figured that these zombies summoned by necromancy were probably tough to kill with regular attacks, so he pulled out his cursed twin daggers.
Roy had used the cursed twin daggers to stab the Greed King Mammon in the back during the Devil's Late Night Show incident, which had seriously damaged both daggers and also brought bad luck to Sadako and Kayako, who were sealed inside them.
So, Roy had kept the cursed twin daggers sealed in his time-invariant inventory and hadn't used them for a while.
Now was a perfect time to take them out and absorb some of that necromantic power.
Looking at the two cursed daggers, the blades had a lot of nicks and cracks, and some parts were even turning black. They didn't have that fancy, ornate look they used to.
"Sadako, Kayako, it's buffet time!"
With that, Roy casually threw the two daggers. The cursed twin daggers automatically locked onto their targets, tracked them down, and accurately pierced the zombies.
After a few seconds, the magical power on the zombies was completely drained by the daggers, and they lost control and fell to the ground.
Roy automatically retrieved the two cursed twin daggers and then threw them again.
After doing this dozens of times, all the surrounding zombies had fallen. The blades of the cursed twin daggers in his hand had returned to their original state.
They were still a little blackened, but at least they looked a lot better than before.
The Parker family watched Roy's performance with their mouths hanging open.
"Ro... Roy, was that witchcraft?"
Ashley, trying to be brave, poked Roy's arm.
"You could call it a type of witchcraft. Were you scared, Ashley?"
Roy winked at Ashley.
Rebellious teenage girls like Ashley usually dig heavy metal, death, gothic stuff, and even dabble in the whole cult worship aesthetic.
But in reality, it's usually just a case of biting off more than they can chew. Rebellious teenagers just think this kind of non-mainstream stuff is cool and makes them look unique.
If Ashley actually saw a real demon, it would probably scare her stiff.
But rebellious girls like to act tough and would never admit they were scared.
"Scared? What's there to be scared of!"
He wondered if such a tough little mouth would be soft to kiss.
Shaking his head with a smile, Roy called everyone back into the house.
"I've taken care of the Firefly family. The house should be safe now, just don't go into the dining room."
But he still hadn't gotten a fate box. He wondered what the deal was.
Or maybe he was wrong, and this family wasn't some characters from a movie?
Roy casually described the terrifying events, which the Parker family found horrifying.
Samantha frowned slightly as she looked at Roy.
"Roy, did you just kill them all?"
Roy nodded.
"This family was a cult that specialized in murdering travelers. The steaks we had for dinner were made from their victims, and those zombies were probably the victims' bodies too. These people didn't deserve any mercy!"
Samantha's worried expression softened, indicating her understanding of Roy's actions. She wasn't unreasonable, just that as a sheriff, her sense of justice was pretty strong.
"Oh, I see!"
Roy looked at Samantha and the others. They were all a bit damp, especially Samantha, who was practically soaked to the bone.
"You guys should hurry up and take a shower and change your clothes. I'll go look for some gasoline. Remember not to wander off or get separated."
Ashley looked at Roy, a little confused.
"Didn't you say that the creepy killer family was all taken care of? Why can't we split up?"
Roy's lips twitched. He couldn't exactly tell Ashley that because he hadn't gotten a fate box, he had a feeling things weren't completely over yet, could he?
Waving his hand, Roy just made up an excuse.
"Haven't you ever seen a horror movie? Splitting up in this kind of situation is definitely not a good idea. Besides, who knows if there are any other dangers inside the house."
Samantha patted Ashley on the shoulder.
"Listen to Roy. He's the expert in this kind of thing. He definitely wouldn't just say things for no reason. I'll take Mike to shower first, and you can shower with Elureesa later."
After going through all this, Samantha's trust in Roy was growing more and more.
Seeing that Samantha and the kids had sorted out the shower situation, Roy headed to the dining room by himself.
Huh, where were the Firefly family's bodies?
Still from House of 1000 Corpses (Baby dancing)
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