Chapter 27
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"Luck favored you twice."
"...."
The clown casually threw out a remark.
It was strange.
That last attack wasn't the director's mistake.
It was from a distance that couldn't be missed, and a strike that couldn't fail to hit.
But it missed.
As if someone had completely twisted the trajectory of his fist.
"W-what?"
"Well, who knows."
The grotesquely smiling mask.
The only action the clown took this time, too, was a light flick of the hand.
"...."
Only then did the director's smile begin to fade.
How did he do it?
What kind of trick did he pull?
He had definitely checked for all potential risks.
A physique that gave off no aura, with a build completely devoid of noticeable muscle.
'With such a frail body, he deflected an attack that I even coated with blood manipulation...?'
Does that even make sense?
Setting aside whether to believe it or not, it was completely impossible using common sense.
But to the director, it was the reality right in front of him.
"W-what did you do?"
"Do you want to know?"
The mask smiled, tilting his head.
Its raised corners seemed to mock the director.
An unfamiliar situation, an unfathomable enemy, an increasingly dense bloodlust....
Mixed with that ridicule, the director could no longer maintain his composure.
"Y-you little bastard, playing these cheap tricks...!"
The director lunged forward once more.
This time, he had even forged a weapon using blood manipulation.
Crimson blood condensed, forming a massive hammer.
He intended to turn the clown into minced meat with a single strike.
Swoosh-!
An even more violent burst of air echoed.
The heavy head of the hammer fell toward the boy.
However, the mask remained silent.
"Do you lack learning capabilities?"
"...!"
Click-.
It missed again.
This time, the hammer struck the innocent floor.
A massive crater formed beneath the hallway.
"Th-th-this is impossible...!"
The director was finally certain.
His opponent was anything but ordinary.
Sorcery, magic power, demonic energy... he didn't even give off the vibe of a ghoul.
Just a human.
A normal person.
Yet, he was pulling off these bizarre feats.
Relaxed, as if it took him no effort at all.
"Fuck, f-f-fuck...!"
The director slowly began to crumble mentally.
Having already lost every trace of his relaxed demeanor.
"Urgh!"
He recklessly charged forward first.
Intending to push through using his physique.
The result was the same.
"You're slow. I'm on the verge of yawning."
"F-f-fuck, you little bastard...!"
"When are you going to catch me?"
"Shut uuuup!"
"I don't know how many chances I need to give you. I've had at least ten opportunities to kill you by now."
"Ugh, aaaaah...!"
Click-.
Click-.
Click-.
Click-.
He charged countless times, and missed countless times.
The ticking clock hand pierced his eardrums.
The director was only growing exhausted.
"Gasp, gasp...!"
He swung with all his might, but the hammer bounced off every single time.
After failing dozens of attacks, his breath burned in his throat.
A cold sweat drenched the director's spine.
"D-damn it... Th-this makes no sense!!"
For the first time in his life, he was feeling fear towards a human.
To the director, a human was nothing more than material for the artwork he created.
Inferior creatures.
Thus, they were trash that had to be reborn as art through his hands.
Right. It should have definitely been like that....
"I'm slowly getting tired of waiting. I was going to let you land at least one hit."
"G-get lost...!"
"Since we've done this much, it should be fine if I make a move now, right?"
"Eek...!"
That supposed trash was currently cornering him.
No, beyond cornering him, it was trying to kill him.
The director squirmed like an earthworm.
"D-d-don't come any closer! I said stay away!"
Shuffle-.
As he wildly swung the hammer and unknowingly stepped backward.
Zip-.
The boy who was taking quick steps in place vanished.
The silhouette scattered as if a haze had wavered.
The director looked around, utterly clueless.
"W-what! Where did you disapp...?"
Thwack-.
The moment he tried to turn around, something pierced his right arm.
A pain that felt like magma flowing through his veins.
His flesh burned away with a loud sizzle.
Sizzle-!
"A-aaaaagh!!"
The director couldn't help but vomit out a scream.
His arm crumbled into pieces, as if completely drained of moisture.
While he was sobbing, a voice was heard from behind him.
Behind the director stood the clown who had vanished.
"Your reaction is quite intense."
Holding that gleaming fragment in his hand.
Startled, the director fell over backward.
Clatter-!
"Ugh, haah...! Gasp, gasp...."
"In the case of a vampire or a ghoul, they say the body continuously regenerates as long as blood is supplied. But unfortunately, the wound I gave you won't heal. The weapon I'm holding is quite special."
"Kuhagh!"
Swoosh-!
He swung his remaining arm in a desperate attempt to shake it off, but as expected, all he tore through was the innocent air.
The boy was no longer standing in that spot.
"How is it."
"...!"
Behind him.
When had he moved there?
It was a speed the eyes couldn't even follow.
Before the director could even flee, a stake was driven into his right thigh.
Thwack-!
"Guaaaagh!!!"
"Does it hurt."
Just like before, the leg burned before crumbling into ash.
A groan leaked from his now-hoarse throat.
The boy disappeared again.
Only to appear from behind once more.
"Are you scared."
Thwack, thwack-!
This time, he didn't even hesitate.
The clown pierced his remaining forearm and thigh once each.
Having lost his limbs, only the director's torso remained like a caterpillar.
Thud-.
The heel of the boy's shoes rested upon the miserable figure sprawled on the ground.
"Now you can't even run away. Do you feel despair."
"Ah, agh...."
The director denied reality.
No, he wanted to deny it.
"Th-this can't be... This can't be happening, ugh, ack, this can't be happening!!"
"Shut it."
Smack-!
As the director let out a shriek, the boy grabbed his jaw.
Then, clenching his fist tight, he struck him in the mouth over and over again.
His teeth shattered and rained down.
Looking closely, it wasn't a fist but a chunk of rock.
He was swinging it with enough force to smash every last fang.
Smack! Thwack, clatter-!
Every time he brought his fist down, the boy's own hands were wounded as well.
Even so, the boy showed no signs of pain, remaining utterly ruthless.
The director wasn't even allowed to scream.
"Ugh...."
"Quiet."
"S-stoop...."
"Quiet."
"Ghk...."
"Quiet."
"...."
"Quiet."
"...."
Sizzle-
He pressed the stake against the flesh, systematically searing the raw meat.
By the time burns had spread across his entire body and every last tooth was shattered.
Whack, thwack-!
"P... p-please...."
The director began to beg.
"I beg you, I, wuz, wuz wrong... I wuz wrong...."
"...."
"P-please, please spare me...."
"...Hah."
The clown let out a brief, hollow laugh.
He put down the weapon he held in his hand.
Then he brought his mask closer to the director.
Was he actually going to listen to his plea?
A glimmer of hope sparkled in the director's mangled eyes.
"There's a line often thrown around at times like this. It is a bit cliché, though."
The mask.
The smiling mask.
"Begging for your life. Have you...."
Wait.
Was that mask,
a
l
w
a
y
s
s
miling?
"Have you ever spared anyone who begged you for their life?"
His vision wildly distorted.
The corners of the mask's mouth ripped all the way to its ears, reaching a point where it could no longer be called a face.
Belatedly, the director realized he had said something he shouldn't have.
"Ah...."
The next moment.
The mask's eyes and mouth were dyed crimson.
The torn corners of its mouth stretched open all the way to the ceiling.
A gaping maw opened up just like that.
A deep place.
An abyss.
A world that shouldn't exist.
The director plummeted into the crimson space.
"...."
Tentacles swarmed in every direction.
An ocean brimming with blood, discharge, and pus, reaching all the way to the base of the sky.
Things squirming within it, and phenomena he couldn't comprehend.
A sun floated in the sky.
A massive sun.
No, that wasn't a sun.
It was an eyeball as colossal as the ocean.
"...."
Tentacles coiled around his body.
It.
Looked down at him.
His reflection was captured in that seething pupil.
Even so, he couldn't tell what color the iris was.
Perhaps it was because his own eyes had burned away the moment their gazes met.
"Ah, aah...."
A ragged breath.
The director sank.
He choked on the blood, discharge, and pus.
The entity was still looking down upon him.
"Ah...."
He heard a sound.
A sound that shouldn't have been audible.
.- - -... .- ... .... -.-. .. .--. .... . .-.
It.
It was speaking to him.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah."
A moment where one second felt like a hundred years.
A language that shouldn't be understood flowed into him.
Shiver- The director's physical body went into convulsions.
And, not long after....
The director's brain burned away.
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