Chapter 177: Missing Mommy

read lotsstory inpatre** : belamy20

Naruto Clay Death Soldiers

Soren didn’t bother with Nikolai.

He checked Carrie first. She stood a short distance away, unhurt. Alessa sat quietly on the chair beside her, still holding the melting ice cream.

Only then did he look down at the man sobbing and snotting at his feet.

Nikolai stretched one trembling hand toward him, begging without words. The moment purple flames licked up Soren’s arm, the singer’s pain-glazed eyes went wide.

“Demon! You’re a demon too—!”

He scrambled toward the auditorium doors like a worm, dragging himself through his own blood.

Soren watched him go. A purple spectral hand unfolded behind Nikolai, seized the only arm he had left, and snapped it clean.

The crack of bone echoed through the empty hall, followed by a pig-slaughter scream.

Nikolai rolled across the floor, instinctively reaching to cradle the broken wrist—only to remember the other arm was already gone. All he could do was thrash and howl in the spreading pool of blood.

“Alessa. Pull Silent Hill back.”

Soren left him there and walked over to the little girl. He ruffled her hair once.

“You did good.”

He glanced at Carrie and gave her a small nod.

Carrie’s fingers stayed locked around Alessa’s hand. Her eyes were red, lips trembling like she wanted to speak but couldn’t find the words.

Patty burst in from the rear corridor, scooped the shaking girl into a fierce hug, and rubbed her back.

“It’s over, Carrie. It’s over. Soren’s here. Nobody’s touching you.”

Alessa looked up at Soren, then at the two girls clinging to each other. She gave a quiet, obedient nod.

The peeling walls and rusted wire mesh folded away. Fresh paint and clean plaster sealed over the wounds in the room. In the space of a blink the auditorium looked ordinary again.

Outside, the students who had been running blind through the fog suddenly found the mist gone. They collapsed onto the lawn—some gasping, some rocking with their heads in their hands, a few openly sobbing.

“What the fuck was that place?!”

“Monsters—there were monsters! I thought I was dead!”

Nobody had an answer. The shared nightmare simply ended, leaving them raw and shaking on the grass.

Inside, Soren flicked a thought. The purple hand lifted Nikolai by the collar and dropped him at Carrie’s feet.

“Apologize.”

His voice was flat.

Alessa had already fed him every detail through the link. He knew exactly what the bastard had tried.

Nikolai lay face-down in his own blood, making small broken noises. Soren’s expression cooled. He set one boot on the man’s right leg and pressed down, slow and deliberate.

Bone ground, then shattered.

Nikolai’s eyes bulged. He tried to curl around the ruined leg and only flopped like a fish, shoulders heaving.

“Apologize.”

Soren planted a foot between his shoulder blades and repeated the word without emotion.

That did it. Nikolai smashed his forehead against the floor, blubbering.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I deserve to die—please, just don’t kill me, I’ll never do it again—”

Carrie stared at the man who had been so full of swagger minutes earlier. Memories of every old humiliation and the fresh terror of the last few minutes boiled up. The fear drained out of her eyes, replaced by something colder and older.

She drew her foot back and kicked him square in the face.

Teeth and blood sprayed. Nikolai tumbled sideways, screaming.

The second the rage cooled, doubt crept in. Carrie glanced at Soren and Patty, suddenly afraid she had gone too far, that she had shown them something ugly.

Neither of them looked disgusted. Both watched her with quiet, open approval.

The tight knot in her chest finally loosened. She exhaled.

Soren crouched, voice still cold.

“Who taught you the ritual?”

The way this idiot operated confirmed what Soren already suspected—disposable tool, someone else pulling the strings.

Nikolai’s eyes darted. He swallowed blood and stayed quiet.

Soren didn’t waste time. He crushed the other leg under his heel.

Another raw scream. Nikolai convulsed, teeth locked, still refusing to talk.

“Tough guy.”

Soren stood. “You really willing to die for whoever’s behind you?”

A shape stepped out of the shadows behind the singer without a sound.

Pyramid Head raised the massive rusted blade and rested the tip between Nikolai’s thighs, then began to press down—slow, patient, inexorable.

The cold steel and the pressure woke every primal fear a man has. Nikolai’s last scrap of resistance snapped.

“I’ll talk! I’ll talk—put it away!”

The blade didn’t move. The tip kissed flesh. A fresh warm stain spread across the front of Nikolai’s pants.

Soren wrinkled his nose at the sudden reek.

“Jesus. You a squid? Every time you get scared you just ink the floor.”

“Talk.”

“I—I don’t even know who it was!” Nikolai sobbed, words tumbling out. “Never showed a face, never gave a name. Just called and said find a virgin, take her to the woods, kill her on the circle they’d already drawn—”

“You already sacrificed Jennifer.”

At the name, pure hate twisted across Nikolai’s ruined face.

“That fucking slut! Acted all pure—half the town had already been between her legs! She ruined the whole ritual!”

Soren’s expression never changed. He opened his mouth to continue, but a sharp crack of impact cut him off.

Patty’s hard little leather shoe connected with Nikolai’s cheek. His head snapped sideways. The whole side of his face ballooned instantly.

Unlike Carrie’s sneakers, those shoes were built for damage.

“Watch your goddamn mouth.”

Patty was shaking with rage. She and Jennifer had never been friends, but they had been classmates. Watching a girl die like that and then hearing this piece of trash spit on her memory was more than she could stomach.

Soren caught her wrist before she could line up a second kick.

“What was the ritual actually for?”

Nikolai’s eyes had gone glassy. For a few seconds he just lay there, not even reacting. Probably thinking of his mommy.

When he finally focused again he spat a mouthful of bloody teeth.

“They said… finish the sacrifice and they’d make us famous. Money, fame, the whole ride for life—”

“Who’s behind it?”

He shook his head hard. “I swear I don’t know!”

Pyramid Head eased the blade forward another fraction. Fabric parted.

“Don’t kill me!” Nikolai shrieked, face a mask of tears and snot. “He called me again just now—told me to hurry up! I’ve got the number—I swear!”

Soren already knew it would be a burner. He tried it anyway, just in case the other side was an idiot.

“The number you have dialed is not in service—”

Of course.

He stood, voice flat.

“Alessa. He’s yours.”

No useful information left. No reason to keep the trash.

Nikolai froze, then the meaning hit. He started babbling for mercy.

Alessa gave him none.

Rusted iron wires erupted from the floor like living snakes, coiled around every limb, and dragged him screaming into the Otherworld.

“No—somebody help me—!”

read lotsstory inpatre** : belamy20

Naruto Clay Death Soldiers