Chapter 83: The Curse of the Wendigo
Inside the Texas Battle Land amusement park, bathed in flickering neon lights.
Corpses lay scattered everywhere, dismembered limbs and torn flesh creating a scene like a blood-soaked slaughterhouse.
But in this earthly hell, the culprits who'd created this nightmare were now suffering the same torment they'd inflicted on countless victims.
"Kill me, please just kill me! I'm begging you!"
Of the infamous Sawyer family who'd terrorized Texas for decades, only one half-dead member remained. The other two had already been brutally executed.
The monstrous Leatherface had been split perfectly in half by Chris—deader than dead.
The crazed middle brother Chop-Top had still been barely alive after Chris's initial kick, but then Ruby had disemboweled him and carved out his heart, leaving him to die in excruciating agony.
Witnessing the horrific deaths of his two brothers, Drayton Sawyer now wished only for death. Just thinking about how his siblings had died made him terrified of suffering even more agonizing torment.
However, Chris had no time to concern himself with this pathetic specimen. He was currently examining a mummified corpse propped up in an antique wheelchair.
This figure—so emaciated and desiccated it barely looked human anymore—was the eldest member of the Sawyer clan, the grandfather of the three brothers.
According to the movie, this creature had lived for over a hundred years, which would normally be considered miraculous.
However, in this universe where supernatural powers demonstrably existed, Chris wasn't particularly surprised by the extended lifespan.
What Chris was curious about was why this ancient thing, despite clearly possessing some special power within his withered frame, had deteriorated into a living mummy.
To investigate this mystery, Chris picked up one of Drayton's severed limbs and placed it near the mummified corpse's mouth.
"What are you doing? You can't do that—he's my grandfather!"
Seeing Chris feeding his own flesh and blood to the patriarch, Drayton immediately became hysterical, shouting in distress.
But Chris ignored him completely, and Ruby simply punched Drayton hard in the gut, causing the already weakened man to cough up blood.
When the blood dripped onto the mummified corpse's cracked lips, the creature seemed to be awakened by the scent of fresh vitality. Its shriveled head slowly lifted with terrible purpose.
Then Chris observed the mummy eagerly sucking blood from the severed limb. Finding the blood insufficient, it began tearing at the flesh with surprising vigor.
As the corpse continued feeding, it began recovering vitality at a visibly accelerating rate.
"Well, well! There's an unexpected bonus here."
After the mummy finished consuming an entire severed arm, it let out a rasping roar, as if reacquainting itself with physical sensation and motor control.
Then Chris heard the creature speak in a hoarse, crackling voice: "Is there more? I need more flesh."
Chris sneered at the mummified patriarch, then casually instructed Ruby, "That guy's useless now. Kill him."
The mummy turned its head in bewilderment and watched as its descendant was methodically chopped to death by a woman wielding a chainsaw—a woman who possessed power from the same source as itself.
However, the ancient corpse showed no sadness whatsoever. Instead, it closed its eyes, inhaling the bloody scent of its offspring hanging in the air, its face contorting with naked craving.
Seeing the old monster's perverted expression, Chris raised his hand and slapped it hard across the face.
"Stop your goddamn acting! Tell me the source of your power, or I'll make you regret ever being born into this world!"
The Sawyer patriarch, stunned by the blow, looked at Chris with apparent confusion, as if it genuinely didn't understand what was happening.
Seeing this pretense, Chris directly crushed the old man's lower leg—which had just regained some sensation—causing the creature, who hadn't experienced real pain in decades, to scream in agony.
"Ahhhh! Stop, please stop!"
Chris hadn't expected his casual interrogation technique to be so immediately effective. Just crushing one leg was enough to make the ancient cannibal completely compliant.
"If you don't want your other leg crippled, then start talking—honestly!"
Hearing Chris's threat, the Sawyer patriarch didn't even dare try to ease his pain. He spoke rapidly: "Cannibalism! The special power I possess comes from eating people!"
"That was back in the sixties, when I lost my job because the slaughterhouse where I worked got automated. The family lost its income source, and I had no choice but to lead everyone to hunt and eat travelers to survive."
"Ahhh!" Seeing that the old bastard was adding too much self-justifying narrative, Chris inserted a finger into the wound and twisted, making him focus.
"Get to the point. Don't add embellishments to excuse your actions."
"Yes! Yes! Please, take it out!"
"It was after eating people that I discovered my body became incredibly strong, and from then on, I fell in love with cannibalism. Even after I led the family back to prosperity through Drayton's chili business, we never gave up hunting people."
"As for the mysterious power you're asking about, I genuinely don't know anything! I only know that eating people grants strength, but why such power exists, I know absolutely nothing!"
Seeing that the old monster seemed to have genuinely revealed everything he knew, Chris asked a different question: "Then you don't know that consuming your own bloodline keeps you young? How the hell did you end up looking like a dried-out corpse?"
"What?" Seeing Chris's serious expression, the Sawyer patriarch exclaimed in genuine surprise, "Eating my own family members keeps me young? Why would that be true?"
"You just ate the flesh and blood of your own descendant, didn't you look pretty damn eager?" Chris pointed at what remained of Drayton, who'd already been reduced to minced meat by Ruby's chainsaw.
The Sawyer patriarch, suddenly understanding what he'd actually consumed, began dry-heaving violently. He'd thought it was just ordinary human flesh! How could he have connected it with his own offspring?
Ever since he'd deteriorated into a mummified state, even his perception of the outside world had dropped nearly to zero. How could he possibly still recognize what his descendants looked like?
Observing the old man's genuine reaction, Chris finally completely believed this creature knew nothing of significance. He was just a serial killer who'd happened to perform rituals consistent with Wendigo transformation.
In fact, because this family always cooked their victims before consuming them, the power amplification effect they gained never reached its theoretical peak.
Chris had confirmed this because after killing Leatherface, the life essence he'd obtained indicated that Leatherface's power was only roughly equivalent to Ruby's brothers, and significantly weaker than Ruby's father Jupiter.
Understanding this, Chris simply twisted the old man's neck with a sharp motion, and an essence extremely close to white-tier merged into his body.
This was life essence only one step away from reaching true white classification. It seemed this ancient bastard really had consumed hundreds of victims over the decades!
It was simply unfortunate he'd never known the specific methods of optimization, which caused his raw life essence to increase substantially while he completely lacked corresponding physical strength to match.
However, although this old cannibal's life essence benefited Chris considerably, it was still missing approximately one-third of its expected potency.
It seemed the Leatherface family in this world was also a bloodline blessed—or perhaps cursed—by the Wendigo.
Based on all available information, the concept of the Wendigo appeared to exist as a fundamental law or force in this universe.
Any human who performed rituals consistent with the Wendigo archetype would receive the entity's "blessing"—meaning they would begin transforming toward becoming Wendigo themselves.
However, as soon as any cannibal who received these blessings died, all of their accumulated essence would return to the Wendigo, becoming absorbed into the greater whole.
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