Chapter 47: Purifying Freddy

Chapter 47: Chapter 47: Purifying Freddy

Chapter 47: Purifying Freddy

Lionel Cosgrove lost his footing and slammed onto the pavement as the uncontrolled stream of Holy Water hammered past him. Inside the fire engine, Paquita Sanchez pressed both hands against the glass while tears ran down her cheeks. "Lionel!" she shouted, but he barely heard her over the pump and the fighting farther down the street.

"Stay inside!" Paquita’s grandmother called anxiously when she saw her granddaughter reaching for the door. Lionel ignored both voices and looked toward Jason Voorhees and the gigantic form of Vera Cosgrove, then toward Axel Vance, who was circling the monsters with his shotgun. If he could not restore the attack line, their best weapon would remain useless.

Lionel stopped trying to fight the discharge head-on and lowered himself almost flat against the road. Bracing his knees and remaining hand against the pavement, he began crawling toward the open outlet inch by inch. Holy Water washed across his terrible wounds, sending waves of sharp pain through his body while somehow keeping his thoughts unusually clear.

Several yards away, Jason drove another fist deep into Vera’s bloated torso. The blow cratered her infected flesh, but Vera answered with a shriek as the enormous mouth across her abdomen opened and clamped down on Jason’s shoulder. Jason did not react to the pain and instead grabbed both sides of the grotesque mouth.

He pulled.

Vera’s abdominal jaws tore wider with a wet ripping sound, opening into an even more horrific wound. She screamed and seized Jason before hurling his massive body into the brick wall of a nearby building hard enough to send debris across the street. Jason dropped into the rubble, immediately stood again, and charged her without hesitation.

Axel moved around the edges of their fight with his shotgun ready. His shells could not permanently hurt either monster, but every blast was enough to turn a head or interrupt an attack for a fraction of a second. He used those moments to keep the battle focused away from the fire engine and everyone sheltering near it.

Lionel slipped again before noticing something beside the open discharge.

A shutoff handwheel.

His exhausted mind suddenly cleared.

He dragged himself toward the valve and wrapped his remaining left hand around the wet metal. Lionel pulled with everything he had, but blood loss, pain, and the slick surface made the wheel almost impossible to move. His jaw tightened as he tried again and gained barely an inch.

The passenger door of the fire engine suddenly opened.

"Paquita, no!" her grandmother shouted.

Paquita ignored the warning and ran directly toward Lionel.

She dropped beside him and placed both hands over his. "I’m helping you." Lionel looked at her for half a second before they both leaned into the handwheel together.

Neither noticed the blackened remains beside the pumper moving.

Freddy Krueger had been lying almost motionless since Lionel forced him against the Holy Water discharge. His ruined body suddenly jerked upward, and the four blades of his right-hand glove shot toward Paquita’s back. Even barely alive, Freddy still had enough hatred left for one final attack.

Lionel saw the movement.

"Watch out!"

He reacted without thinking.

Lionel twisted his body between them and raised the ragged stump of his missing right forearm. The exposed bone drove down like a crude dagger and punched into Freddy’s ruined remains before the blades could reach Paquita.

Freddy released a weak, almost breathless howl.

Then he stopped moving again.

Paquita stared at Lionel in horror, but he immediately turned back toward the valve. "Later." Together they forced the handwheel around until the metal screamed and the uncontrolled Holy Water stream finally stopped.

Neither of them had time to celebrate. Lionel pulled the replacement hose into position while Paquita helped align the coupling, and together they locked it onto the pumper discharge. Once the connection was secure, Lionel threw the free end toward Axel.

"Well done!" Axel shouted.

He caught the hose, attached the nozzle, and signaled for the valve and pump pressure to come back up. The line stiffened in his hands as Holy Water surged through it once again. Axel turned toward the two monsters still tearing at each other and grinned.

"Bath time."

He opened the nozzle.

A roaring curtain of Holy Water swept across both Jason and Vera.

Vera reacted first.

Her enormous infected body began dissolving almost immediately, and thick clouds of vapor rose from her swollen flesh. The giant mouth across her abdomen shriveled while whole sections of corrupted tissue collapsed beneath the cleansing stream.

Vera screamed.

Then she stopped fighting Jason.

Her massive body twisted toward Lionel.

She began crawling for the fire engine despite the Holy Water destroying her with every movement. One enormous arm stretched toward her son while her deformed face somehow produced words through the roar.

"Lionel... my baby..."

Lionel froze.

Vera reached farther.

"Come back to Mommy."

Paquita grabbed Lionel’s hand.

For the first time in his life, Lionel did not shrink away from his mother.

He wrapped his remaining arm around Paquita and looked directly at Vera. "Mom, I found someone I love." His voice remained calm as he added, "You don’t have to control me anymore. Please just rest."

Vera’s reaching arm stopped.

The rage in her distorted face seemed to falter for one brief moment.

Then the Holy Water consumed the last of her body.

The giant infected mass collapsed into white vapor and dark residue before vanishing completely beneath the stream. Lionel stood silently beside Paquita while the place where his mother had been was washed clean.

A familiar system notification appeared before Axel.

[Holy Water Lv.2 — 500/2000]

[Group of distorted souls successfully purified.]

[Purified soul power absorbed.]

[Physique +0.5]

[Physique: 2.6 → 3.1]

A powerful warmth spread through Axel’s body.

The exhaustion accumulated through the night and morning vanished almost instantly. His breathing steadied, his muscles felt lighter, and the fatigue from emptying his Psionic Power earlier disappeared as though he had just awakened from a full night’s sleep.

Axel immediately looked back toward the battlefield.

Jason was still standing.

Holy Water poured continuously across his body, stripping away muscle and flesh while thick smoke rolled from his shoulders. Newly formed tissue kept trying to replace what was being destroyed, producing the same grotesque cycle Axel had already seen.

Jason slowly raised his head.

The hockey mask faced Axel through the curtain of water.

Whatever hatred kept him moving had not weakened.

Then Jason charged.

Axel narrowed his eyes.

"Still not enough."

He shoved the hose nozzle into Lionel’s remaining hand. "Keep it on him. Don’t let up."

Lionel grabbed the nozzle and braced himself.

Axel rolled his shoulders and stepped forward instead of retreating.

His Physique had just reached 3.1, and there was no better test standing in front of him than Jason Voorhees.

Jason threw the first punch.

Axel met it head-on.

Their fists collided with a dull explosion of force.

Axel slid backward two steps.

Jason suffered worse.

His flesh had already been weakened by the continuous Holy Water stream, and the impact from Axel’s newly strengthened body overwhelmed the damaged tissue around his wrist. Jason’s hand tore free and spun across the pavement.

Axel looked at the severed hand.

Then he smiled.

"So that’s 3.1."

Jason showed no reaction whatsoever and immediately charged again.

Axel had already learned enough from their earlier fight to know there was no reason to stand around trading punches for pride. He sidestepped the attack, pulled the shotgun from his back, and changed his grip.

Instead of firing, Axel held the weapon like a club.

He swung the stock into Jason’s hockey mask with everything his enhanced body could produce.

The impact snapped Jason’s head sideways.

Before the killer could recover, Axel stepped closer and struck again.

Then again.

The shotgun stock came down like a warhammer, hammering Jason’s mask, neck, shoulders, and skull while Lionel kept the Holy Water trained on him. Every hit broke apart more weakened flesh than Jason could regenerate.

Jason finally dropped to one knee.

Axel did not stop.

Another heavy blow crushed him to the pavement.

By the time Axel stepped back, Jason’s regenerated body had been reduced to a writhing mass of ruined flesh around the surviving bones. Lionel continued holding the stream on him until Axel reclaimed the nozzle.

"Let’s finish the easy part."

Axel opened the flow directly over Jason’s remains.

The Holy Water dissolved what was left of the corrupted flesh.

Within moments, only the familiar skeleton remained.

Axel shut off the nozzle and crouched beside the bones. Pamela Voorhees’s ritual anchor had not yet been destroyed, so he knew perfectly well that reducing Jason to a skeleton again was not a permanent victory. He gathered the bones and secured them for the return to Crystal Lake.

Then Axel noticed movement near the fire engine.

A blackened shape was trying to crawl away.

Freddy.

Axel slowly turned toward him.

Freddy froze.

"You weren’t planning to leave without saying goodbye, were you?" Axel asked.

Freddy managed to twist his ruined face into something resembling a smile. "We’ve both had a rough day. How about we call it even?"

Axel glanced toward the remains of his destroyed Ford.

Freddy followed his gaze.

"Okay," Freddy said quickly. "I’ll buy you another one."

Axel laughed.

Freddy’s expression fell.

"That was the wrong answer, wasn’t it?"

Axel walked over, grabbed Freddy with one hand, and lifted his ruined body from the pavement. "You smashed my brand-new truck, tried to murder a camp full of kids, dragged Jason back into the world, and then tried to kill half the people standing here."

Freddy weakly raised one finger. "In my defense, Jason did most of the truck damage."

Axel carried him toward the pumper.

Freddy began struggling.

"Hey, come on. We can talk about this."

Axel climbed onto the fire engine and opened the access hatch to the Holy Water tank.

Freddy looked inside.

His confidence disappeared.

"Oh, no."

Axel dropped him.

Freddy vanished into the tank with a splash.

A scream immediately erupted from inside.

"You damned cop!"

Black smoke began escaping from the open hatch.

Freddy’s voice echoed from within the Holy Water. "If I ever crawl back from this, you better never sleep again!"

Axel ignored him.

He sat down near the tank, opened the Blessed Bible, and began reciting scripture.

Holy Reading flowed together with the massive reservoir of Holy Water surrounding Freddy.

The screaming intensified.

Then gradually weakened.

The system began updating.

[Holy Water Lv.2 — 800/2000]

[Holy Reading Lv.2 — 500/1000]

[Supernatural nightmare entity successfully purified and banished.]

[Residual purified soul power absorbed.]

[Psionic Power +0.3]

[Psionic Power: 1.5 → 1.8]

A cool surge of Psionic Power spread through Axel.

Inside the fire engine’s tank, Freddy’s voice finally disappeared.

Axel slowly closed the Bible.

[Goal Tracker]

PS 500 → 1 Bonus Chapter

Reviews 10 → 1 Bonus Chapter

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