Chapter 172: Renewable And Non Renewable Disposal

Julius had reached his limit.

He was a healer. He had seen horrific wounds before—gaping injuries, infections that rotted flesh from bone, deaths that came slowly and painfully.

Blood and gore were not strangers to him.

But this?

This was something else entirely.

Two human beings had been reduced to piles of indistinguishable mush.

Muscle, bone, organs, tissue—all blended together into mounds of meat that bore no resemblance to anything that had once been alive.

The smell alone was enough to make his stomach lurch, and he had to fight to keep from vomiting alongside the females.

And hovering over it all was Luca. The threat. The monster in Hero’s clothing.

Not wanting to be close to him, Julius forced his trembling legs to move.

He stumbled toward the other male elves, who were already backing away, their faces pale with shared terror.

They had to escape. Had to get away from this nightmare.

“Going somewhere?”

The voice came from behind him, casual, almost amused.

Julius froze. His heart slammed against his ribs as he turned, already raising his hands defensively.

“W-What? What do you want from us?” His voice cracked. “Don’t—don’t try anything. We haven’t pointed any guns at you. You can’t do anything to us!”

Behind him, the other male elves had clustered together, forming a pathetic defensive huddle.

Rufus and Isaac, who had been so bold and angry earlier, now looked like frightened children, their faces pale, their eyes darting everywhere.

Luca stared at them for a moment, then scoffed.

“Are you idiots even listening?”

He shook his head slowly, like a parent disappointed in particularly slow children.

“I just told you minutes ago that I can’t kill you right now. I won’t be doing anything to you. My hands are tied.”

He waved a hand dismissively.

“The reason I stopped you isn’t to shoot you. It’s because I need your help with something.”

Julius’s eyes narrowed with suspicion.

“Help? What kind of help?”

Luca pointed casually at the two mounds of shredded flesh.

“I need you to clean this up.”

The words hung in the air for a moment, incomprehensible.

Julius blinked. “What?”

Luca circled the mess, gesturing at it like a disappointed homeowner pointing out a spill.

“Think about it. I can’t just leave this here. It’ll rot. The smell will spread through the entire forest. Flies, disease, contamination—not exactly ideal for your little village, is it?”

He smiled pleasantly.

“Someone needs to gather it up and dispose of it properly.”

He turned to face the male elves fully.

“And you lot are perfect for the job.”

“After all, for years, you’ve sat around doing nothing while the women handled all the work around here. Chores, hunting, gathering…”

He listed them out.

“…they did it all while you lazed about and ordered them around.”

“So…” His smile didn’t reach his eyes. “I think it’s time you got your hands dirty for once. Consider it repayment for all those years of freeloading.”

Julius’s jaw dropped.

“You—you want us to clean THAT?!”

He pointed at the remains, his hand shaking.

“Why should we?! We don’t take orders from you! If you want it cleaned, do it yourself! You’re the one who made this mess!”

And in response, Luca didn’t get angry. Didn’t even frown. He simply nodded thoughtfully.

“You’re absolutely right. I have no power over you. None at all.” He spread his hands. “If you want to walk away right now, you’re free to do so.”

The male elves blinked. A flicker of hope crossed their faces.

But then Luca’s smile faded, replaced by something colder.

“But of course, if you do that, I’ll have to clean this mess myself.” He took a slow step forward. “After all, the females can’t do it—I won’t let them get their hands covered in blood.”

“So it’ll be just me, alone, cleaning up this…lovely mess.”

Another step.

“And you know, when I clean, I tend to think. My mind wanders. And when my mind wanders, it goes fast.”

“A hundred miles an hour, covering every possible thought, every possible problem, every possible solution.”

He was closer now. Much closer.

“So while I’m scraping brain matter off the grass and picking bone fragments out of the dirt, I’ll be thinking. And one of the things I’ll be thinking about is how to kill all of you.”

The words hung in the air like poison.

“Right now, I can’t.”

He rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“Rules bind me. Restrictions limit me. But if I think long enough, hard enough?”

He looked at them with a sweet smile on his face.

“I’m pretty sure I’ll find a loophole. Some way around the rules.”

“Some method that lets me massacre every single one of you, tonight, before the sun rises.”

He leaned in, his voice dropping to a whisper that somehow carried to every male elf present.

“So unless you want me to start cleaning—and start thinking—you’d better get to work. At least this way, you buy yourselves a few more days of life.”

The male elves stood frozen.

Their minds raced. They knew Luca couldn’t touch them.

The rules were clear—only if they made a move, or if Leona gave permission, could he act.

And Leona? Julius had her under control. She wouldn’t dare.

So logically, they were safe.

But logic had nothing to do with what they felt.

Their eyes drifted to the piles of meat on the ground.

To what had been living, breathing humans just minutes ago.

To the complete and utter annihilation of two bodies.

They imagined themselves in that state.

Imagined their own flesh shredded, their own bones splintered, their own blood soaking into the earth.

And suddenly, logic didn’t seem to matter anymore.

Without a word, one of the male elves moved.

Then another.

Then another.

They walked toward the carnage, their faces pale, their steps mechanical.

Their bodies moved even as their minds screamed in protest.

Self-preservation—pure, primal, overwhelming drove them forward.

Julius watched in horror.

“What are you doing?!” He grabbed at one of them. “Stop! Don’t listen to him! He can’t do anything to us! He’s bluffing!”

But the elf shook him off and kept walking.

They gathered around the two mounds of flesh, forming grim work parties.

The smell hit them immediately—copper and bile and something else, something that made their hindbrains shriek—DANGER DANGER DANGER.

Several gagged. One actually vomited onto the grass.

But they didn’t stop.

They reached down with their bare hands and began pushing the meat together. Gathering it into piles. Preparing it for disposal.

Organs slipped through their fingers. Bone fragments cut into their palms. Blood soaked into their sleeves, their pants, their skin.

The female elves observed from a distance, many unable to look directly at the scene.

It was one thing to see the destruction from afar.

It was another entirely to watch the male elves—proud, arrogant, domineering on their hands and knees, covered in gore, doing the most disgusting work imaginable.

Some felt satisfaction. Others felt sick. Most felt a complicated mix of both.

The male elves themselves already thought they were experiencing the lowest point of their miserable existence.

Here they were, on their hands and knees, scooping up chunks of human flesh and piling them together like some nightmarish gardening project.

Their eyes streamed tears—from the smell, from the horror, from the sheer degradation of it all.

Some were openly crying.

But then like a demon that refused to leave, Luca spoke again.

“Oh right, in my world, we have this concept called recycling.”

He circled them slowly, hands clasped behind his back like a lecturer addressing students.

“Biodegradable stuff—leaves, wood, bark, meat—goes in one pile.”

“Non-biodegradable stuff—metals, plastics, things that don’t break down—gets separated.”

He loomed over them, and they froze mid-motion, hands full of gore as he looked over and said,

“And right now, I want you to separate those two categories. There are about fifty or so bullets lodged in that flesh somewhere.”

“I want you to dig them out. Filter through everything. Find every single one and put them aside.”

“Separate them from the rest of the…mush.”

The female elves gasped at the sheer absurdity of the request.

The male elves were too horrified to even gasp.

They were already handling meat and bone and organs—things that would haunt their nightmares for the rest of their lives.

And now Luca wanted them to go through it all again?

To search through every chunk of flesh, every fragment of bone, every piece of viscera, just to find tiny pieces of metal?

It was getting dark as well. Soon they would barely be able to see. The task would take hours. Hours of sifting through human remains.

Every single one of them turned to protest, anger flashing through their terror. They opened their mouths, ready to scream, to refuse, to fight back.

But—Luca met their gaze.

His face was cold. Absolutely, terrifyingly cold.

“What’s wrong?” His voice was soft. “Do you have a complaint? Would you prefer that I do it myself? Take my time? Think deeply while I work?”

The words hung in the air like a death sentence.

Every male elf went pale. Shivers ran down their spines.

The image of Luca ’thinking deeply’ while cleaning up this mess was the most terrifying thing they could imagine.

Without another word, they turned back to the piles.

And began searching.

Through shredded muscle. Through splintered bone. Through things that slipped and squelched under their fingers.

They dug, and they searched, and they cried, and they continued.

Luca smiled approvingly.

“Once you’ve collected all the bullets, I want you to bury everything else far away from here. And I mean everything.”

“Not a single sliver of bone. Not a drop of blood. This place needs to look like nothing ever happened.”

He took a step back, then paused.

“Oh, and I’ll be counting the bullets later. If even one is missing—just one—I’ll have you dig up everything you buried.”

“Even if it’s been days. Even if it’s rotting. Even if there are maggots. You’ll search through it all over again until you find it.”

A few more male elves broke down into sobs, while Luca turned and began walking away, satisfied.

That’s when a small voice cut through the clearing.

“Mama! Mama! What’s that?”

Everyone froze.

Fefe.

The little girl had somehow snuck away from the children’s area and returned to her mother.

She was pointing at the horrific scene, her innocent eyes wide with curiosity.

“What are they doing? What’s that red mush over there?”

Panic rippled through the adults. This was exactly what they had tried to prevent.

A child seeing this—it would traumatize her for life.

Even Nyx’s expression shifted to something concerned. Leona moved forward, ready to shield her from the sight, but Luca was faster.

He scooped Fefe up smoothly, spinning her away from the carnage and holding her close.

“That? Oh, that’s just jam.”

Fefe blinked, confusion replacing curiosity. “Jam?”

“Yep.” Luca nodded seriously. “One of the elves accidentally dropped a whole barrel of jam. Can you believe it? Such a waste!”

He shook his head sadly.

“So now they’re trying to gather it all up and put it back in the barrel. We can’t let good jam go to waste, right?”

Fefe peered over his shoulder at the scene, her little nose wrinkling.

“It doesn’t look very tasty. It’s all messy and red.”

“That’s because it’s mixed with dirt and grass now.” Luca tickled her chin. “Still tastes good, I’m sure. But definitely not as pretty as fresh jam.”

Fefe nodded thoughtfully. Then her face lit up with an idea.

“Big Brother! Can I go help them too?”

She squirmed excitedly in his arms.

“I want to help clean up the jam! Mama says I’m really good at cleaning!”

Leona’s face went pale.

Luca’s eye twitched slightly, but he maintained his composure.

“That’s very sweet of you, Fefe. But I don’t think they need any help right now. Besides, it’s almost dark, and you don’t want to get sticky with jam before bed, do you?”

Fefe considered this, then shook her head.

“Okay, Big Brother.”

She reached out her arms toward her mother, who practically snatched her away and held her tight, trembling with relief.

Luca watched them go, then turned to the remaining elves and clapped his hands together, the sound sharp in the evening air.

“Alright, everyone! That’s it for today! Show’s over! Gather your things and head home!”

The spell broke.

Elves scrambled to collect their new bows, their equipment, their belongings.

They moved quickly, eager to leave this place behind, but unable to stop themselves from glancing back at the scene Luca had created.

Two piles of gore. Dozens of males crying as they sifted through human remains. The smell of blood and gunpowder hanging in the air.

It would be days before any of them could eat chicken again.

It would be longer before any of them forgot what they had seen.

But as they walked away, clutching their new bows, something else stirred in their hearts. Not just fear. Not just horror.

Resolution.

They had seen what the world could do. What humans could become.

And they knew, with absolute certainty, that they would never be caught unprepared again.

They would train. They would grow. They would become strong enough to protect what mattered.

No matter what it took.

The elves dispersed into the forest, leaving behind only the sounds of sobbing males and the soft whisper of wind through the trees.

And Luca, standing alone, watched the sunset with a satisfied smile.

A good day’s work.

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