The Laughing Swordsman

Chapter 315 – Split

After breaking his mother's arm, Apollo began to twist it. Though the bones had snapped, it was still attached because of the skin and flesh holding it together. To remedy that, Apollo just kept twisting.

The skin on the outside of the arm clearly wasn't used to this kind of treatment, both stretched and wrinkled up.

Apollo's mother was on the verge of death, but still resisted slightly, tensing up her muscles so as to not be twisted up. It wasn't so clear if she even consciously did that or instinctually did so as to not lose an arm.

Unfortunately for her, it was not enough to stop him.

The skin around the arm began reddening, looking even more grotesque than before. Until eventually, Apollo was able to tear the skin apart. Blood burst out, while the muscles underneath were torn up badly.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHH."

"HAHAHA HAHAHAHA."

Apollo had essentially lost it. He picked back up the kitchen knife to sever the muscles still holding the arm together.

"I am working so hard to improve you! See?"

He then cut open his mother's stomach, revealing all the organs inside. Apollo's mother could no longer feel anything at this point. Her mind had become so overloaded, that nearly no sensations even registered.

Nonetheless, Apollo peeled off the skin, revealing his mother's rib cage which still had quite a bit of flesh covering it.

He wasn't discouraged by this. He used the gap underneath the rib cage to directly stab at the heart, before lodging the end of the arm he cut off within.

Apollo smiled brightly.

"Look at how much better you are because of me!"

His mother did not respond.

After all, she was dead.

However, Apollo just kept on talking.

"Can't you see that I know what's best for you? If it wasn't for me, you would be nothing!"

He held onto the side of his head and began laughing.

"The only reason I am tough is because I love you! And look where it got you!"

Apollo continued stabbing her body, mushing up the internal organs and such.

"I care about you so much! That's why I think about your future!"

The things he was saying started to make less sense.

"From all the way to when you were born, you were useless without me! But because I loved you, you were able to grow up!"

However, they all centered around one general theme.

"I love you soooo much!"

Apollo continued to break limbs, peel off skin, and cut through flesh.

"That's why it doesn't matter what I do to you! That's why it doesn't matter what I say!"

His head tilted to the side far, stretching his neck to its very limits, nearly tearing his skin and pulling his muscle.

"Your opinion never mattered! Because I know more than you! You think you're in pain, but you're not! You're just a kid, you can't feel pain! You don't know the adult world! You're not mature! How could you do anything by yourself! Why should I give you the chance to do something on your own? You will clearly fail! You always have to rely on me! That's why you will always be a failure! What will you do when I'm gone? Nothing! Nothing at all! The only thing you can do is die after! That's all you'll ever be worth!"

Apollo's pupils shook violently.

He was running out of things to cut apart and break. At this point, most of the body had already been torn up or ground to mush.

As for the blood, it had coated the majority of his body and was beginning to dry.

Apollo paused. He was still on his knees and panting heavily, but he didn't do anything for now.

His eyes looked over the bloody mess that was underneath him. Then, he gasped.

"What?"

Apollo slowly placed the knife on the ground.

"I… did this?"

He shook his head.

"No, no… I would never do something like this."

The ironic thing was the smile plastered across his face as he said that.

"Mother?"

Apollo giggled.

"Oh… what are you doing, mother?"

He threw his head back, looking up to the sky with a depraved smile.

"Stop doing all these weird things, I know we love each other!"

Apollo continued to say various weird things that somehow made sense to him.

Eventually, his mind began to shift.

In order to forcefully circumvent this event, his mind forced him to forget. However, the process wasn't taken care of well because of how much blood and dopamine was rushing through his head.

Memories continued scrambling up.

Until eventually, his expression became a little duller.

"Hmm… I need to practice calligraphy tomorrow… I probably need to make about twenty nearly perfect character representations…"

His eyelids began to fall.

"Why… why do I feel so sleepy?"

His personality forcefully tore in two. One was on the outside to live his life, while the other was tucked away.

However, in both, the memory of killing their mother had been buried deep.

They each had a tiny part within them, far beneath the surface.

One held the hatred.

While the other held the actions.

And once this all finished, Apollo opened his eyes. He looked down at the bloody mess, filled with shock.

"Mommy?"

Then, he began to cry.

"Mommy!"

He cried and shouted while shaking the corpse until morning. Even when the blood ended up going into his clothes or across his body, he continued to shake her.

"Mommy Mommy!"

Apollo didn't even wipe the tears off his face.

"No, no!"

There were quite a few people that heard the commotion from earlier and got out of their houses. However, they could only hear the screaming from the roof. Some people wanted to rush in to help, but the door had been locked.

Eventually, someone decided to smash through a window in order to get in. Several people followed, going up to the roof.

And saw Apollo.