Baka's notes: AND HERE COMES A NEW CHAPTER! More into the Doom Slayer's quests as an adventurer! And who knows?! Maybe he'll finally find a clue?
Enjoy people, it's been a while but I hope you'll like this chapter.

Chapter 8: Hints of Hell

How did that happen?

"Seven."

Why did that happen to him?

"Goblin Slayer! I'm raising Protection to protect the hostages!"

"Do it."

"I'll be with her, Beard Cutter!"

This is unbelievable! These adventurers are all over the place! And they're not many! How can they be slaughtering his clan mates so easily!

That Goblin was frozen in terror and boiling in rage at seeing his kind being crushed under the heel of only five adventurers when the other day they just crushed a slightly bigger party! They were feasting on their remains a little earlier before this massacre happened.

And that's all the other one's fault! Yeah maybe he was supposed to be on guard duty, and he sent a younger goblin instead. But he was giving the wretched thing a lesson for lazing around!

But whatever the case, it was not his fault. Because that's how a goblin mind works, the individual is always superior to the other of his own kin and never wrong in any way. A truly rotten mind.

And what about their leader? That useless scum who can use one magic spell was supposed to protect them right? Isn't that the role of a leader? Well that idiot died first, a dagger to the throat and an arrow to the head. Useless!

But everyone else was just as useless in fighting those adventurers.

The Lizardman and Dwarf were supposed to become their meal for the next few weeks! The blonde girl and elf were to become new carriers for their kind and whatever was under that armored adventurer was just going to be food too, no matter the gender.

And here they were, slaughtering the nest!

But this goblin wasn't a fool, he could tell a lost cause when he saw one. So there was only one thing to do: escape. He grabbed one of his fellow goblins that was trembling in fear and rage next to him and threw him forward, yelling at him to do something.

While that goblin got sliced in half by the Lizardman's bone sword, the 'smart' goblin ran away through the same corridor he saw a few goblin escape when it all started.

"Milord Goblin Slayer, are you sure that we can let them escape?" he heard one of the adventurers shout.

"Ten. It's okay, after all there's…" he didn't hear completely what the other adventurer answered and he didn't care.

The goblin ran as fast as he could in the dark corridors of the cave, his 'superior' eyes could see perfectly well in the obscurity. He remembered seeing at least three goblins run away, maybe they reached the exit of the cave, and hopefully not too far. With them he could make a new nest and this time he will be the leader, he's obviously the best one to do that.

He suddenly stopped for a second, he could smell blood. Was there another adventurer in the cave? Did the goblins find them and attack them? Perfect! He could get there, tell them to take this victim with them and start the nest with 'fun' if the adventurer was female, or a feast if male! Perfect flawless plan!

The goblin ran at full speed towards the source of the smell, he was getting closer. Just there! Around the cor-

An armored hand suddenly emerged from a corner and grabbed the goblin by the throat tightly.

The goblin didn't even have the time to yell from surprise as he heard the bones of his feet crack under the heavy heel of the attacker.

He finally looked up, only to see someone in full body armour looking down on him through his glass visor.

Suddenly he felt the attacker's hand on his throat rising up, ripping his head from his body.

"GRABU-" He didn't even finish his scream of pain as his head and part of his spine got ripped from his body in a sprinkle of blood.

The man threw the body on the ground and waited for more goblins to come as he could see two more approaching.

And that was how many now? Seven? No it was now ten goblins who ran away from the main room and got ambushed by the Doom Slayer and died in seconds.

There was no more carnage sound coming from the main room of the Nest, that meant that they were done.

It's been nearly two weeks since his first quest with the Gorowls, and probably unsurprisingly, his exploits on finishing quests at incredible speed spread through the kingdom so fast that he raised up in Adventurer Rank two times in record time.

He touched a bit the Steel Adventurer tag with his title on it. So damn quickly that it attracted unwanted attention from both clients and other adventurers.

When it was known he was mostly doing 'Unknown Creatures' Quests, people just said that they didn't know what was the trouble maker creature and sometimes wouldn't even describe it, just for a chance that the Doom Slayer will take their requests.

It was useless, annoying and time wasting.

Then there were adventurers, mostly some of his ranks who were too greedy for fame and glory that wanted to leech on his success.

He worried for a second that the adventurers he learned to befriend during his time in this world would also act in the same way. But fortunately, it seems it only happened with the weak minded.

So he very rarely did any of the quests he accepted with other adventurers, but he sometimes would join Goblin Slayer's party in some goblin slaying quests, hoping to find more clues of demonic influence on the weaks.

No such luck.

Speaking of Goblin Slaying quest, his role was RearGuard, to take out any goblins who tried to run away. It was boring to be honest. But he could understand the reason too.

After a few quests with the party, Goblin Slayer's honesty in his reports was cutting the payment to all the party members except the Doom Slayer who was being paid more because of his strength and how he did most of the job with his speed. Even though he said that he could just give them some of his share since he didn't really need it, no one agreed to it and wanted to earn the money themselves and to do that, Doom Slayer could be the rear guard. Like that not only do they all do their work, but can relax a bit more since before they always had to work extra hard not to let a single goblin escape.

Speaking of them. Here they were.

"We're done." Goblin Slayer said, carrying a sleeping woman dressed only with a cloth on her back.

"Did everything go alright with you, milord Doom Slayer?" Lizard Priest asked, he was also carrying a woman, and his skeleton summon too.

He nodded.

"Ten…"

"So that makes 27 goblins slayed. We can leave now."

Everyone nodded and headed to the exit.

The next day, at the Frontier Guild, Doom Slayer was already the first adventurer looking for a quest that could lead him to the whereabouts of the Demonic Portal of Hell.

"Doom Slayer, hey!"

"Hello…"

Spearman tapped his shoulder, Witch not too far behind.

"So what will it be today? Found anything yet?"

"I'm looking… Hm?" the Slayer raised an eyebrow at a particular quest on the board.

It was an 'Unknown monster' Quest, but what caught his attention was the silhouette of the monster in question. It reminded of a certain demon he hasn't seen in a while. He grabbed the quest and walked to Guild Girl.

"Can you… translate for me…?" he asked the worker.

While Priestess did give him a few lesson on how to read, there were still many words he couldn't read, plus it was extremely hard to read because when he read the words with this world's pronunciation, it didn't sound like what they were saying since it was immediately translated when coming out of their mouth.

"Of course." Guild Girl smiled politely and read the quest, "I see, it's a 'second time' quest, or an 'Updated Quest' if you prefer. It was first asked to inquire what was a Mad Science Man doing in his strange mansion in a Town South from here, around three days by walking. But the first Adventurers who went there got attacked by three monsters and the survivors told about a monster never seen before."

The Doom Slayer leaned forward, something never seen before…?

"It's described as a pink strange monster that stands on a metallic moving table, reminds them of spiders and it had a cannon on the metallic part of the creature's appearance." she described.

The Doom Slayer froze, and an aura of anger started to be felt emanating from him, making almost everyone shiver in fear near him.

"I-Is everything okay?" Guild Girl tried to stay put.

"It sounds… Like an Arachnotron… A demon from Hell." He explained after calming down.

He immediately asked Guild Girl where exactly on the map this Town was.

As she was showing him and he was recording the location on his own map, two voices coughed behind him.

He turned around to see two adventurers he knew, grinning.

"Come on Doom Slayer! We can help you!" Spearman groaned behind the Slayer as he was speaking with the Blacksmith.

"He's not wrong, Doom Slayer. If Goblin Slayer's party could help. I'm more than certain that we'll be as helpful as them." Heavy Warrior said, his arms crossed.

"Maybe (probably) even more." The Female Knight added with confidence and a grin.

"And. If you. Are right. Knowing. Our enemies. Before. They invade. Could help. Us all." Witch concluded.

The Hell Walker sighed. He turned around with an annoyed glance visible through his visor.

"I know that you… Are more than capable… But it's my fight… And I know…. That no matter... what I say... you guys... are going to come, huh…?" He sighed at the grins in front of him.

He asked about the rest of the Heavy Warrior's party to Female Knight's , the Silver adventurer explained that they went on a quest by themselves with the Rookie Warrior and the Apprentice Cleric. So the two Silver Adventurers were free.

By looking at her expression, it seems that she would rather have time alone with her partner or going on a quest with just him.

But would join him on this quest anyway, it could be a good experience too.

The Slayer groaned again, he knew them for almost a month now, he could tell that they really won't back down.

He turned back to the Blacksmith who came back from his workshop.

"Doom Slayer, I examined your 'shell' and I don't think it'll be possible for me to recreate them as fast as you'd hope. The main problem is the black powder. I've seen something similar before but it's very rare and buying some of it would cost me more than I can make in a week. Plus with all the other commissions of the adventurers, especially Goblin Slayer's..." The dwarf sighed with a groan.

The Slayer answered with a groan in return, thanked him and turned his back, heading back upstairs, the four Silver Adventurers behind him.

When the group reached the Guild again, they met Goblin Slayer's party who were getting ready for their quests. The Dwarf learned that Doom Slayer might have found a demon and asked about the location of the monster. When the Marine showed them the place on the map, Priestess noted that it was very close to where one of their goblin slaying quests was taking them. High Elf Archer didn't hesitate one second to ask if they could all travel together as a big party.

"If it's alright with Goblin Slayer, sure." Heavy Warrior answered for the Slayer who threw a quick glare at him.

"I don't mind. But won't we slow down Doom Slayer too much? He's way faster than any of us." Goblin Slayer pointed out.

At that, everyone was silent, thinking of a solution. Lizard Priest eyes suddenly lit up.

"I think I have an idea."

"No. I don't think it's appropriate." Priestess immediately denied.

"What is. This idea?" Witch asked.

The blonde girl blushed in embarrassment and decided to whisper it to the older woman who chuckled at hearing it. She whispered it back to the Doom Slayer who let out a groan of annoyance.

He looked at everyone and sighed.

"Just… This once…" he agreed.

"Woa! He really is very fast! This is amaziiiing!" High Elf Archer screamed in excitement, raising her arms as the wind hit her face.

"I knew he was fast when I saw him running past us, but this. This is more impressive than I thought."

"This is… just for this… quest… Never again…"

The Doom slayer was pulling a very large carriage with all nine adventurers of different sizes inside while running at full speed towards his destination on the road, and while he was slowed down, he was still faster than horses!

They reached the town in eleven hours. But Doom Slayer groaned that he would have done it in five if he was alone.

The two parties split apart to get on with their respective quests.

Thankfully, the chef of this town seemed to be waiting at the gates, and his eyes shone with glee when he saw the green armored man approaching them.

"You're the Doom Slayer, right right?" he asked.

The Steel adventurer nodded.

"This is perfect, right right! Please follow me, I'll tell you everything you need to know…" he then finally noticed the other adventurers behind the Slayer, "Do you have something to do here, right right?" he asked.

"W-We're with him!" The Female Knight exclaimed.

"What the hell?" Spearman yelled.

"But I thought the Doom Slayer was soloing his quests, was I wrong wrong?"

"It's a... one time thing…" Doom Slayer said as he looked at his party members.

"Ah… Then please come with me, right right!"

Witch and Heavy Warrior chuckled at the reactions of their companions.

"Looks like you're not the most famous adventurer anymore." the large man snickered to his comrade.

The story was very simple, there's a man who lives in a manor outside of town, he's a 'man of science' and would always help the townsfolk. But a week ago, his personality did a complete 180: he didn't accept any visitors, he would chase out anyone getting close to him and the most worrisome was that corpses were starting to get missing from the town's cemetery. And a few days ago, strange noises were coming from the manor. They asked adventurers to check on it as they were afraid of what was happening. But the rest they know from the quest description.

"The Master in his mansion is definitely up to no good, right right! Please you have to bring an end to this terror before it grows to unthinkable length!" The chief begged the group of adventurers.

While the other four adventurers started their usual manner to say that 'they don't have to worry because they're here now', Doom Slayer started to think deeply.

His suspicions were once again true, the creature wasn't an Arachnotron, if it really was, there wouldn't be a mansion anymore, and the town might be under attack. But if the creature was a creation of the mad scientist, why designed it like this? The silhouette and description was too close of an Arachnotron to be a simple coïncidence.

There was something going on in that mansion, so of course he'll go investigate and also question the mad man.

Not only was the mansion full of pentagrams and Hellish symbols, but the walls were all drenched in blood, exactly like all buildings 'infected' with Hell Energy the Doom Slayer saw in his crusade. And on top of that, a giant monster made of body parts stitched together, a Flesh Golem as the other called it, attacked them merely a minute after they got inside the building to try to stop them from going to the basement where suspicious loud noises could be heard.

If that man was creating demon-looking monsters, the Doom Slayer had to stop him as soon as possible. He wasn't late, but the sooner the better.

Unfortunately, the Flesh Golem was blocking his path.

Fortunately, he was the Doom Slayer.

He grabbed his rocket launcher and fired a missile on the monster's face. It didn't blow up at the explosion, showing that the monster was as resistant as it looked. The marine ran past the giant but not before pointing at his companions then at the target.

Thankfully, they understood what he meant as they all got in an offensive stance to fight the stunned monster.

Doom Slayer ran through the corridors, super shotgun ready for any obstacles in his way. He managed to find the stairway to the underground and ran down the stairs. What he saw was exactly what he was expecting, as cliché as it was, it was an underground lab, medieval style. But there was no sign of the mad man.

"I know who you are, Hell Walker… The dark Ones of Hell told me everything about you. Warned me about you." a voice echoed through the room.

There were no high speakers, so it was probably magic.

"But it matters not! I will show them! And they will grant me infinite knowledge of all worlds! The 'Other Earth', the Maykrs! All of it!" the man laughed.

Maykrs, huh? It's been a while since he heard that name.

"But first! Feast your eyes on my creation! Octoslimotron, kill the Slayer!"

What?

A loud noise was heard from the other side of a double door that was on the opposite side of the room, facing the Slayer. And not even a second after, one spot on the door exploded as a metalling sharp object was coming at the marine at full speed. He dodged quickly to the side and heard the rattling of chains, he looked at what almost hit him and saw it was a large harpoon attached to a chain. And from the way it was deeply embedded on the solid ground, he could tell that it would have hurt a lot if he took that hit on.

The harpoon got pulled back through the hole in the door it came through and a few seconds later, the whole door exploded as the monster behind it slammed itself into it, and the Slayer now had a perfect visual at what the 'Octoslimotron' was.

After looking at the thing for a second, he understood why he could have confused this with an Arachnotron, the demon was definitely the base inspiration for the design.

The Octoslimotron was a giant pink slime with a visible red core inside, supported by a metal chassis which was wielding a large chained harpoon instead of a cannon. There were two or maybe three metal tubes linking the core immediately to the metal part of the body. He didn't know if it was normal or not but the Slime seemed unstable by how it was flailing a demi-dozen tentacles around.

"Impressed? I hope you are, once I am done with you, this baby will be produced in mass and help the Horde of Hell to their dark invasions." he heard the voice of the Mad Scientist again, but this time it was coming from behind the monster.

Doom Slayer didn't waste a moment to shoot a rocket to the slime body of the monstrosity in front of him, but to his surprise, the missile got slowed down in its advance drastically when entering the body. He then saw the red core turn into some sort of mouth and devour the projectile.

"Hahaha, incredible, isn't it? Octo-Slimes are a rare breed of Slimes that isn't acidic on the touch, and doesn't digest when inside the body. And the tentacles are very fast and rather powerful!" he heard the Mad Scientist laugh.

The man then appeared, he walked out of the room where the Octoslimotron came out, he was accompanied by two other Flesh Golems.

"But I am no fool. The Dark Lords of Hell told me of your exploits. My Octoslimotron alone can't defeat you… But with my Flesh Golems! I have no doubt!" The man exclaimed.

The Slayer didn't answer, his glare was more than enough for anyone to understand what he was thinking.

"You dare not take me seriously! Then d- Gah!" the Mad Scientist yelped as the marine shot a few rounds with his assault rifle, only for the Flesh Golems to jump in front of their master to protect him. "Hehe, my Flesh Golems are resistant to your weapons, Slayer!"

Loud footsteps could be heard coming from upstairs, heading down to the lab.

"Oh? Looks like Beta is done with your friends." the man grinned.

But it wasn't the Flesh Golem walking down the stairs, or at least not all of it, only its head in the hands of the four SIlver Adventurers who accompanied the Slayer on this quest. The sight of his creation dead sure made the Mad Scientist lose all the confidence he was showing a few seconds ago.

"B-Beta?! R-Raah! Alpha, Gamma, Octoslimotron! Kill them! Kill them ALL!" he shouted before running away, deeper in his lab.

The monsters roared as they advanced towards the adventurers.

"Need some help with the weird one, Doom Slayer?" Spearman asked from behind him.

The Doom Slayer didn't speak, he just pointed at the adventurers then at the two Flesh Golems.

"You want us to fight Flesh Golems again? Come on, Slayer. Have some courtesy." Female Knight sighed but still raised her shield and sword.

"Well then, we better take care of them quickly if we want to have a piece of that slime thing between them!" Heavy Warrior laughed, also getting ready for battle.

The Flesh Golems immediately threw a punch towards the Slayer and once again the silver adventurers were witness to the marine's agility as he used his weird boots to jump twice in the air to dodge the fists and did a roundhouse kick to both giants monsters' head, sending them stumbling towards the four adventurers.

But they recovered quicker than expected as they countered Heavy Warrior's swing of his sword and Spearman's thrust of his weapon to make them swing partners.

"You don't mind if we pair up against that thing?" Spearman asked the Female Knight.

"Only if you don't slow me down." she smirked before slashing the Flesh Golem's side.

"Please, I'm the fastest one after Doom Slayer here!" he laughed as he pierced its shoulder.

"Sorry to interrupt your 'date'." Heavy Warrior held his sword tighter, pointing the tip at the second flesh monster.

"It's. Alright. Let's. Wrap. This up. Quickly. Then." she smiled preparing a spell to use in case of emergency.

Meanwhile, back with the Doom Slayer, he was testing which kind of ammunition will be effective against the slime monster, it seemed that the plasma bullets were the one with the best effect, but unfortunately couldn't use it because he was running out of it. He used too many Gauss Cannon shots to finish his quests quickly in the past few weeks.

The Doom Slayer quickly jumped to dodge some tentacle hits, but while he was in the air, he saw the harpoon aiming at him. He couldn't dodge in the air. So he thought quickly and grabbed his assault rifle, put on the scope and aimed at a place he knew his bullet would hit: one of the monster's robot legs.

The bullet was fast and powerful enough to blast the metal leg to bits, making the harpoon lose its aim and miss the Slayer a few feets on the right, crashing on the ceiling. The Octoslimotron quickly leaned its massive body against one of the tables to stay up.

When the Doom Slayer noticed that it was about to recall its harpoon, he had an idea: he grabbed onto the chain and got pulled along the harpoon directly onto the monster, closing the distance in a couple of seconds. Doing so reminded him of an old weapon of his he now wishes to have again, his Lucifer's Bane.

But no time for good memories, he had a bootleg Arachnotron to kill.

He kicked one of the tubes, breaking it and noticed that his foot that was on the slime wasn't sinking into its body as fast as he expected. That gave him an idea now that he has stability. Thankfully, the monster's hits with the tentacles were not effective at all.

Actually the monster was way weaker than what it looked like.

The Harpoon aimed up at his face but this time he grabbed the chain while dodging before it could retract. He grabbed his super Shotgun and plunged the barrels inside the slime, cannons point blank against the core.

The core turned into a wide open mouth, ready to swallow the weapon but the only thing it ate was lead that tore the monster's core apart.

He jumped back and watched as the Octoslimotron collapsed, dead, in a matter of seconds.

That was one. He looked back to see how his teammates were doing with the Flesh Golems.

And they were doing just fine. Female Knight was doing a perfect job taking on any hits from the Flesh Golem with her shield to allow Spearman to attack in any way, sometimes even using his partner as a support to jump high and stab the monster in the upper area like the head. And she didn't seem to mind as if she was expecting him to do that. Meanwhile Heavy Warrior was very good at staying between Witch and the Flesh Golem he was facing, focusing on cutting deeper and deeper into the monster's wounds while the Witch kept her spells for the killing blow.

"Hey big guy!" Spearman called out to Heavy Warrior, "Switch!"

At the command, both adventurers planted their weapon deep inside their opponent and swung around with them, almost like a dance as they brought themselves and their prey towards their original partners.

"Now!" Heavy Warrior yelled and with his female partner, both at the same time slashed at the monster's already deep wounds, this time going all the way and cutting through the weakened flesh and bone, cutting the monster in pieces.

One large chunk of body had still one arm and the head attached, it tried to get away using the strength of its arm but the Female Knight raised her shield and slammed the head on the ground, her partner finished the job with stomping on the shield, crushing it into pieces.

That was two.

On the other side of the room, Spearman managed to bring the Flesh Golem to the ground, on its back. He used his Spider Web spell (Doomguy didn't know he could use magic) to immobilize the giant on the ground. He took off his spear from the Flesh Golem's forehead and left a rather large hole in there.

"Would you do the honor?" he asked with a smile to his comrade Witch.

"But. Of. Course." she smiled back and approached the stuck giant.

She started chanting her spell and a small flame appeared at the tip of her raised index finger. She plunged the finger in the open forehead of the Flesh Golem without hesitation or disgust and with her last word of the spell, the monster's head burst into flames from inside, smoke and fire came out of every orifice and melted anything on its way, be it teeth or eyes. The thing was pretty much dead.

And that's three.

"Alright! Now let's go help the Slayer with that… thing…" Spearman cheered and finally turned to where the Doom Slayer had his fight with the strange monster but his joy diminished when he saw that it was already done, "Aw man!"

"Heh. As expected of the Doom Slayer. Anyway, our job isn't quite done yet."

He was right. Everyone looked at the destroyed door where the Mad Scientist escaped through.

The job isn't done.

"Alright. Tell us everything you know about the Demon's incoming Invasion!" Heavy Warrior pretty much spat at the Mad Scientist's face as he held him up high against the wall by the collar.

Everyone else was standing behind the Silver Adventurer with only the Slayer with his pistol raised and aiming directly at the mad man's head.

"The Dark Lords invasions? Hahaha, it already started! They already sent scouts from the Entrance to Hell."

"So you know where the Portal to Hell is?"

"Ha, no. But I hoped that the Dark Lords will help me once I burned this city to the ground in their name with my Ocotoslimotron! Go ahead! Kill me! Imprison me! I will join Hell and its armies as one of them and will have my revenge! Hahaha!"

The Mad Scientist kept laughing as Spearman sighed.

"What should we do with him now, Doom Sl-"

His question and the laugh were interrupted by the pull of the trigger by the Slayer without a warning.

Mission Accomplished.

"No but seriously, warn us next time you do that…" Spearman whined once again as the group entered the Adventurer Guild of the neighbouring town.

"I'll… Grunt… if there… is a next time…" Doom Slayer rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, let's just get our reward and look if there's any quests here that could interest us." Female Knight said as she walked towards the Tavern of the guild, ready to order a drink.

Heavy Warrior and Witch joined her as Doom Slayer went for the counter to get his reward and Spearman looked at the quest board.

The Guild Worker here was a young female brown rabbit beastwoman, visibly a fan of the Slayer as she became a stuttering mess the moment he saw the man in green full body armor. She nodded way too many times before running to another room to get the reward for the party. When she came back, she asked for something that the Doom Slayer was pretty much sure was similar to an autograph or a memento of his passage. There was nothing for him to lose, so he just left her one of his Doomguy Dolls he found in his last 'visit' on Mars.

He walked away from the counter after a nod at the woman who nearly fainted from joy at the gift and headed to the Quest Board where Spearman was eyeing suspiciously at a particular quest.

"Hey Slayer, hear this one out! Another 'Unknown Monster' Quest, very recent too! It speaks of three different monsters, one is an armored skeleton that can fly and spit fire projectiles and the other is a fat monster with metal mouth that spit fire for hands, the last one was not seen by the client. What kind of stu-"

Spearman stopped mid-sentence at the overwhelming sense of dread he was feeling from the presence behind him. He slowly and shakily turned around and saw the Doom Slayer glaring dagger of fire at the Quest.

Without even saying a word, the Hell Walker grabbed the quest from the board, nearly tearing the board with it, he stormed back towards the counter. The picture drawn on the Quest… it was a Revenant and a Mancubus! Everyone was staring at him in fear and didn't even say a word when he pushed a few of them away from his path.

He stopped in front of the Rabbit Beastwoman again and put the Quest paper in front of her, saying only one word.

"Where?"

The woman took a deep breath to keep her composure and read the paper.

"Th-This Quest was submitted only a couple of hours ago. The client died after putting it up. He came from a village only a day by horse from here through a forest. The client left a generous reward for whoever kills the beasts described in the picture. His village was burning to the ground when he ran away."

It was Demons from Hell! He was sure of it this time! He pointed at the map of the Kingdom on the wall.

"Where… is the village?" he asked.

The guild worker pointed at the location on the map, the Slayer scanned it and headed out. His four companions quickly stood up and followed him before he left them behind.

"Well this was a quick extermination." Lizard Priest smiled.

"Because they ambushed us out of nowhere! They were supposed to be sleeping!" High Elf Archer groaned, trying to clean off the stinky goblin blood from her small dagger.

"... I'm not sure why, but something wasn't right with those goblins… There were way less than the report and there was no leader in the nest. As if they moved out and left some behind for guarding the nest. But gone where?" Goblin Slayer thought out loud.

"As always, you're only chatty when it involves Goblins. Heh, Beard Cutter?" Dwarf Shaman laughed.

"Uh? Isn't that Doom Slayer and the others?" Priestess pointed at the man in green armor storming out of the Guild with the others behind him, trying to catch up.

"This look serious, do you think it's demons?"

"We-We need to go with them! Orcbo-"

"Let's go." Goblin Slayer silenced everyone as he started running towards the other group.

His party was stunned for a few seconds of their leader's decision but they had no time to waste and chased after him.

The Doom Slayer was once again pulling the carriage with the whole team on board but this time there was no joyful ambiance, it was tense and serious. Everyone was getting ready for a dangerous battle with demons. Goblin Slayer's party may have already met some demons before but those were of the weakest kind.

"I'm still surprised Orcbolg decided to join you guys. I was pretty sure he would just go on another goblin slaying quest." High Elf Archer said, trying to relax the tension in the air.

"Now that you say that. It is weird." Heavy Warrior agreed.

"So tell us. Why you suddenly joined us?" Spearman asked the man in the dirty armor.

"... The rest of the goblins of our last quest might have headed towards the source of power that could grant them strength and survival… And that source could be the demons. We saw that before…" Goblin Slayer explained.

"Of course. Goblins."

"And also… I think demons might be as dangerous as goblins. I could always be helping a friend in any way I can…" the Silver Adventurer added.

"Heh. 'might be as dangerous'..." Female Knight smirked.

Before anyone could say anything else, Lizard Priest suddenly raised his head high in terror and shouted to the Slayer pulling the carriage.

"Milord Doom Slayer! On the right!"

"Unf?!"

Suddenly, a column of flames emerged from between the trees and hit the man in green in full force, then flames started to appear all around him before exploding and sending the Slayer through a couple of trees on the opposite side.

"Doom Slayer!"

"Everyone! Battle Formation! We're under attack!"

All nine adventurers jumped out of the carriage, weapons drawn out and ready for battle.

Then, loud noises were approaching the group and from the bushes and trees appeared half a dozen creatures that surrounded the large party. What was surprising was the variety in the enemy's troops: two goblins, a human bandit, a giant boar, a owlbear and a dark elf archer. And even more bizarre, was that they all had some sort of red aura surrounding them, and their eyes were empty of life despite clearly showing some intelligence behind the dead eyes.

"What the hell is this?" exclaimed the Dwarf Shaman.

"Hehehehe… Looks like the Doom Slayer has companions… Hilarious… They are not even strong as Sentinels." a dark commending voice echoed from behind the trees.

All eyes looked towards the source and froze at seeing what was approaching them.

It was a tall demon, towering even the Doom Slayer. It was rather slim but with some muscles and bone armor covering its chest and shoulders. Spikes on its body and its three fingered hands were in flammes.

"Alright… Let's get this done quickly." The demon smirked.

As it raised its hand high in the air, surrounding itself in flames, the trees nearby the demon burst into flames and into ashes so quickly that the fire couldn't spread. But it didn't matter, that forest will burn eventually. What was problematic was the wall of fire in front of the demon as dozen other creatures appeared out of thin air in orange flaming silhouettes, among them: an ogre and a manticore.

The adventurers started to panic and the enemies surrounding them rushed into battle to attack them.

In a few seconds, they will be overwhelmed.

If the Doom Slayer doesn't come soon…

The Arch-Vile will kill them and harvest their souls.

Baka's notes: BOOM CLIFFHANGER! DEMONS ARE APPEARING! WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT?!
You'll know in the next chapter when it comes!
But first, the next Chapter of 'Despair...' is what I'll be working on!

See you soon and be safe everyone!