"This is the place."

Goblin Slayer stood at the entrance of the cave, Priestess standing just behind him. Even though they had cleared out many goblin caves during their time together, she could never get over the fear she felt when they came across a new one.

In the back of her mind, she was always afraid that, somehow, things would go just as bad as that first job she took as an adventurer…

"Priestess?"

She snapped out of her introspection to see Goblin Slayer already walking into the cave, holding a torch.

"S- Sorry!"

She hurried to fall in step beside him, and the two entered into the darkness, Goblin Slayer's torch being the only thing keeping them from being totally blind.

Like every other time they cleared a cave, they started by hugging the walls, making sure to check out any and all branching paths that they came across. And just like there always was, there was a lone goblin not too far from the cavern entrance, acting as a forward scout in the event that adventurers like themselves came in.

However, unlike every other time, this goblin was already dead. In fact, it appeared that only his lower half was left, with what was left of his upper body coating the rocks behind him.

Both Priestess and Goblin Slayer paused at this, being disgusted and curious, respectively. "Strange," Slayer noted as he crouched down to feel the ground in front of the goblin corpse, "there's no signs of an explosion here."

Suddenly, he noticed something glimmering on the ground a few feet away, and he walked over to see what it was.

It was actually two identical objects, and he bent down to pick them both up. They looked similar to small vials, with the bottom being made of some sort of yellow-hued metal, while the rest was a bright red, although Slayer couldn't place what exactly the material was. Both of the objects looked as if they were exploded from the opposite end of the metal, and he confirmed that they smelled similar to black powder. Still, it was slightly off…

While he was doing this, Priestess forced herself to inspect the goblin's remains. She had to completely get over violence like this at some point, so what better way than to poke a dead goblin while they had a moment of peace?

As she did so, she noticed something peculiar. "Goblin Slayer, sir, the body is still a bit warm!"

"So are these," he added, deciding to pocket the red items to inspect more thoroughly later, and then pulling out a knife and walking towards the goblin corpse.

Priestess always hated this part.

Once their scents were properly masked, they traveled deeper into the cave, eventually coming across one of the goblins' typical warning posts. Once again, they only came across dead goblins in the surrounding area, in various states of dismemberment. Whoever got there before them, they clearly had power on their side.

Slayer noticed more of those discarded objects scattered around, including some that were nothing but that yellow metal, and somewhat thinner. They still smelled reminiscent of black powder, but he didn't bother getting all of them. Not enough room in his pockets.

He did notice something new, though. The cave walls were peppered with bits of metal that glittered in the torch light, typically right next to where a goblin corpse was laying.

Perhaps most ominously, Priestess noticed that Goblin Slayer was not keeping track of the dead goblins they ran into. As she almost tripped on a severed hand, she realized that it was because he couldn't keep count among the devastation.

The tension was thicker than usual when they went into goblin caves. Just who was it that beat them here?

As they traveled on, the carnage continued, with goblin blood and body parts littering the walls and floor around them. There were even a couple hobgoblin corpses in the mix, and Priestess couldn't help but gape at the fact that they were in just as bad a state as their smaller brethren.

The violent aftermath reached its peak when they reached the main chamber, which was almost completely caked in goblin blood. As was expected, there were also a few human bodies in the room. The fact that they were still intact meant that they were probably dead by the hands of the goblins before they were descended upon by whatever fury this was.

Goblin Slayer took note of a dead shaman goblins near the back of the room, and he made a beeline for the throne, before smashing it and opening up the hidden room behind it.

Unexpectedly, this room was actually empty. No goblin children, dead or otherwise, nor were there any spoils the goblins had collected from dead adventurers.

Slayer grunted in annoyance. "There were survivors. Whoever did this, they weren't thorough enough."

Priestess was torn between being glad that she wouldn't have to witness more child murder (even if they were still goblins), and worried about what this would mean for future expeditions. "W- What should we do?"

Goblin Slayer stood straight up, returning to the center of the room. "We should report this to the guild. No matter how strong these people were, leaving survivors will only make things harder for us and other adventurers down the line."

Just as they were about to leave, they heard movement from one of the side caves, and both of them quickly faced the source, Slayer adopting a combat stance with his sword while Priestess used him as cover.

However, instead of a goblin straggler, it was a woman, pulling herself along the ground towards them.

Priestess was on her first. "Oh, goodness! Are you okay, you're-"

"She can't hear us," Goblin Slayer said, pointing to the trickle of dried blood flowing from both her ears.

Priestess blinked, then brought up her staff. One incantation later, she cast Heal, causing the girl to blink as her hearing was restored to her.

Her other injuries were also healed, and she broke down crying as she slowly tried to pull herself up. "T- Thank-"

"It's okay, you're safe now," Priestess said, doing her best to calm her down. Goblin Slayer just idly stood by as this happened. He was never good with helping goblin prisoners, beyond getting them out of the cave.

Once it was clear that the girl was still lucid enough to answer questions, he kneeled down to eye level with her. "Did you see who did this?"

The girl shivered heavily, either from her nudity or from the question. "It- It was awful. There was… explosions. A lot of them. A- and then, something started killing goblins, and a- at some point, the explosions stopped, but-"

She took a moment to compose herself. "It wasn't human."

Goblin Slayer looked at her curiously. "It? There was only one of them?"

The girl nodded. "I didn't get a good look, but it was… about your size, and… green…" She shook her head. "I hid during the fight, and the goblins seemed to forget about me. I passed out, and when I woke up, everyone w- was gone…"

She started crying again, and almost fell back on the ground before Slayer and Priestess caught her. "Easy," Priestess said, "we'll get you out of here."

While they supported the girl as she limped alongside them, Goblin Slayer found his mind wandering.

A single being, capable of amazing destructive power, who evidently shared his own hatred for goblins, but without the actual knowledge to properly eradicate them.

This would prove troublesome.

He did a quick inventory check as he walked through the forest.

Ammo was still holding out, but he had to be a bit more sparing with it in the future; didn't seem like there was much to go around, wherever he was.

His suit was able to map out the surrounding area somewhat, but it wasn't much help in figuring out what that area was.

He absentmindedly wiped some blood off his fist. Little green bastards were a cakewalk compared to what he usually fought, but he had to give them credit, it was a long, long time since he felt genuine hatred to something that wasn't related to demons.

So, that was his game plan for the time being. Try to find more caves, and wipe out any of those things he could find.

Eventually, he'd probably find a way back to Hell. He wasn't quite done there, after all.