I've decided to remake an old story in lieu of creating a new one. Seems like such a shame to leave it just hanging. Oh, by the way, this is an AU.

Chapter 1: At Fantasy's Gate

…

Awaken, Oh displaced soul.

Your presence is needed.

…

The first thing he thought after opening his eyes was noticing that he was tied up. A glance at his body and he saw he was naked besides the cloth to cover his privates. A look to the side and he saw strange thick intertwined vines tied on his wrists. He tugged his arm, and felt resistance that he would expect from steel chains.

The second was that he was in some sort of strange room. It was small and claustrophobic, clearly not made for someone his size. It was also made with logs. No, rather, it looked like the entire room was a hollowed tree trunk. There were metal bars that made him see what was on the outside. A cell. He was in a cell.

The third one was realizing that this was not the cold gray metallic halls he was supposed to be in. In that single moment of realization, all the memories came flowing out of his head, and he felt his blood boil.

The red planet, whose soil is stained with blood.

Tainted by the greed of limitless energy and a better future.

A familiar place and a familiar situation.

Samuel Hayden took the crucible, and he'll bring hell along with it.

The ground shook, and the cell he was in trembled. Dust and small debris from the ceilings fell to the floor.

He wasted no time and tugged his vine chains hard. He felt it snap as the part connected to the wall broke off, freeing him but leaving the plant manacles on his wrists. He glanced at wrists, rolled it, and grit his teeth involuntarily.

It was dislocated; something that shouldn't happen to him with something as simple as ripping chains off walls. For some reason he had gotten weaker. Much more since he had woken up from the goddamned sarcophagus. He didn't know what happened, but he was sure that it had something to do with that narcissistic robot.

He moved to stand up, and immediately felt a bout of sluggishness wash over him. He clenched his fists as he fighted off the feeling of weakness in his body. He walked towards the metal bars, on the cell gate, and tested its strength. He shook it, and it rattled.

He backed up a few steps, then shoulder-decked it. It let out a harsh clang. He backed up and did it again.

The gate ripped out of its axles, sending him sprawling on the outside. He stood back up then looked around. A dark circular hall with other cells like what he occupied, and a corridor possibly leading to other rooms. He was thrown into some sort of nature-themed dungeon, and there was nothing else around.

The ground shook again. This time, much harder.

He traversed the hall silently, his footsteps reverberating against the walls. Soon, the hall led to a spiral staircase, and when he looked up he realized just how big the tree he was in. A large tree, with the trunk having the stairs and roots and branches hollowed for the halls. He climbed up cautiously, and after a minute or two of climbing the stairs he could see an entrance with light coming through it. Red and orange, with a faint of smoke.

He ran and quickly reached it. There he saw where he was for the first time.

A burning forest with a red-tinted horizon. Smoke rose to the sky and covered it, creating the illusion of the night. Large trees comparable to one he just came out of fell as they lost their foundation, shaking the ground as they did.

And in the middle of it, an armored knight. Just as large as him, covered in dark plates as it stood unbothered in all the heat. It gave off an immense feeling of evil and hate that it permeated the air around it.

He had plenty of questions, but now is not the time. He looked straight at it in it's eyes as he stepped out into the burning clearing. Underneath the darkness in its helm, he could feel it do the same.

"..."

"..."

It let out an unholy roar, then charged towards him.

He responded in kind and charged at it as well.

At melee's distance, the knight brought down it's large sword intent to bisect him in half. It was expertly dodged to the side and was retaliated with a punch on the underside of the armpit where the knight's armor doesn't cover. It roared in pain, before sweeping the sword to the side.

The arc had sliced the air and blew out some fires behind it, but he had already ducked down after anticipating the blow. He immediately went up and punched the neck of the knight, making it let out a choked growl. Almost instantly after, he used his other hand to take hold of the visor and pull the helmet off the knight's head, before going out of it's reach when it went to grab him while roaring.

There was a pause after that exchange, and he observed the now-revealed knight who had a murky, ethereal smoke form resembling a canine's head. He dropped the helmet on the scorched grass, and the canine bared its sharp teeth at him.

It raised up its sword—

He ducked to the side evading it completely and whipped up the vines on his wrists. It struck hard on its face stunning it, and he wasted no time tackling it to the ground. He kneeled above its fallen body and punched its face.

And he punched again.

And again.

And again.

Soon, the smoke-like canine vanished into wisps as if it lost its form, leaving him alone in the burning clearing with the knight's armor and weapon on the ground. He wasted no time taking the armor for himself and ignored the scorching heat that he felt on its metal plates as he put it on.

After putting the helmet on his face he stood straight up again. He clenched the sword in his hand tightly as he looked at the burning forest he was in, determined to find some answers. He was going to find where he is, and how to get back to stop Samuel Hayden from unleashing hell.

With rage in his heart, he marched on.

The burning forest was large and vast. Towering wildfires burned the giant trees, and smoke continued to hinder his way to know his immediate surroundings. Yet it wasn't the greatest concern of his right now, as there were other things that had occupied the forest.

It didn't take long to encounter other monsters. It was swarming with spider-crab creatures varying in size. Each were never taller than his waist, but the exoskeleton that they wear are tough enough to deflect his sword.

His weakness made him unable to overpower them completely, and he had to fall back into using his old style before Taras Nabad and the Divinity Machine—the time he had stayed in hell. Although it had been a long time, the transition had been natural. The memories were slowly dredged up from his mind and made his blood boil in rage as all evil he had witnessed during that time resurfaced.

He grit his teeth as he held the trashing monster with a single arm before throwing it to the ground. The stun gave an opening for him to crush its single giant eye with his armored boot. He didn't waste time and ran to the other monster that was near, and thrusted his sword towards it. It died instantly.

Rustling from behind him alerted him to roll to the side. Something smashed the ground of his previous spot, and he turned to look after righting himself.

Plants with large carnivorous teeth upon it's dark mutated petals, resembling an incredibly large maw. It carried itself in thorn-covered stem, undulating unnaturally as it stuck a large tongue out and salivated in visible hunger.

More and more rustling, and he witnesses more of the same plant coming from the ground, letting out unholy cries and roars. Many feasted on some of the corpses he left in his wake, but some had taken to stare at his direction with animalistic interest.

The one near him launched its maw at his direction to devour him and he reacted by simply dodging and cutting its thick stem. It trashed and screeched in pain as the maw had disconnected from its body before slumping lifelessly. He continued to the one next to it, repeating the same action, then the next as well.

More and more monsters appeared, and he slayed them all. Viscera and all sorts of monster blood covered his armor and sword. He slipped in a sort of trance, mindlessly executing his extermination and leaving their bodies brutally mauled. He kept going and going, pushing past his exhaustion brought by his sudden weakness.

Rip and tear, his mind constantly chanted. His tightly controlled rage, tempered through ages of battle experience, continued to grow as evil continued to present itself into him. He will kill all these monsters, even in his weakness.

The passage of time became vague as his attention was solely focused on bringing out violence. He didn't know exactly how long, or how far he had gone from the dungeon he had arrived in, but he didn't really care much about that. He just let himself lose for a while.

…

The bodies of the monsters continued to grow and pile on the ground. Sometime in his berserker rage, he had found himself in a glade. His sword was chipped from his use and parts of his armor were dented, but he still stood upon the pile of corpses he made, undefeated.

He breathed heavily but paid it no mind. The monsters, despite seeing this opportunity of exhaustion, stared at him with caution and kept their distance to him. They've learned to fear him sometime in his rampage, and he felt a dark satisfaction at that. He threw himself at them, raising his sword and baring his teeth—

Then he heard something that made him pause. It was faint and barely audible, but it was unmistakable. It was a cry of a young child.

His head whipped to the direction of the voice, and what he saw made him go still. Far away from him was a child fighting the monsters. A small child, not even reaching his knees, was fighting the plants that looked like it could swallow them with one bite. Before he could truly register what was happening right in front of him, he heard another cry.

"Attack! Push them back!"

Suddenly, more children began appearing from somewhere in the woods while shouting their war cries, accompanied by wood-like creatures, small fairies, and animals. The children, wood creatures, and fairies attacked with swords, spears, bows, and what looked like magic, while the animals mauled the monsters. Suddenly the entire area he was fighting alone in turned into a battlefield.

As much as he would like to question what was going on, his attention was quickly turned to the monsters in front of him. A larger variation of the spider-crab monster had taken to use his lapse of attention to try and bash his head with its pincers, but it was barely deflected by his sword. The pincer smashed on the ground and he used the opportunity to go to the blind spot on its side and climb it. It wasn't able to do anything as he repeatedly stabbed it in the eye.

Even if he had no idea what was going on, he grit his teeth as he saw the children being hurt. He rushed to the plant monster that was about to bite a nearby blonde boy holding a sword and delivered an uppercut that cut its tongue with its teeth. And before it could fully react with the pain, grabbing hold of its stem, he roared as he ripped it out of the ground before bashing its body to a nearby spider-crab monster. He used the opening to crush its eye with a kick.

When he looked back, he saw the boy looked shocked at his sudden intervention and stared at him with fear, before shaking his head to recover. He stood up and took the sword in his hand before pointing somewhere forward.

"The Queen, it's there! Hurry!" he said with a desperate voice.

As if the monsters had heard what the boy said, they began to roar out in fury. Bloodlust filled the air as the monsters fought with increased ferociousness.

It didn't take long for him to spot what the boy was talking about. Behind the waves of monsters was a large spider-crab creature, larger than the ones he had encountered before. It reeked of evil and corruption much worse than the one emitted from the knight he encountered earlier. He rushed towards it, hacking and cleaving the sudden influx of monsters who put themselves in his way.

"Help him! Clear a path!"

The children, wood creatures, fairies, and animals threw themselves onto the monsters to prevent him from getting swarmed. He grit his teeth as he saw some of them getting hurt, and his speed increased and the rate monsters died in his hand grew larger. He ran straight to his target intent to ending it all.

It didn't take long for him to break through. Soon, he was only a few meters away from the source of the corruption of this forest, and he brandished his sword in his hand as he charged.

The creature rose to its full height. It was bigger than him by a large margin and was covered with an exoskeleton thicker, stronger, and fearsome than its lessers. Covered in spikes and malevolent energy, it stared at him with its single baleful eye.

Then, it screeched.

"Skreeeee—!"

The entire forest shuddered as evil blasted out of its form, displacing air and blowing away nearby fires and smoke giving much more visibility. Yet despite that, the air grew murky and hard to breathe in, and life from all plants in the forest just seemed to wither.

He clenched his sword hard and continued his charge even as everything in the battlefield stopped as the ear-piercing pain made them unbalanced. He reached the creature and raised his sword up—

The screeching disappeared and it swiped one of its many arms with great speed that he almost failed to react. He acted quickly and brought up his sword to protect his left side. Piercing sensation of something in him breaking made him grunt out in pain, and he was launched into the air before tumbling on the ground.

The creature screeched again, but shorter this time. He ignored the pain and tried to stand up, but his body protested and he felt stabbing pain on his lung. He coughed out blood, falling to a kneel.

His left arm and a good part of his ribs were broken, and judging by the bent sword on the ground near him, his sword had broken too. He was left without a weapon and a crippling injury.

The creature lumbered towards him, its eye glowing in sadistic amusement as it observed his plight. The battle around him settled as a grave reminder—the more time he wasted, the more children got hurt… or possibly, died.

He shook in rage.

It raised an arm, then brought it down.

Then, he moved.

In a burst of movement he threw himself forward, and he barely avoided the arm behind him. He felt nothing but immense pain but he bared it all with gritted teeth. With nothing to stand in his way, he jumped towards the eye of the monster, which was opened wide with shock.

The eyes closed shut in reflex but he held it open with hand and a foot. Then, despite his body screaming otherwise, he raised his broken arm up—then he started punching.

The creature trashed and shrieked in pain, its voice echoing in the burning forest that made the battle pause as all stared at its suffering. It tried to shake him off and claw him with its pincers, but he was relentless with his assault. He held strong, enduring the hits even as his vision started to dim.

It was a test of wills and two sides were neither backing down… but slowly and surely, the creature's trashing became sluggish. Soon, the strength of its hits grew weak, and the shrieks gradually turned into pained whimpers.

Then finally, it became quiet.

He stood on the mutilated corpse of the monster, covered in its blood.

The Queen had died, and the corruption had been purged.

From the death of the queen, the evil that permeated the forest gradually dissipated. All around the glade, the spider-crab monsters screeched as it burst in flames, and the plant monsters shriveled up and withered. The fire that burned the forest shrunk, until it gradually turned into embers.

"..."

A serenity that wasn't present before befell throughout the forest. With the corruption gone, there was finally peace.

Although, one that wasn't quite complete, as there was an underlying tenseness in the air.

He turned to look at the ones staring at him. A multitude of emotions carried in each of their gazes; from fear, relief, and respect. He slowly felt himself calm as the rush of battle died down, and the rage he felt while fighting was replaced with confusion and slight cautiousness.

He had fully expected to arrive in hell after being sent by Samuel Hayden in that teleporter, where he would be fighting demons until he found a way out to return to Earth. Yet now… he wasn't sure what exactly happened.

Because he was sure that whatever this place is, it was a new world entirely.

…

…

But if one were to look at this from an outsider's point of view, it showed something completely different.

The light of the sun had touched the canopy of trees for the first time since the invasion of the monsters in the forest, touching the visage of a knight standing over the defeated monster of corruption. It shined on his dark armor, one worn by the followers of an evil lord, yet it's shine felt more like a beacon of hope amidst evil.

It was a moment of beauty and wonder, like a scene immortalized in heroic epics. One that is told generations after and much more.

A harbinger of the end to a constant tale, one that was sung in the eternal song of time and fate—and a herald of a new one that will bring out a new age never seen before in the realms.

A soul whose appearance would tip the precarious balance of good and evil, and their endless cycles of conflict.

For at this very moment, was when the Legend of the Slayer began.

The Slayer isn't powerful! Well, for a certain definition. He's a hardened warrior that can survive hell can dish out even before getting in the Divinity Machine—but he certainly won't be launching himself out of space cannons anytime soon.

If you're wondering why I made that decision, it's because I think it would make a boring story. It's the reason why I decided to make a story about Saitama during his training arc for my previous fanfic in the first place. If you have an OP character face a conflict with action as a focus then the conflict wouldn't mean anything.

I've decided to make chapters short with around 2,000 words or so. Time was always a problem with me when writing, so at least with this I get some sort of breathing room. But I think there will be times I will break that and exceed word count… I'm not willing to compensate on cutting quality in certain scenes for the sake of word count.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thank you for reading.