After having cheated Death time-and-time again, Goblin Slayer had finally found himself in an unwinnable situation that his loyal servant couldn't save him from. Sitting down with his upper thighs raised up to his chest while his arms were wrapped around his shins, Goblin Slayer had his forehead pressed in between his knees— shielding his eyes from having to stare at the stark-white void that engulfed him from every direction. ' … I feel like I've been here for days. Has it really been that long though? It's hard to tell— time doesn't really feel like it has any meaning here… It's kind of like I'm stuck in a permanent state of sleep-paralysis— the moment I try getting my groundings, everything just slips away from my sluggish mind. '

With his mind clouded in the same way one's memory would be when trying to recount a dream that seemed always out of reach for them to recall, Goblin Slayer wasn't able to feel bored or any amount of existential distress from his circumstances— seemingly stuck in a constant loop of indifference and exhaustion, causing him to feel almost completely apathetic as he did his best to reflect on his short-lived life. ' Everyone's gotta die someday— at least my death was quick; the same can't be said about those who I used to call my " neighbor"… But even so, I wonder what I could have accomplished… Would I have been able to make their lives worth living again, or are some scars simply too deep to patch up with the feeling of joy alone? '

' … Oh well— it was never meant to be, I guess. There's no point lamenting over what could have been… What I was…? What I was thinking about just now? Something… Something to do with, uh… Remembering something. Uh, what was it, what was it…? ' Goblin Slayer thought to himself with furrowed eyebrows, as he tried his hardest to recall what he had just been dwelling on— a constant cycle of forgetting that made it all the more impossible for him to ground himself, let alone be able to keep track of what passed as time within the white void that ensnared him.

Goblin Slayer would have gone on eternally stuck in a confused and forgetful mind set— never being able to hold a thought long enough to make too much sense of his damnation to actually suffer from it— had it not been for the break from the monotony of his lonely afterlife. Breaking the loop of his repeating thoughts, Goblin Slayer was snapped out of his eternal trance by the quiet sound of white noise buzzing from all around him. Lifting his face out between his knees with a tired look in his pale eyes, Goblin Slayer took slow notice of the translucent geometric-shapes of various neon hues that were glitching in-and-out of the white void surrounding him— the humming static emitting from the anomaly vibrating what felt like his insides, as it began to engulf him in its flashing lights.

Swallowed up in its RGB cloud of disorienting lights that seemed to shift whatever reality he was trapped in with its volatile nature alone, Goblin Slayer soon found himself unable to see any trace left behind of the white void— even after the reality-shifting anomaly had eventually cleared away and disappeared completely. Still under the mind numbing effects of the void that he had awoken in, the part of Goblin Slayer that was able to process the oddity around him knew better than to remain sitting down on a patch of grass that had manifested around him. ' This… This is…? Familiar, yet… Yet, why? ' He thought confusingly to himself, as he gazed underneath the light of the full moon above to take notice of the wooded forest that he now found himself in the middle of.

By all accounts, he knew that the sight alone of seeing yew tree after yew tree in all directions shouldn't have been enough on its own to elicit a sense of deja vu— as he had been to several wooded areas since the start of his journey— but yet, he had a sense of familiarity with the forest around him. Picking himself off of the ground felt like a monumental task in of itself, as each deliberate movement he made felt as though he was wading upstream against an opposing river of ice-cold water. With only the moonlight seeping through the green leaves and white branches above him, Goblin Slayer was uncertain of which direction to take, as there was no sense of direction for him to go off of.

As though the situation wasn't bad enough on its own, Goblin Slayer's lethargic mind hadn't picked up on the faint sounds of children whispering from shifting flora around him— his pale eyes barely catching a glimpse of several pairs of glowing white eyes staring at him from the shadows of the woods, before he saw small silhouettes turning around to silently run somewhere else into the forest. ' … I'm not alone. They're… They're afraid of me? Hateful, even… But why— what did I do? Who are they? WHATare they? ' Goblin Slayer's hazy mind thought to itself, as he put on foot in front of the other— stumbling slowly like a shambling zombie with its rigamortis-inflicted corpse dragging its movements down to a crawl.

"H… Hello…? Who… Who are you…? Is… Is anyone out there s-still…?" Goblin Slayer called out in a hoarse voice that didn't feel or sound like his own, and instead reminded him of the way a proper noble would speak in a slow, elegant and methodical cadance. Not sure where else to go, Goblin Slayer kept his ears open while following the direction of the moon itself— the branches and thorns of the forest floor flora inflicting pain onto what could count as his body, all while the sounds of the children's whispers became more coherent and audible the deeper he went into the woods.

" They're back… "

" Will they let us go…? "

" They're trapped with us… "

" Help us… Please, help us… "

" Awake, but not alive… "

" Haven't we suffered enough…? "

" They watch us… Are they here to mock us…? "

" Please release us… "

" We miss our families… Please… Let us see them again… "

" I just want it all to end… I just want to die… "

" Stolen lives… "

" How many more have to die…? "

" Their eyes… "

" Did they come here to join us…? "

Even in his clouded mind, Goblin Slayer still felt chilled to the bone from what he was able to decipher from the saddened and fearful voices that filled the darkness of the woods in lieu of any sounds of life that would normally be heard in a forest at night. Motivated to escape being within earshot of the grieving voices that cried out for him to show them mercy, Goblin Slayer felt desperation and fear gripping his very soul as he shambled through the darkness, with only the light of the large moon above him to guide his path. And no matter how hard he wanted his plan to work, for him to find answers within the horrors of the eternal forest that was riddled with pain and torment of those who saw him as the monster, the moonlight had failed to deliver Goblin Slayer toward any sign of salivation.

The realization of how hopeless his situation was repeatedly pushed into the deepest recesses of Goblin Slayer's determined and dread-filled mind, as the thought of falling into the same despair as those who were wandering through the same woods as him terrified him. ' I won't give up, I won't give up! I… I CAN'Tgive up! No! NO! NO! NO!' Goblin Slayer screamed internally at the rational part of him that was begging for his unrelenting side to accept defeat. Time had lost all meaning, and just like when he first had appeared in the white void that had engulfed him in its infinite light, the dark moonlit yew trees that surrounded him in its labyrinthine structure forced Goblin Slayer's clouded mind to begin repeating maddening thoughts over-and-over again in his head.

Unable to give up the slightest chance of there being hope for a way out of his seemingly new eternal afterlife, Goblin Slayer continued to search through the forest— his spirit was constantly having rebuilding itself as it was being torn down by all the hopelessness and sorrow that seemed to be growing sadder and more spiteful with each passing whisper.

" We've been waiting for you… "

" Child murderer… "

" You shouldn't have come back here… "

" Monster… "

" What did we ever do to deserve this damnation…? "

" They've taken another one… "

" Disgusting… "

" Blood on your hands… It won't ever wash off… "

" Leave that child alone… "

" We will not let you take another one… "

Surrounded by spirits who had become vengeful with whatever could pass as "time" in those woods, Goblin Slayer's ankle was grabbed by what felt like a tiny hand that gripped his ankle tight enough to cause him to trip. Helpless and stuck in his own mental anguish brought onto him by a mad state of denial, Goblin Slayer could only lay flat in his stomach as more and more small hands began to grab a hold of him with their cold touch. Incoherently muttering to himself about how he was going to escape, and how he couldn't afford to accept defeat, Goblin Slayer was completely unaware of what was transpiring around him as he was slowly dragged deeper into the whisper-filled woods— his fingers clutching desperately at forest floor, as he left behind dugged up handfuls of dirt and grass in the wake of his drag marks.

In the aftermath of their ambush, High Elf Archer had her gloved palm pressed up against her broken nose— her broken blood vessels having finally stopped bleeding, as she stared at all the death that lay before her bloodshot eyes. Each wheezing-breath she took with her broken bottom-left ribs brought her a great amount of discomfort, and yet High Elf Archer continued to mourn the loss of the ten year-old who she had only known for almost two days. The impression that the ten year-old had left on her in such a small period of time felt far more significant than those who the nearly one-thousand year old elf had known for decades, and the thought of Goblin Slayer's selfless dreams never being brought to those who would have had their tragic lives changed for the better is what really twisted the figurative dagger that had pierced High Elf Archer's broken heart.

With the minty-green haired elf silently staring longfully at the bloodied corpse that was being held in her unrestrained arms, Noble Fencer knelt down on the floor with one knee on the ground as she propped Goblin Slayer's upper body up with one gloved hand behind his limp head— her golden eyes staring apologetically into his now brown eyes: any and all traces of his dusty-rose irises now faded in his fixated and glassy-eyed stare. "This… This is all my fault. I… I shouldn't have brought you two up here with me," Noble Fencer whispered remorsefully with disappointment and guilt on her face, as she let out a deep sigh while gently using her other hand to close Goblin Slayer's eyelids with her gloved fingers. ' I always do this… I always drag others into my own problems… It should have been me. '

Although it hurt to speak, let alone breathe, High Elf Archer watched Noble Fencer give Goblin Slayer a soft kiss on his forehead and waited until she laid him down onto her spread-open white cloak that she had placed in the center of the blood-splattered tent. "You… You aren't allowed… T-To blame yourself for this… D-Don't disrespect his… H-His sacrifice like that," High Elf Archer scolded through agonizing wheezes, as she stared intensely back at Noble Fencer, who had momentarily looked up from Goblin Slayer's lifeless body to lock eyes with her. "He… He saved your life… My life… We… C-Can't let that go to waste… We can… M-Mourn for him… Mourn for him… When this… When this is all done," High Elf Archer said with a determined voice, before breaking her gaze in order to stare up past the armored hand that was being offered to her.

Just as stoic as she had mostly been, Fairy Knight's eyes were as dry as they could be— seemingly unaffected by her master's death, as she helped High Elf Archer up onto her feet. "I take it this isn't the first time you've lost a comrade, Arthemis— not many are able to say those words, and actually abide by them like you are," Fairy Knight mused with a hint of a proud smile on her face, as she slung High Elf Archer's toned arm behind her shoulder to begin supporting her as the elf applied pressure to her broken ribs with one hand.

Nodding her head solemnly as the white-haired servant began to walk alongside her toward the stash of remaining supplies that the mercenaries still had in their dwindled stockpiles, High Elf Archer quietly replied with, "Unfortunately, yes… I've seen… T-Too many elves die… B-Because of Nerevar… That's why I… I have to keep going on… S-So I can make sure that… O-Orcblog, and… And everyone else didn't… D-Die for nothing," all while having help from Fairy Knight as the two of them searched for healing items.

Again impressed with the woman's show of perseverance, Fairy Knight gave High Elf Archer an approving nod while knelt down beside her— hearing the sound of Goblin Slayer's body being wrapped up in the teenager's blood-stained cloak from over her shoulder, as the question that had been on her mind since vacating her master's departed soul continued to confuse her with no end in sight. ' How is it possible that I'm still here? Ashta's dead, and his soul isn't even residing in his body anymore, so… So what am I still doing here? ' Fairy Knight thought to herself with narrowed eyes, as she set aside all the vials of potions that weren't of any use to High Elf Archer's current situation. ' A servant without a master— I have never heard of such a thing being possible outside of the throne… The managerial AI truly was onto something: something's wrong with this world— terribly wrong. '

Although it was a grizzly act, no one was batting an eye at Rimuru as he finished absorbing whatever mana they could squeeze out of the six mercenaries who they had brutally slain— their gelatinous body disintegrating the droplets of blood and torn pieces of flesh into raw mana, as they reluctantly turned around to see Goblin Slayer's wrapped up body placed in the center of the tent. ' Humanity's just as capable of being cruel here as they were back home… This is terrible— just absolutely terrible… It's unacceptableis what it is, ' Rimuru thought angrily to themselves, as righteous fury filled every fiber within their slime body— causing his eyebrows to furrow even more, as he hopped up into the air, before turning around to face Noble Fencer. "… Are there any more of them?"

Being just as distracted and spacey with her own thoughts as everyone else around her was, it took Noble Fencer's mind a few moments to register that Rimuru's question had been directed toward her, and thus it took her a minute before finally stringing together a response for them. " Um… Not them per-say— they're the last of the " Black Dogs"— but… Y-Yes, there's more like them back in Calvard," Noble Fencer said in a hollow voice, before beginning to explain to Rimuru about the mercenary army that the six dead men were contracted under. "They're called the " Jaeger Corps": they're an elite organized army themselves, but they often outsource " smaller missions" to approved units."

"I see… And how are they like? Would they be supportive of this sort of disgusting behavior? Is this beneath them, or an advocated idea? A status quo against non-humans?" Rimuru further questioned, while sounding more angry the longer they dwelled on the injustices done by the Black Dogs.

Tightening her lips as she fought with her own distracting thoughts to focus on the question at hand, Noble Fencer took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled before replying to Rimuru by saying, "Zemuria in general is… Not the kindest to those who weren't born as a human. Pathway Kingdom is so far the only progressive country that accepts any and all who are peaceful. So… If what you're insinuating is that these sorts of atrocities are what's common within the Jaeger Corps, then… Yes. Yes, you'd be correct."

There was a long pause from the pastel-blue slime monster, and the only sounds coming from within the tent were High Elf Archer's wheezing breaths over the noises the glass vials were making as she and Fairy Knight finished sorting through their available supplies. Dwelling on the new information they had been told, Rimuru decided to not press the matter any further and chose to instead turn their attention toward what really mattered at the moment. "It's… It's getting late out here, and… And this isn't a good place for any of us to bunker down in, so… So please, may I take you three into the cave? It's safe, and there's plenty of food and drink to go around. And… And there's a tomb, deep inside the cave. It'll… It'll be a respectable place to lay him to rest."

Immediately opposed to the offer, Noble Fencer narrowed her eyes at Rimuru as her hand instinctively moved toward the hilt of her rapier. "Yeah right— I'm sure there's quite the burial site that the goblins have inside their filthy cave! You're either joking right now, or trying to lure us into some trap— either way, you're crazy if you're expecting us to willingly place our safety into the dirty-green hands of a bunch of three-foot tall rapists!" Noble Fencer spat out with anger within every word she spoke, as blue sparks of powerful magic-lightning began to engulf the platinum blade of her raised rapier.

Stunned at the sudden turn that the conversation took after their offer, Rimuru's gelatinous body tensed up as they felt Fairy Knight immediately spinning around to unveil the blades of her Arondights toward him, all the while High Elf Archer was finishing downing the last remaining droplets of the health potion she had finally found in a large backpack. "N-Now everyone j-just wait a second! I-I think that there's a m-misconception here! The goblins inside that cave, t-they're not bad people at all! They're just like you: they all have families with lots of children, and haven't EVERdone anything as vile as what you just described! N-No, no in fact it's the other way around! They were all terrified of the black dogs storming into their cave— plundering the magic ores they harvest and sell for supplies! They hid their women and children out of fear of what the humans would do to them! Trust me: they're NOTwhat you think they are!" Rimuru shouted in defiance in their feminine voice, while being half-surprised that none of the women in that tent had interrupted their long-winded ramble by killing them in the midst of their speech.

Tension was in the cold air as the three women exchanged perplexed glances at one another— their weapons still drawn and ready to strike the surrounded slime monster at a moment's notice. Clearing her throat while still getting used to not having shards of bone pressing against her left lung, High Elf Archer raised an eyebrow at Rimuru as she held her arrow back on her bow's drawstring. "W… Women? What are you talking about…? You're… You're talking about captured human and elf women, yes? The same ones they use as breeding cattle?" High Elf Archer asked in an angered voice, before suddenly being caught off guard by the way Rimuru's slime body reverberated in shock.

"EW?! WHAT THE HELL?! ARE YOU JOKING?! T-THAT'S AN ACTUAL THING HERE?!" Rimuru shrieked with outrage and disgust in their voice, and began to look extremely distressed with the way they would constantly jiggle while sounding as though they were hyperventilating. "T-That's FUCKED UP! I… I will not STANDfor that, and neither will the goblins in that cave! That's it! Come on, we need to talk to Veldanava! He'll know what to do!" Rimuru called out with determination in their voice— practically forgetting altogether about how close they still were from getting the life crushed out of their slime.

Before either Noble Fencer or High Elf Archer could challenge Rimuru once again, Fairy Knight broke her stotism the moment she heard the slime mention the name "Veldanava". Lowering her blades slowly with a wide-eyed expression on her pale face, Fairy Knight walked over to Rimuru with a look of familiarity and confusion reflecting back in her brown gaze. "How…?! H-How do you know that name?! Answer me!" Fairy Knight demanded in a voice that sounded uncharacteristically desperate for someone who was as proud as she was— causing both Noble Fencer and High Elf Archer to slowly lower their weapons as well, as the two gave each other confused looks.

Relieved to have common ground with someone else who was still alive in the tent, Rimuru looked up into Fairy Knight's desperate eyes with his thin eyebrows raised up at her. "Veldanava and I are pretty close! He's the one who gave me the name "Rimuru" and helped me get most of my memories back when I first got here— him and I have been practically family, ever since like four days ago! Why? Do you know him? It sounds like you do," Rimuru mused, as Fairy Knight subtly glanced at the two other women in the room before giving the slime her answer.

Glancing away from Rimuru's non-visible eyes and instead choosing to stare thoughtfully at Goblin Slayer's wrapped-up remains, Fairy Knight fell into silence as her heart began beating anxiously inside of her small chest. "I… Y-Yes. Yes, I know him very well— he was a good dragon… "Was" being the keyword of that sentence," Fairy Knight emphasized with an exasperated voice, as she swallowed back the lump in her throat. "If any part of him is still alive in that cave, then… Then please. Show me— just know that I'm obligated to protect the well being of the women, by any means necessary."

"Trust me, no harm will come to you or your friends— so long as you're peaceful," Rimuru replied back in a friendly, yet stern voice. "I don't want to rush any of you, so… Take your time finishing up with what you need to do here— I'll show you the way when all of you are ready," Rimuru added with a slower and less excitable cadance— showing respect for the three women, as all eyes slowly made their way over to the center of the tent.

Wordlessly and without waiting for anyone to make the first move, Fairy Knight quickly scooped Goblin Slayer's white-cloak covered body into her arms— carrying her deceased master bridal style in her deceptively powerful arms. "There's no point in prolonging this— we're on a schedule, ladies. Like Artemis said: we can mourn on our own time," Fairy Knight said in a almost emotionless voice, all while refusing to make eye-contact with either High Elf Archer or Noble Fencer— the muscles in her pale face tightening up, as she forced herself to remain straight face with Rimuru looking back at her with sympathy— the slime seeing right through her facade.