Well guys, I finally finished all fourteen volumes of ID. It was an absolute ride as well as a pain. The absurdism of every volume, of every situation was great and humorous and I like how Instant Death isn't used for EVERY situation. But the absurd logic of the stories kinda turned my brain to mush, but it was fun. Anyways, hope you enjoy this.

Side Story 1.3

The Warrior's Story (FINAL)

The man in front of Newbie was a man covered head to toe in foreign green armor, the type that one would see on an Otherworlder. And judging by the stance he was trained well in combat as well.

Well, that wouldn't matter now, Newbie thought. This is gonna be easy.

Despite being the most inexperienced and weakest, he could punch through walls of houses and destroy pillars of rock a meter thick. And more experience would strengthen him over time and, eventually, earn him the respect of his father who deemed him to be a failure.

He was already impatient, still craving for more destruction, more blood, more girls.

"Aight," he smiled, "let's go!"

Newbie spat on the ground, swung his fist at the green man and—

Then black.

The headless body of the man called Newbie collapsed on the ground, blood spurting from the neck. Bits of bone and brain matter spattered the Children of Raiza, who stood there in shock.

One punch. One fucking punch.

Even if Newbie was weak, if he was killed in one punch then their opponent wasn't one to be taken lightly.

"Stay back," said the Veteran. "I'll—"

Without warning, a fist flew into view. The Veteran pulled his head back to dodge it, but felt a hit to the guts.

"Gagh!"

He flew several meters away, hitting his back on the tree, which knocked the air out of him.

The remaining men moved in front of the woman and they rushed at him, pushing the Slayer through the gate as he was picking up his gun.

The gate doors were obliterated, raining bits of metal and splinters everywhere. Seeing the Children of Raiza, the soldiers guarding the gate ran behind the trees, trying to not be seen by them.

The Slayer stood up, gun in hand. Looking round, he felt gazes on him coming from the boarded windows of the trees. But instead of the sadness and resignation from before however, the eyes showed shock.

"Come over here, you fucker!" one of the thugs yelled, running to the Slayer. But the thug couldn't reach the Slayer.

The thug felt a sharp pain on his chest. When he looked down, he saw a bronze-colored pincer device connected to chains piercing his chest. When he looked back up, the armored man, who was now on him, shot him in the face.

He was suddenly lifted off the ground and thrown a distance away, his gun lying on the ground he was on before being lifted.

The Slayer was surrounded by the thugs, Elmoa on the outside watching it proceed.

The thugs all came inwards, throwing punches and kicks. The Slayer dodged and blocked as much as he could but not all of it. His armor was undamaged, however.

The Slayer rushed to the one with an opening and slammed his foot on the thug's leg.

As the thug screamed in pain at his broken and twisted leg the Slayer, in the split second of no one hitting him, threw himself at him with unbelievable force. Every organ inside the thug exploded and when the Slayer escaped the circle the man was already dead.

"Kila!" the tallest thug shouted.

The tallest one ran to the Slayer and slammed his soles into the armored man's direction. The Slayer spinned and dodged the foot, grabbed it and sweeped the thug's remaining leg.

"Oof!"

The Slayer then snapped his knees and, taking no notice of the monster's cry of agony, used the man's own foot to smash open his head.

"Gavin!" a spiky-haired thug screamed.

"You bitch, wait till we get you! We'll make sure to kill everyone here as brutally as we can and make you watch!" another thug cried.

The Slayer ran to the first thug he saw and, weaving past his fists, grabbed his head and slammed him into the ground, slamming his foot on it to cave in his skull. Though the ground did, the thug's head didn't. The downed man smiled with a disgusting confidence.

He threw the thug at two other thugs running towards him and ran to get his shotgun.

The thug closest to him sweeped his foot under the Slayer, causing the Slayer to trip and fall, and stomped at the Slayer, who rolled over and dodged the foot dropping at a hundred meters per minute.

The Slayer got up, grabbed an incoming fist, and squeezed. The thug screamed and tried to kick his opponent's leg, who moved his leg to avoid it and swung the thug on the ground behind him. His face on the ground, the Slayer smashed the man's skull. It didn't work once, so he had to stomp it multiple times.

Five left.

The Veteran finally came through the gate and pushed past the other men.

"I'll get you for makin' a fool outta me!" he yelled, before drop-kicking the Slayer. The Slayer flew far and landed on a tree at the other side of town.

The Hellwaker stood up, locked eyes with the neighbor from between the wooden planks, and ran back to the battlefield.

Inside, the neighbor, Smith, looked back at his wife and two children. Everyone had a look of disbelief on their face.

Everyone in town knew that John was strong, that he had to be a warrior of some kind, judging by the scars. He was fast too. It was also generally expected that he was an Otherworlder. But never did the people think that he'd be able to match, or even surpass the strength of the Children of Raiza.

Then the guards shouted to everyone inside that John had killed one of them. And then the gates were obliterated, leading to the subsequent fight he witnessed. Smith and his wife (the children were kept away from the violence) couldn't take their eyes off the fight. The awe and the prospect that maybe, just maybe, they could escape the cycle of terror was just too overwhelming

When John was thrown onto his house, Smith and he made eye contact. The armor he was wearing was evidence of his Otherworldliness.

Though he couldn't see past the visor, he could feel John reassuring him that it'll be over soon, with him on top.

When John left, Smith collapsed, leading to this moment.

"Everyone," he said, "let us pray for the Goddess to give John strength and defeat our tormentors, to end our life of torture. We can only rely on him now."

In under three seconds, the Slayer crossed from the back end of the town to the battlefield. The thugs and Slayer locked eyes and were about to run into each other when Elmoa's voice stopped them.

"Stop!"

The thugs froze, but the Slayer managed to get a hit in, sending one of them flying.

"Stranger, I have a child with me. If you do not let us leave I will kill her."

Behind the line of thugs, there was the woman poking the end of a knife into the girl's neck, the girl's tears falling down her face. Despite the situation, she seemed to have remained cool and calculating. Not good. Those types of people were worse than thugs, people who work and stay behind the thugs. That is, until they are out in the open and are forced to do the dirty work themselves.

That's when they make mistakes.

Some of the thugs groaned. They didn't really want to have to retreat, it'd hurt their pride.

Hmmm… what to do… if he left, they'd kill everyone in town. If he let them leave, more reinforcement might come and it'd be harder to kill all of them without causing too much damage.

The Slayer grabbed a rock and took aim past the thugs.

"I'm warning you—" the woman said, unemotionally.

The Slayer did a feint, pretending to fall and aim for the nearest thug's solar plexus, which the thug in front of him fell for, and in that short time threw the rock as hard as he could with unparalleled accuracy gained from eons of battle.

The woman's head exploded, unable to see the rock speeding to her. As her body crumpled, the girl screamed and fell into a fetal position, hyperventilating while doing so. He really didn't want to do this to her but it was the only way. He broke past the line of thugs, grabbed the girl and quickly admitted her to her home right next to him.

"You killed her," the impenetrable thug the Slayer had previously thrown dumbly stated. However, instead of sulking, he smiled a large, evil and toothy smile. "You don't understand what you just—"

As if annoyed by how much he was talking, ran up to the guy and punched him in the jaw.

"You'll have to do better than that!" the thug smiled, tanking the hit.

Grabbing the Slayer's head, he slammed him on the ground, dragging the head through the head before throwing him through the wall of a tree, straight through Dean's Eatery.

The waitresses screamed and scurried away from the Slayer when the tables and chairs were thrown from the floor. Then they saw the impenetrable thug walking towards him. Someone they never wanted to see again.

Orie and Darf ran from the kitchen to the Slayer after the table and chairs settled down.

"John!" the sibling shouted.

"Are you alright?" Darf questioned.

The Slayer raised his hand to indicate that he was fine.

"Thank the Goddess!" Orie sighed in relief. When she looked through the wall, she froze.

"Huh? Hey, it's you guys!" the thug outside laughed in recognition. "I was going to go to your guys first, but he came along, you know?"

Darf dashed in front of Orie, his sword drawn.

"You still remember your first time, darling?" The thug said with puckered lips. "A second round would be nice too!"

As the thug laughed, the Slayer could see Darf's jaws clenching and Orie shaking, her pupils dilated and her lips trembling.

So that's who terrorized them, who killed their father, who raped Orie and humiliated Darf over his powerlessness through it all.

He could not stand for this any longer.

The Slayer abruptly stood up and walked out of the hole in the wall.

"Ah, the Hero walks to confront the villain for the damsel, is that it?! I'm impenetrable, try me! I'll make you eat your fingers like I did their father!"

The thug punched the Slayer in the face, but the Slayer didn't fall, even as his foot dug craters into ground

Incensed to the max, the Slayer dashed full speed to the thug and punched, aiming for his ribs. The thug, however, dodged and elbowed the back of the Slayer's head. The Slayer grabbed the thug's arm and threw him over his shoulder and to the remaining thugs.

The Slayer noticed that two of the thugs were entering homes, so he aimed his shotgun and projected the prongs into a tree. The prongs caught on, and the Slayer flew towards the thug at the entrance, kneeing the neck. His knee internally decapitated the hit thug.

Quickly, he also flew into another thug at another tree, his foot on the thug's back!

"Gack!"

The thug slammed onto the floor and was hopeless when the Slayer stomped on his arm.

"UWAAAAUUUGH!" the thug wailed in agony. "AAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!"

The arm had been mangled, painfully so, shown by the shattered bones sticking out.

The thug still crying, the Slayer dragged the thug out and closed the door to Rilla's house. She and her kids didn't need to see this.

The Slayer tried to stomp on the guy's head but the thug moved out of the way, jumped up, and kicked him in the chest. The Slayer flew right into the impenetrable thug.

"Hi, we meet again!"

With that, the hulk lifted the Slayer by the shoulder and spun him around. The spinning stopped when the Slayer squeezed on the man's arms, the pain making him let go.

The Slayer flew, jumped off a tree trunk and, in the air, attempted to shoot the prongs. He realized quickly that his gun was on the ground where the impenetrable thug was.

"Oh?—" The thug picked up the shotgun— "you want this thing?"

He then proceeded to throw the gun over the wall and far outside the town.

"Go and get it!" he taunted.

The Slayer landed on another tree trunk and kicked down to propel himself into the impenetrable thug.

The thug protected his head and body area with his arms. What he did not suspect was the Slayer turning his unholy area into mashed potatoes.

The thug, in his shock, couldn't breathe, and his brain momentarily shut off.

Taking advantage of that, the Slayer slammed his head into the ground and repeatedly and rapidly stomped on his head. He then broke the thug's arm, exposing the spiked bone underneath, and stabbed his face with it before he could even utter a scream.

The Slayer's head shot up when he heard a woman screaming.

"No, not the kids please!"

"Lady, if you let me take you, I'll let the kids and the husband live—"

The Bane of Hell shot through the air and grabbed the spine of that thug, dragging him screaming out of the door before ripping it out, out of the family's view.

Two left.

He dashed to the thugs and tackled the first one, an older and more grizzled man.

"Run!" the thug yelled as he was being savagely beaten by the Slayer. "We cannot let our mission end here!"

The other thug ran as fast as he could, his face filled with anguish and fear.

This isn't supposed to happen, the thug thought. A monster like him, he shouldn't be here! I have to inform—

The Slayer was beating the first thug, who was trying in vain to protect his head. As every punch fractured a bit of his arms, the Veteran needed to do something. They caught the Slayer's right leg with his legs and used their momentum to make the Slayer and the Veteran switch places.

The Slayer, however, had a good grip on the thug. The Slayer, while on the ground, continued to pummel the Veteran, his grip on the thug's neck not allowing him to get off the Slayer.

The two swapped punches and kicks in close proximity until the Veteran's arms gave out first, turning into jelly after the accumulation of fractures.

The Slayer grabbed the thug's arm and swung him to the other guy's legs, causing the running thug to trip. He walked towards the fallen foe, and dashed when he was about to get out of the body.

Reaching the second thug, he put the thug's neck in his hand, tightening it by the second.

"Gack! Wait till Father finds out about this!" the thug threatened, smiling in a futile attempt to look brave. "He's going to kill everyone in that stupid town!"

The Slayer kept tightening his grip, not minding the thug's fists banging on his arms and head, the kicks to his body, and the horrific gagging from his victim's mouth.

He stared into the thug as he squeezed harder and harder.

The hits felt weak to him, to him who fought titans.

To him who wandered across the boiling temperatures of the Umbral Plains, even before he was blessed by the Seraphim.

To him who does not forgive very often.

Whose rage has no equal.

The neck finally snapped, bending to the right. The thug's tongue lolled out of his mouth, spit drooping from it.

The man with the destroyed arm got up with his remaining arm and tried to run. The Slayer quickly grabbed onto the man and punched his back. His hand split the vertebrae, traveled up through the chest, and reached the heart, which he promptly ripped out.

The Veteran coughed blood and fell over, the Slayer watching. He raised his head and walked back to the gate. He was hesitant, at first, to return to the gate, but he really couldn't just leave behind a gift. His pride as a warrior didn't allow it.

THe trail of blood from the Veteran to town, the splatters of matter in front of the gate, and the splatters and sprinkles of blood in the town made him reflect on everything. The loss of his peaceful life was one, but also the thought of how the townspeople would now view him was something he started to care about now.

Strange, since he never really cared that much about perception before. His time here had changed him. But was it for the better?

However, most importantly, the Children of Raiza were dead and the town of Trinta was safe because of it. A service he was proud of, even if the townspeople he once called friends accused him of being a monster.

The Slayer returned to the gate and snatched up his bag. Out of curiosity, he looked inside and saw the doors of the townspeople starting to slowly open up, the people peeking out one by one. The mothers and fathers covered their children's eyes to not expose them to the gruesome kills laying on the street. They all looked at their lone savior.

Some with fear, some with shock that the man who'd lived with them for a month was capable of such a thing, but most couldn't contain their tears, that for now, it was over. That their torment was at an end, that fate had given them "John Hulk".

His legend would spread in the future when a statue of his image was erected, but that's for the future.

The Slayer grabbed his bag, turned around and started to walk away.

"John!"

The Slayer froze, and turned his head towards the town again. The one who'd called him was a young soldier among the other soldiers who'd come out of the trees.

"Hup!" he cried, saluting the leaving man with a hand to his forehead.

"HUP!" repeated the other soldiers, also saluting.

The townspeople fully emerged from their shelters and shouted in joy, screaming and crying at the unbelievable future that awaited them. They'd fully registered that HE had pulled them out of misery. Even if it weren't to last, it'd be a long time before something would go wrong.

"John!" Orie ran to the Slayer, with a basket in her hand.

"Take this on your trip," she shouted over the cheering of the crowd. She hugged him tightly around the area with the least amount of blood.

"Stay safe," she said as she pulled herself off him, her face turning red.

Iltra also came, giving her actual final goodbyes with the Demon Slayer. And finally, a mapmaker the Slayer had helped a little came and gave him a map of the Kingdom of Lindy, and another map for the continent.

"Take this," he said. "At least you won't be lost again with this."

The recipient accepted the gift, and put them in his back.

The Slayer waved his hand to the town, hearing many goodbyes and thank yous from within the wall.

He turned away, and left.

Many of the townsfolk didn't want him to leave, but they knew that he was going to challenge the Sage Raiza, and that there was no one who was going to stop him.

Also, the cleaning, as you could imagine, was a bit of a nightmare, but that was okay. Disposing of their tormentors' corpses felt great for the guards, who could do nothing before.

When he found his gun kilometers away he looked back towards the direction he came from.

Having already traveled far, the trees had overtaken his path so that there was nothing to see.

The Slayer reached into his backpack and opened the map of the area. Judging by the path he was on, the City of the War God was at least a few miles away. Rolling the piece of paper back up, he went on his way to end the suffering of the Kingdom's residents, once and for all.