The air thickened, and a surge of mana coursed into Asura's lungs, burning with every breath he took. It was a sensation he knew well after entering the human realm. A sensation brought forth from deep rage and anger towards an individual. But this time, the fury was not directed at him.
It emanated from Lydia, a tempest of righteous anger surging through her. Though he couldn't see her face, Asura could sense her struggle to contain it, her jaw clenched, her teeth biting into her lip. This grotesque scene, this charnel house of horrors, would not go unpunished. "Lydia—"
A sudden crackle of lightning cut him off, a bolt striking the ground near his feet. Asura leaped back instinctively, his heart pounding. Lydia's holy mana surged, erupting in a chaotic display of golden electrical energy. Bolts ejected from her body wildly, striking in all directions. Without warning, she launched herself towards the Gorgon, leaving Asura in her wake.
"Hey, wait!" he shouted, his competitive spirit ignited. "I want in on this!" To his astonishment, Lydia moved with a speed that defied his expectations. Their previous fight flickered in his mind. She was holding back! he realized, a mixture of admiration and indignation swirling within him. That hypocrite! He watched as she closed the distance between herself and the Gorgon in the blink of an eye.
"You're definitely going to have to refight me after this!" he yelled, his voice laced with determination. "I want to see that speed!" The ground ripped and tore as Lydia's lightning bolts carved through the concrete. Yet, the Gorgon remained unfazed, her eyes fixed on the approaching paladin, her composure unsettling. Why is she just standing there? Asura wondered as he raced after his comrade. It takes time to remove those bandages. If she's planning to petrify us, she should have started already... A knot of unease tightened in his gut. Something's not right...
Lydia channeled holy mana into her fist, the concentrated energy causing it to glow like molten metal. Lightning crackled around her arm as she gathered her strength. Two feet from the Gorgon, she unleashed the full force of her power. With a step forward and a twist of her body, she propelled her fist towards the Gorgon with explosive speed. But just as it was about to connect, a chorus of voices, filled with anguish and desperation, tore through the tense silence.
Asura roared a warning, his voice cutting through. "LYDIA, GET BACK!" The lifeless corpses on the floor twitched, then rose, as if an unholy breath had reanimated them. "Save us! Don't leave me!" Their gruesome appearance, their flesh grey and rotting, their eyes vacant, gave Lydia pause. She knew the dead couldn't return, yet their voices, raw with emotion, pierced her resolve. "Please, I have a family! Spare them! I'll give you everything!" A woman's corpse cried out. "Someone save my son! Please, take him with you!" A father pleaded, grasping at her legs. "I don't want to die..." A teenager cried out.
"Dad!? Daddy!" Lydia watched as a child cried bloody tears. The desperation, the yearning for life, and the agonizing cries for loved ones mirrored losses she had endured. The corpses, their skin dried and discolored, chunks of hair missing, flesh decaying, reminded Asura of the zombies he had seen in films back home. "They aren't alive, Lydia!" he shouted, his voice filled with urgency. "Watch out!"
But his warning came too late. Lydia, her attention momentarily diverted, turned back towards the Gorgon just in time to see the Naga's massive tail sweeping towards her. It slammed into her chest with bone-jarring force, sending her flying backward through the glass storefront of a nearby shop.
"To think humanssss care ssso much for their kin," the Gorgon hissed, her voice dripping with disdain. "Only a fool rushes blindly at their opponent." Asura surged forward, fueled by a desire for vengeance, but the Gorgon slammed her tail against the ground. Sharp, jagged rocks erupted from the floor, catching Asura off guard. They slammed into his chest, and he was thrown backwards, landing with a sickening thud on a pile of corpses.
The impact was softened, and he quickly scrambled back to his feet. "Sorry, sorry," he mumbled to the unhearing dead beneath him. "My bad. Didn't mean to. It's her fault, not mine."
He sprinted towards the Gorgon, determined to disrupt her plans. As he leaped over bodies and debris, he saw Lydia emerge from the shattered storefront, seemingly unharmed but radiating fury. Lightning crackled around her, the intensity of her anger crackling. "Ssssadly, I must take my leave now," the Gorgon announced, her voice laced with a chilling amusement. "But I will ssscertainly leave a gift."
She plunged her arm into the massive sphere of blood, her hand disappearing into the crimson liquid. Lydia and Asura charged toward her, desperate to intervene. "Whatever this 'gift' is, I don't want it!" Asura shouted. "I want the receipt for returns!" They were mere feet away, Asura wielding a large rock, Lydia's fists glowing with holy mana, when the Gorgon ripped her arm free, leaving a gaping hole in the blood sphere.
Asura's eyes widened in horror as a portal, swirling with dark energy, opened within the sphere. A monstrous black snake erupted from the portal, its immense body slamming into the floor with a sickening thud. Its sheer size was staggering, easily dwarfing Asura. "Damn... I feel short..." he muttered, staring up at the creature. "I swear I shrunk or something, 'cause that thing is at least two or three of me in height. I used to look down on these guys." The snake slithered across the floor, its liquid body, streaked with veins of green, coiling between them and the Gorgon. Unlike its mother, this creature had no scales. Its form seemed to be composed of a viscous black fluid, constantly shifting and warping. Its eyes, a piercing green, burned with an insatiable hunger.
The snake encircled them, its massive body continuously emerging from the portal until it had formed three complete coils. Then, as if on cue, the portal snapped shut as it all passed through. Asura reacted first, launching himself at the creature. He pulled back two of his fists and threw his weight into the blow, but his attack simply sank into the liquid body.
He looked up, meeting the snake's gaze, and saw a cruel smile twisting its serpentine lips. "What the hell?" he exclaimed, his voice filled with disbelief. The snake's body absorbed his attack completely, leaving him vulnerable. Asura felt himself being pulled inwards, a terrifying force dragging him into the depths of the creature. "Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit." Fear gripped him, his chest constricting. He thrashed, trying to free himself, but only sank deeper. Up to his shoulders now, his arms submerged in the oily blackness. "A little help?" he pleaded, glancing at Lydia.
But she remained silent, her eyes fixed on the monstrous snake, her expression unreadable. "Hey? You can hear me, right?" Asura called out again, his voice laced with desperation. Lydia continued to study the creature, her focus unwavering. "What are you looking for?" Asura questioned, his anxiety growing.
To his astonishment, Lydia began to punch the side of the snake, her blows light and repetitive. Asura stared, speechless. He had expected a plan, a strategy, but this... this was baffling. Even the snake seemed confused, tilting its head and hissing in annoyance. "Ah, fuck it," Asura muttered, resignation replacing his fear. "I don't want to watch you die." He relaxed his body, allowing the snake to consume him.
The sensation was like sinking into thick mud, a strange, enveloping embrace. With a final shrug, he surrendered to the unknown. "Meh, let's see what happens," he said, his voice surprisingly calm. Darkness enveloped him. The liquid was too dense to see through, a sensory deprivation tank like the ones he had seen in WeVlog videos.
He expected a foul odor, but there was nothing, no smell at all. If not for the sensation of movement, the shifting of the liquid around him, he would have believed himself dead. The void stripped him of all senses but touch. There was no pain, no discomfort. Wouldn't the snake be trying to digest me by now? he wondered. Weird—His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden jolt of electricity, a powerful current surging through the liquid.
Asura's body tensed, the intense pain spreading through him like wildfire. There's the pain! he thought, biting back a cry."GAHHHGHUDJSHDGJSDJ!!" A surge of lightning coursed through the serpent, its body convulsing violently. It opened its jaws wide, a silent scream contorting its features, and Lydia watched in horror as it vomited Asura onto the floor.
The ogre slid across the slick surface, his body twitching and convulsing from the residual electrical charge. He moved like a fish out of water, jerky, uncontrolled, a victim of the lingering paralysis. It was brief, but it was enough to throw him off balance. The serpent, momentarily stunned, shook its head in fury. Its eyes snapped to Lydia, fangs bared in a vicious snarl, and with a terrifying hiss, it lunged toward her. Its massive jaws snapped shut where she had been standing just a moment before.
Lydia, however, had anticipated the attack. Her reflexes, sharpened by countless battles, carried her out of the serpent's reach in a fluid leap. As the snake recoiled, she seized the opportunity. Her fist slammed into its liquid body with a series of rapid, punishing strikes. The creature's form rippled and jiggle, but the blows, though fast, seemed to have little effect, barely making a dent in the snake's unnervingly fluid form.
"That should be around fifty hits," she muttered, her voice calm despite the chaos. Asura, still prone on the floor, watched in disbelief. "What was that? Are you just giving it love taps? You—"
Lydia ignored him, striding over to offer him a hand. Asura hesitated, his eyes widening as he saw the serpent's head rising behind her, its eyes burning with renewed fury. He opened his mouth to warn her, but before he could utter a word, Lydia snapped her fingers. A snap that reverberated through the room.
The room exploded in golden light. A massive, armored angel materialized, its presence radiating an overwhelming sense of holy power. Its two wings stretched wide behind its back. Asura stared, awestruck. He had never imagined seeing an angel with his own eyes, but this one... it was translucent, like Ash's wall. And why is it here?
The angel dwarfed even the monstrous serpent. With a swift, decisive movement, it brought its fist down on the creature's head. The impact was devastating. The snake's head exploded, sending black goo splattering in all directions, covering the room in its remains. Lydia and Asura were showered in the viscous liquid, but neither seemed to react.
Then, as quickly as it had materialized, the angel began to dissolve, its form fading from existence, starting with its feet and rising upwards until only a faint shimmer remained. "Gross..." Asura muttered, wiping the slime from his face. He turned to Lydia, who seemed unfazed by the gore covering her. "What was that?" he asked, his voice filled with wonder.
"What was what?" Lydia asked, casually wiping the grime from her arms as if summoning celestial beings were an everyday occurrence. "The giant golden angel dude?" Asura gestured towards the space where the angel had stood, his voice filled with awe. "Where did it come from?" He asked. "Oh, that," Lydia replied with a shrug. "That's my blessing." Asura blinked, his brow furrowing in confusion. "Your blessing?"
"Yeah, you know, my power?" Lydia assumed Mark had filled him in on the details. "Is to summon an angel?" Asura's voice rose in disbelief. "Well, a replica, but yeah." She corrected, her eyes surveying the area. "A replica?" Asura asked, growing increasingly bewildered with every answer.
"Basically, when I punch something, I mark it," Lydia explained. "It builds up with each punch, like a combo in a video game. After a certain number of marks, I can summon a replica of an angel to attack. The bigger the number, the bigger the angel." She bluntly stated, quickly trying to end the conversation. "That one was about fifty marks."
"That's... that's incredible," Asura breathed, his eyes wide with admiration. "Why didn't you use it when we fought?"
She turned toward the center of the room, expecting to see the creature, but the Gorgon was gone—vanished without a trace. The massive sphere of blood had also disappeared, leaving no sign of its existence. Lydia sighed, frustration creeping into her voice as she realized their enemy had slipped away in the chaos. "Damn it," she cursed. "She got away."
"Stheno," Asura said suddenly. Lydia turned to him, her eyebrows raised in question. "The Gorgon's name is Stheno," he explained. "Medusa's sister."
"Medusa?" Lydia echoed, her confusion evident. "You've never heard of Medusa?" Asura asked in surprise. "The mythological snake lady?" She asked, as if recalling a story. "Every myth has some basis in reality," Asura stated. "Medusa's story is based on a real Naga named Medusa. Her sister is the one we just met. Out of the three Gorgons, only Stheno creates those pet snakes." The black ooze dripped from the ceiling. "It's her shtick."
"Huh... interesting," Lydia mused, a thoughtful expression crossing her face. "Yeah," Asura agreed, his voice taking on a serious tone. "And I recommend you never look directly into her eyes, either. Learned that the hard way." He gave a slight shudder, the memory of his petrification still vivid in his mind. "I'll take your word for it," Lydia replied with a nod of confirmation. Asura gestured toward the carnage surrounding them. "What now?"
"I'm going to make a quick call," Lydia replied, pulling her phone from her boot. "See if the others have found anything." She dialed Rose's number, and Asura began to move among the corpses. The grim scene weighed heavily on him, his appetite completely gone. He felt a growing sense of despair as he started to gather the bodies, arranging them neatly in a row. He wanted to make the identification process easier for the grieving families.
So many dead because of greed and lust… he thought, gently lifting the lifeless body of a child. But this was not a new experience for him. His own realm and the others he had visited were no different. Selfish desires always seem to trump morality, he mused sadly. Lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice Lydia approach as he laid the bodies beside each other. "What are you doing?" she asked, her voice soft.
"Oh..." Asura looked up, startled. "Just lining them up for their families... Don't priests care about the ones they're supposed to protect? Even at the other cathedral, I never saw them do anything about the bodies left behind." He softly exhaled. "We do care," Lydia replied, her voice filled with sincerity. Lydia's gaze softened as she spoke, her voice tinged with weariness. "At least we do here," she said, almost as if reminding herself. "I can't speak for the others in Mark's cathedral, but I know he cares. He collects the bodies personally and comforts the families. That's something… he's always there for them." She paused for a moment, looking off into the distance as if her thoughts were far away.
"But this city is so vast, and we don't always have the time to do it ourselves," she continued, her eyes dropping to the floor. "With the recent surge in demonic activity, the paladins and their teams are constantly being pulled from one crisis to another. Every time we think we have a handle on one situation, another one emerges."
Asura watched her, noticing the subtle weariness in her expression. Her shoulders were tense, and there was a heaviness in her voice that hadn't been there before. It wasn't like the Lydia he had first met, who carried herself with a sense of fierce resolve. Now, there was something quieter, something more burdened. "We usually have a team of priests who handle the bodies and arrange for the funerals," she added, her hands absently rubbing together as though trying to wipe away the weight of her words. "But I know it doesn't make up for their loss… We try, but we can't save everyone."
"So why live in a city?" Asura asked, his voice heavy with sadness. "It sounds miserable."
"As sad as it is to say," Lydia admitted, her gaze drifting towards the entrance, "it's still safer than anywhere outside the city walls. Mark's town is struggling because of its location." She paused as if considering her own words. "Many are left to die outside the cities when monsters break through. It's a fate everyone has come to accept... Even the children know that at any moment, a monster gate or a ritual could bring their death right to their doorstep..." Guilt clouded Lydia's features. She averted her eyes from the corpses, unable to bear the weight of their silent accusation.
The entire situation baffled her. How had they failed to detect this massacre sooner? The cathedral had a dedicated team monitoring the city, and her powers hadn't flared until she had passed through the illusion. What had prevented the demonic mana from leaking through? Before she could investigate further, the illusion dissipated like a curtain being drawn back to reveal the horrors within. Screams erupted as people caught sight of the carnage, panic spreading through the mall.
"We need to leave," Lydia said urgently, turning to Asura. "Rose had a similar encounter with a female beastman." She stated, knowing they had to leave the bodies there until a team came to collect them. "Did she have a hammer?" Asura asked. "Yes? How—"
"Malachi's henchman," Asura stated grimly. Lydia's gaze swept over the corpses, her eyes sharp as she took in the dried, lifeless bodies scattered around. She frowned, her lips pressing into a thin line. "They've been collecting a lot of blood. I think they're planning to summon Jormungandr soon. We need to find them—fast."
Asura sighed, his shoulders slumping. "Alright..." He didn't understand it, but the sight of the corpses gnawed at his mind. Despite having faced countless piles of corpses and having witnessed horrific massacres in past battles, this time, something felt different. As Asura stood before the seven lifeless bodies he had lined up, a heavy weight pressed down on him.
The sight of the cold, motionless forms before him was too much, and the echo of the voices from earlier, the desperate cries, rang in his ears. DADDY! The anguished, pleading voice of a child reverberated in his mind, stirring something deep within him. He clenched his fists, but the bitterness in the air seemed to seep into his bones, threatening to crack his resolve.
Lydia and Asura raced out of the mall, the frantic screams of the fleeing crowd echoing in their wake. With no new leads on the location of the summoning ritual, Lydia made the decision to return to the cathedral. She hoped that the monitors there could detect any surge in quotidian mana. A ritual of that magnitude couldn't remain hidden for long. But even as they ran, the events of the day weighed heavily on her. The delayed response. The massacre that went unnoticed. All of it left a bitter taste in her mouth. She had questions, questions that demanded answers. They were halfway to the cathedral when Asura suddenly stopped in his tracks.
"Why—?" Lydia began, turning to see the ogre staring intently at something in the distance. Her gaze followed his, but all she saw was the entrance to the subway station. "What's wrong? We need to hurry," she urged, her voice tinged with urgency. Asura pointed towards the subway stairs. His voice was low and serious as he spoke, "If you wanted to destroy a massive castle quickly, how would you do it?"
Lydia furrowed her brow, confused by the sudden change in topic. "I don't know," she replied hesitantly, "I guess an explosive from the inside would do it." Asura's eyes locked with hers, his expression grim and filled with dread. "What about underneath it?" The realization hit Lydia like a punch to the gut. The subway system. It ran directly beneath the cathedral. They are planning to blow it up from below.
Without another word, they both sprinted toward the stairs, taking them two at a time. Lydia's heart pounded as she reached the bottom of the steps and turned to face the subway platform. She wasn't sure how much time they had, but there was no time to waste.
"GET OUT OF THE SUBWAY!" Lydia shouted at the top of her lungs, her voice echoing through the station. "THIS IS AN ORDER FROM THE TEMPLE! IF YOU WANT TO LIVE, RUN!"