The breathtaking scenery opened Asura's eyes wide. The size of the city was far larger than any city that existed in the Ogre's realm. A few shows displayed the magnitude of populated cities created by humans, but being present in person was surreal.

Hundreds of cars filled the streets, honking and inching forward, trying to escape the heavy traffic. Along the sides of the streets, a sea of people walked up and down the sidewalks, trying to navigate through the city to get to their destination. The noise of hundreds of cars running and people talking overwhelmed Asura.

The storm of noise overstimulated his keen sense of hearing and smell. All the different smells of sweat, pollution, and garbage filled his nose, making it difficult to breathe. Even trying to look around, Asura found it difficult with the number of lights being produced.

Large screens hanging on buildings, streetlights reflecting off glass structures, and car headlights lit up the entire city at dusk. The towering buildings Asura knew of from films were called Skyscrapers, and they seemed to touch the sky with their presence. "How are the tall skinny buildings reaching up into the heavens even stable?" Asura asked himself.

"Damn, this shits big. If Brony could see this..."

Lydia laughed and replied,

"Usually, she doesn't say that."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Don't worry about it. It's a human joke."

Lydia walked down the front steps leading away from the cathedral while motioning for Asura to follow.

"Let's get a move on. Can't be in awe all day."

Asura shook his head, still in disbelief, as he pursued after her. He couldn't help but notice that no one fled from the sight of him. Everyone who saw him in the old man's town fled in terror from the four-armed Ogre. The humans would throw glances in his direction as they passed, but their reactions were not filled with terror but annoyance. A few rolled their eyes while others raised an eyebrow as if he were a strange human.

"How come no one is afraid of me?"

Lydia cracked a smile,

"You are probably one of the least frightening things you can find in this city. They probably think you are just a weird cosplayer."

"Least frightening? What else could you find in this place?"

"Crackheads, social media 'Influencers', crazy protestors who attack people with weird fruits, some conspiracy theorists who believe everyone is a government spy... Or the flat earth people, those guys are also out there."

"People attack people with fruits?"

"Yeah, I don't know... It's a new thing for me too."

Asura's jaw dropped as he turned around to get a better look at the cathedral they came from. It looked like a castle with its massive stone walls looming over its neighboring buildings. The building was at least five times the size of the other cathedral. He thought the other one was a maze... he could not imagine what the inside of this one looked like. The thought of the many doors in this cathedral made his face flush. "What a dreadful thought."

Asura moped along as they walked, and it wasn't until Lydia spoke up that he broke from the gloomy spell left by the thought of the doors.

"Why don't you kill and eat people like all the other demons?"

After several utterances of the word demon that Lydia had let out in their fight earlier, this time, it finally got to him. At first, he overlooked it because of his interest in her, but he couldn't overlook it any further.

"Eating weak people is stupid. Why fight weak people who can't defend themselves? Sounds boring. I'm not interested in gaining power through pointless shit. I want a real fight, fun fights, awesome fights. Also, quit calling us demons. It's racist. There are eight factions, each filled with several species of monsters, and not one is called a demon. Racist temple bastards. My name is Asura. I would appreciate it if you would use it."

Lydia pondered his words for a moment before responding. She'd never met a monster who could articulate his feelings before. Most of them refused to talk to humans, preferring to try and eat them before any words could ever be spoken.

The thought that they had complex emotions like humans never crossed her mind. In her defense, though, most tried to kill her, and she did not have the philosophical time to explore the idea of monsters caring about what they were called.

"Asura it is. Sorry for insulting you."

Asura lifted an eyebrow at her easy acceptance of his words.

"Huh, just like that, you believe me?"

"Well, you could be lying, but so far, you seem genuine. I can tell from the emotion in your voice you really hate the word demon. I never thought that it was racist to use it for every monster, but it makes sense. I'd hate it if people called me a shitling. Though... they'd have no teeth if they ever tried to say it."

"I mean, it's fine to use it properly, but not all of us like to devour and torture others. If you have ever met a demon, you'd know that they deserve the term. Wicked assholes are sadistic."

"I think I have met one or two before."

"Doubtful if you are throwing the word out left and right."

"What about possessions? We encounter those all the time."

Asura's sudden laugh startled Lydia as they walked through the crowd of people.

"Sure, a few may be possessed here and there. They could be demons... or they could be shadows."

"Shadows?"

"You ever seen an Observer?"

"The creepy stalker monsters that hide in shadows?"

"Yeah, everyone has one that watches them. Some of them go rogue and start to whisper in the ears of those they watch. Sure, they can influence people, but humans like to blame others for their grotesque kinks when it's just really their own thoughts. Why take the blame for your own mistakes or thoughts when you can pawn them off another."

The unusual serious tone of Asura's voice left Lydia without a rebuttal. "Was this true?" She's seen smoke, mana, and light exit the body during exorcisms but sometimes nothing ever left. The person would suddenly change, and whatever was in them was gone. Before she could think deeply about it, Asura interrupted her with a question.

"How do you know where we are going? Aren't we supposed to track down quotidian mana? Where is your little orb buddy floating around leading us?"

"Oh, um... I don't need one. I'm pretty good at detecting demonic mana. My blessing amps up my holy mana in the presence of demonic mana. It can be used as a radar and steroid for my powers. I normally don't use a tracking incantation."

"Quotidian mana."

"What's that?"

"Monster mana. Everyone else calls it quotidian because it's ordinary, unlike holy mana. Which is the weird one, only humans have it just so you know."

Speaking of her powers being amped up. "How come she was not being supercharged with a monster standing next to her?" Lydia thought to herself as he looked at the black four-armed monster beside her. Every book she has ever read stated ogres had intensely dense mana that strengthened their bodies.

"How come my blessing doesn't go off with you?"

Asura shrugged and replied,

"I don't have quotidian mana. Guess you can't get stronger from it if it doesn't exist."

"Wait, don't all monsters have demonic mana?"

"Quotidian."

"Sorry..."

"Yep, I mean almost everyone, but not me. I don't know why, but I wasn't made with any when I was made. Every other ogre had it... To be honest, I don't know of a single monster that doesn't other than me. I'm just strong as shit and hard."

Snorting at the comment, Lydia burst out in laughter. Confused by Lydia's hysteria, Asura asked,

"What's so funny?"

She tried to muster out a response while she shook her head. Lydia wiped her eyes with a hand before responding,

"Nothing, nothing."

Suddenly, quotidian mana filled Asura's nose, prompting him to look around. "Where was it coming from?" The people flooding the sidewalks made it difficult to look around the area. The flood of scents swirling around did not help the situation either. Asura froze and diligently studied the surrounding atmosphere for any abnormalities that could be present in the bustling city. A few feet down the road, Lydia realized Asura was no longer beside her, so she turned around to face the frozen ogre.

"What is up?"

"If I were a monster-"

Realizing his question had already been answered, he pointed at a building with a giant sign reading 'Stoliagate Mall' at the front.

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"Something is going on there."

"Why do you think that?"

"I can smell it."

"Are you sure the stench is not from the filthy people who refuse to shower around us?"

Without warning, Asura walked across the street and ignored all traffic laws, leaving Lydia speechless. The light at the nearby intersection turned green, causing the drivers to start driving. However, as Asura crossed each lane, the drivers began to slam on their breaks one after another. The enraged drivers smashed their hands into their horns and erupted in a chorus of angry shouts.

"GET OUT OFF THE ROAD YOU LUNATIC!"

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

"ASSHOLE!"

A man hung out of his car window and shook his hand at Asura as he crossed the second to last lane. However, while approaching the last lane, its inhabitant roared in anger as he came to an abrupt halt. The man inside started to climb out of his yellow-lifted truck and confront Asura.

Witnessing the man's reaction, Asura was unamused by his response and turned to the yellow truck lifted high off the ground. With a smirk on his face, Asura kicked the front of the truck, sending it back a few feet into another car. The man inside's eyes opened wide as he realized Asura wasn't a human in a costume.

"Sit yo ass down. You ain't gonna do shit."

The man cowered as Asura threw a middle finger up in his direction. The other car's drivers refused to drive as Asura finished his walk across. The sight of a truck being sent backward from merely a kick terrified the humans.

Lydia chased after Asura and now understood what Mel's earlier warning meant. However, as she approached the building Asura was heading towards, electricity began to arc between her fingertips, alerting her to the threat Asura had detected even before she could.

Coming up next to Asura, she smiled at the Ogre, who was studying the large building with focused eyes.

"You are rather good at this. Maybe I will try to steal you from Mel sometime."

Asura smiled back, beaming with pride. The two were about to enter the mall, but Lydia quickly stopped Asura and pushed him aside. Surprised by the abrupt action, Asura watched Lydia speak out an incantation.

"You smell nice."

"From the hands of the wicked, Judex Divinum shall deliver us. Through Mazriel are we hidden from evil's sight."

Grabbing Asura's shoulders, Lydia pulled his forehead close, planting a kiss right in the middle. Flustered by the kiss, Asura was left speechless as Lydia pulled away. Asura reached up to touch his forehead but froze as he noticed his body change before his eyes. His skin was no longer as black as charcoal but instead shifted to a dark brown.

"What the hell?"

Asura pulled his lower two arms up into view and found his arms to be missing. Before he could freak out, Lydia stopped him and stated,

"Your arms are still there. You can't see them. I cast an illusion on you so they couldn't detect your presence inside. Also, people won't freak out if they see you like this."

Asura patted where his arms once were, finding he could still touch them, but it looked like he was touching air. "How odd..." Using arms you cannot see is certainly a strange feeling. Asura waved them around for a moment before concluding the situation was fine.

"It is temporary too, so don't freak out."

Asura could only nod to respond. The freaky transformation appalled the ogre. Ogres took pride in their existence and capabilities. They were designed by Judex Divinum to have four arms, and to take them away would be to take away their gift from their creator.

A distant memory resurfaced as Asura thought about losing his arms. He remembered a time when an ogre cried in his arms about losing three of their arms permanently. A raging battle that felt purposeless had taken them away. Asura was left to comfort the grieving ogre.

"Now we are ready to enter."

Asura snapped out of the memory long forgotten. The memory faded away, becoming lost once more.

"What about you? Won't they sense the holy mana?"

"Nah, this place is flooded with holy mana. The cathedral here expels mana like a blanket that covers the city."

"How the hell does that work? Don't you guys have a certain amount of it?"

Lydia shrugged at his question.

"You would be surprised by how much mana an Arch Knight can produce. We have a silver core that acts like a battery we store it in. Fill it every so often, and it powers everything around."

"Crazy."

"Time to go find the source of the mana."

The two walked inside the mall. Their investigation commenced immediately as they entered. Both of their heads swiveled around, studying and processing every bit of information.

"Holy crap, this is massive."

There were stores everywhere he looked. Lining the walls were stores that sat right up against each other down both sides. If you didn't find what you needed in those stores, then you had the second floor... then the third... "Is that a fourth floor? This place is huge!" Bridges stretched across each floor above, connecting both sides of the mall. Thousands of people walked down each passageway, entering and exiting every store.

"In the ogre realm, you don't have malls?"

"Nope. We used to have like tents set up, and there were tons of those, but nothing like this."

The two briefly looked inside each store they passed to search for the source of the quotidian mana. As they walked down the strip of stores, neither of them could sense any abnormalities. The people walked around smiling as if nothing was going on. Lydia crossed her arms, confused about why the demonic presence was not getting stronger.

Lydia turned to Asura and found the ogre inhaling through his nose like a madman. The ogre searched for the scent of the mana like a dog. The scent was present, but it was faint. "How strange..." People began to crowd around and stare as Asura vigorously sniffed around the area. Noticing this, Lydia grabbed his arm, pulling him along and away from the crowd gathering.

"You can't just sniff around like that. You look like a human right now. Everyone thinks you're a deranged man."

"My bad. Sorry. I can smell it though... they are here somewhere."

In pursuit of the source, they crossed an intersection in the mall, leading down three new paths. Lydia began to walk down one, but Asura stopped as an ominous feeling grew inside him. Something was wrong with this intersection, but he could not pinpoint it. "Was it the stores? No, every store operated like usual."

There were people buying items, clothing, food. People to his left shook their heads as they tried to walk down the left path. Watching them closely, Asura was baffled as they changed course as if something had changed their mind.

Asura waited patiently as more and more people repeated the same action whenever they approached the left path. Something was strange about the entrance. It felt like a small ripple was present like the entrance was a projected image of it. There were people on the other side, which confused Asura.

They walked inside stores just like people on the other paths. However, after watching for a few minutes, they never exited the intersection. They all stopped at the nearest store, and upon exiting, they went back down the strip.

Lydia returned to Asura after realizing he wasn't following. Before she could ask questions, he pointed at the left path.

"It's behind there."

"What makes you- Oh, strange."

Quickly picking up on the unusual events residing within the path on the left side, she approached the entrance and stopped a foot in front. Reaching out her arm, she watched it disappear as it crossed over into the strip. The air rippled as if it were water, distorting the image slightly in the area around the point of contact. She looked at Asura, waving for him to follow as she entered through the illusion.

Upon entering the room, the stench of blood and rotten bodies filled their nostrils. In front of Lydia was one of the most atrocious sights she had ever witnessed in her life. Bodies were laid on the ground every inch of the walkway. "How many people were dead here?" She thought as everywhere she looked a corpse resided. The floor was barely visible, making counting the number of bodies difficult. Some were piled on top of each other, while others were sprawled out on the floor.

Lydia looked up to check the floors above to see about their condition. "Maybe there are still some survivors?" The sight of more corpses hanging above on the pathways and bridges made her stomach twist. The blood poured to the floor in waterfalls of the crimson liquid.

"What a horrifying sight..."

It all seemed to pool together and joined at intersections that ran like rivers on the floor. Flowing into one central point, it all conjoined, rising into the air to form a massive sphere of blood. Next to the large sphere stood the Gorgon, Asura had fought before, drenched in blood. Her bandages once again wrapped around her face, hiding her hideous four snake eyes. Aware of their presence, the Gorgon flashed a smile at her new visitors.

"Welcome. Although, you're a little late."