The group emerged from the alley and walked toward Venet Street… only to stop dead.
The entire block was a single compound — a sprawling mansion wrapped in towering walls, metal gates, and enough armed guards to defend a small country.
Blitzø whistled.
"Damn. Should've charged at least five times more with this level of security."
He turned to Max suddenly, eyes bright with the spark of a horrible idea.
"This place belongs to your ex, right? Great. You know all the sneaky ways in. Go kill her."
Max rolled his eyes.
"She wasn't my ex. Lisa was part of my old gang. This is a Center Branch — basically a peace-offering fortress. Lisa was married off as tribute to the family. I went to the wedding. Poor girl hated her husband. Anyone could see it."
"Whatever," Blitzø said, waving his hand. "Just get in, kill her and only her, and try not to blow up the whole block."
Max didn't respond.
He had no intention of killing only her.
Vance — Lisa's husband — was one of the men responsible for Max's human death.
The one who lured him out.
The one who watched him die.
Max's tail flicked with pent-up rage.
"Fine," Max said. "I'll kill as little as possible. No promises it's just her."
Max started walking toward the side gate.
---
Moxxie tugged Blitzø's sleeve.
"Sir, shouldn't we at least provide look-out? It feels wrong to dump the entire mission on him."
"Oh, Moxx, he'll be fine," Blitzø said casually. "I've seen overlords take worse hits and walk it off. Worst case? Bloodbath. Fewer clients. Fewer targets. Win-win."
Moxxie stared in horror.
Millie casually cracked her knuckles in excitement.
--
Max stood beside the side gate.
"This'll be difficult with one arm. But it'll buy me a few seconds."
Right on cue, the shift changed and a guard approached.
"Hey! You can't be here—"
Max snapped a shadow tendril from beneath the guard's feet, pulling him off balance. The guard crashed against the door.
Max grabbed the guard by the neck with his one working hand and snapped it cleanly.
"Sorry, man."
Purple mist swirled around the corpse as Max whispered:
"Beelzebub."
The body dissolved into nothing.
Max rummaged through the remains of the mist.
"Oh hey — keys. Convenient."
He shapeshifted into the guard… but his right arm was still missing.
"Fantastic," he muttered. "Wrong weather for the 'lost my coat' excuse."
His body liquefied into red slime, slithered through the lock, and reformed on the other side just as another guard turned the corner.
"Hey! What're you doing here? Get to your post."
"Yes, sir," Max said in the dead man's voice. "Just need my clearance card. Tyrone said he'd issue me a new one — old one got destroyed."
The guard nodded.
"Tyrone's still head of security. But you know protocol. Let me confirm."
Max subtly nudged the radio frequencies — Alastor's influence twisting the signal.
"Tyrone, got Charles here asking about a replacement card. Confirm?"
A deep, static voice blasted through:
"YES! Now let him GO so he can get his damn card and back to his post!"
The guard jumped at the tone.
"Alright, get going—"
He froze.
He noticed the missing arm.
"What the—"
CRACK.
A silenced bullet through the skull.
Max sighed.
"Well, there goes the quiet approach."
He sprinted into the compound as alarms blared.
"Great. Five minutes before full lockdown. And cameras everywhere."
Max reached the security room door — locked.
"Fine."
He crushed the handle with his one hand and kicked the door open.
Three guards inside turned toward him — but their bodies froze instantly as Max whispered:
"Don't move. Don't speak."
Compulsion magic seized their limbs.
One by one, he put a bullet in each of their heads and turned to the screens.
---
Max scanned the layout.
"Protocol hasn't changed. Outer perimeter tightens while an interior sweep team clears inward. No cameras in Lisa's room — Vance always demanded privacy for his sick shit."
He cycled through feeds until he found three cameras outside Lisa's door: two covering guards, one covering the hallway.
"Let's test something."
He aimed at the screen and fired.
The bullet shot through the monitor, through the camera, through the guard's skull, and embedded itself in the far wall of the compound.
Glass cracked on the security monitor.
"Oh that's neat," Max said, lining up the second guard. "Highly impractical but neat."
Two shots later, both guards were dead.
"Now for the messy part."
Max turned into crackling red electricity and surged through the last functioning camera wire, re-materializing beside Lisa's room.
He stopped.
A smell hit him — rancid, coppery, rotten.
The enhanced senses of his wolf physiology made him gag.
"God… damn wolf senses. Should've turned into a snake."
He steadied himself and kicked the reinforced door clean off its hinges.
---
The room was hell.
Bodies.
Girls — young, old — mutilated, discarded like trash.
Lisa was tied to a chair in the center, covered in cuts and burns.
Breathing, but numb — dead behind the eyes.
Vance stood in the middle of the carnage, naked and covered in blood, knife in hand.
"What the hell are you doing in here?!" Vance roared.
Max shot him instantly.
Right in the dick.
Vance collapsed, screaming.
Max ignored him and went to Lisa.
He removed her gag carefully.
"Lisa," he whispered.
Her gaze lifted, cloudy… but when she recognized him, a flicker of life returned.
"You don't need to stay here," Max said softly. "Anthony's in Hell. He misses you. He asked me to send you to him."
Her lip trembled.
Gratitude. Relief. Acceptance.
"Don't worry," Max added. "Hell's not what the books say. And you'll never see Vance again. I promise."
He placed the barrel gently against her forehead.
One clean shot.
She slumped peacefully.
Max turned.
Vance writhed in agony.
"Sorry, Vance," Max said coldly. "You don't get a clean death."
He drew blood magic into a circle — forming a glowing pentagram beneath Vance.
"I summon Asmodeus — King of Lust."
A hazy image materialized, resolving into the towering, flamboyant overlord.
"Max! Well, this is unexpected. How are you even in the human world—"
"No time," Max said. "I've got a gift for you. A soul you'll enjoy."
He kicked Vance's broken body into the circle.
Asmodeus's eyes widened.
"Oh, I know this one. Quite a few souls in my ring have complaints. But unfortunately he's contracted to Mammon. When he dies, his soul belongs to Greed—"
"Not anymore."
Max drew a cursed blade.
Chains of infernal contract wrapped around Vance.
With one precise cut —
the chains snapped. The knife shattered.
Asmodeus inhaled sharply.
"That blade… extremely dangerous. But yes — now he's mine."
Green hellfire erupted, engulfing Vance.
His screams echoed across the room as his soul was ripped away.
Asmodeus smirked.
"Oh, this will be entertaining."
The vision faded.
Max stood alone among corpses.
He looked at Lisa one last time, regret and guilt twisting in his chest.
"Rest easy," he whispered.
And he vanished in a burst of shadow
[Author's Note: so I had a couple reviews saying that there is no pacing or build up. And I get that. But don't complain about an OP Mc when its literally one of the tags. And yes, its hard to not only combine the two universes but then make a story for each girl and how they hook up with Max when this is already going to be a very long story. And it will happen, messy time mechanics. But don't judge to harshly when the story is very early. Anyways to everyone eles, thanks for enjoying my story and I hope you enjoy the rest]