Chapter 123: Cleanup

Chapter 123: CleanupUnknown Location – Resistance HQ

Deep underground.

The room buzzed with old tech and fresh hate. Fluorescent lights flickered above cracked concrete walls lined with screens. Faces—dozens—scrolled across them. Vampires. Werewolves. Witches. Spirits. Tagged. Tracked. Numbered.

Every supernatural student at the college.

A board filled with red-thread diagrams hung on the far wall. In the center—Lucifer Origin. Below him, the rest of the Origin Clan. Pins marked locations. Geneva. And smaller towns already wiped clean.

Beside the board stood a man in a black trench coat, eyes hollow, jaw clenched.

"Another one down," a soldier muttered behind him, flipping off a security feed.

"Spirit-type. Girl. Slit throat. Body dumped in the canal."

The man didn’t flinch. "Make it thirty-seven."

A second soldier leaned forward. "Should we update the Hunter Registry?"

"No. Burn it later. No more names. Only numbers."



On another screen, a blurry image of Ken flashed—taken during the Rift War.

Then Mob. Then Ella. Then Francisca.

And then—Lucifer.

The man in the coat stepped forward and stared at it. His eyes burned red from sleepless nights.

"They call him king," he whispered.

"Then we treat him like one."

A few soldiers chuckled.

But the laughter stopped.

Because the lights blinked—then died.

All at once.

The entire room dropped into black.

Then—

BANG.

The outer wall exploded inward with thunder.

Concrete dust. Fire. Screams.

From the smoke walked two shadows.

One with her heels tapping calmly across the scorched floor. Red eyes glowing faintly behind dark lashes.

The other with his coat flaring behind him, hands in his pockets, smirking like this was just a fun little errand.

Anita.

And Zane.

"Lights out," Zane said as he stepped over a corpse, eyes flicking around casually.

The first soldier raised a rifle.

Crack.

He was dead before he pulled the trigger—head snapped cleanly to the left by Anita’s heel.

She didn’t stop walking.

"You didn’t scream," Zane said with a grin.

"I’m saving it," she replied, licking the blood off her nails. "You promised me fun."

The Resistance scrambled.

Emergency lights flickered red. Doors slammed shut. Alarms screamed. But Zane didn’t flinch. He raised one hand, and the hallway bent around it—like the walls were suddenly afraid.

Energy coiled in the air, thin and sharp like wire.

The moment three soldiers came charging down the left corridor, Zane vanished.

A blink.

A whisper of static—

Then boom. The bodies hit the wall so hard they cracked it.

Zane appeared behind them, his hand still raised, crackling with red static energy.

"Fast enough?" he asked.

Anita didn’t answer.

She was already moving.

Two came at her from behind. One with a blade glowing blue—a hunter’s edge. The other with a cross inscribed with sealing runes.

She ducked beneath the blade, grabbed the wielder by the neck, and twisted.

The rune-bearer tried to strike—

Her eyes flashed.

Shadows exploded from beneath her feet—pure dark energy, shaped like dancing ribbons, wrapped around the man’s arms and pulled.

Snap.

Snap.

Both arms were gone.

She tossed him aside.

More came.

Zane walked forward, unbothered.

"Pulse Lock," he muttered.

The floor lit up beneath him. A ripple of red lightning surged out like a radar wave—everything mechanical within range exploded. Guns backfired. Ammo melted. Surveillance shorted.

Now it was personal.

Blades came next.

Real ones.

The Resistance had trained for this—melee combat against supernaturals. But they didn’t train for Zane.

He caught a sword mid-swing and grinned.

"Nice edge," he said.

Then drove it into the wielder’s throat.

Anita turned and raised her hand.

Her shadow twisted upward like a serpent—then lashed out and coiled around a group of three. She clenched her fist.

Their ribs caved in at once.



"Too slow," she whispered.

Sirens kept going.

But the HQ felt smaller now.

Zane kicked open the central control room door, fingers crackling with black static.

Inside, the man in the trench coat stood alone.

"You must be their boss," Zane said.

The man didn’t move. "You’re wasting time. We’re everywhere. Killing me won’t stop anything."

Zane blinked once. Then laughed. "Who said I was here to stop anything?"

He stepped aside as Anita entered, covered in blood.

The man reached for something under the desk.

Too slow.

Zane flicked his finger.

BOOM.

The desk shattered. Wood flew. The man fell to his knees, coughing blood.

"Why..." he choked. "Why do you protect them? Monsters..."

Zane crouched beside him.

"Because we are monsters," he said with a grin. "We’re just better at it."

Anita walked past them, her heel pressing gently on the man’s shoulder.

"Want me to finish it?" she asked.

Zane shook his head.

"Nah. Let him watch."

He pulled a black disc from his coat and tossed it onto the central server.

It beeped once.

Then the entire system caught fire.

Screens melted. Wires sparked. Data burned.

Every file.

Every kill count.

Every trace of their surveillance...

Gone.

The man screamed.

Anita turned to the rest of the HQ, still echoing with whimpers and broken breath.

She raised her hand.

Shadows bloomed.

And death danced.

One by one, the stragglers were hunted. Not with brute force—but precision.

Anita split herself into silhouettes—eight of them—moving through walls, slicing through necks with darkness shaped like blades.

Zane walked through the flames calmly, hands in pockets, watching as the Resistance HQ fell apart.

A final scream echoed.

Then silence.

Smoke.

Crackling steel.

And the slow drip of blood hitting the tile.

Anita stepped back into the hallway, wiping her hands.

"All gone."

Zane looked around.

The walls were cracked. The bodies were many.

But not a single supernatural would fall to these people again.

He pulled out his phone.

Dialed.

The line rang once.

Lucifer picked up.

"It’s done," Zane said.

Lucifer didn’t respond right away.

"...Any problems?" he asked.

Zane looked at Anita.

She just shrugged.

"Nope," he said. "Nothing that could scream twice."

A pause.

Then Lucifer said:

"Leave no trace."

Zane smirked. "We never do."

The call ended.



Anita walked up beside him as they headed for the elevator shaft.

Zane kicked the last corpse aside.

"You think this was all of them?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Not even close."

She smiled. "Then next time, I get to start."

Zane pulled a lollipop from his coat and popped it into his mouth.

"You start next. I finish next. Either way..."

He turned to the burning HQ one last time.

"...we’ll keep burning the rot out."

Then they vanished—just a shimmer in the smoke.

Behind them, the Resistance HQ collapsed into ash.

And above them, the stars blinked like they’d just seen something they’d never forget.