Max was getting worried.
It had been a couple of hours since the girls left, and not a single message, call, or update had come through.
That was not normal.
Especially not for Loona.
"She would've at least sent an insult by now," Max muttered to himself.
He stood from the hotel couch and grabbed his coat.
"I need to see what's going on."
Charlie, who had been sitting nearby reading paperwork for the hotel, looked up immediately.
"Something wrong?" she asked.
Vaggie glanced over too, already suspicious.
Max hesitated.
Then nodded.
"The girls went to investigate something connected to my old life."
"And now nobody's answering."
Charlie closed the folder instantly.
"Need help?"
Vaggie nodded beside her.
"We're not exactly busy tonight."
Max thought for a moment.
Then sighed.
"Sure."
He looked toward Charlie.
"Your authority might help if things get messy."
Charlie blinked.
"…That sounded ominous."
"It probably is."
The three of them headed toward the building Millie had mentioned before—the one supposedly connected to the demon Malfo.
The moment they arrived—
They stopped.
The place was destroyed.
Half the building had collapsed inward.
Windows shattered.
Walls blackened.
Bodies littered the streets.
At least two dozen.
Mostly sinners.
Charlie looked horrified.
"What happened here?"
Vaggie carefully stepped around one of the corpses, spear in hand.
Max's expression darkened immediately.
"The girls found out my ex made it to Hell."
He slowly clenched his fists.
"So they decided to pay a visit."
His eyes scanned the area.
No sign of any of them.
Then he noticed a note pinned to the remains of a wall with a knife.
Max ripped it free.
Charlie leaned closer and read aloud.
"You want your lady friends back?
Come to the Outlands alone.
Better hurry. My boys are energetic."
Silence.
Max stared at the note.
Very calm.
Too calm.
Charlie immediately noticed it.
"Oh no…"
She looked up quickly.
"We need help."
For a split second, she genuinely considered calling Lucifer.
Vaggie noticed too.
But Max slowly folded the note.
"No."
His voice had gone cold.
"We don't need help."
Shadows started moving around his feet.
"If there are no bodies left to bury."
Charlie froze.
"…Max?"
The shadows swallowed all three of them.
They reappeared in the Outlands.
The undeveloped edge of Hell.
No cities.
No proper districts.
Just wasteland, ruins, and violence.
And waiting for them—
An army.
Hundreds of demons and sinners stood spread across the barren landscape.
Armed.
Laughing.
Confident.
At the center stood a tall demon wearing black and gold armor.
Malfo.
Behind him—
Cages.
Made with traces of holy metal.
Inside were the girls.
Restrained.
Gagged.
Bruised.
Loona immediately started trying to break the bars the moment she saw Max.
Bee looked furious enough to level a city.
"You should've come alone like the note said," Malfo said smugly.
He spread his arms dramatically.
"Then maybe we would've let them go after we finished using them."
Max didn't respond.
Not immediately.
His entire body trembled slightly.
Charlie and Vaggie instinctively stepped back.
The air around him felt wrong.
Heavy.
Dangerous.
"You two should move far away," Max said quietly.
Charlie frowned.
"We're not leaving you—"
Before she could finish—
Shadows wrapped around both her and Vaggie.
They vanished backward instantly, restrained gently by shadow copies of themselves far away from the battlefield.
"What are you going to do?" Malfo laughed.
He gestured toward the army.
"There are hundreds of us."
Strange statues were wheeled forward, glowing with bizarre magic.
"And with these revival totems, the sinners will just respawn endlessly."
He smirked.
"So unless you've got some incredible trick hidden up your sleeve…"
Max slowly raised one hand.
"Oh…"
His wolf ears appeared.
Then his tail.
His pupils narrowed into predatory slits.
"You won't get the chance."
He pulled out the vial containing the blood of Jesus.
Charlie's eyes widened in the distance.
"What is that?"
Max's arm started trembling violently.
"I use this as sacrifice…"
He crushed the vial in his hand.
The blood exploded outward like liquid light.
It wrapped around his arm—
And immediately began melting flesh.
Max gritted his teeth.
His own blood mixed with the divine blood instantly.
"I wish to reach my true self."
The world shook.
"I call upon the Entity."
Above him—
Three massive orbs appeared.
A black void-like sphere.
A yellow orb.
And a crimson-red one.
The black orb plunged directly into Max's body.
The other two immediately formed massive glowing chains around him.
Charlie stared in horror.
"What are those?"
Vaggie's eye widened.
"…Restraints."
God and Roo's power.
Holding him back.
Limiting him enough that he wouldn't accidentally destroy Hell itself.
Max's voice echoed unnaturally.
"I wish to bring angels to guard Hell."
He raised one hand.
"I cast Pantheon."
Reality split apart.
Gigantic armored angels descended from the sky.
Six wings each.
Black and crimson armor.
Weapons the size of buildings.
Holy beings twisted into terrifying guardians.
The entire battlefield went silent.
Then Max spoke again.
"I wish to raise the dead of Hell."
Dark magic surged outward.
"I cast Mass Raise Undead."
The corpses scattered across the Outlands began rising.
Demons.
Monsters.
Warriors wrapped in black armor and crimson flame.
An undead legion.
Malfo's smugness vanished instantly.
Max now stood at the center of an army that dwarfed theirs completely.
But Max wasn't finished.
He wanted them afraid.
He wanted them to understand.
The power flowing through him was destroying his body from the inside out.
His arm was already tearing apart.
Blood poured from his mouth.
But he ignored it.
Using the last stable portion of his control, he teleported the girls safely beside Charlie and Vaggie.
Then he raised one final hand toward the battlefield.
"I wish to destroy my target."
The sky lit up.
"I cast…"
His voice thundered across the wasteland.
"Fallen Down."
A colossal beam of white light descended from Heaven itself.
The battlefield vanished.
Everything caught in the blast was erased instantly.
The shockwave flattened the surrounding landscape for miles.
Silence followed.
Then—
The surviving angels advanced.
The undead army slaughtered what little remained.
Sinners were destroyed permanently by the angels before they could regenerate.
Demons that fell rose again as part of Max's undead legion.
It wasn't a battle.
It was annihilation.
And then—
It ended.
The black orb left Max's body.
The chains vanished.
The angels shut down, transforming into floating obelisk-like statues embedded into the ruined earth.
The undead army crumbled into ash.
Max staggered forward weakly.
Coughed blood.
Then collapsed.
The girls immediately rushed toward him.
"MAX!"
Loona nearly tackled him trying to catch him.
Bee looked genuinely panicked.
Even Verosika had gone pale.
Charlie and Vaggie arrived moments later.
And as they all gathered around him—
Something shifted.
Something touched their hearts.
A feeling.
Warm.
Protective.
Ancient.
Not love exactly.
Not yet.
But the beginning of something deep.
Something inevitable.
And for the first time—
Charlie and Vaggie truly understood just how terrifying Max actually was.
[A: Yes, this is still the pre nerf version. He just borrowed a ton of power to boost his spells to make a point. Plus needed the authority of his future self to raise the dead of demons in hel]