Chapter 3

Zane sat on the edge of the cot in his cell, his fingers drumming absently against his knee. Three days. Three days in this strange world, and he had spent most of it locked up, shuffled between this cell and an interrogation room where they grilled him about his origins and purpose. Oddly enough, the concept of him coming from another Earth hadn't shocked them. Apparently, such occurrences weren't entirely unheard of after all this was a world of magic, a lot of things his version of earth considered impossible were considered rather normal here. What did concern them, however, was his stated goal: to kill a Royal Demon single handedly.

That, apparently, was tantamount to suicide.

A shadow hunter came in

Yes he had found out what they called themselves, shadow hunters. Stronger, faster and covered in tats that gave them more power.

And apparently, he had the potential to be one. It was confirmed when he asked the interrogators about their tattoos and after that they became much gentler with the process, still strict but not as overbearing as before.

Still he was in a big load of trouble

"You have been released but you are to stay in the base until told otherwise" The young hunter didn't even deign to speak more than a sentence to him, like the mere act was insulting in and of itself.

Well since he was allowed to explore, why shouldn't he take the chance to see what this world is all about?

This structure was definitely underground, he had been inside underground structures before so he could easily tell but now it was confirmed. It seems Shadow hunters loved their privacy.

He was drawn to the sound of fighting and found himself in a room filled with young hunters, each of them were training.

As for whether they were training to kill God himself he couldn't tell because why on earth are people his age bench pressing large weight that was more than half his size. He strained to read the number on the weight and almost fainted when he saw it!

What the heck!? these people were pushing 2000kg like it was a 50 kg weight!

People were running on advanced looking treadmills and their legs were blurry!

And he...he had the potential to be able to do the same thing!

While he was gawking, he heard someone clear their throats from behind him.

He turned and found himself facing another attractive beauty at the same level with the Lilith or at least that was what the interrogators had referred to the girl who had saved his life as. He was also told she was a warlock and so it was natural to look so enchanting with one of her parents being a demon. But this girl was human too yet she broke all concepts of beauty in his head.

She had this blonde silky hair she had tied into a ponytail and wore the same leather Armor he had seen everyone wear. She had softer features that made her seem feminine, but those blue eyes showed a will he had never seen in anybody before, and he was a soldier!

"You're staring," she said flatly, he finally noticed she was wearing training gloves after letting his eyes play all over her seductive curves

Zane blinked, caught off guard. "I was just—" He cleared his throat. "Looking for someone to spar with"

She didn't respond at first, merely studying him as if deciding whether he was worth her time. Then, without a word, she nodded toward a pair of training gloves.

Zane took that as permission.

He slipped them on and faced her, raising his hands into a defensive stance. The moment the match began, he realized just how outclassed he was.

She was brutal. Every strike, every movement was calculated and efficient. He was strong—he knew that—but she moved like she had already predicted every one of his attacks before he even thought of them. In minutes, he was flat on his back, staring up at the sky, his chest heaving.

This girl didn't even look winded.

He groaned, pushing himself up. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

She tilted her head slightly. "Not particularly, you're barely sufficient for a warmup."

Zane huffed out a breath. "Brutal honesty. Love that."

She walked over to the training bench, grabbing a bottle of water and taking a slow sip before finally speaking again. "You're not bad." He barely registered what she said as he let his eyes feast on her plump sculpted butt but then eventually shifted his gaze reluctantly.

He scoffed. "I'm literally on the floor right now."

She shrugged. "And i'm a shadow hunter, that's natural. But still, you have potential if you stop being so rigid with your style."

"That's just a nice way of saying I suck but could suck less."

The girl didn't confirm or deny it, which he supposed was her version of mercy.

As he sat up, rubbing his sore shoulder, he decided to push his luck. "So i'm kind of new here, what's the deal with the tattoos?"

"Runes," she corrected. "They give us our abilities."

Zane frowned, glancing at the various markings across her arms. "Magic tattoos?"

She gave him a look, unimpressed. "Not exactly."

"Well, I'm obviously new to all this. You can't expect me to just instantly understand everything."

Mia took another sip of her water before finally relenting. "Shadowhunters aren't born with abilities. We're trained. Then, when we reach a certain age, we go through a ritual. After that, we can use runes—some permanent, some temporary, all very painful. They enhance our strength, speed, endurance, and grant us abilities normal humans could never dream of.is that explanatory enough for you"

Zane considered that for a moment ignoring the obvious bite in her statement. "And you became one because…?"

She hesitated. "I was an orphan. Most of us are. If you're not born into it, you're recruited if you have the sight. They took us in, trained us, fed us, gave us purpose."

"Gave you weapons and sent you to kill things," he mused.

The girl didn't respond. Maybe she didn't see a need to.

"So, what exactly is the purpose of glorious shadowhunters?" Zane asked after a beat.

"To protect humans from the things they don't know about," she answered simply. "Mostly demons. But also rogue angels, warlocks, vampires, and anything else that threatens the balance."

Zane leaned back, resting his forearms on his knees. "And what about a specific type of demons, the royal demons?"

She raised an eyebrow. "The Royal Demon?"

"yup."

She let out a short, humourless laugh. "You're serious?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because royal demons aren't just 'enemies to hunt.' They are crazy destructive forces that wreck havoc unwarranted. It takes the best of us to even have a chance of stopping one. Thankfully they stay in their realm for the most part and also have problems of their owns to deal with"

Zane was silent for a long moment. "And yet, one's here now."

Her expression hardened. "Yes. And it's been taking Shadowhunters, so we need to stop it and find them."

His mind immediately flashed back to the warlock—Lilith. He frowned. "And Lilith—what's the deal with her in all of this?"

The beautiful shadow hunter exhaled slowly, as if debating whether to even bother explaining further. "Lilith is a Royal Warlock, one of the highest-ranked of her kind. Only warlocks of her calibre can divine a Royal Demon's location, but warlocks are innately proud and difficult to deal with except they want too. We had spent weeks tracking her, gathering restraining artifacts from headquarters, securing measures to either neutralize her or negotiate a deal. And then you dropped into the middle of it and ruined everything." 

Zane winced. "Yeah, sorry about that but i don't remember seeing you on the team..."

He would have definitely noticed if someone like her was on the team.

She didn't seem interested in his apology. "Alaric didn't send me because he thought I was too emotionally involved. My sister is one of the hunters taken."

Shit. So he was inadvertently the reason her sister might not be found.

 "I'm… sorry."

He really was, maybe it was because she looked like the incarnation of a goddess, but he really felt she was a nice person, after all she seemed to know he was responsible for the mission failure yet she still told him about this world and sparred with him though the beating might be her way of getting back at him.

Mia gave him a long look before standing. "Don't be, we'll still find them, after all my sister is incredible difficult to kill. Just try not to mess anything else up."

Zane watched her walk away, she was upset with him and rightfully so but she also seemed pto believe everything would be fine and so he was looking for ways to make it up to her....then make out with her naturally..

Dammit you just met her you perv! Get it together!

He slapped himself before he dived too deep into that particular alluring rabbit hole.

She saw that he was weak and so she wouldn't give him the time of the day.

Weak? Maybe. But that had never stopped him before.

And it sure as hell wasn't going to stop him from achieving his goals now.

Now how does one become a shadow hunter around these parts...