Modern World Warlock

While Astaroth stood before his subordinates at the town's plaza, Dante and Megan watched from the rooftop.

After giving a large group of hooded men the order to terrorize the city, they began carrying weapons to their cars as the demon directed his words to the rest of the individuals present.

The fiends and shadow demons were patrolling the town, making sure that everyone acted according to Astaroth's plans.

The wraiths would stay circling around the plaza's area since Astaroth considered the cathedral to be his palace, and he wanted the best protection possible.

Suddenly, while explaining his scheme, Astaroth turned to both sides as if looking for something.

"Where is that damn banshee!?" The demon asked in general.

"Apologies, King Astaroth… I placed her at the clinic," Sabelio replied, making the demon nod with satisfaction.

"I see…" The demon said, acknowledging the old man's words.

"Did you send the messages to the news stations?" The demon inquired.

"Yes, King Astaroth… I've made sure they received it," Sabelio replied.

The group who were watching and listening to everything from Camille's skyscraper instantly used one of the screens to watch the news stations, where the hosts were talking about a series of messages that they all received.

["In our breaking news!

Stations around the country have been receiving threat messages from a mafia family.]

["They say:"

'We are the Blood Dragons, and Novis is under our protection.

We will not tolerate our members getting eliminated or kidnapped.

To the Jade Dragons: You have 24 hours to give us back our people.

For each hour that passes, a random location in Novis will suffer the consequences.']

["So, there you have it, folks! Are these empty threats, or are the people of Novis about to suffer the effects of a mafia war?

We'll keep you updated after this commercial break!"]

When the screen started showing a commercial for a face cream, Camille shut it off with an annoyed expression.

'God, that anchor is so obnoxious…' The handler thought.

The Blood Dragons' threats were real, and they would have started with their chaos if the Kappa Team hadn't intercepted all of the terrorist groups when they left their town.

The Alpha, Beta, and Gamma teams were meant to enter the town whenever Dante and his group needed backup, so they waited on the highway near the entrance for their signal.

After Astaroth had relayed his thoughts to his subordinates, he returned to the cathedral and closed the doors, allowing the demons and cultists to resume their activities.

"Will Zac be okay? They said the banshee was at the clinic…" Megan pondered aloud.

"Hmm… I'm honestly not sure—I was hoping there would be fiends or shadow demons there. But, if it's 'fear' that he is going against, then it should be fine…" Dante commented without looking worried in the slightest.

The brunette raised an eyebrow, not fully understanding what he meant. Nonetheless, she was getting used to it, knowing that she would eventually get her answer anyway.

Megan and Dante went back down to the ground floor and out to the streets, slowly making their way to the plaza, when they spotted a hooded man walking in the opposite direction of them.

The pair gazed at each other as if they could speak telepathically, and just as the man passed by next to them, they grabbed him and pulled him into a dark alley to the side.

*Gasp* The man gasped with fear as Dante grabbed his neck against the wall.

"Hmm?" The warlock muttered, releasing his grip when he noticed the man's umbra.

"You are not mind-controlled…" He continued.

"Wha-... How do you know that?" The unknown man said in shock.

"It doesn't matter—You answer my questions… Why are you working for Astaroth?" Dante said with a severe tone.

The man looked to both sides to make sure that nobody could hear him and explained that he was simply following orders since he didn't want him and his family to die.

When Astaroth arrived at Highpoint Town, all of the residents were taken and brought to the plaza, where Nihilor began using his magic on several of them.

However, the demon decided to leave some people alone, as he wanted to use them as leverage.

The man lived with his wife and his teenage son, and when they were mind-controlled by Nihilor, he was told that he needed to follow every order, or they would make their family kill themselves in front of him.

Dante could tell that the man was telling the truth, so he took a step back to make him feel less threatened, allowing Megan to interject.

"Why would they do that? Isn't that a liability for them?" She pondered.

"Yeah, but demons feel good when there is natural umbra flowing around them, so having people live in fear is invigorating for them," Dante explained.

The warlock told the man to return to his duties and act calmly since a demon would know he was hiding something if he acted too nervously.

"Y-yes!" the man exclaimed, making his way out of the dark alley.

"Are you sure that was a good idea?" Megan asked.

"Yeah, he won't be talking about us…" Dante replied confidently after analyzing the man's umbra.

While Dante and Megan kept walking around town, the warlock was able to notice that quite a few people weren't under Nihilor's mind control, as the umbra flowing from their bodies came from a deep-rooted fear.

When the pair got closer to the plaza, they were halted by a tall fiend who stood before them with a menacing aura while looking down at them.

"Names?" The demon asked.

Megan bit her lips, not expecting the demons to have a list of the residents' names. Still, she didn't have time to think when she saw Dante placing his hand on the fiend's shoulder.

The demon froze for a moment as the warlock got closer to his face, muttering the words 'Hellslayer' and making the fiend widen his eyes with pure shock.

"What will it be? Death or betrayal?" Dante asked the fiend in a low volume.

"Be-Betrayal…" the fiend answered with a shivering voice.

"Good—Out our way, then…" Dante said, pushing the fiend aside as he kept on walking toward the plaza.