Modern World Warlock

As Wolfram and Dante exchanged information, Paige stood nearby and listened, though she had a few questions of her own.

When Dante asked Wolfram if she knew what had become of his teacher, the wizard shook her head in denial.

Wolfram had been on Earth for a relatively short time compared to Xander, who would have arrived hundreds of years in the past. And even though she tried looking for any information relating to Xander, she could only find small clues that led nowhere.

Dante felt conflicted as he had already made peace with the fact that Xander was dead, and the way Wolfram spoke made it sound as if the man was still alive.

During Wolfram's search, she gathered information about all kinds of urban legends and fairy tales, knowing that some of them were parallels to notable people from Terra.

"I've researched sirens, witches, werewolves… Pretty much anything you can imagine, but there was nothing that described a single feature of Xander," Wolfram explained.

Still, while some of those urban legends caught Wolfram's attention, there was one that stood out the most to her—the legend of the wicked witch, Baba Yaga.

When Wolfram mentioned the name, Paige interjected in the conversation as she had heard the story before. In fact, Paige had also done some research on witches after meeting Dante, wanting to find proof that there were other mages living on Earth.

"Baba Yaga is said to be a powerful witch who lives in a hut with legs. Some legends depicted her as a benevolent guide, and others spoke about her as if she were the incarnation of evil…" Paige muttered, and the line about a hut with legs left Dante speechless.

"You mean… The house has legs?" Dante asked, and Paige thought that the warlock was making fun of the story.

However, it was the other way around. Dante had already seen a magical hut with legs back in Terra, hundreds of years ago, so he asked for a more specific image to compare to what he had seen.

"Hey, you are asking me as if I know this witch. I just summarized what I read," Paige replied. "Why? Do you know her?" she asked.

"No. I've never met any woman named Baba Yaga in my life," Dante clarified.

He simply knew of a female warlock who was friends with Xander and used to live in a hut with legs, which is why the story sounded so familiar.

"Could it be that Baba Yaga is that warlock?" Paige pondered aloud.

Dante placed a hand on his chin and tried to remember the last time he had seen the warlock with the walking hut, realizing that he hadn't seen her even after Xander disappeared.

"Hmm, is there a way to track the witch down?" the warlock muttered to himself.

"The last sighting was in the Siberian tundra forest… At least, the last sighting recorded in history," Wolfram replied.

Even though Dante had planned to relax for the following years, he couldn't deny being interested in meeting this supposed witch, so he decided he would talk about it later with Camille.

"Anyways, did you want to ask me something, lady?" Wolfram asked, turning her attention to Paige.

"Yes. About that technology mixing magic… I want to know everything about it!" Paige replied with enthusiasm, her eyes beaming at the idea of new knowledge.

Wolfram explained that she was more of an explorer than a scientist, so she didn't know all of the details of how their machines worked. However, she did know that they had called the practice "Spellcore."

"If you are asking me how they were able to harness magic into their weapons, then I have no clue. Although, if I had to guess, they could be using precious stones to carry spells with them…" Wolfram commented.

"You still need to activate those gems with mana for the spells to appear. The soldiers I saw after the battle had no magic coursing through them…" Dante refuted, and as the two mages theorized different methods of harnessing magic, Paige was lost in thought.

"The main problem is that I can't comprehend something I can't see or feel…" Paige muttered under her breath, speaking her thoughts aloud without looking at the pair standing before her.

"If I could study magic more closely, I could figure out all of its properties and find a way to combine it with modern tech…" The scientist continued, utterly lost in her plans.

"Umm, Paige?" Dante called out the woman, making her snap out of her trance and stare at the warlock with a nervous but demanding expression.

"Dante!" The scientist exclaimed, leaving the warlock silent as he waited for her to keep talking.

"Can I do that contract thing you did with the Omega Team!?" Paige loudly asked.

"Contract thing?" Wolfram asked herself, and at that moment, she realized what the scientist meant.

"Those guys— The berserker, the dark paladin, and the dark rogue— You made them!?" Wolfram asked in disbelief.

"Not exactly. I didn't 'make them'," Dante calmly replied.

As he explained the process of creating the small glass orbs that had to be eaten, Wolfram was shocked as she had never heard of such a spell.

The process of splitting dozens of demon souls to remove the malice, combining them, and refining them to the point where a physical item appeared was unheard of, so she couldn't help but be amazed by the feat.

"Well, to be fair, I only tried doing it after I arrived in this world. There wasn't much of a reason for me to try it in Terra…" Dante explained.

When the warlock asked Paige if she was sure she wanted to go through with it, as there was no way back, the scientist was wholly convinced that it was the only way she could develop a magical technology that rivaled Spellcore.

Seeing her aura of determination and zero hesitation, Dante saw no reason to decline, planning on creating the orb later that same night.