Modern World Warlock

When Dante made contact with Trinity, the warlock asked if she could find the location of a witch called Baba-Yaga.

Trinity, who knew the name from the legends, questioned the seriousness of the request, explaining that she could track people, but looking for a person who may or may not exist wasn't in her repertoire of skills.

"Oh, I see. Well, if you can't find her, then I'll just give up," Dante commented, and while he was trying to compliment Trinity's skills, the hacker took it as a challenge.

"When did I say I couldn't find her!?" Trinity indignantly asked.

"But, you said Baba-Yaga may not even exist…" Dante clarified his position.

"Yes, if she doesn't exist, then of course I can't find her…" Trinity replied, explaining that if the witch were indeed real, she would definitely pinpoint her rough location.

Filled with determination, the hacker's fingers slid across her keyboard at high speeds as she searched all over the internet for any comment or article that mentioned the name of the witch.

Knowing that it could take her a few days of work, Trinity said she would call Dante back whenever she found a clue.

Two days later, Dante was planning on relaxing and playing video games with Zac and Saris while he waited for Trinity's report, but Camille interrupted his plans and called him up to her office.

When he arrived, he saw Isidor standing before Camille's desk with a somewhat somber expression. Standing behind the handler were Jenna and Rey, the two undead that she had saved at Netherius' mansion by telling Imera to transfer their souls into the bodies of androids.

"You called?" Dante asked, lazily scratching the back of his head.

"Yes. I need you to have a talk with our friend here," Camille replied, pointing at Isidor.

"Okay, sure… About what?" Dante continued, noticing that Isidor looked a bit nervous.

"Can we sit down?" Isidor replied with another question, prompting Dante to sit on the office's couch without saying a word.

Isidor took a deep breath and sat on the adjacent seat, looking up at Dante's eyes and seeing that the warlock was calm and serene, which gave him breathing room to speak without remorse.

"Mr. Dante… How did you remove the goddess' blessing from your body?" Isidor asked politely, leaving the room in silence for a few seconds.

The warlock carelessly replied that he hadn't done it on purpose, and it disappeared by itself after he traveled through the convergence.

"And, are you happy about that?" Isidor continued.

"Of course! It's not like I ever wanted that damned curse disguised as a blessing," Dante confidently replied.

Isidor lowered his gaze and scoffed with a chuckle. "A curse disguised as a blessing, huh? You might be right…" he said.

Still, there was something that Isidor couldn't understand—the reason why Aelara gave Dante her blessing when the goddess herself hated all warlocks.

Even when Dante had received his blessing, he was still discriminated against by the people of Aelara's church, going as far as getting attacked by random priests during his travels.

The "blessing" did nothing for him other than extend his lifespan. Meanwhile, Aelara was able to find out their location and status at any time.

"It was a tracker…" Camille interjected into the conversation, revealing that she had been listening the entire time since they were talking in her office.

Dante snapped his fingers and pointed at Camille, agreeing with her assessment. "Aelara wanted to track us… Well, she wanted to track Beatrice, to be more specific," he explained.

Beatrice was a combat priestess who had the potential to become the strongest in the church. However, she was openly against most of the church's teachings, as she believed they were "barbaric and dumb."

The goddess would send her holy knights, such as Isidor, to commit genocide in towns and cities that refused to praise her, so Beatrice always wanted to change the church's beliefs from the inside.

After years of working together, Dante and his party received a summons from Aelara herself, asking them to visit her cathedral in the church's capital.

At first, the group wanted to refuse since they didn't want anything to do with the church, and considering that Dante was part of their team, they knew they wouldn't be as accepting.

Even so, Dante and his party decided to ignore their request, which prompted them to get ambushed a few days later by dozens of angels.

Back then, they didn't have the strength to fight against Aelara's angels, and as the goddess materialized in front of them, she gave them the option to accept her blessing or perish.

'Wha- So, he was threatened into accepting that supposed blessing?' Camille thought, not wanting to interrupt.

Without much of a choice, they reluctantly agreed to the blessing, and their group became infamous around the church since they not only had a warlock with them, but they barely followed any orders given to them.

"Apologies… I remember seeing your party once. I insulted you all for being heretics," Isidor said, biting his lips with apprehension.

"Don't sweat it. I don't even remember that, so…" Dante replied, saying that there were hundreds of instances where priests or holy knights attacked him for no reason, so he didn't remember all of their faces.

Still, while Dante and his party refused to complete tasks for the goddess that they didn't agree with, Aelara saw it as an act of defiance.

"I don't really have proof of this, but I know that Aelara was the one who lured Satan into kidnapping Beatrice…" Dante muttered, his tone cold as ice.

Dante theorized that Aelara hated Beatrice's kindness, and knowing that the woman wanted to change the church's beliefs, she decided to get rid of her to prevent her followers from becoming insubordinate.

The warlock and his party never got solid proof of their theory, but Aelara's taunting comments were enough of a clue to them. Still, it's not like they could rebel against her and win, so the best they could do was distance themselves from the church as much as possible.