Modern World Warlock

As the witch took her time to brew the cups of tea, Dante and his group were confused by the warm reception they received.

Gazing around the small shack from their seats on the couch, there wasn't anything that looked suspicious or out of place.

Even Megan expected to see one or two large cauldrons with a bubbling green substance inside—an idea that she got from watching too many movies.

When the woman served the tea cups to the group, she sat on the seat in front of them and took a sip of her cup before fixing her eyes on Dante.

Megan grasped the hot cup in her hands, and while she wasn't a fan of tea, she could still recognize the smell of certain tea bags. However, she couldn't figure out what kind of herb was used for her tea.

It had a sweet aroma with a hint of wood, and as she wondered in silence without drinking, Baba-Yaga spoke up to get rid of any doubts.

"It's peach tea, dear. Don't let it get too cold…" She said, taking another sip from her cup.

'Is it really?' Megan wondered after tasting the tea. She thought the flavor was good, but it didn't taste like any other peach-flavored drink she had before.

"This is…" Dante muttered after sipping from his cup, widening his eyes in shock.

"Ahh, you recognize it?" The witch asked with a slight smirk.

"How did you find 'duraz' here…?" Dante replied with another question, utterly perplexed, which only made Megan and Vesnia more confused.

"I'll tell you, but you must answer my questions first…" Baba-Yaga said with a casual tone, putting down her cup on the coffee table and crossing her legs.

"You are Xander's pupil, correct?" She asked, leaving the shack silent for a few seconds as the trio processed her words.

Dante kept a serious expression, though he still felt a bit nervous. Not many people knew of his relationship with Xander, not even people from Terra, so to have a random lady in the middle of the Siberian forest mention him was too absurd to believe.

When he confirmed the woman's inquiry with a nod, the witch stood up from her seat and walked to a cupboard on the side of the room, where she grabbed a box that held a small, red stone inside.

"He asked me to give you this," Baba-Yaga stated, handing the red stone to Dante.

"What!? So, he was here!?" Dante asked, standing up from his seat with a bit of urgency.

"Oh, wow. You know much less than I thought… Isn't that why you came here?" She asked in return, prompting the warlock to sit back down, unable to deny it.

Megan got closer to Dante and wondered what the stone was for, and he explained that it seemed like an 'archive' that only Dante could unlock.

Baba-Yaga confirmed his words, explaining that not even she could activate it to see what was inside, as it had been created only to recognize Dante's aura. Still, the witch already knew what kind of information was stored in the archive.

With a glint of curiosity in his eyes, Dante began pouring some of his umbra into the stone, making it produce a bright glow that enveloped the entire shack.

As the red light covered the walls of the house like a mantle, the entire group was able to see the reflection of Xander, Dante's teacher and father figure, standing in the living room like a hologram.

"What do you mean he is hunting Mystara!?" The voice of Xander echoed.

The red stone was showing the group a glimpse of Xander's past, where he was talking with a group of people who looked like mages, based on the robes they were wearing.

The images were somewhat cryptic to understand, as the trio didn't have any context of the situation. Still, they were able to piece some parts together.

Xander was looking for someone who was 'hunting' Mystara, and while Megan couldn't remember where she heard that name before, both Dante and Vesnia recognized it as the name of the Goddess of Magic from Terra.

Ever since Dante was a baby, the Goddess of Magic was rumored to be dead. It was said that the Goddess wanted to obtain more power than her siblings, so Aelara stepped in and slayed her sister for the good of humanity.

Still, after Dante worked for Aelara for 200 years, he had discovered the true face of the supposed goddess.

While Aelara was known to most people in Terra as the benevolent goddess who brought salvation to all living beings, Dante knew that it was all a farce.

He couldn't do anything back then since his body was under her blessing, and even if he could, he had been taught not to meddle with the gods' business.

Valorn was the first of the gods who perished under Aelara's power, with the excuse that her brother was planning on destroying the world.

Then, Mystara utterly disappeared, which Aelara also took the credit for, lying and explaining that her sister was corrupting herself.

During the times that Xander recorded his memory, there was still another god who was Aelara's sibling, Zaratross.

Unfortunately, Dante already knew the fate of the last god, as he was literally fighting a corrupt version of Zaratross before getting plunged into the convergence.

The mission of his party back then was to kill the 'evil god' under Aelara's orders, but since he tried sacrificing himself to kill him, he didn't know if Zaratross had truly died.

As the trio kept watching Xander's hologram, they discovered that it was another mage who wanted to hunt Goddess Mystara, even though she was already rumored to be dead.

However, their hunt wasn't taking place in Terra. Instead, it was revealed that a group of mages had traveled through the convergence to search for the goddess.

Knowing that there was still one more mage who was working on opening the same portal, Xander began searching for him, speaking his name aloud for Dante and the group to hear—Kerm.