Modern World Warlock

It was a late afternoon at the Jade Palace. The sun was shining, and the warlock's party was prepared to meet with Dante after a long time.

After his group got picked up at the private airport by the members of the Kappa Team, Megan mentioned that Camille supposedly had a surprise for Dante, making the warlock curious.

He guessed that Paige had somehow created a gadget that he would find interesting, utterly unaware that the surprise waiting for him was the meeting with his old friends.

When they arrived at the mansion, Dante stepped out of the vehicle and stretched his arms, hearing the voice of Camille greeting him from the main entrance.

The moment he turned his gaze towards the handler, the warlock's eyes widened in shock as his body froze in place.

"Dante…" Faelyn's voice reached his ears.

He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw his old party standing less than ten meters away from him. No words came out of his mouth, and not a single movement was made.

"DANTEEE!" Soren's shout reverberated all over the estate, sounding like the roar of a beast.

Not even a second after screaming his name, the warrior had advanced all the way to the warlock's side with a speed so great that nobody could discern, and punched Dante in the chest, flinging him across the entire courtyard of the mansion.

Camille tried to keep a straight face since she wasn't expecting the warrior to attack his friend, though by looking at Soren's face, she could tell that the man was trying to scold Dante instead of seriously hurting him.

After crashing against a statue and making it crumble, the warlock stood up without saying a word as his three friends slowly walked towards him.

"Guys, I…-" Dante spoke up, but he was cut off when the trio embraced him in a circle.

"You are so stupid…" Faelyn muttered, her words slightly muffled as she pressed her face on the warlock's back.

"How…?" Dante asked, still in shock from the meeting, as his party didn't let go of the embrace.

"It's a long story… Someone else sneaked here with us," Sylas replied.

"I-I see… Was that punch necessary?" Dante continued, looking up at Soren, who had tears in his eyes after the re-encounter.

"Yes!" The trio replied in unison.

"You deserve at least that much after trying to sacrifice yourself for us… Either we all die or nobody does!" Faelyn said, finally letting go of the warlock.

The elf's words weren't unknown to Dante. It was a phrase that they always repeated to each other when their party was first formed.

Nobody on the team wanted to go through the grieving process for their friends, and after many adventures together, they all truly believed that it would be better to die together than lose everything.

However, that phrase had seemingly been forgotten by Dante after Beatrice's death, and he couldn't deny it warmed his heart to see his old friends looking healthy.

Suddenly, their moment was interrupted when Megan exited the vehicle and closed the door, making the party turn their gazes in her direction and leaving them completely frozen in shock.

Megan noticed that the warlock's party was staring at her. Their faces showed concern, and their lips slightly trembled from the words they wanted to utter.

"Beatri-!?" Faelyn said aloud as she took a few steps forward, cutting her words in half when she detailed the woman standing a few meters away.

'No… She is not her,' The elf thought, retrieving her extended arm with reservation.

Realizing why his friends were silent, Dante introduced Megan to the party, explaining that she had saved him when he first arrived on Earth.

The party couldn't believe it for a moment. For the first person Dante encountered in another world happened to be a woman who was almost an exact copy of his deceased girlfriend, was almost too perfect to be a coincidence.

Megan introduced herself, and while the party wasn't able to understand her words, her mannerisms and tone of speech confirmed to them that the woman wasn't her old friend.

Before the party could keep asking questions, Baba Yaga showed herself exiting from the other side of the vehicle, and her appearance alone seemed to alert the party, sensing an energy similar to Goddess Aelara coming from the witch.

"Calm down. We brought her as a guest…" Dante calmly said, waving his hands while still smiling on the inside at the thought of meeting his old friends.

There were a lot of topics they needed to discuss and catch up on, specifically the topic of the angel who managed to sneak into the convergence with the party. Nevertheless, before they could explain, Gabriel came out of the main entrance and stood beside Camille.

The angel shot a condescending glare at the warlock, who simply looked up at the angel and smirked. "I didn't know a dog could be smart enough to make it here," Dante said in a mocking tone.

"You dare speak to me first, filthy warlock!?" Gabriel shouted, making Megan and Camille a bit nervous since they couldn't understand what they were saying, but it was obvious they weren't exchanging greetings.

"It's brave of you to come all the way here, where your goddess can't see you… Were you waiting for me to die by my hand?" Dante sarcastically asked, his gaze piercing the angel with intensity.

Gabriel clenched his teeth and reached for the sword on his back, but when he quickly gazed at Camille beside her, the handler's serious glare made him quickly reconsider.

"I shall wait in your office, My Goddess," the angel said, respectfully bowing towards Camille and entering the mansion to avoid escalating the issue.

"...-the hell just happened?" Dante wondered aloud after a few seconds of silence.

There wasn't a single time that he encountered Gabriel where the archangel didn't try to kill the warlock, so he was genuinely surprised to see him quietly retreating into the mansion.

"You guys don't have the best relationship with the angels, right?" Camille asked, although she already knew the answer.

"You could say that," Dante replied, showing a hint of annoyance.