Modern World Warlock

After the meeting with the vampire clan was over, Camille invited them to stay in the guests' room for a few nights while they prepared for their plans.

The following day, the teenagers went to the Jade Palace, where the vampires apologized to the trio for kidnapping them and using them as bait to lure Dante.

It was the warlock's idea to have them apologize to the teenagers, knowing that it would reduce the hostility they felt towards the vampires—and surprisingly, it worked.

By the time Dante went to check on the teenagers, they were having a friendly chat with the vampire sentinels as they were all around the same age, making him feel a bit relieved.

The Zeta Team was almost done with the dummy version of Megan, and the brunette gave the vampires a copy of her heirloom dagger to show as proof of her death.

Meanwhile, Trinity had been working on searching for information relating to the cartel, but whenever she was about to hack into a database, a finely coded firewall prevented her from doing so.

However, Trinity recognized the code, as she had seen it many times before.

"Spook…" The hacker muttered to herself.

The same person who used to be her hacking buddy, who later betrayed her by siding with the Blood Dragons and aided them in kidnapping her father—they were now working with the Onyx Cartel.

'Could it be they were always working together…?' Trinity thought, considering that the Blood Dragons' actions were only possible due to the cartel's influence.

Not wanting to lose another hacking battle against Spook, Trinity was determined to break through their firewall at any cost, even if it meant losing hours of her precious sleep.

While the plans were being set in motion, the vampires and the Jade Dragons kept interacting with each other, and their relations seemed to get friendlier as more time passed.

Dante and Zac would play video games with the teenagers and the vampire sentinels, who kept bantering with each other whenever they lost a match.

The fledgling vampires joined Asher and Amara in their morning lessons. Even though the harpion twins were three years older than the vampires, they were just as immature as them mentally.

Balthazar seemed interested in Alice's training with Master Hayato and eventually started training with them too.

Laurent and Claudia joined the training with the Omega Team, as Megan and Zac were closest to their power levels, creating a friendly rivalry between the two pairs to see who could get stronger the fastest.

When the deadline for the vampires to talk to the cartel arrived, Asphodel gave them a fake report, saying that they were working on the requests and that it would be done in one week.

With that, the Jade Dragons had more than enough time to make sure Megan's double looked as detailed as possible.

Since Lilith would be infiltrating the cartel by acting as if she were a captive model, Dante decided to make a soul shard linked to her.

In case she wasn't able to return on her own, he could always bring her to his location in an instant by shattering the crystal.

Camille wasn't expecting that Lilith's fame would lead to the cartel, as she wanted to use her to cleanse the industry of corrupt agents.

However, she wasn't opposed to it and considered it lucky that one of the Dons of the Onyx Cartel was a weirdo who ordered her kidnapping.

On that same day that their deadline was set, Camille spoke with Melinda, the Autumn handler, and told her about the latest events and discoveries.

The GTS had also been investigating the Onyx Cartel for a while, especially after the incident with the ghoul, so Melinda decided to bring the matter to Imera and her grandchildren.

Surprisingly, Melinda called Camille back a few hours later, saying that she would visit the Jade Palace the following day, as Imera wanted her grandchildren to train with the rest, afraid that they would be left behind in terms of power.

Camille's initial plan wasn't to conduct a training boot camp for a week before their mission, but she was still pleasantly surprised to hear the leaders of the GTS wanted to join.

____________________

Weeks before the ordeal with the vampire clan, Curtis and Lindsey Vercrux, the leaders of the Golden Twilight Syndicate, were practicing their magic in the training room of their mansion.

It had been a few days since they lost their sparring matches against Zac and Megan, and their grandmother had put them to practice every day since then.

While the siblings were a bit frustrated at their loss, they were more determined than ever to get stronger. It was the first time they had met someone who could not only keep up with their abilities but defeat them with ease—besides their grandma.

They kept training hard for some time until they received a call from Melinda, telling them about the events surrounding the cartel and the Jade Dragons.

When the siblings heard that Megan and Zac were training with a clan of vampires, the pair showed evident interest in joining them.

Imera wasn't as excited as her grandchildren about working alongside vampires, but knowing that Dante had given his approval made it easier for her to accept.

Moreover, now that Imera saw Curtis and Lindsey more interested in developing their skills, she didn't want to pass up the opportunity for them to grow.

"Of course, I'll go too," Imera said to her grandchildren.

"Wh-What!? For real!?" Lindsey asked, excited and scared at the same time.

"I can't just leave you alone with a group of unknown vampires… Besides, I was thinking it was time for me to take a stroll around the country," Imera commented.

The Golden Fox rarely left her home, and when she did, she would wear a pendant that would hide her animal features behind an illusion.

The pendant couldn't fool anyone who was able to see mana at a basic level—but an ordinary person from Earth would look at Imera as a regular yet enchantingly beautiful woman.