Modern World Warlock

After Lilith witnessed the explosion inside the cartel's mansion, she felt an overwhelming pressure coming from within.

The succubus was curious to know who was producing such an immense amount of energy, but her body was urging her to get away from the area.

Suddenly, her face shifted to the side as she received a powerful strike from an unknown source, flinging her against a statue on the other side of the driveway.

Lilith raised her gaze and saw the figure of a woman. However, she couldn't sense any umbra or mana coming from her, as if she were an inanimate object.

'Is that a new toy?' Lilith pondered, licking the blood coming from the side of her mouth.

"Target's vitals undamaged. Reassessing power level…" The mysterious woman muttered in a monotone voice.

The Succubus Queen felt a bit unsettled at the fact she couldn't read her opponent's umbra, making her unable to determine their power level.

However, when a loud voice commanded the woman to halt, Lilith focused her attention on the source of the voice, which was coming from the hole in the wall that had been left by the explosion.

Don Darius glared at Lilith from the mansion, and in the blink of an eye, large spikes made of bone appeared beneath the earth around her, prompting her to quickly evade them from impaling her.

'Bones…!?' Lilith thought, her eyes widened in disbelief.

The succubus understood that no ordinary person was attacking her, and the overwhelming pressure she felt was enough to push her to the brink.

After transforming into her demonic form and casting a spell that disintegrated the bone spikes into dust, she noticed Darius' energy growing even further as he jumped down to the driveway.

At that moment, Lilith's survival instincts kicked in, leaving her mind utterly blank and rushing towards Darius, unleashing a rapid barrage of attacks with her claws.

Still, even though Darius was a large, muscular man, he was able to dodge and deflect all of the succubus' attacks, pushing her back and preparing himself to cast a spell.

Lilith was going to cast one in return but was suddenly teleported out of the scene and appeared at the Jade Palace.

Don Darius stayed calm and canceled his spell when he noticed that Lilith wasn't anywhere close to his location, jumping from the driveway to the hole left by the explosion, which was situated on the second floor of the mansion.

Inside the office, Don Ruben looked just as healthy and clean as Darius, still sitting on his chair while the rest of the room was completely destroyed.

"They got us good, huh?" Don Ruben commented, his tone slightly sarcastic.

The two Dons looked at the blood and burnt stains on the spot where Vincent blew himself up, but none of them seemed to care about his fate.

"Hmm, we can't afford to lose him now… Not when he was managing the drug labs," Don Darius replied, approaching the spot where the bomb detonated.

"That's quite a mess, though. Most parts of his body are gone…" Ruben said.

"That shouldn't be a problem… I can always borrow body parts from someone else," Darius replied, calling for the mansion's cleaners to go into his office and collect all of Vincent's body parts.

Three servants entered the room—a woman and two men—who were unfazed by the state of the bombed office.

Their complexions were ashen pale, and their eyes had a cold, blue hue on them, which made the servants' appearance quite intimidating.

As the three cleaners began gathering Vincent's severed body parts, they stacked them in a corner of the room while sweeping the blood and guts from the floor.

Any ordinary person would have felt sick by simply being inside the room. Nevertheless, the three servants kept grabbing and moving body parts without any emotion on their faces.

After stacking all of the body parts in one corner, the servants bowed towards Don Darius, their hands and uniforms utterly stained, and made their way out of the room.

Vincent's body was nothing more than a small mound of blood and guts, which made Ruben doubt that his corpse could be used for anything.

"I'll just leave that mess to you…" Ruben commented, unimpressed by the servants' efforts.

____________________

At the Jade Palace, after Lilith was sent to the medical room to rest, the different groups began discussing their theories about the cartel.

It was clear that someone who could use magic was working with them, which was something they suspected ever since their war with the Blood Dragons.

However, they couldn't figure out how the leaders managed to survive such an explosion completely unscathed.

Camille stepped out of the briefing room and went to the inner garden to make a call, with her screen showing the name "Summer" in it.

["Camille Winter… What an unpleasant surprise,"] A man said on the line as soon as he picked up.

"How rude… After all this time, I was expecting some gratitude for my gift," Camille replied, referring to the explosion.

["Was that truly what you were expecting?"] The man asked.

"No. I would've preferred if you all dropped dead, but we can't always get what we want," she replied.

["Do you understand the repercussions of making an enemy of the Onyx Cartel?"]

"Oh, I'm perfectly aware… That's why I'm convoking a Stellar reunion," Camille muttered.

["After creating quite the mess, do you think we would agree?"]

"It's not like you have an option. Besides, this all started because of you people, so take responsibility like a man… coward," she said, with a much louder tone before hanging up the call.

*Sigh* Camille exhaled deeply, calming her anger and hearing a set of footsteps behind her.

"Oh, Dante… I was planning our next move," The handler said.

"A reunion?" The warlock asked.

"Yes. I'll explain the details to you when everyone else is present…" she replied.

"What about that person on the phone?" Dante continued, curious about the identity of the man.

"That was Noah Summer, the handler working with the Onyx Cartel…"