Modern World Warlock-Chapter 298: The Warlock and the Documentary

Right after Dante shot a blast of shadows that covered the area around him and Isidor, the warlock felt a powerful surge of ether coming from the knight, noticing a faint light that surrounded his frame for protection.

Still, while Isidor's energy would have shielded him from a basic spell, the warlock's prideful transformation overwhelmed the knight and pushed him all the way into another building.

When Isidor stood up and shook the debris off his body, he coughed some blood on the back of his hand before wiping his chin. However, Dante could tell that it wasn't his attack that had that effect on him.

"I was wondering how you were using all that ether as an undead…" Dante muttered.

Since Isidor used to be a Holy Knight, he could still cast some of his abilities that used ether. Nevertheless, his new undead body wasn't compatible with that type of magic, and the effects were starting to catch up with him.

As a Death Knight, Isidor had access to plenty of other spells that used necrotic energy and wouldn't hurt his body afterward. However, Isidor seemed insistent on fighting with his abilities that were powered by ether, as they were supposed to be a warlock's weakness.

Isidor was correct in his judgment since Dante was indeed weaker to ether spells. However, the knight didn't expect him to be able to use the malevolent art of pride, which removed that weakness from the warlock's body.

The malevolent art of pride was taught to Dante by the fallen angel turned demon king—Lucifer—and as a fallen angel, he didn't possess a weakness to ether.

'No. It's not that he is not using his necrotic energy… He has been casting something else this entire time!' Dante pondered.

At that moment, the ground shook violently as a giant amalgamation of zombies fused together to create one being, destroying the base of the building and making it tumble.

The structure seemed like it would hold, but when the monster broke through the main entrance and smashed the few pillars supporting it—it all came crashing down.

Dante was slightly surprised to discover that Isidor had been casting a necrotic spell while using holy spells to fight him. Still, the knight would need more than a giant zombie to hold back the warlock.

As the building collapsed, a large wave of dust and wind covered the area, shrouding the visibility around Dante.

'That thing is heading straight towards me… I see, so he wants to flank me,' Dante thought.

Even when the shockwave deprived Dante of his sight, he was still able to sense his opponents' aura, so he stood still and waited for them to advance, shrouding himself with a thin mantle of umbra to prevent the dust from getting in his eyes.

When the giant zombie arm emerged from the dust cloud, Dante calmly stepped to the side to avoid being grabbed and followed up by waving his claw upwards, slicing the arm clean.

Simultaneously, he noticed Isidor appearing right next to him, holding his luminous sword and thrusting it forward.

*Shink!* The sound of a blade cutting through steel echoed in the vicinity.

Suddenly, the white cloud of debris was instantly dissipated by a strong gust of wind produced by the giant zombie, which was flung into another building and generated a wind current that was strong enough to clear the area.

Beside Dante, Isidor kneeled on the ground and held the side of his torso in pain after Dante had taken his entire arm.

*Tch* "That ether control of yours is quite troublesome…" Dante scoffed.

The warlock still had his prideful transformation active, and he thought he had used enough power to kill Isidor. Nevertheless, the knight managed to infuse himself with ether before receiving the hit, allowing him to trade an arm in exchange for his life.

"Why do you cling so hard to life? You shouldn't be here," Dante asked, pointing his palm at Isidor.

"I must… Fulfill my duty," Isidor replied.

"... -The hell are you talking about?" Dante pondered aloud, confused about the man's statement.

*Huff, puff* "Master… Return," Isidor muttered, producing a teal mist around him.

"Wait!" Dante shouted, releasing a blast of pure umbra before him. Nonetheless, Isidor had disappeared before the impact, leaving a massive crater in the shape of a cone on the street.

*Sigh* "That's the second time they escape my grasp…" Dante said to himself as his body returned to normal.

The giant zombie let out a loud shriek and ran straight towards Dante, who stood in the center of the destruction with a serious expression.

"There won't be a third time," Dante continued, waving his arm to the side and releasing a wave of umbra that turned the giant zombie into dust, scattering some of its remains around him.

"Aaaand, cut!" The voice of a woman could be heard coming from the top of a building adjacent to the destroyed street, catching Dante's attention.

'Seriously, they followed me here!?' Dante thought, realizing it was Tanya and Dirk—the reporter and her cameraman.

"Woooo! What a great action scene we got here!" Tanya continued, turning around and seeing Dante hovering above them with his obsidian wings.

However, instead of being afraid of the warlock, the woman's eyes lit up with excitement as she signaled Dirk to keep recording.

"Do you guys have a death wish or something?" Dante asked the pair as he descended on the roof of the building.

"If by a death wish you mean "truth wish," then yes!" Tanya exclaimed.

"What if this building collapsed too?" Dante inquired.

"A small price to pay. This is the best natural action sequence we've ever recorded! Now, stand next to me and look at the camera," Tanya continued, standing mere centimeters away from Dante.

"We are here with the winner of the fight. Mr. Dante, could you tell us what we just witnessed?" Tanya began her interview as Dirk pointed the camera at them.

"What…?" Dante pondered aloud, utterly confused.

"I'm talking about your encounter with that mysterious armored man. Is he the culprit for the destruction of Limsa? And what was that giant monster that knocked down the building?" Tanya asked, placing the microphone on Dante's face.

"Umm, well, that guy wasn't the mastermind, but he does work for Netherius… And the giant zombie was just a diversion he created to counter me, though it didn't go as he planned," Dante explained in the midst of his confusion.

"Ah, so Netherius is the culprit behind all of this destruction?" Tanya continued.

"Yeah, he is a necromancer who—wait a second, you are doing it again!" Dante exclaimed, stopping himself from revealing anything else.

"Doing what!?" Tanya asked, prompting Dirk to lower the camera.

"You are distracting me. We can't be losing time like this when the others are probably scouting the rest of the affected areas," Dante explained.

"Ooh, the others?" Tanya asked, glancing at Dirk to signal him to raise his camera.

"Can you tell us more about your group?" she inquired.

Still, while Dante didn't care about revealing his identity or the existence of magic, he knew better than to disclose the name of his mafia faction. Nonetheless, since he was a terrible liar, he opted not to respond.

Grabbing the reporter and the cameraman by their clothes, Dante extruded his black wings and flew them down to the ground with him.

"Look, just try to leave the area without any of the undead monsters seeing you… If you managed to get here, you can probably get out," Dante instructed the duo.

"Anyways, good luck with your documentary," he continued, turning around and preparing himself to leave the area.

"Umm, Mr. Dante!" Dirk beckoned the warlock.

'Hmm? The cameraman is talking to me… Well, it's the first time he says something, so I might as well listen to what he has to say,' Dante thought, turning around.

"C-could we please stick together with you? You are obviously capable, and I'm afraid we won't make it back…" Dirk commented, glancing at Tanya.

The warlock could sense that Dirk's words were genuine. Even so, he couldn't detect a pinch of fear coming from him.

Dirk seemed a bit nervous and unsettled, but there wasn't a small hint of horror in his aura, which Dante found interesting.

'Determination, passion, love…?' Dante pondered as he kept inspecting Dirk's aura, realizing that the man was in love with Tanya.

At that moment, Dante remembered an old memory from his past, when he was a teenager learning magic from his teacher—Xander.

One of the main reasons that Dante learned how to suppress his umbra was so that he could mingle with other humans more easily, and at first, the warlock didn't understand why he would have to meet other people outside of Shadowvale.

"Ahahaha! Boy, as warlocks, we may have been shunned by the entire world due to the actions of our people, but I know that your heart won't ever allow you to be the same as them," Xander said.

Back in the present, Dante had an utterly defeated expression.

'Ugh, Teacher is so annoying…' Dante thought.

"Fine, but I'm telling you to stay much farther away if another fight like that breaks out. You understand?" Dante asked the pair.

"Understood!" Tanya and Dirk replied, doing a military salute.