Modern World Warlock-Chapter 337: The Second Checkpoint

While all of the mafia families were dealing with Netherius' necropolis on the western side of the country, the Jade Palace was left wholly empty—except for three individuals who decided to stay.

Lilith, the Succubus Queen, was relaxing on Dante's hammock that he had left in the inner garden of the mansion, eating fruit from a plate without a care in the world.

Standing not too far from her, Master Hayato, the high-ranking member of the Kuroi Tengu, stood with his back straightened while practicing basic overhead strikes with a wooden sword.

"12,849… 12,850… 12,851…" Hayato kept counting each time the wooden sword went down.

Sitting in another corner of the inner garden, Ms. Clara— Zac's mother— a woman who became a "forged warlock" after being subjected to demonic umbra for a long time.

The redhead woman was flipping through a book while pointing her palm at a bullseye target, slightly squinting as she could barely understand the handwriting.

Still, Clara managed to cast a few shadow bolt spells that hit the target, but the woman didn't seem satisfied with her performance.

The three of them were the only members of the Jade Dragons who decided to stay at their main base. Even though Hayato wasn't an official member, he was still considered a friend, and the man himself offered his assistance.

During the afternoon, Lilith woke up from her nap and slowly got off the hammock, stretching her arms and snapping her neck side to side before gazing at the sky.

"We have visitors…" Lilith commented, catching Clara and Hayato's attention.

When the three of them walked over to a camera monitor on the side, they saw that their residence was surrounded by undead creatures. However, due to the barrier Dante prepared, the monsters couldn't go past the fence.

The main reason they managed to barge in before was thanks to Udras, who was skilled enough to destroy Dante's barrier. Nevertheless, Udras wasn't present, and the trio noticed that it was Vincent leading the monsters.

"That man again…" Clara commented, turning her head to look at Lilith, who seemed quite displeased at Vincent's arrival.

"The necromancer should really learn to keep his dogs on a leash," Lilith replied, her eyes sharpened with ferocity.

As they kept watching the camera feed for a few more minutes, Vincent started punching the invisible barrier from outside, shouting at Lilith to open up for him.

Vincent's demands got on Lilith's nerves, prompting the Succubus Queen to step out into the garden, where she could see Vincent standing outside the main gate.

"Finally! I'm here to take what's mine, so come along, you bitch!" Vincent shouted, but Lilith only looked down on him as if he were an insect.

"You absolute waste of space. Pathetic dog. Insolent human…" Lilith muttered, but her voice could clearly be heard by everyone around her.

"You have disrespected me for the last time. Prepare for an eternity of pure suffering," she continued, making Hayato and Clara gulp with a bit of fear.

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Meanwhile, the rest of the mafia members who had stayed at the Jade Palace for protection were on a helicopter traveling west.

The group knew that Netherius would most likely try to target them while Dante and his team were away, so they decided to move to a different location closer to the necropolis, as they could still provide some help.

After landing on a pad that seemed to be hidden among the trees of a rural area, Camille got out of the helicopter and found herself at a different NSS checkpoint.

The post that the teams inside the necropolis were using was much closer to the action, and it was also located on the complete opposite side of where Camille landed, which was exactly what she had planned.

"I see you are still in one piece!" A man greeted the silver-haired handler.

"I could say the same to you, Ronald," Camille replied, turning her gaze and locking it on the man.

Ronald Lester was the Deputy Director of the NSS. He was the second highest in command in the entire organization, so all of his orders came directly from Noria, the Director.

It was uncommon to see someone of his status working so close to the action. His input was needed for planning and deploying agents, as he was already retired from working in the field. However, the dire situation at Limsa forced the man to take on a more active role.

Instead of having a watchtower overlooking the city of Limsa, the checkpoint was comprised of two smaller buildings where the agents kept going through different files on their laptops.

Asher and Amara, the harpion twins, accompanied Camille as if she were their mother. Normally, the kids were pretty curious about the new places they visited, but they seemed more shy while surrounded by busy agents.

Paula, the field agent who had doubted Dante's intention in the past, walked past Camille and the children and thought that the twins were cute, so she went to pick up her bag and scour through it, getting a lollipop for each.

"Here you go. You kids might be a little bored here…" Paula said, crouching to their level and giving the twins their treats.

"This woman is nice!" Asher exclaimed, and Amara tried to agree, but none of her words were comprehensible with the lollipop in her mouth.

At that moment, one of the agents shouted that the necropolis was rapidly expanding, and the dead ichor had overtaken another district of the city in mere minutes.

Ronald, the Deputy Director, asked one of the agents to contact the military, which was tasked with evacuating the citizens and moving them away from the areas being corrupted by Netherius.

Camille squinted with suspicion and tried to use her earpiece to talk to Trinity and get more information, but the signal jammer inside the necropolis blocked her communication with the hacker.

"Ohh, Cami is angry…" Amara whispered to her brother, making the two kids a bit apprehensive about talking to her.

Still, after Camille took a deep breath to calm down, she decided to place her trust in her team, patiently waiting for the signal in her earpiece to return.