Modern World Warlock-Chapter 336: Talismans and Drones

When Dante and his group found Megan and Lindsey outside the corrupted house and regrouped with them, he asked what had happened to them.

"We were having a talk with Vesnia," Megan replied, catching Dante's attention.

"So, it was Vesnia who brought you here? Hmmm, that's strange…" The warlock muttered.

Vesnia was part of the Shadow-Blade Assassins, and they weren't known for kidnapping people, as their specialty was taking out their targets.

"Mhmm. It seems she has her own battles…" Megan replied.

"And where is she right now?" Asphodel interjected, carefully scanning her surroundings to make sure that no enemy was nearby.

Megan gave them a brief summary of her discussion with Vesnia. The undead assassin was starting to remember the true memories of her old life, and it seemed like Megan had reminded her of someone. While Megan didn't mention Beatrice's name, Dante was able to connect the dots in an instant.

"I tried to stop her from leaving, but she used some shadow technique to disappear…" Megan continued.

As the brunette kept recounting the event, Lindsey tried using her earpiece to communicate with Trinity, wondering what was jamming the signal, and her struggle caught Dante's attention.

"It seems I'm the only one who can talk to her…" Dante commented, prompting Trinity to interject in his ear.

["I tried sending a few drones to scout the area, but two of them got corrupted a few seconds after entering the necropolis…"] Trinity explained.

The hacker had been busy trying to look for the origin of the signal jammer, and after losing two expensive drones to the death's ichor, she asked Dante for more details on how the corruption worked.

The death's ichor was able to corrupt anything that the substance made contact with—including the air. Any living beings would either die or turn into an undead, and all inanimate objects would get shrouded by the viscous ichor.

It was thanks to the talismans they wore around their neck that the necrotic air didn't have any effects on them.

["Dante… Do those talismans work on inanimate objects as well?"] Trinity asked, her tone determined.

"They should… The talismans create an invisible forcefield that keeps the ichor away," Dante explained.

When a person wore one of the talismans, the forcefield would adapt to that person's height and shape to fully protect them. However, if the talisman were placed on top of a table, the area of the forcefield would be diminished to a 1x1 meter radius.

["That's good enough!'] Trinity replied, following up her questions with a plan.

Since Dante was the only one who could communicate with the hacker, she asked him to relay the information to the others.

Back at the checkpoint that the NSS was guarding outside of the necropolis' limits, Trinity had two extra drones that she hadn't flown after seeing the fate of the first two.

She needed someone to attach one of the talismans to the drone so that she could safely fly it over the corrupted area of the city and search for the jammer.

If they were able to pull it off and destroy the machine blocking their signal, the communication between everyone in the necropolis would be restored, or at least that's what she expected.

"We'll go," Megan spoke up with confidence after hearing Trinity's plan, glancing at Lindsey and Irina, who was her previous team, before getting separated.

When Dante took off his earpiece and gave it to Megan so that Trinity could guide them, the brunette raised an eyebrow with concern, realizing that the signal cut off the moment she put on his earpiece.

"It's not your earpiece that's making this work… It must be you," Megan commented, asking if the warlock was doing anything to keep the signal blocker away.

"Hmmmmm…" Dante pondered aloud, casually placing a hand on his chin.

"I was coating my ear with a bit of umbra since Trinity's voice is quite loud sometimes, but I didn't think it would prevent the communication from being blocked…" Dante continued.

Believing that there was nothing to lose from giving it a try, Megan closed her eyes and focused a small amount of umbra in her right ear, where her earpiece was placed.

["Hellooo!?"] Trinity exclaimed on the mic, making Megan's eye twitch as she understood what Dante meant when he called her loud.

There was still some static between their voices, which was different for Dante, who could hear Trinity with a high-quality, crisp sound.

Asphodel watched them from the side with a slight smile on her face, and when Megan pondered about the low quality of her audio, the vampire answered for her.

"It's your umbra control. Dante's umbra looks way more refined and robust while yours looks a bit wild and unorganized…" Asphodel said, explaining that the only way to get better was practicing.

Still, while the audio wasn't perfect, it was enough for her to communicate with Trinity, prompting the trio to go back to the checkpoint to get the drones.

"I'll see you later," Megan said, gazing at Dante, who nodded confidently in return.

As Dante and Asphodel were left alone with Tanya and her cameraman, Dante asked the vampire if she was going to keep scouting the area alone, making Asphodel shake her head in denial.

"I've already seen all I needed. I'll just stick to you and see what happens…" The vampire replied with a playful smile.

"Alright, then…" Dante replied, turning around to look at the reporters, explaining that they would be flying to another corrupted district.

Tanya's eyes beamed with excitement as she enjoyed her flight over the necropolis. She believed she was getting some of the best shots for her documentary and instantly agreed to Dante's proposal.

"Where are we going?" Asphodel asked, approaching Tanya and getting ready to lift her up.

"The necropolis expanded not long ago, so we should go check out that area first," said Dante, grabbing Dirk under his arms and flying upwards into the sky without notice.

Dante knew that Netherius had to be present for the necropolis to expand. However, it usually took him more time to completely corrupt an area of that size, making the warlock wonder what kind of power the necromancer was using to speed up the process.