Modern World Warlock-Chapter 83: Xander’s Teachings
When Dante showed Malgaroth a burning black flame hovering gently atop his palm, the demon prepared himself by clenching his sword tightly.
"You had that relic on you back then, right?" Dante calmly asked, receiving no answer from his opponent.
Before going on the offensive, the warlock reminisced about the time he first met Malgaroth.
A young fourteen-year-old Dante was walking along a trail that traveled through an expansive dead field. Beside him, a tall man wearing a black gilded robe guided the warlock to their destination.
"Xander, why are we going to the Serpent Village?" Dante asked.
"How many times do I gotta say this? Call me ’Teacher’ or ’Master,’" The man corrected him.
"And, we are hunting a demon, obviously…" Xander continued.
Dante’s teacher had dark purple hair and crimson eyes, which were common features for warlocks to have. However, the man was soft-spoken, and his gentle demeanor was utterly different from that of the others living in Shadowvale.
When the pair arrived at the village, they found everyone had been massacred, and their body parts were nailed to the houses’ walls in strange patterns.
Before stepping into Malgaroth’s ichor, which covered the entire village, Xander turned to Dante and showed him how to trick the demon.
"Do you see my umbra?" The man asked.
"Mhmm…" Dante hummed affirmatively.
From the warlock’s eyes, he could see a dense and powerful aura flowing from his teacher’s body, slowly getting weaker and smaller until it was almost entirely gone.
"You can hide your umbra!?" Dante exclaimed in surprise.
"It’s not easy, but if you ever want to leave this place, it’s a skill you are going to have to master…" Xander replied.
As the two of them walked along the squishy, black flesh covering the ground, they arrived at the largest building in the village, where most of the ichor was gathered.
Inside, they found Malgaroth snacking on the bones of the deceased, displeased that he had been interrupted by two "weak" warlocks.
Nonetheless, as soon as Xander released all of his pent-up umbra, the demon instantly prepared to fight, realizing that the man was hiding his strength all along.
"You bastard… You tricked me!" Malgaroth exclaimed.
After a quick exchange where Xander easily deflected the demon’s blade with his bare hands, he used the "Black Flame" spell to end his life.
However, right as Malgaroth’s body turned to dust, they spotted a small cubic stone falling on the ground and disintegrating along with the monster.
"Oh, I didn’t see he had one of these…" Xander commented, scratching the back of his head with a bit of embarrassment.
"What is that?" Dante asked, looking at the black ichor dispersing.
"It’s a ’soul shield.’ He must have stolen it from one of these warlocks he killed…" Xander replied.
Back in the present, Dante smirked as Malgaroth stood before him, initiating the fight with an overhead attack of his blade.
The warlock stepped sideways to avoid it and kicked the sword to the side, shortening the distance between him and the demon and punching him in his massive gut.
Malgaroth was pushed back a few meters from the blow, making the demon hurl a small amount of ichor from his mouth.
Dante bolted towards the demon again, but Malgaroth stabbed his sword against the black flesh on the ground, making the ichor covering the platform move as if it had come to life.
Sharp spikes started to extrude from the ichor beside Dante, trying to stab him to stop his movements. Still, Dante dodged the black flesh stakes and used his burning hand to destroy the ones he couldn’t avoid.
At one point, Dante had several spikes that were about to strike him as Malgaroth simultaneously attacked with his curved blade.
Dante smirked, releasing a small nova of black fire that burned away all of the ichor around him, followed by a quick step forward that landed him right in front of Malgaroth’s belly.
"Let me get that relic…" the warlock muttered, using his hand covered in black flame to strike the demon through, inserting his hand into his stomach.
Malgaroth shouted in pain, shaking the sewers’ structure. Meanwhile, Dante had a wicked smile on his face, gritted his teeth, and forcefully pulled his arm out of the demon’s belly, holding a stone cube in his hand.
The demon grunted in pain as his darkened blood spilled out of his guts, gushing out and falling through the grates on the ground.
"So, you had another one of these, huh?" Dante muttered, looking at the cube he was holding, his arm wholly covered by Malgaroth’s ichor.
"You bastard… Xander!" Malgaroth shouted.
"Even now… You only have eyes for my teacher," said the warlock.
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"Open your eyes… There is someone you should fear much more right in front of you," he continued, his voice echoing inside the demon’s head.
At that moment, Malgaroth gazed at Dante, slowly detailing his figure. His crimson eyes stared at him like daggers, and his overwhelming presence made him falter.
"You… you are Hellslayer!" The demon exclaimed, holding the hole in his stomach that kept oozing ichor out and widening his eyes.
"You noticed a bit late—I can’t blame you, though. You weren’t there at the time…" Dante replied, making a finger gun gesture with the black fire at the tip of his finger.
"Goddammit…!" Malgaroth yelled, his voice going silent as the black flame projectile shot out of Dante’s finger, going through his head.
"Xander…" the demon whispered as his body and the ichor covering the whole area turned into dust.
"Still saying my teacher’s name, huh?" Dante muttered with a displeased expression, letting out a tired sigh.
When the warlock turned around, he noticed that his friends had gone back into the sewer hallway, sensing their umbra going wild.
’They must be fighting…’ he thought.
Stretching his neck to the sides, Dante took a big leap from the platform back to the surrounding area as Malgaroth had destroyed the metal bridge.
’They’ll be fine, but I should probably go to execute the demon…’ Dante pondered, slowly walking back to his friends’ location.
