Dante’s First Mission (Part 2)

After the last thug in the hallway entered the room, the man was promptly knocked out by Megan, who had an idea to bypass the security system in the building.

She believed that the camera had facial recognition technology, as it lit up whenever someone was on its line of sight.

"If the cameras can recognize the people who can enter the building, then they probably don't have someone watching the monitors…" Megan explained.

"Hmm? How do you know?" Dante asked, not comprehending the brunette's train of thought.

"Those cameras are the ones we used in our bases. They were made specifically for the Jade Dragons…" she replied.

The old mafia family had adopted facial recognition cameras a long time ago, which would scan the body features of anyone it captured. 

When the camera's program captured an unknown person, it would send an alert to a guard, who would quickly check the footage.

If the guard deemed the unknown person a threat, they would sound the alarm and alert everyone in the building.

"However, there is one big flaw with the program—It can't tell if someone is alive," Megan said, finishing her explanation.

At that moment, the warlock understood her plan and carried one of the unconscious thugs on his back, making the brunette glad that he was a quick learner.

As they used the bodies of the men to cover their figures from the camera, the pair left the room and slowly walked along the hallway to the other side without looking back.

When they turned the corner into a staircase, Megan scanned her surroundings and dropped the unconscious thug on the ground as no cameras could spot them there.

They could hear the sounds of people talking on the ground floor, which only made them turn their attention to the upper floors as footsteps approached the stairs.

Reaching the third floor, Dante took one step too far and peeked at the empty corridor, seeing a camera on the other side blinking.

Simultaneously, Megan pulled Dante by the jacket to get him out of sight—but it was too late, as the facial recognition program caught a glimpse of the warlock.

"Shit…" Megan muttered.

Not even five seconds later, an alarm started blaring loudly while all of the lights were abruptly turned on.

"Come on!" Megan exclaimed, quickly rushing up the stairs to the top floor.

A group of thugs came down looking for them, but the pair easily avoided their attacks and slammed their faces against the wall and ground without stopping their advance.

When they peeked into the corridor of the 4th floor, bullets started flying and darting from the corner, making Megan take a step back and pull out a pistol from the back of her belt.

Dante detailed the weapon for a moment, as he had already gotten familiar with guns—especially after getting shot on his first minute of arriving in that world. 

However, it was that same knowledge that allowed him to appreciate the elegant gun, which had a grayish body with gold and emerald accents in the shape of a dragon, going from the handle to the barrel of the pistol.

For a brief moment, the bullets stopped, and Megan used the opportunity to peek and shoot, hitting the two uncovered gang members in the chest.

As the brunette rushed out into the open corridor, Dante followed her closely, but he could feel the hostile umbra from a group of people going up the stairs, making him stop and turn.

"Shadow whip…" the warlock muttered, clapping his hands and creating a set of a dozen whips of black mist that shot out, lashing everything around him.

As his spell destroyed the windows and partitions, he managed to hit the top of the staircase, making it crumble and blocking the thugs' access to the last floor.

'Something's wrong…' the warlock thought, feeling like his powers were a bit out of control, but quickly focused on his mission.

"Last room!" Dante exclaimed, sensing the umbra of someone flowing at the end of the corridor.

Megan trusted her partner's callout and kicked the door open, pointing her gun and taking one step forward before halting entirely.

Dante rushed to catch up with the brunette, noticing that her flow of umbra had gotten strange.

'Is she scared…?' he pondered, seeing her eyes in shock as she slowly crouched and put her gun on the ground.

When he caught up and looked inside, he noticed a bald man wearing a strange vest with a cable connected to a small switch in his hand.

"Shhh…" said the man inside the room, holding the remote tightly.

"It's a bomb vest…" Megan whispered, gazing at the warlock and seeing his wary expression.

"Any loud sound will blow us up—take one step, and I'll scream," the bald man said with a deranged smirk on his face.

"He is not bluffing…" the warlock muttered to his partner.

It was the first time that Dante had seen Megan feeling fear, and while her face and posture didn't show it, he could tell by the umbra flowing from her body.

'That's not his resolve. It's like he is being threatened…' the warlock thought, glancing at the man.

Suddenly, the man took a deep breath and looked up. "ASTAROTH, SAVE US!" he shouted loudly.

"Dante, use it!" Megan exclaimed, covering her face and expecting the worst.

"Destro," said Dante just as the vest detonated, creating a sound that resonated as if the air and ground were being torn up.

When Megan raised her gaze back up, her eyes widened in perplexion, seeing that Dante had blown away half of the entire building.

"Huh?" the warlock said, looking at his hand with a confused expression, seeing that it was trembling as a smoke trail came out of it.

The pair were standing on the edge of a perfectly half-demolished building, and while the warlock kept calmly inspecting his trembling hands, Megan snapped from her trance and grabbed his arm, guiding him out of the building by jumping down the now-open area.

After the two ran a few blocks away and made sure that nobody was following them, the brunette looked at Dante, and he thought that the woman would be mad about him destroying everything.

Instead, she grabbed his hand and inspected it closer. "Are you okay? I saw you looking at your hands back there…" she said.

"Megan, I…-" Dante spoke up, feeling guilty about messing up the mission.

"Explain later. Let's get out of this area first," she replied, cutting him off.

'She is not mad?' he pondered, seeing that Megan extruded absolutely no umbra towards him.