The following night, after Dante and Megan met Maya, they were on their way to the Devil's Den nightclub to begin their raid.
It was an underground nightclub, so the group didn't have to wear any expensive clothes to fit in with the crowd.
When the group got into the subway that would take them to the district they needed to go to, Maya gazed at the warlock for a moment, remembering what Camille told her about him.
Before their mission started, Camille called Maya to her office and told her that Dante wasn't a normal person and that whatever she saw from him, she needed to keep a secret.
The woman was confused since she had never heard the handler say something like that, and she suspected that Dante might have been a cyborg or a fake human made in a lab.
Still, when she gazed at Dante sitting peacefully in the subway wagon with Megan next to him, she believed that Camille might have been exaggerating, as the warlock looked like a normal human being.
While on the subway, Maya showed the group a map on her phone of the inside of the building, explaining that it had three floors. However, those were only the rooms that they knew about.
"I say we split up once we are inside…" Megan commented.
"I agree. It'll be easier to move if it's just one or two people," Maya replied.
When the group arrived at their stop, they had to walk a few blocks down the road to reach the entrance of the nightclub, which had a line of people outside waiting.
"Tyler, we need high ground…" said Maya, making the brunette and the warlock wonder who she was talking to.
Nonetheless, one of the men took the command and walked away from their group without saying a word.
"What's Tyler going to do?" Dante asked, making the pink-haired girl point at the tip of a building across the street.
"Oh, I see…" he replied.
With their earpieces ready, Maya asked the group to give their weapons to the other Tyler, who would look for a backdoor to bring them in without having to go through security at the main door.
Maya pulled out two small knives strapped to her leg and a silenced pistol from behind while Megan took out her engraved gun and gave them to Tyler.
When the man stood before Dante with his open palm, the warlock said he had no weapons on him, surprising Maya.
'Is this guy serious?' The pink-haired woman pondered, knowing that nobody would be crazy enough to go against a gang without any weapons.
As Dante stood in line with the two girls, he could feel a strong torrent of umbra flowing from inside the building, and he deduced that a demon was inside. However, he couldn't call Krom to confirm it since they were surrounded by people.
Inside, the techno music was playing loudly, and the number of people on the first floor made it difficult to walk around freely. Still, when Maya spoke, the group was able to hear her clearly through their earpieces.
"I'll go check the third floor," Maya said.
"I'll take the second. Dante, you should-..." Megan replied, stopping herself when she turned to look at the warlock and saw a group of women surrounding him.
"Are you here alone?"
"Come join us!"
The warlock stayed calm and looked to the sides, ignoring the women's invitations and noticing that Megan produced a small amount of umbra from anger as she made her way to the staircase.
"Sorry, ladies. I'm here with someone, but thanks for the invitation," Dante said, politely rejecting their advances.
Nevertheless, the group of women was flustered by the fact that Dante even responded to them, wholly forgetting that they had been rejected as the warlock walked away.
*Phew* "Alright, I'm free," said Dante to his group, who could hear him in their earpieces.
["Good. As I was saying—You should look around the first floor and let us know if you find anything strange."] Megan said.
The warlock didn't know where to start since the first floor was so filled with people that simply walking around was difficult, and there was a high concentration of umbra that didn't allow him to pinpoint the location of the demon.
["Backdoor is on the second floor,"] said a man's voice through the earpiece.
'Huh, was that Tyler?' Dante pondered, hearing the man saying his first words to them.
["Got it. I'll be there,"] Maya replied.
As the two women met with Tyler to secretly retrieve their weapons, Dante slowly made his way closer to the DJ booth, spotting a backstage area behind the black curtain and a security guard keeping people away from it.
'Hmm, if I knock that guy out, everyone will see it…' Dante thought before suddenly having an idea.
Quickly turning around and seeing the group of women who approached him before, the warlock returned to them with a gentle smile.
"Excuse me, ladies. Could I ask you for a favor?" Dante politely asked, charming the group of women, who perked up with anticipation at his request.
After giving his instructions, the group of women approached the security guard, catching his attention with a flirtatious act and making him turn away for a brief moment—enough for Dante to sneak past him to the backstage area.
One more guard saw Dante in the back and, thinking that he was a lost customer, approached him to guide him out of there.
However, as soon as the guard got close to the warlock, he gave him a quick chop in the front of the neck, knocking him out in an instant.
Besides a few tables with beverages and snacks for the DJ, all there was backstage was a metallic, sliding door.
Dante recognized the console next to the door as the one Camille had in her building, which could only be opened with eye scans or fingerprints.
'Let's see if I'm lucky tonight…' Dante thought, dragging the body of the unconscious guard to the console beside the sliding door and placing his fingers on it.
*Beep!* The console's light turned green, opening the door abruptly.
"Nice. I was lucky," Dante muttered, confusing his group, who could still hear him on their earpieces.
["What do you mean?"] Maya asked for clarification, but Dante couldn't reply as he had entered the room.
Inside, a group of men were sitting down on different tables playing cards, with piles of cash in the center and half-naked women sitting on their laps.
The room was hazy from the tobacco smoke, making the bar counter at the back of the room somewhat hard to see.
Nonetheless, as soon as Dante stepped inside, all of the men turned their attention toward him, stopping everything they were doing and staring at him silently.
"Who the fuck is that?" A man broke the silence.
"I came to gamble, guys. Don't mind me…" Dante replied nonchalantly, stepping further into the room and stopping after a tall man stood in his way.
"I don't remember inviting you," said the man with a menacing tone.
"Oh, so you are the host? That makes things easier…" The warlock replied, letting out a smirk.
"Wha-?" The man spoke up but was cut off by Dante's punch in the gut, which sent him flying straight into the bar counter, shattering half of the bottles behind it.
At that moment, the women who were accompanying the men dropped to the ground as the thugs stood up from their seats and pulled out their weapons. However, the warlock had already clasped his hands together.
"Shadow whip," he muttered, producing a dozen whips made of black mist that lashed all of the men with precision before they could point their weapons at him, slicing their bodies in half.
*Tch!* Dante scoffed. "Too much force…" he muttered with a slight air of disappointment, scanning the room that was painted in red.