In a dimly lit room, surrounded by computer monitors, empty soda cans, and discarded trash bags, the hacker Trinity was fully imrsed in her work.
Ever since the Jade Dragons rescued her father, she decided to use her skills to help them in the future.
She had been busy increasing the firewall defenses on the Jade Dragons' data while simultaneously trying to track down her rival hacker, Spook, who was working with the Onyx Cartel.
When it ca to hacking abilities, both Trinity and Spook were on the sa level, to the point where they couldn't crack each other's virtual defenses.
Directing her attention to the Azure Rebels, Trinity began to dig through their cybersecurity asures and found a "hole" she could exploit.
"What's this…?" Trinity muttered to herself.
The rest of the Azure Rebels' cybersecurity was quite advanced, but a single database was seemingly left with low security on purpose, making the hacker wonder if they were trying to trick them into giving them fake information.
"Let's check the logs…" Trinity continued, typing a command on her keyboard.
Noticing that a file's security had been tampered with by soone within the Azure Rebels, her suspicions of it being bait kept rising.
The logs showed that Spook's firewall was active before the tampering, which ant that soone had turned it off to leave that specific docunt out in the open for any knowledgeable hacker to take.
When she opened the file, Trinity's eyes widened in shock, knowing that she had to send it to Camille as soon as possible.
The docunt was a copy of a contract between the Onyx Cartel and the Azure Rebels, stating that the cartel wouldn't hurt their hostages as long as the rebels provided them with weapons.
Camille already suspected that the cartel was threatening the rebels into joining them, as she knew Alex and Oskar weren't the type of people to team up with them.
Still, even if her suspicions were confird, Camille couldn't treat them any differently from her enemies, or the Jade Dragons would get stomped due to their kindness.
As Trinity read the list of hostages, she realized that most of the nas in it were of deceased people. However, at the very bottom of the list, there were a few contemporary nas of rebels who were still alive.
'The Heller family…' Trinity pondered, taking a sip of her soda.
Oskar Heller was the current leader of the Azure Rebels, and seeing that his wife and child had been taken by the cartel, she could see why they were collaborating with them.
Nevertheless, she also found the nas of Oskar's and Alex's ancestors, who had been dead for a long ti.
"Hmm, Dante said that Netherius was a necromancer, so I suppose having the dead as hostages isn't impossible for him…" Trinity said, speaking to herself.
Suddenly, she read the na "Lexia Spring," which had a note next to it stating that she was Alexander's older sister. However, Trinity had never heard of her.
When Camille received Trinity's report, she wasn't surprised to know that the cartel was holding hostages but was shocked at the nas of the deceased, prompting her to look for Dante so that he could give his opinion.
The warlock was hanging out with Ira and Asphodel in the inner garden, where he was creating the crystal seeds for them to place in their bases.
Stopping for a mont to listen to Camille's concerns, the otherworldly trio confird that it was possible for Netherius to use the souls of the dead as his hostages.
When a necromancer created a new undead, they had different thods of subordination that they could place on the soul.
The first thod was "full control," which turned the undead into puppets who would only follow the necromancer's orders. Their personalities were erased, and they had no free will.
The second thod was "full freedom," and it removed the shackles binding the undead to the necromancer, giving them the freedom to do anything they wanted.
Still, there was one more thod that Dante believed was the most cruel, which was known as "awareness freedom."
An undead who had been raised with the "awareness freedom" thod would keep all of their mories and experiences. However, they had no control over their bodies.
It was the thod that necromancers used whenever they wanted to torture a soul, as they could make them commit atrocities while utterly aware of their actions.
"I see… It's starting to make more sense how they are keeping dead people as hostages," Camille comnted after listening to the explanation.
Dante thought that people shouldn't worry about the souls of the dead. However, he realized how hypocritical it would be for him to say that, considering he swam in the Sea of the Dead to look for his beloved's soul.
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A few days later, Dante had completed the production of the crystal seeds for both the GTS and the vampires.
The two groups trained with the Jade Dragons all that ti, but now that the war had started, they needed to return to their headquarters and activate their barriers.
Asphodel said she would return to her ho up north, which was near the border between the Azure Rebels and the Jade Dragons' territory.
The vampires were going to start their investigation on the rebels, and their priority was to familiarize themselves with the new androids, as they didn't know what kind of upgrades they had received in the past few years.
On the other hand, Ira and the rest of the GTS group were going back to their headquarters in New Arcadia, where they needed to place their barrier.
Since the GTS were the closest to the cartel's territory, they were going to start investigating them and searching for their drug labs hidden in the rainforest with the help of Trinity, who had already located a couple of them.
Moreover, Ira, who hadn't interfered in any mafia business for three generations, decided she would take action as Wolfram was her old enemy, and she didn't want her grandchildren to deal with her old issues.
gan and Lindsey seed to have gotten closer during their training sessions after the blonde realized that gan's stoicism didn't stem from her disinterest and asked her to co hang out with her in the future.
By the ti the two groups left the Jade Palace, Dante went to Camille's office and saw Sophia sitting at a desk beside the handler, hastily typing sothing on a laptop.
"Sophie? What are you doing over there?" Dante asked with curiosity.
"She is just doing her job as gan's right hand," Camille replied for her.
"Oh, and what kind of job is that?" Dante inquired.
Camille explained that, while it didn't look like it, Sophia had been trained ever since she was a child to take care of different legal business models owned by the Jade Dragons.
Dante knew about Sophia's 'mafioso' side after witnessing her lying to the police detectives with ease, and she always showed prowess in random activities that didn't have anything to do with her dreams of opening a restaurant.
When Dante gazed at Sophia, the woman was wholly entranced in her work, not paying attention to the conversation beside her.
"She said she would finish all of the paperwork quickly since she has to study for her college lessons…" Camille comnted.
"Honestly, I didn't think that Sophia's work could get any faster, so even I am surprised," she continued.
Both Sophia and Victoria were starting their last sester at the university, and the blonde was slightly stressed out about it. Not because she was afraid of the cartel or the rebels but because she wouldn't have enough ti to study properly.
The initial plan for the two won was to move to a small apartnt near the campus, which would only last for the duration of the sester. However, the mafia war caused them to change their approach.
They would continue staying at the Jade Palace and taking the subway to their classes, with two mbers of the Gamma Tam—Ex-Detective June and Maya — accompanying them for security.
"I doubt that the cartel or the rebels would even get close to the campus, but it's always good to be prepared…" Camille said.
"Speaking of Victoria, where is she right now? I feel like I haven't seen her in days…" Dante pondered.
"She went out to the mall with Saris… It looks like her rival beca her friend," Camille replied with a playful tone.
"I wanted to go too!" Sophia exclaid, prompting her typing on the keyboard to beco much louder.
Noticing that Saris was getting along with the two won, Dante suggested she get sent to the university along with the Gamma Team.
"I know that Miss June and Maya are experienced, but it could be useful to have soone who can read umbra around them…" the warlock explained.
"Alright, I understand… I'll send her as security, too," the handler replied while nodding.
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