At James’s breakneck pace, it didn’t take even 2 hours for the group to get to their destination, even though they were bracing themselves for a much longer trip. But travelling at that speed left them all dizzy and nauseous.

When they got off the carpet, they spent a few minutes crawling on the ground, trying to get the world to stop spinning.

“Oh my god, I’m broken.” Denmac shouted as he repeatedly fell over, unable to stand for even a second before collapsing again.

“Eh, take your time. We’re still a few miles away from the city, so we should be fine.” James chuckled.

All of a sudden, James conjured three Javelins and threw them in what seemed like random directions. He vanished, and then a few seconds later he returned with three bodies in tow.

“Well, I suppose we can’t expect to go unnoticed when we’re this close to their city.” James said nonchalantly.

Denmac stared at him with his jaw open. Not even half a year ago, he used to think of killing an agent as something that only happened in legends. And now this madman killed three in the blink of an eye.

Although he quickly got over his surprise. By now, James doing insane things was a daily occurrence.

“Should I divine their memories?” Denmac asked.

“Nah, don’t bother. They’re just random trash, we’ll save that for the big fish. If their bodies remain intact, that is.” James replied, spitting towards the bodies of the dead agents. He already hated agents a whole lot, but after having been turned into just a bodyless head, he took a sadistic pleasure in seeing the bodies of these dead vermin. They weren’t living beings in his eyes, they were just pests, parasites. No more than a flea or a tapeworm.

Helios joined him in spitting. “Brother, I like your confidence. Sometimes you’re too reckless for your own good, but this time I’m fully on your side. I’m feeling good about this, I really think we can win.”

While the two hotheads butted their heads together in their usual macho ritual before battle, Lunaris was staring at them with a bored look. “Can you believe these guys?” She asked Emilia. “It’s like they’re bipolar. They keep promising me they’ll be more careful, and then they do the complete opposite.” Lunaris continued.

“I know! The rest of us have a theory. Maybe they have a brain parasite or something? You know, the kind that alters your mood and makes you fearlessly run into mortal danger. Or maybe the hits they took to the head have numbed the fear center in their brains! I believe we should have a master healer take a look at them.” Emilia quickly blurted out, happy to finally share her theories with one of the three core members of the group. The only actually sane one.

Lunaris laughed at Emilia’s silly worries. She used to worry like that too, but she wasn’t actually mad at her boys this time around, she even supported their behavior. But things were happening so fast, she wasn’t sure of anything anymore. Just a few months ago, the mere thought of an agent was enough to send shivers down her spine. And now they were leveling entire cities full of them to the ground.

And it was all due to these reckless fools. How could she possibly not support their recklessness now that they’ve accomplished so much? If anything, being a stick in the mud that nagged them would only hamper their possible accomplishments. So she decided to be a lot more supportive from then on.

Another reason why she was able to more easily suppress her worries was the power that she could feel flowing through her. She could sense the pressure of the healing waves inside her, aching to burst out of her. Even if her loveable hotheads got their limbs cut to pieces, she could heal them back up in seconds now. And that made her a lot more willing to let them indulge in their recklessness.

All of a sudden, James threw another two Javelins, and swiftly returned with two more bodies. He didn’t even bother saying anything, as if he had barely done anything more than killing two flies.

“Ok, so, now that you can all stand on your own two feet again, how about we get started?” James announced gleefully, without a hint of fear or hesitation, as if he was just going to a picnic. “And feel free to attack as many agents as you want. I don’t want to hog all the xp, so make sure you snatch as many levels as you can!”

The group jumped back onto the carpet, but this time they moved at a saner pace.

They moved a few hundred feet towards the city, and immediately the number of agents multiplied significantly.

As soon as they saw them, the agents went into a frenzy. Loud horns echoed out as the signal that intruders were spotted was broadcasted. In mere seconds, hundreds of spells hit the barriers around the carpet.

“All right brother, let’s take out the trash.” James declared with a crazed look. The smile on his face was very different this time around. As creepy as the agents’ faces were, they had nothing on James’s distorted, bloodthirsty expression that made Denmac and Emilia shiver involuntarily.

Immediately, he began conjuring dozens of Javelins. But unlike his usual Javelins, dark streaks were intermingling with the crimson energies.

James’s horrific smile became even more sadistic as he relished at the sight. Being turned into a bodyless head had been worth it after all. Not only did he regain his demonic powers, but he had been cursed for so long that it was now a piece of cake to actually use them.

He had been forced by the curse to look in other directions for power. And he had gained it, more power than he ever dreamed of. In comparison to his current strength, his previous demonic powers seemed like a joke.

A joke that was getting funnier by the second. In cursing him, the Dark side made him stronger. If he had relied on his demonic powers all along, he might’ve still been a defenseless little baby who was dependent on them. But now he had the strength to properly make use of the Dark powers.

With his nigh unlimited supply of mana, more mana than hundreds of strong mages put together, he could command his demonic powers at will. Even though he could feel a huge portion of mana being sacrificed in order to infuse Darkness within his spells, it was still nothing in comparison to his gargantuan mana pool. And now it was time for him to say thank you to the Darkness for all that it did to him.

As soon as James waved his hands, deafening explosions echoed from several directions, the crimson rods he conjured having vanished as quickly as they had appeared.

Before the smoldering craters could even stop fuming, the carpet advanced towards the city, all the agents in the group’s proximity being dead already.

It actually felt a bit disappointing to James. He was braced for a fun little kerfuffle. This felt more like using an RPG to blow up a barrel of full of fish. Still fun, but the lack of challenge was quite surprising.

“Hey bro, can you leave me some?” Helios grinned.

James nodded with a friendly smile this time around. “You’re right. I doubt I’d even get much xp from these.” He then looked at the hordes of agents coming at them and he made a decision. “Ok guys, how about this? You kill as many of the normal agents as you can, while I take care of any of the bigger guys coming our way, ok?”

“Hurry up or I’ll get them all.” Helios laughed as he shot forth, leaping at an incoming group of agents.

In mid-jump, Helios seemed to turn into an entity made entirely out of magma. Without even casting any other spells, he crashed into the agents, turning one of them into ash before he could even scream.

“Hey, I want xp too!” Emilia shouted as she picked up her bow and dashed towards Helios.

The rest of the group followed suit, leaping towards the agents, feeling a lot more confident knowing that James would take care of anything they couldn’t handle. Not even Lunaris could resist getting a piece of the action, even though she was on high alert as the group’s primary healer, waiting to mend any reckless fool who got hit.

Within seconds, the entrance to the dark city didn’t seem so dark any more. Although the concentration of Darkness in the surroundings wasn’t any less powerful than that of Garantep’s city, the spectacle of colors and energies from their spells was actively suppressing any presence of the Darkness. Lunaris’s butterflies were exploding bright yellow light while her healing powers were radiating waves of green. Helios’s flames and magma were covering a large area in a sea of red.

James didn’t move an inch though. He stood back and watched his friends butcher the monsters that used to frighten them not long ago.

He felt bad for taking most of the xp during the previous mission, so he really wanted his friends to get some levels too.

Besides, he had other things he needed to take care of.

All of a sudden, big fluctuations of energy were felt rushing towards the group. The sky seemed to darken even further, while the air seemed to be getting harder and harder to breathe.

But to James, this was a reason to smile gleefully once more. He could finally have some fun.