“What do you mean?” Emilia asked. “Nobody attacked us, so what else could they have done? What other kind of retaliation could there have been?”

“What if instead of attacking us, they’re watching us? Lying in wait?” Lunaris proposed.

As soon as she said that, James stopped the carpet and began looking around frantically. He had similar suspicions, but he thought he was just being paranoid and psychotic like usual. Lunaris expressing such thoughts was all the confirmation he needed.

“You mean they’re watching us destroy their cities one by one?” Helios asked. “What could they stand to gain by doing that? Why wouldn’t they just stop us from causing further damage?”

“No, she’s right.” James said. “It would also explain why Denmac’s divinations didn’t work. Somebody could be actively blocking them.”

“But why? Why wouldn’t they just attack us right away?”

“I can think of a few reasons.” James answered while casting his Javelins. “Agents might not care about one another, but they do want the world to fear them. Fear is a great weapon in a war. And if word got out that we destroyed their cities so easily, without suffering any losses of our own, then the invincible and fearsome image that they’ve cultivated would be shattered. So they need to make an example out of us. Well, that’s my theory. Could be many other reasons too, who knows how these psychos think?”

“An example? Can’t they just do that by killing us right away, thus also stopping us from getting to more of their cities?” Emilia asked. “I still don’t get why they’d wait.”

“That’s not enough of an example.” James replied curtly, his hands conjuring Javelins every second, to the point he had dozens piled up already. “Not even torturing our souls for all eternity would be enough for what we’ve done.”

“So what do they want to do to us?” Emilia’s face went pale.

“I’ve fought enough agents by now to at least estimate how they think. Even though even I’m not insane enough to fully understand them.” James answered firmly. “Nothing short of killing everybody we care about will be enough. I had my own suspicions, but when Lunaris brought it up, it all clicked. They want to follow us to our home so they can punish our entire community. They want to destroy Hedonia.”

“By getting greedy, we’ve pained a target on our back.” Helios sighed. “Worse, we’ve painted a target on our home. The war was eventually going to come to Hedonia as well, but we weren’t a priority. There are far mightier countries that the Dark side has to deal with first. But now, sending a few of their higher level warlords to crush us will be worth it.”

“Do they already know we’re from Hedonia though?” Emilia asked. “They haven’t attacked yet, so I guess they will hide until they discover where we’re from?”

“You’d think that someone powerful enough to follow us without us finding out, would have a way of figuring out who we are and where we’re from.” Helios replied. “I mean, we haven’t been exactly stealthy.”

“No, but we are wearing the disguises Cadmus gave us.” Lunaris smiled. “I told you they’d be useful. James wasn’t stealthy, how could one be stealthy when he’s exploding entire cities? But that doesn’t mean we were careless either. Right now, all they know about us is that we’re a bunch of rogue mages who went on a killing spree. They don’t know what we really look like, they can’t fully sense our real auras since the disguises muddy the waters, and they sure as hell don’t know where we’re from.”

“Oh, good call on stopping the carpet then.” Emilia exclaimed. “I thought it was odd that we stopped instead of running away at full speed.”

“So what now?” Helios asked. “We’re most likely being followed, but we can’t sense them. Do we just wait around till they decide to attack us?”

“They can’t hear us through Denmac’s barrier, so they probably don’t yet know that we’ve discovered their plan.” James replied. “The sudden stop and my stockpiling of Javelins might’ve tipped them off, but they weren’t decisive enough to attack right away. And that’s just fine for me. The longer they hesitate, the better.”

“I have an idea then!” Lunaris yelled. “Start driving, now!”

Lunaris yelled so loud that James did what he was told before even asking any questions.

“So here’s the plan.” Lunaris continued. “We drive, but not towards Hedonia. We’ll just drive around in circles.”

“What, what does that do?” Emilia wondered.

“Well, nothing.” Lunaris blushed. This wasn’t an idea she was proud of, but it was better than leading a bunch of murderers back to their home. “But it’ll buy us time to think.”

“Not just to think!” James replied. “You see these two hundred Javelins I’ve conjured while we were talking?” He cackled maniacally as he turned the Javelins into a Chaos Glaive. “Now imagine how many of these I can make while we give them the ol’ run-around. We have to make it seem like we’re not just going in circles though, meanwhile I’ll be loading up as much as possible. That way, when they do attack us, we’ll be ready.”

“Oh, I know!” Helios cried out all of a sudden. “Let’s find a few demons so you can shoot them with your Javelins. That’ll make it seem like you’re just preparing to fight whatever creatures might pop out of these woods. Right now it’s too obvious that we’re arming ourselves, even though there is no enemy in sight.”

James nodded. “Denmac, find us some demons please.”

“I’m on it already!” Denmac smiled, his eyes were already closed, divining any nearby presences.

A few seconds later, Denmac looked confused. “You know what, my divination really is acting weird. It did work, and I did find some demons in that direction.” He pointed and James immediately steered the carpet that way. “But it feels foggy, it’s like my gift isn’t as clear as it usually is. It’s like trying to see a reflection in a pond, except somebody is pouring ink and dropping rocks into the pond.”

“So I guess we’re not just some paranoid scaredy-cats running away from inexistent enemies.” Weirdly, James felt relieved. Even though this was basically confirming that they were being followed by stealthy murderers.

“Those are the demons!” Helios exclaimed. But by the time he was done talking, James had already killed them.

“Well … that was quick.” Helios sighed. “I doubt they’d believe that you’re conjuring so many Javelins just to deal with enemies like these.”

“Yeah, you make a good point.” James admitted. “Maybe we can obfuscate the Javelins? So they can’t see I’m conjuring them.”

“Not possible.” Denmac shook his head. “Whoever is after us is really good. Not only did they completely hide themselves from my divination, but their stealth is so good that we haven’t sensed a single trace of them. You can’t hide such things from somebody who is that good at stealth.”

“Well then, I guess the jig is almost up.” James shrugged. “Good thing I kept casting the Javelins though, at least we won’t be caught with our pants around our ankles.”

James finished his second Glaive and climbed on the carpet. “They’ll likely attack soon. But let’s keep running around a little bit, every second we gain works in our favor.”

Or so he thought, but James was not exactly a patient man. And time was not working in their favor as much as he expected.