“All right, so let’s just grab whatever supplies we might need and let’s go on our mission already.” James announced. “I don’t think there’s much point in strategizing, it’s not like our strategies ever actually go according to plan. We’re stronger now, and not just me. Lunaris and Helios passed level 300, which will come in quite handy I’m sure. I can feel that their auras have skyrocketed ever since the awakening, it’s like I don’t even recognize them anymore. So we’re ready, let’s go!”

The members of the group looked at each other, with a trace of reluctance and hesitation that they couldn’t fully suppress, even though they trusted James completely, and they had faith in his powers.

But the battle between James and Garantep was enough to make most people consider retirement, to just live a peaceful life on a farm with no agents, and no crazy mages with an infinite mana supply.

But they knew James was right. They had to get going, they had to do this. The whole world was at stake, they could save millions of lives if they succeeded in the next few missions.

“All right, let’s go!” The dwarves shouted energetically.

“The strings of fate seem to be vibrating at a pleasant frequency.” Denmac said with his eyes rolled back, his divining skills already in full swing.

“Well, what are you waiting for, slow-pokes?” Emilia laughed while already going out the door.

After raiding Helios’s pantry and supply closets, the group jumped on the flying carpet and rushed towards the portal.

Already more than used to the trip, they found themselves in the lands of Darkness within just a few hours.

“Should we bother with stealth at all?” James asked.

“What do you mean?” Denmac gave him a confused look. “We’re attacking a Stygian city, of course we need stealth. How else would we do it?” Denmac then realized what James meant. “You can’t be serious?”

“Why not? If we go down the stealth route again, we’re inevitably gonna be found out again. And stealth is tedious as hell too. Let’s just skip that whole part and just go in guns blazing.” James laughed like a maniac, his devilish cackling echoing throughout the dark forest.

Lunaris and Helios looked at each other and shook their heads while giggling.

“I was hoping the fight with Garantep made you less insane. Looks like that’s not the case.” Despite her words, Lunaris was quite cheerful. “But I guess if we’re going on insane missions, perhaps an insane plan is the way to go.”

“I’m right behind you, brother!” Helios didn’t bother saying anything else, his eyes were already balls of fire as he was envisioning what he’d do to the agents.

“So we’re all in agreement then? Good, good. No stealth then, we’ll jump straight to the fun parts.”

“Although, we should probably wear our disguises.” Lunaris added.

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“Why? I’m not saying we shouldn’t, I’m genuinely asking. They make us look like agents. What’s the point? They won’t be fooled by that. It’s not like they’ll think that we’re some rogue agents trying to kill them.” Emilia asked earnestly.

“Yes, but they also hide our real identities, and our auras. And our trails.” Lunaris answered. “The less they know about who is attacking them, the better.”

“Agreed.” James nodded. “Stealth is pointless, but completely exposing our identities would be beyond foolish. And now that they can’t trace us back to Hedonia, I can really have some fun.” James grinned like a maniac again.

Hearing him describe the mission as ‘fun’, the rest of the group looked at him in awe. But this time, they were legitimately afraid that the man may be literally insane. They called him insane before, but that was in jest. But his demeanor right now made them realize that his insanity could be more than just a joke.

“Ahh, come on. Stop looking at me like that.” James chuckled. “You saw what I did to Garantep’s entire city. And I’ve gotten so much stronger after beating him. Now Lun and Hel have entered a new realm as well. Just you wait, you’ll get a bucketload of xp as well, and then you’ll all be happy that we went with this plan.”

James was convinced that the more confident he behaved, the less impactful the Darkness will be on the minds of the group. So without paying any more heed to their stunned gazes, James pumped a heap of mana into the carpet, and they rocketed forward at a speed that made half of them empty the contents of their stomachs.

“Did you pick a city?” Emilia asked. Denmac had sent into their minds the contents of the memories he extracted from Garantep, but it was up to James to lead the expedition. “Where are we going?”

“I picked the weakest city of the bunch.” James answered promptly.

The group was surprised yet again. So he was playing it safe after all? That was so unlike him.

“But a weaker city would probably have smaller energy reserves, right?” Denmac asked. “We need a lot of energy for our plans, what if it won’t be enough?”

“Oh, don’t you worry about that. In fact, I have a few ideas in mind.” James grinned devilishly yet again, which sent shivers down the groups’ spines even more than the grins of agents. “If it’s not enough, we’ll just hit more cities.

This time, even Lunaris looked at him like he was insane. They knew they might need to hit more than two cities, but that would have occurred over the course of multiple expeditions. A single city was enough trouble, but now he wanted to tackle several? Just what was he thinking?

The rest of the group was even more shocked, but Helios was grinning like yet another madman. “I’m with you brother!” He shouted loudly, not caring one bit that they were in the lands of Darkness. The two madmen truly didn’t care about stealth, even though the rest of the group was still whispering and trying to be as quiet as possible. “We’ll just hit up as many as we need. Just like they hit our cities, we’ll hit them!” The fire in his eyes turned blue from the excitement.

The rest of the group was extremely confused. They didn’t really know what to think. These wild fluctuation in James’s and Helios’s moods were downright puzzling. But despite the insanity of it all, their attitude was quite infectious.

And the more insane James and Helios were acting, the more powerful was the impact on all of their moods. It was hypnotizing, they now all felt like jumping into the fire and slaying agents by the dozen.

“Oh, by the way. Getting to that city should normally take a few days.” James added.

“What?!” The group shouted in unison. Even just being in these lands was heard to bear, it was hard to even breathe. Spending a few days just travelling was a daunting challenge.

“Well, that’s how much it would take normally. Luckily, we’re not normal people, are we?” James grinned.

“Oh no, what are you going to do?” Emilia looked at the madman in terror.

“Well, I suggest you brace yourselves. Maybe glue yourselves to the carpet with mana or something.”

The group quickly scrambled to attach themselves to the carpet, not wasting time to even ask any questions.

“All right, here we go!” James’s hands glowed as he slammed an entire mana pool’s worth of mana into carpet.

The ground quaked as the carpet exploded forth with a sonic boom.