After what felt like an eternity, the explosion finally died down.

“Oh, goody! It’s finally over. Time to check if there are any dead stalkers around here.” James laughed as he grabbed his friends with his mana tentacles and jumped up into the sky to examine the aftermath of the big nuke.

But what they saw was surprising even to him.

“This is exactly what I imagine hell is like.” Denmac said as he looked at the fires raging below.

“Where does this hell end though?” Emilia asked.

They really couldn’t see the end.

As far as eye could see, crimson fires burned over a desolate, charred wasteland. Not even rubble was left, everything had turned into dust.

It was definitely the most powerful spell James had ever unleashed. And it was so strong that he couldn’t even look at it.

[The Gods took notice of your actions.]

“Lun, Hel, I got that weird message again. You know, the one with the Gods.”

“I can’t say I’m surprised.” Helios said as he admired the infernos down below. “I’ve never seen anything like it. I don’t think even my father could do so much damage. Well, at least not without some serious prep time. Those old mages have got lots of tricks up their sleeve.”

“I almost forgot about that, it’s been so long since the last message.” Lunaris added. “We should probably look into what it means one of these days. It doesn’t seem like something we should ignore forever.”

“I’m not too worried about it.” James replied. “We ignored it for so long and nothing happened. I don’t think there’s a reason why we can’t just continue to ignore it.”

“That’s so unlike you. You’d usually be a lot more curious.” Lunaris looked at him strangely.

“To be honest, I don’t really like this kind of stuff ominous, vague, mysterious stuff. I hate being titillated. Especially now that I’ve got all this power, it feels like I’m being strung along for some other long quest with no end in sight. I’m an impatient man, I like getting answers right away. This seems like something that could take a long ass time before we get to the bottom of it.”

“I agree.” Helios said. “Let’s just forget about it until it becomes relevant again. We’ve got a war to fight and people to save. When things calm down, we’ll look into it.”

“All right. What about these stalkers though? Do you guys feel anything?” James asked as he carefully scanned their surroundings. “I can’t detect a single trace of them.”

“Maybe your spell was so powerful that they got completely disintegrated?” Lunaris proposed.

“I refuse to believe that.” James shook his head. “We’ve wasted so much time on these stalkers, I can’t just accept that they’re dead without even seeing them. I’ll keep doubting my sanity and whether or not they ever existed for the rest of my life. No, there’s got to be at least a trace of them.”

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“Well, we’ve got a diviner. You’re not that skilled at sensing things, so let’s leave it to the professionals.” Helios chuckled.

“I’ve tried sensing them countless times.” Denmac sighed. “It’s as if they don’t even exist.”

“That’s true, you couldn’t detect them up until now.” Lunaris replied. “But even if they managed to survive the explosion, they still had to have taken some amount of damage from it. And I’m willing to bet it’s a significant amount of damage. At the very least, they had to sacrifice a good deal of their energy in order to defend themselves. Either way, they’re not as powerful as they were before. And that means that their stealth wouldn’t be as potent either.”

“I guess it doesn’t hurt to try.” Denmac said.

He closed his eyes to focus, but then he felt two hands on his shoulders. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing.” James grinned. “Just helping you out a little bit.”

“I don’t like the sound of this. You don’t know your own strength. How about I try doing it the good old-fashion way first?”

“Nonsense.” James continued. “Just focus on finding the stalkers, and let me worry about the rest.”

Denmac reluctantly returned to divining, even though he knew he had about a fifty-fifty chance of exploding like a pig that swallowed a grenade from whatever James was about to do to him.

While Denmac’s worries were not exactly unfounded, James wasn’t one to toy with his friend’s lives. Instead, he took the risk upon himself.

He planned on using his nigh unlimited supply of mana to aid in Denmac’s divination. Mana from other individuals wasn’t exactly pure or easy to use, but James was special when it came to mana.

Not only was his mana already fairly pure, but he had so much of it that he didn’t care if he wasted 90% of it.

And that’s exactly what he did. Instead of risking to hurt Denmac, James burned 90% of his mana in the process of purifying it before transferring it to Denmac.

But even with 90% gone, that was still a hell of a lot more mana than Denmac was used to.

Suddenly, as he was sitting with his eyes closed, Denmac felt an overwhelming torrent of power filling his body. It was imposing and violent, but it didn’t hurt at all. Instead, the mana seemed to seamlessly combine with his own.

Except it was more like his mana was combining with James’s, than the other way around. Every single particle of mana in his body put together wasn’t so much as a tenth of the mana James had already poured into him.

And that was only the beginning. With each passing second, more and more mana poured into him, doubling the amount every few seconds.

His body was almost bursting at the seams. But instead of any nasty side-effects, his mind actually felt clearer than ever.

And he was able to actually use the mana right away. As soon as he focused, the mana seemed to lend itself to him, immediately expanding his sight. The more mana was pouring in, the more he could see.

Not only could he see much farther than before, but he was seeing the world through different eyes. Every blade of grass seemed infinitely mysterious, every leaf looked like something he could contemplate for eternity.

A tear rolled down his cheek. “Thank you, James. I never thought I’d experience something like this.”

“No big deal buddy, you’re actually doing me a favor. Any time you wanna feel like this again, just tell me. Maybe I can even make some sort of pill full of mana. Oh, maybe I can even sell that! I’ll be a billionaire, I’ll be able to buy all the gifts in the world for Lunaris and Helios!”

As annoying as James’s inane ramblings were, they actually helped Denmac snap out of his mesmerized state and focus on the mission.

His sight traveled far, and the more mana James transferred, the farther he could see.

“Jeez, I’ve finally seen where your explosion ended. A 50 mile radius, can you believe it?” Denmac’s jaw dropped again.

And so did the rest of the groups’ jaws.

“That’s not important right now. What about the stalkers?” James tried to ignore the dropping of jaws that was embarrassing and tiresome at this point.

“Sorry, I didn’t find anything.” Denmac sighed.

“Let’s look harder then.” James began pumping even more mana into Denmac. “Forget about the 50 miles, focus on what’s nearby. 10 miles at most.”

Denmac nearly fainted from all the mana that was being transferred to him, but he wouldn’t allow himself to fail.

But even when he focused on just a fifth of the total radius, he still couldn’t find anything.

“Focus on five then!” James shouted as he pumped an even bigger amount of mana into Denmac.

Even though Denmac was about to literally burst, suddenly, it was all worth it.

“I found something!” Denmac shouted.