While they feasted, Cadmus finished the briefing, giving them all the information about Garantep and the Stygian city that he had painstakingly gathered.

With their bellies full, the trio finally returned to Helios’s house.

“I thought this was supposed to be a relatively weak city in the grand scheme of things.” James sighed.

“It still is on the weak side, relatively. Though I suppose that doesn’t mean much at this point.” Lunaris answered. “Garantopolis is far from being a major force in the armies of Darkness. It is one of the closest to the outer edges of their lands, so it does have strategic importance though.”

“Cadmus told us that his sources estimate that there are at least a thousand agents in the city.” James shook his head. “I’m not worried about our mission to be honest. I promised I’d keep you all safe, and I mean it.” James clenched his fists. “What I’m more worried about is the bigger picture. If a thousand agents is a weak city, just how powerful are the bigger cities? Is there some place out in the world where millions of agents gather?”

“Don’t worry, brother. Let’s just take care of Garantep, and let the stronger mages worry about the big picture. If we can kill him, we’ll have done more than our fair share!” Helios shouted excitedly. The mere thought of exterminating such evil from the world was intoxicating.

“I’m more worried about our actual mission though.” Lunaris added. “No matter how powerful James has gotten, a thousand agents is still a lot. Not to mention that there must be great variances in power between them.”

“It’s not like we’ll actually be fighting them all. We’ll isolate our target somehow, and then deal with whoever’s left.” Helios announced while flexing his bicep, his fists yearning for agent blood.

“Well, I don’t like the sound of that ‘somehow’, but I guess you’re right. We’ll just have to man up and deal with it.” James acquiesced.

James was a bit conflicted. On one hand, he felt a torrent of power coursing through him, almost to the point it was hard to bear at times. That gave him a lot of confidence, and he was trying to be calmer, more mature, and to avoid worrying so much.

But since he was also trying to be more careful and prepared than his usual reckless self, he was scrutinizing the plan, and there were just too many chances for things to go wrong.

Lunaris nodded. “You’re both right, and you should always think things out and be as prepared as possible. I also love the fact that you’re more cautious this time around.” She praised him and tousled his hair, even though James didn’t have much hair. “But Helios is right, and we shouldn’t worry as much. Cadmus told us as much as he could, but you can only prepare so much. We’ll just have to be careful and make good decisions while in the field.”

James nodded as well. Ironically, the one time he wasn’t being reckless, was the time he was told he was being too careful.

“That doesn’t mean we must be reckless though.” Lunaris stared at the two meatheads, wagging her finger at them. “Quite the opposite. Because we’re going in with little information, in hostile territory surrounded by thousands of enemies, we’ll have to take things slow and constantly be aware of our surroundings.”

“We bow to thee, oh coolheaded one.” Helios said with a smirk.

The guys both bowed jokingly, making Lunaris turn beet red again.

“No more heals for you!” She shouted.

After the situation turned into a playful waterball fight, the group heard the doorbell ring.

“That must be Denmac!” Helios announced.

As the door opened, an enchanting fragrance immediately spread throughout the house.

“My god, Denmac, you smell wonderful! From what I remember, the booze you used as fuel for your spells smelled much worse.” James said, sniffing the air like a hungry hound. It didn’t smell like alcohol at all, it was like a pancake factory had just walked through the door.

“It’s all thanks to this man right here!” Denmac pointed at Helios. “The wine he gifted me was absolutely divine. I take just a tiny sip per day and it begins radiating this wonderful fragrance.” Denmac bowed, but then he shook his head. “I checked the price though. It’s no wonder I never heard about this wine, never in a million years would I have bought something so expensive for myself!”

Besides the smell, Denmac didn’t seem as sleepy as usual either. It seemed like this wine allowed him to be more alert. Although he was still floating inside his vertical sleeping bag, instead of walking like a normal person. James could barely hide his eagerness to float in one of those too, that desire was written all over his face. But as soon as he looked at Helios, he activated his poker face. If Helios noticed his desire to be that lazy, he’d make him do thousands of push-ups.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Ah, forget about it. You helped us plenty, you deserve it.” Helios smiled with an unusual bashfulness.

“It has practical uses too.” Denmac continued. “My divinations seem to get stronger and stronger each day I continue sipping it. It’s actually thanks to the clarity of my divinations that I managed to find her.”

“You mean you found a mercenary that would go on this suicide mission?” Lunaris asked with a hint of relief.

“Not only that, I found someone that can actually bring a much-needed skillset to our group.” Denmac announced with an excited grin. “Come in, Emilia!”

As soon as Denmac stepped aside, a very normal looking person stepped in and curtsied. A humble looking brunette of medium stature, with only a few faint scars on her arms betraying that she had any combat experience at all. What looked even odder was the bow she was carrying. It was so huge that she looked like a child carrying something her parents finally let her have just so she would stop pestering them.

If Denmac hadn’t told them she was a mercenary, they would’ve guessed she was a merchant, a farmer, or any other kind of normal, non-combatant profession.

But the most interesting part was that the woman gave off almost no aura. Which was strange for a combatant. Without actually looking at her, they’d be unable to even tell there was someone in their vicinity.

“Impressive, isn’t she?” Denmac asked cheerfully.

“Wow, that’s crazy. I’m impressed you even found her!” Helios replied.

“What? What’s going on?” James asked. He had no idea what they were on about.

“Didn’t you sense that? She has almost no aura, brother!” Helios shouted energetically. The fact that the mercenary Denmac had found was so impressive had put him in good spirits.

“Is that good?” James asked.

Lunaris smiled and decided to educate him. “As powerful as you’ve become, you still lack a lot of knowledge about this world.”

She felt like a doting mother explaining things to her intelligent and curious kindergartener. “The stronger you get, the stronger your aura becomes. We can obviously all hide our aura, even you did it, but just walking around all the time with such a subtle aura is something that can be obtained only with after a lot of training.”

“Is my aura subtle?” James asked innocently.

As soon as he said that, the whole room burst into laughter. Even Emilia, who didn’t know him yet, was roaring uncontrollably.

“By your reactions, I’m guessing it’s not subtle?” James blushed.

It took what felt an eternity for everybody to stop laughing. Helios finally decided to put James out of his misery.

“Not subtle? Brother, people turn their heads and look at you from hundreds of feet away. Your aura nowadays is as subtle as a violent tornado that passed through a factory of megaphones and squeaky toys.”

When the laughter finally died out a while later, Emilia spoke up.

“I see that I’ll be working with a cheerful bunch. Well, that suits me. Name’s Emilia, and I’m a Spellbreaker.”

Immediately, the room turned completely silent. Denmac began grinning from ear to ear.

“See? I told you she fills a much-needed role.”

“I see that you deserve another bottle of that enchanted wine, my friend.” Helios answered enthusiastically.

“Well, if you insist.” Denmac answered greedily, not hiding his lust for the wine at all. He almost felt bad for receiving such an expensive gift, but it was too good to pass up.

Meanwhile, Lunaris was mumbling to herself, seemingly performing calculations.

“Hey, what’s Lun doing, brother?” James asked Helios.

“Ah, you probably don’t know what a Spellbreaker is.” Helios answered. “I bet Lunaris is calculating the various strategies we can employ now that we have a Spellbreaker with us. She probably didn’t expect us to be quite so lucky, so she never imagined a scenario where we have a Spellbreaker with us. You know how careful Lunaris is, she’s probably simulating a bunch of battle positions and strategies in her head right now.”

“So what is a Spellbreaker?”

“It’s basically an offensive support.” Helios was playing the role of kindergarten teacher this time around. “Not healing or divining, not that kind of support. Instead, she’s useful in a whole other way. She can stun, interrupt, displace, damage. Basically, it gives us great control over the battlefield. I don’t think I need to tell you how important that is, brother.”

James nodded enthusiastically. He did know how important it was. Stunning the agent with his bullet chains was exhausting, but it was the only reason he was able to win. Having a person dedicated to this kind of job would make a world of difference.

“Nice job, Denmac!” James became excited too, leaping to shake Denmac’s and Emilia’s hands. He never wanted to find himself in a situation where he’d have to conjure thousands of bullets again.

“And thank you for joining us.” James bowed towards Emilia.

“Oi, stop being so polite, just treat me like one of the guys!” Emilia then lightly punched James in the stomach, bursting into laughter again.

James’s face went through a series of confused expressions. The woman that greeted them by curtsying just punched him in the stomach! The conflicting images left him completely confused.

“Oh right, I forgot to tell you. Spellbreakers are very direct. Both with their words, and with their fists I guess.” Denmac smiled awkwardly.

Finally, Lunaris finished her calculations. Lunaris looked a bit confused though, as if she couldn't understand something.

“You have no idea how happy I am that a Spellbreaker joined us. Come, let me show you to your room.” Lunaris said.

“You know, the more we plan strategies, the more I feel like we’ll never actually use them.” James whispered to Helios.

“I know what you mean.” Helios nodded. “When do things ever go to plan?”

A while later, Eruditus, Ruppus and Bacchus arrived as well.

“Welcome guys, thanks for coming.” James, Helios and Lunaris bowed as they lead them to their rooms.

With the crew gathered at Helios’s house already, they were just about ready to go. They would soon embark on the most dangerous mission yet, so there was a strange mix of excitement and tension in the air.