“ERORR?” Helios and Lunaris looked at each other in disbelief.

By their reaction, James understood that error didn’t mean anything good.

But for some reason, he didn’t feel scared. After going through all of this, he was happy to just be alive and in one piece. But even more important than his own safety was the fact that his friends didn't have to sacrifice themselves for him.

The pain was subsiding already, his friends were alright. All things considered, it could’ve been much worse.

“All right, let’s calm down you guys. So I’m cursed, no big deal, it’s not like curses can’t be dispelled, right?"

They remained silent, which was scarier to James than the curse itself.

"Wait, they can be dispelled, right?” As he asked that, he realized that he didn’t know anything about curses. He just assumed there would be a way to dispel it eventually, but what if there wasn’t? Still, James was resolved to make light of the situation in order to calm his friends down and to avoid making them sad.

“Well, yes… theoretically, there are ways to dispel any curse, no matter how strong. It’s just that when you receive an error message, it means the curse has a really bad, corrupting effect that not even the system anticipated. It means it corrupted or destroyed something really important.” Lunaris sighed.

James didn't like that sigh.

“Eh, lighten up guys, so I’m temporarily screwed in some way. It can be fixed, that’s all that matters. So we’ll fix it!”

As James was looking at his friends’ gloomy faces, he made a promise to himself. He'll always protect them, not just from harm, but from sadness and stress as well. He wanted his friends to be happy and healthy.

That was the most important thing to him. Not power, not progress, but his friends' wellbeing and happiness. Seeing their sadness hurt more than any curse. They were like family to him, the only family he had in this world.

James knew that spreading happiness starts by simply having a happy and cheerful attitude. Mood is infectious, every little gesture contributes to the overall mood of those around you.

So no matter what the effect of this wretched curse really was, he would be cheerful and calm.

Helios was still mad at the whole situation though. “You don’t get it. Just because anything is theoretically fixable, doesn’t mean we’ll actually be able to fix it. It could require God knows what spells, reagents and whatever obscure things to undo the effects of the curse.”

“I know, nothing is ever easy in life. But hey, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? I’m sure I’ll be fine, don’t worry about it. It’ll work itself out somehow!”

James relentlessly kept up the cheerful disposition. Helios and Lunaris were having none of it, the gravity of the situation had them really stressed out.

But James wouldn't relent, he was determined to make it seem unimportant, like he was not worried at all. He even pretended he was more worried about having some lunch.

Eventually, his friends were finally corrupted by his optimistic mindset. Before long, they were laughing and smiling like nothing happened.

“So first we’ll just figure out the effects of the curse, then we’ll go from there and see what can be done about it. No need to overthink it, how hard can it be to undo a single, measly curse?” James said nonchalantly.

And so, the trio made their way back to Hedonia. Seeing as he didn’t notice any urgent symptoms of the curse while they made the trip back, despite their protests, James convinced his friends to have a good night’s rest before they’d start the whole process of curse breaking.

The next morning, James was still in bed when he heard them knocking on the door.

“Jeez, it’s so early, what’s the rush?”

“What do you mean what’s the rush? You’re cursed! We have to figure this thing out as soon as possible. If anything, we should’ve figured it out yesterday, but you kept insisting that we should rest first.” Lunaris scolded James, who acted like he didn’t care about the curse at all.

“All right, let me get dressed and we'll get going. Although I feel perfectly fine so don’t worry too much.”

Helios insisted that they go to his father’s house, who had every possible arcane tool they’d need.

An archmage’s home was unimaginably vast. On the outside, it looked like an ordinary house. But inside there were hundreds of rooms and pocket dimensions, one could easily get lost if they weren't careful. But powerful mages needed that much space, every room had a purpose. Admittedly, that purpose was storage more often than not. The more powerful the mage, the more random crap they had lying around. And that random crap would be useful to them right about now.

“Dad has some urgent business to attend to, but he prepared everything we’ll need to diagnose your curse.” Helios then picked up two metallic wands, giving one to Lunaris.

Lunaris then explained the process to James.

“Since the status screen only said error, we have to use other means to figure out what's wrong with you. While we point these wands at you, you must perform every single spell you know."

Lunaris and Helios then took the wands and rubbed them on James's head for a few minutes, while James sat there confused.

"The wands have now been calibrated to you, so they will constantly monitor you, and they'll notice if there is anything wrong with your magic, your body, or anything else. Don’t worry about destroying the room, it’s a special training room that can just regenerate itself.”

James obediently did exactly what he was told to do, going through every spell he knew, from the measly fireball to the Razorice Saw.

In just a few minutes, he had already performed half of his arsenal, flawlessly and without any difficulty at all.

“Not much of a curse, is it?” James smiled. He felt great! He didn't notice anything wrong at all.

Lunaris wasn’t as cheerful though.

“James, you usually have to imbue Darkness into your spells, right?” she asked, having noticed that he didn’t use any Darkness in any of the spells he had cast.

“Yeah, I only have a limited supply. Sometimes it did come out involuntarily, like when I cast my first fireball. I had to learn to control it since the mana costs were too much if I used Darkness with every single spell.”

“Try to use Darkness in your next spell, please.” Lunaris requested, having a good hunch of what the problem was by now.

Helios had that same hunch, the mood in the room was turning quite grim.

James conjured a fireball and tried putting some Darkness into it.

The results were exactly what Lunaris had been expecting.

The metallic wands started vibrating violently. They detected an anomaly as soon as James tried to use Darkness.

“Hmm, I can’t seem to be able to use Darkness.” James stated matter-of-factly.

His friends weren't as ok with it though. Helios was so infuriated he threw his wand at the wall. The sheer power of the throw made the wand penetrate the wall, embedding itself deeply. While Lunaris just looked at the floor, dejected.

“Wow, calm down guys. It’s not that bad. So I can’t use Darkness, that’s not that big of a deal. I mean, sure, I can’t help Hedonia gain any insights into the Darkness anymore, but I can just level up and kick ass anyway.”

James noticed that his relaxed attitude didn't infect his friends this time around, but he had made a promise to himself. He wouldn't stop trying to make them feel better. Even though he was the cursed one, they seemed to be the ones suffering more, and it hurt him to see that.

“Seriously guys, what’s the big deal? I’ll just have to get powerful the good old-fashioned way, I don’t need the Darkness. As a matter of fact, neither does Hedonia! I never got what was the big deal about this Darkness thing anyway. Screw it, we'll just blast them sons of bitches with some ice and fire or whatever.”

His pathetic attempts at humor, as endearing as they were, did not seem to affect his friends' moods at all.

Lunaris then spoke up. “James, do you remember that the reason why you can use the Darkness is your half-demon soul?” She said with a gloomy expression, not even having the courage to look him in his eyes.

So Helios had to continue instead. “James, the fact that you can’t use Darkness means the curse also damaged your soul." He had to pause for a few seconds as well.

"The wands confirmed it, there is damage to your soul.” He said while looking down at the floor.

Lunaris and Helios then stood there, dejected and hopeless, not saying a word.

It took James a few seconds to process what he had just heard. But it still didn't phase him at all. The diagnosis was severe, but that didn't mean much to him. His priorities were very clear in his mind at that moment, and the top priority was to make his friends happy.

“So what? I feel great, I can use my magic just fine, just without Darkness. If damage to the soul is such a big deal, I sure don’t feel it!”

“Damage to the soul is a very bad thing.” Lunaris informed James, struggling to get the words out.

“Eh, come on, I bet it’s not that bad, cheer up.” James was determined to make light of this.

“It is that bad.” Helios said. “Damage to the soul means that any damage you take will be increased, maybe even so much as doubled. Even a punch will be more devastating to you than normal.”

That was inconvenient indeed. He could see why they were so sad and stressed. But that just made him want to cheer them up all the more.

“All right, so it’s like a really shitty debuff. I can live with that. I’ll take it as a challenge, to live without getting hit.”

“There’s more. It also means that if you were to die, your soul would be lost forever. No reincarnation or anything else, you’d be gone forever.” Helios said with a grim expression.

Now that was a scary prospect. Death didn't become less scary after he found out that reincarnation exists, death was still death. But the thought of his soul disappearing was not a trivial matter. He only found out that souls do indeed exist after he died, but he was already quite fond of having one. Losing it would not be groovy in the slightest.

And yet, even that, even the gravest threat of all wasn't enough to break his resolve to make light of things and cheer his friends up.

“So I just won’t die, easy-peasy. Wasn’t planning on dying anyway.”

James’s stupid strategy of being optimistic and cheerful was slowly starting to work yet again. Neither Helios nor Lunaris could keep being sad and dejected for very long with this well-meaning moron spouting such nonsense without stop.

“If anything, this could even be something to brag about. How many mages are there that go around kicking ass while having a curse on their soul? Not many, that’s for sure.”

“You’re a fool, did you know that?” Lunaris said with a bright smile, still with tears in her eyes.

“Aye, a big fool, that’s for sure.” Helios said while laughing.

“Actually, there is one teeny-tiny advantage a soul curse has over other types of curses.” Lunaris stated, having finally snapped out of her sadness for good. “Undoing it is a fairly … straightforward process.”

“Well, then that’s fantastic! There wasn't even any reason to be worried, see." James said, even though he knew there was a catch.

“I said straightforward, not easy. It will actually be very difficult, maybe even impossible. A soul curse is undone by killing the one who cast it.”

That was a tall order, given that the one who cast it was an agent of Darkness. A masked man whose identity they didn't even know.

“Well, I see straightforward and easy really do mean two entirely different things.” James laughed, although the thought of fighting that agent of Darkness again was quite unsettling. His power was unlike that of any other foe he had faced before.

“So I just have to train till I can beat him. Without using the Darkness, and while taking twice as much damage as I usually would." James paused for a second to calculate just how impossible those odds were. "Ok, so it might be a bit of a challenge, but it’s not impossible, if anything it gives me a good goal to motivate me to progress faster!”

“Well, it’s not quite that simple.” Helios intervened. “If it were that easy, we’d just take my father and a few other guys and go eliminate him right now. Well, if we could find him. But even if we did somehow find him, the problem is that he wouldn't be alone. Most likely he'd be holed up in one of their cities, in the part of the world that's been taken over by the Darkness. Out there, there are many thousands of agents like him, many who are probably a lot stronger too. And they're not even the only threat!”

“Oh. Now that does sound quite impossible. Well, I guess I’ll just have to become so incredibly strong that I can destroy a whole city of those bastards then.” James said while banging on his chest like a barbarian. He did as a joke at first, the mood was getting too serious again. But imagining himself strong enough to waltz into a city full of agents and blowing them up really got his blood pumping.

Who do those bastards think they are, cursing him? He’ll curse them and their mothers.

James then got a bit carried away, going into a soliloquy detailing the various ways he’d kick the agents’ asses. But it worked, Helios and Lunaris had completely forgotten about their worries, now fully engrossed in listening to his nonsense ramblings and exaggerated hand gestures.

“Aye, that sounds great, mate. But you forgot one thing. You won’t be the only one kicking their asses. We’ll be right there besides you.” Helios said with a warm smile.

They were in it together till the end. James was all alone in this world, and his friends really did feel like family to him. And his friends felt the same way. In these few months that they had known each other, they had grown really close. It truly felt like they were family.

With a curse upon James’s soul, the trio had a newfound goal. Each and every single one of them would have to get a lot more powerful if they are to free him from his curse. Killing an agent in a city full of them was a task only for the most insane of fools, and that's if they could even find him. But in a world of magic and endless progress, was anything truly impossible?

James's brain hadn't even properly registered the danger he was now facing. All he could think about was his friends, Hedonia, and defeating their common enemies that he had finally become personally acquainted with. To ensure the happiness and wellbeing of the former, he'd have to defeat the latter.

Even though James had made light of the situation, the curse was more than just an inconvenience. And even more than the effect it had on him, Hedonia had now lost what could've been a great tool against the forces of Darkness. He was supposed to develop his half-demon Soul in order to discover whatever secrets of the Darkness lay within.

But James still wasn't worried. He didn't make it this far because of his half-demon soul. He got here because of his friends and because he had the ability to grind his ass off in the name of progress. And he didn't lose either of those things.