When James came to, he found himself lying on the flying carpet that was flying at a snail’s pace, with his friends watching him closely.

Seeing that he finally woke up, Lunaris immediately hugged him. “I was so worried, I’m so glad you’re ok!”

James blushed, feeling a bit guilty that he made them worry again. “Where are we?” He changed the subject, the plethora of emotions he and his friends were feeling making him slightly uncomfortable.

“After I healed you a bit, which by the way is something that I sadly have to do way too often.“ Lunaris jokingly pinched James’s cheek. “We quickly grabbed you and ran away.”

“I’m glad you recovered your powers, Lunaris.” James’s body was still sore, but Lunaris’s healing must’ve done wonders because he felt no pain at all. He could see that she was exhausted again, she must’ve poured every ounce of the mana she had recovered into healing him.

“Wait, why are we running away if we killed all the demons?” James asked.

“Think about it.” Helios answered. “We attracted the attention of more than ten thousand demons. Even though we killed them all, who is to say that the demons were the only ones who were aware of our presence? Even if we are in a remote, desolate shithole with nothing around us for many hundreds of miles, it would be foolish to remain exposed like that.”

“So, that’s it? We’re going back?”

“On the contrary. We’re going deeper into the belly of the beast.” Helios answered with a grin, his eyes covered in the flames he only displayed when he felt intense emotions.

“Hmm? What does that mean?” James asked. Even though he was exhausted, Helios’s valiant grin did stir up a kind of battle lust that only the blood of an agent would satisfy. Not only could they save lives, but they needed the information these neophytes could possess. It was enough motivation to make him ignore his exhaustion.

But his sore body reminded him that he was only human. As crazy as James could be sometimes, he really wished he could curl up with a good book and just take it easy for a while. All this battling, all this effort, all this pain was starting to get old.

He didn’t really want levels or power anymore. An ideal life would be just lazing around in a cozy house, reading books and playing games, with his friends next to him. Just hanging out all day, not worrying about a thing.

But the more he fantasized about that, the more he remembered why he had to do all these things. Safety and comfort had to be fought for, unfortunately. If he wanted that lifestyle, he needed power, he needed levels. Otherwise, the Darkness could just take it all away without warning.

Ironically, the comfortable and lazy lifestyle he so desired would only be possible if he put in years of effort, persevering through countless struggles. But the thought that one day it could be possible, that he and Lunaris and Helios could one day relax and take it easy, made his current struggles a lot easier to bear. And the fact that his sacrifices could allow other innocents to live their lives, unculled by the agents, made it all the more worth it.

“It means that once again, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that Denmac did find a trail that could lead us to the neophyte agents.” As Helios was talking, Denmac seemed to be sleeping, the only sign that he was even alive where his burps that reeked of wine. But James understood that it probably only meant that he was focusing hard on following the trail and keeping the stealth up. Probably.

“And the bad news is that we’re going deeper into the belly of the beast?” James finally understood why the carpet was flying ever slower than before.

“Exactly.” Helios answered. “Turns out the bastards headed deeper into the lands of Darkness. At least that means that they won’t kill any more innocent people before we get to them, but it also increases the danger for us. If they retreat to their base, who knows what horrors they have in there? And then there’s the potential that there’ll be a true agent among them. Best case scenario we find the neophytes, kill them and divine any info they have, and then we get out without battling any full-fledged agents. But now that they’ve headed deeper, I don’t know if we’ll have that kind of luck.”

“Since we’re deeper in the lands of Darkness, the neophytes are bound to contact full-fledged agents at some point.” Lunaris added. “Unfortunately, I think battle against at least one agent is likely, along with however many neophytes there are. Usually, I’d recommend bailing on this whole thing, it’s just too risky. But we absolutely need to extract the information out of the neophytes, it’s the only clue we have about the whereabouts of the traitor archmage agent.”

“Don’t worry, Lun.” Helios replied, his rage and bravery overshadowing any inkling of fear. “After what James did to those demons, I’m sure we’ll be able to deal with these damn agents as well.” Helios then high fived James, full of pride and admiration for the strength his brother displayed, even though the pain he had put himself through was saddening.

James didn’t receive much nagging or worried complaints from his friends this time around, even though this had been his most reckless fight so far. He did what had to be done. His friends were full of worry, but they mostly kept it to themselves. No one could deny the results he had produced, despite the insane means through which he did it. Worried glances were all they could muster to express.

After what he had been through, James found flying on the carpet to be a quite relaxing experience. Even though they were in a dangerous forest where a demon or an agent could be waiting behind any tree, in a cursed land where even the air was oppressive, flying gently with his friends next to him was a nice experience.

The amount of pain he had endured changed his perspective a little bit. He really didn’t feel much fear or anxiety at that moment, even though they were technically just going into more danger. Whatever had to be done, he’d do it. And there was no sense in worrying about it.

That feeling of relaxation actually reignited his passion for leveling and power. He realized that another reason why he felt so relaxed was that he was finally strong. He wasn’t a newbie in this world anymore. He had killed thousands of demons. Even though he had to torture himself to do it, it was still undeniable proof of his strength.

So this is what power felt like. Even in a highly hostile environment, he felt relaxed. About to fight trained murderers, and yet he felt no fear.

But he didn’t dare underestimate the agents. If anything, he had to try to instill some fear into himself. Getting cocky could be fatal.

“So what do we do now?” He asked. As nice as it was to just float along, he had to know their next move.

“All we can do now is rely on Denmac to keep divining the trail, till we know where those bastards are stationed.” Helios answered.

“Actually, that won’t be necessary anymore.” Seemingly awakening out of a deep slumber, Denmac respondeed with a groggy voice.

“You found them?” Lunaris hurriedly asked.

“I had to wait for a while to be sure they won’t keep moving.” Denmac answered. “But it seems like they’ve reached their destination. It’s still several hundred miles away, so I think we should make camp here while I try to maybe divine that location and see if I can find any clues. Going in blindly would be stupid, but I can’t promise anything. The Darkness here is so thick I can barely make out anything with my divination. If I hadn’t locked onto the trail before, it would be impossible to see anything at all now.”

“A camp sounds good.” Lunaris replied.” We’ll need to be at our full strength. We need to recover as much as possible, buff up and make all the other preparations.”

“It seems no one has followed us, as far as I can tell. But if we’re going to be stationary for a while, we need to take some extra precautions. This place gives me the creeps.” Denmac began setting up a stealth barrier.

Helios agreed with the sentiment, so he added his own barrier to protect from any surprise attacks.

Once their makeshift camp was made, James asked something that he had been curious about.

“Helios, sorry for passing out before you could finish your story. So, what happened back there with the demons?”

“It was crazy.” Helios excitedly answered. It looked like he had been waiting to tell him. “I climbed to the top of the tree and I see you covered in blood, pale, with a blank look in your eyes, just conjuring saws and throwing them without stop. I tried to talk to you, I even shouted, but you wouldn’t respond. I looked at the demons and there were only a few hundred left at this point, and with every wave of saws you launched at them, their numbers were visibly smaller and smaller. At that pace, it didn’t take long till they all died.”

“Hey, all that pain was worth it after all!” James smiled.

“Yeah, but you didn’t stop there. The demons were all gone but you kept going at it. At this point I didn’t know what to do, I even tried to physically restrain you, but you just kept conjuring saws and launching them at nothing. I shouted, I zapped you, I healed you, I poured cold water on you.” Helios shook his head and sighed. “Nothing could get you out of it. You only stopped after I started slapping your face with some mana. Sorry about that by the way.”

“Nothing to be sorry about. At least we defeated the demons, eh?” James grinned, proud of himself and Helios.

“This is no joking matter, James.” Lunaris intervened. “Not only is it not safe, but this style of fighting is insane. Hurting yourself so much isn’t healthy, it’s … psychotic.”

Apparently, his friends couldn’t contain their worry after all.

“Well, they are my awakening skills, can’t do anything about them. I need every ounce of power I can get.”

“I know, and you’re right. Right now you do need to use them. Your future is up to you! Promise me you’ll try to follow a different path in the future. Your second awakening doesn’t have to be like this, you could develop other powers entirely!” Lunaris pleaded.

“Yeah, you’re right Lun.” James answered. He blushed, her concern for him was heartwarming but also made him feel embarrassed and even guilty. “I don’t like it either. As powerful as it is, it’s absolute torture. So I’ll see what I can do about it, I promise!”.

The future was limitless. In this world full of magic, out of all the powers he could get, it really didn’t make sense to focus on magic that required him to torture himself. But it was nice to know that he had the option. If creating a utopia for himself and his friends required him to torture himself, he’d do it without a second thought. But he would have to find a way to hide the pain, he didn’t want to worry them any more than he already has.

The gang then began recovering and preparing for the upcoming battle. A short while later, Denmac seemed to have sensed something.