Before revealing the information he had acquired, Denmac continued divining through the agent’s memories for a while. When he was done, he was visibly drained, having to lie down to recuperate.

“What did you find out?” Lunaris asked while casting a buff on Denmac to rejuvenate him.

“Everything.” Denmac answered. He didn’t know whether to smile or cry. The wine that Helios handed to him had allowed Denmac to gain the necessary amount of energy for sufficient access to the agent’s memories. Which was reason to celebrate in and of itself. But the contents of those memories left him quite worried.

The three didn’t pressure him to reveal what he had found out right away. They could clearly see how incredibly exhausted he had become. Scrying through the agent’s memories had taken an obvious physical and mental toll.

They still had things to do, anyway. They had been through a lot, so they needed to heal up before the trip home. Even Lunaris, the one who was doing the healing, had to rest and recuperate. So they pulled out all they had from their storage space and had lunch.

“We keep having meals in the weirdest of places.” James said with a chuckle, as he looked around at the ruins and the forests steeped in darkness. Demons could jump at them at any moment, and yet they were relaxing and having a meal. Though at this point, demons weren’t much of a threat anymore.

Still, they didn’t know who could be watching them, so they had to leave this place as soon as possible.

After they snacked for a while, Denmac finally regained enough of his stamina to be able to tell them what he had seen.

“I couldn’t get to all of his memories, he was just too strong an entity for me to do that. But I still got way more than I expected.” Denmac flashed a smile which quickly faded. “First of all, they did indeed recruit spies and other traitors within Hedonia.” Denmac said in a grim tone.

Helios pulled out his AetherPhone, wanting to immediately tell his father. But that was merely an impulsive reaction, he knew that he couldn’t send a message from these cursed lands.

“We’ll make up a list of their names and send it to my dad the second we step out of these lands and the signal is no longer jammed.” Helios decisively declared.

Denmac nodded. “It’s not as bad as it could’ve been, there’s hardly more than a hundred. At least according to his memories. But since all of them were quite high-ranking mages, their sabotage ran deep.”

Helios and Lunaris had a million questions, but neither of them dared make a peep.

“They were even involved in the various incidents surrounding James. They’ve followed his every move since he came into this world.”

Shock could immediately be seen on their faces. It’s not like they didn’t know that already, the agents had sabotaged them time and time again. But hearing that you’ve been intently observed is quite unsettling and shocking nonetheless.

James had even livestreamed for several days when he came to this world, so it’s not like being seen bothered him. But he did that willingly. Being watched by evil forces without you even knowing it was something else entirely.

Helios and Lunaris felt even weirder than James. Even though things weren’t perfect at Hedonia, they still didn’t imagine that the infiltration and betrayal ran so deep. To think that less than a year ago, they felt comfortable enough to livestream their training sessions. What was weirder is that it probably didn’t even matter. Livestream or not, the agents seemed to have been aware of James even before that. With so many high-ranking mages on their side, they must’ve known when somebody dropped a pin in a crowded room.

“And this is the part you’ll really care about: I’ve seen the agent who cursed you.”

If what they felt before was shock, what they felt now was more akin to rage. Helios’s eyes turned into balls of fire, and even Lunaris’s aura had an unusual tinge of violence about it.

But James didn’t react at all, he didn’t move an inch. His friends cared so much about him that they might do something reckless once they found out the identity of the agent who cursed him. Even the more level-headed Lunaris might act without thinking. So he had to be the calculated one this time around.

Everything Denmac had said so far was unsettling, but nothing really unexpected. That meant that the worst was yet to come.

“The good news is that I know who he is, and I even know where he is.”

The fact that Denmac wasn’t ecstatic about knowing these things made the rest of them quite worried about what he was about to say.

“The problem is that the agent who cursed you was nothing more than a shadow, an illusory clone of a much stronger agent. And herein lies the problem. The answer to both who and where he is, makes getting to him a suicide mission.”

“It’s ok, just tell us.” Helios said, the anger he felt towards these agents had exhausted his patience.

“Believe it or not, right now we’re actually closer to where he is than we are to Hedonia.” Denmac announced. “Although that’s not saying much, considering we have to take a portal from Andarmat to get back to Hedonia. My point is, the real body of the agent who cursed you is located within a Stygian city.”

Lunaris and Helios froze in place as if they were struck by lightning, not able to even make a sound.

James didn’t know exactly what Stygian city was, but from their reactions he had a good idea about what they might be.

“It’s not all bad!” Denmac continued hurriedly, wanting to lessen their shock. “There are many Stygian cities, and they vary greatly in power. Among them, I’d say this one is more or less on the weaker side. Still not to be underestimated, of course, but it’s not like we’d be going against Emergence City itself.”

“What’s Emergence City?” James asked.

Lunaris filled him in so he could follow the conversation,. “Stygian cities are another name for the cities in the land of Darkness, filled with agents and other entities of the Darkness. They’re steeped in mystery and legend. Add to that the fake news spread by the agents and their recruits, only God knows what’s really going on. And since you can’t just walk in and have a look for yourself, few people know the truth about them. Hell, look at the memories Denmac uncovered. He was incredibly lucky and yet we still only have a hazy part of the memories of the agent. Little is known about these cities, even I’m not fully sure what to make of them. But I do know one thing for sure: they’re incredibly dangerous.”

“Aye, I’d go as far as to say that incredibly dangerous is the understatement of the century.” Helios added. “As for what Emergence City is, it’s even more of a legend, because it’s been the subject of countless obfuscation efforts by the dark side. But it’s said to be the place where the Darkness emerged into this world. Some say it was once a utopic kingdom like the world has never seen before or after. But now it’s completely inaccessible, at the center of the cursed lands of the Darkness.”

The mood was gloomy. Nobody said anything for several minutes, contemplating what it meant to go to a Stygian city.

Denmac then decided to continue. “At least we don’t have to go to Emergence City! As dangerous as it still is, our target city isn’t quite that far into the lands of Darkness, relatively speaking. Much farther than we are now, but not impossible to reach.”

“It’s not reaching it that worries us, it’s what we have to face when we get there.” Lunaris stated.

“That’s right, even if we can withstand the concentration of Darkness and the corruption in those lands, a Stygian city is basically a den of agents and God knows what other powerful entities.” Helios added.

The fact that even Helios was worried made James quite curious. That was very unusual of him.

“Is it really that bad? Maybe Denmac found some loophole or weakness or something in the memories?” James asked

“No loophole, I’m afraid. It is as they say, it’s a place where at least a few hundred agents congregate, and possibly thousands of other beings that I couldn’t quite make out within the memories.” Denmac clarified. “But at least, I do have the identity of the agent we’re after. And he’s actually the leader of this city.”

Hearing this, the three of them leaned forward, furrowing their brows. They could see Denmac involuntarily tremble as he recalled what he had seen.

“His name is Garantep, and by the looks of it, he’s unfathomably more powerful than the agent you just beat.”

Suddenly, Denmac covered his eyes. It was as if just recalling the memories relating to Garantep was enough to inflict pain upon him.

With a trembling voice, Denmac continued. “You were lucky. It seems this guy has the ability to create many shadow clones of himself and send them out and about, and that’s the thing you faced before.”

Lunaris and Helios were really shaken. His clone alone had given them so much trouble. Even though they had made a lot of progress in what was close to a year since they had been training with James, they couldn’t even begin to imagine the kind of power the real body possessed if the clone was so strong. Even if their powers had been dampened back then, he was still a formidable enemy.

“From these memories, I can see that he was an incredibly feared and respected figure within their ranks. This agent you just killed was small fry compared to him. In fact, I’m not sure why I’m trembling right now, I think that the agent was the one who was trembling in his presence, and I inherited those visceral feelings through the memories.” Denmac shook his head, trying to regain his composure.

“Garantep’s name alone struck fear within the agent’s heart.” He continued. “Metaphorically speaking, of course, I’m not sure these bastards even have hearts.”

“They do, actually! You can actually see part of it if you look at the hole I made in his chest.” James said with a smile, happy he finally had some information to bring to the table, instead of being the one constantly asking questions. It was just a rather useless piece of trivia, but he had a feeling he’d know a lot more about the agents before long.