Minutes passed since James had killed the last two agents, and yet nobody said a word.

They wanted to gasp, they wanted to jump for joy, their jaws wanted to drop. But nobody could bring themselves to move.

What they had just witnessed was absolutely unprecedented. It was unheard of. None of them had ever heard of anybody killing agents so quickly. Killing one agent was an incredible feat in and of itself. But he didn’t just kill one, he killed five of them in just a few seconds!

Only Helios and Lunaris were able to move, but they couldn’t stop beaming proudly from ear to ear. The rest of the group hadn’t moved an inch, they were completely frozen, in shock of what they had just seen.

James didn’t dare to disturb the silence. This was exactly what he wanted.

This shock had several important functions. Not only would it increase their confidence in themselves and the group as a whole, but it would also prevent them from freezing up or being afraid during combat. They saw the agents go down one by one, the illusion that agents were this terrifying force of nature was broken.

Right now, their minds had time to digest this shock. If he had waited till an actual battle took place, they wouldn’t have had the luxury of taking time to adjust to their new perspective.

After witnessing this, they’ll be able to push through the fear caused by the Darkness invading their minds.

For them, it felt like glass was being shattered as their worldview shifted slightly.

After a good ten minutes of the group trying to process what their eyes had just seen, James finally broke the silence.

He approached Lunaris and Helios, who had barely been able to keep themselves from laughing, to the point they had to cast spells on themselves to prevent the rest of the group from hearing their giggling. They were proud of James, but seeing the awe the group was experiencing had become increasingly funny with each passing minute.

James embraced his friends in a quick group hug, and then he bowed towards them.

“We’ve come quite far, haven’t we?” James smiled.

Lunaris and Helios nodded and smiled as well. For the three of them, it was quite a cathartic moment. They had suffered so much at the hands of agents, and now they were able to kill them so quickly and efficiently, as if they were a bunch of random mobs.

“Let’s not get too cocky though.” Lunaris said. “Even though these were indeed true agents, and not just some neophytes, there’s still a wide spectrum of power among agents. We need to remain vigilant and cautious.”

James and Helios nodded. Not even they would dare to be hot-headed within the walls of the Stygian city. No matter how strong you are, there’s always someone stronger. And they were about to walk into a hive of assassins and monsters.

Finally, the rest of the group seemed to have come back to life.

As if to compensate for all the minutes of silence, they began howling, hollering and roaring excitedly.

Even the three dwarves, who should’ve been quite acquainted with what James was capable of, were cheerily jigging and dancing around.

“My god, we’ve only been apart for little more than three months.” Denmac said. “Just how powerful did that Bloodwell make you?”

Hearing the word Bloodwell was a bit of a shock for most of the group, and they began blankly staring at James again. Normally, they wouldn’t believe that someone had absorbed an entire Bloodwell, it didn’t even sound like something that was possible. But after what they had just witnessed, they were suddenly a lot more open-minded.

“Well, this changes everything!” Emilia chimed in. “With you on our side, we can take this whole city down.” She stared at James with dreamy eyes as she squeezed his bicep.

James laughed awkwardly, but Lunaris and Helios were cracking up again. Seeing how red his face had gotten only made them laugh harder.

“Quiet down!” James whispered. “What if some agents heard us? We need to be stealthy!”

“Don’t worry, I scanned our surroundings. Nobody is close enough to hear us for now, and the barriers will most likely absorb any sound. So you can have your fun without worry!” Denmac added with a sly grin.

“Well, you still need silence when you’re divining the agents’ corpses, don’t you?” James asked pleadingly.

“Nope, you guys can be as loud as you want.” Denmac replied with an even bigger grin as he walked towards the bodies.

Emilia continued teasing half-jokingly while Helios and Lunaris were laughing uncontrollably.

The three dwarf wizards were still dancing around. They had always been quite a cheerful bunch, but now they seemed unusually happy. Looking at them dance around, James theorized that perhaps the thickness of the Darkness within these lands had been instilling even more fear than he had estimated. The shock from seeing him kill the agents had been even more useful than anticipated, and the rebound from the Darkness’s influence made the dwarves even more cheerful than usual.

After a while, Denmac returned with a smile on his face.

“You got the information we need?” Lunaris asked impatiently.

“That and a lot more.” Denmac replied. “I never quite expected for James to kill five agents from the get-go. That gave me plenty of memories to sift through.”

“So what did you find?” Helios asked excitedly with a big smile on his face.

“Layout, patrols, security mechanisms. Basically, everything we need to know in order to sneak around the streets undetected. But more importantly, I think I’ve found a way we can fight Garantep without the rest of the city piling up on us. Provided nothing goes wrong, of course.”

They all turned silent again, patiently waiting for Denmac to elaborate.

“I don’t know where it is for sure, because the agent’s memories didn’t know either. But it’s known that Garantep has a secret hideout where he absorbs power. It’s where he personally kills and drains people of their essence. Apparently, he diverts a fraction of the victims bound to become energy for the war reserves, in order to gain power for himself. And unlike the energy that the city stores for the war effort, this is a source of power for him alone … and it’s also a source of his own amusement.” Denmac spat out in disgust.

“Don’t worry mate, we’re here to put a stop to all that.” Helios asked, his eyes inadvertently turning into balls of fire. “How can we use that against him though?”

“He’s paranoid.” Denmac replied with a grin. “Apparently, agents aren’t quite as unified as we thought. They’re actually quite competitive with each other, and that’s by design. Thanks to you guys, I’ve divined enough agents by now to know a bit about them. You see, in their social system, power is absolute. You can steal from, strongarm or even kill another agent in order to steal their power and resources. A might makes right kind of world. That’s how agents are encouraged to always grow stronger and stronger.”

“So if we find him in his hideout, nobody else will be in there with him!” Lunaris excitedly shouted.

“Exactly.” Denmac continued. “A fiend like him is bound to have many enemies vying for his powers. The lesser agents don’t really bother with it, but powerful agents require places where they can be sure no one can get to them.”

“But if other powerful agents can’t get to him, how would we get into a place designed to be safe from powerful enemies?” Lunaris already began formulating plans.

“That’s the hard part.” Denmac agreed. “But it’s still much better than fighting the entire city. If we can just fight him in his lair, we’d have to deal with much fewer enemies in total.”

“We don’t even know where the lair is though. How can we find it?” Helios asked.

“The same way we found out the rest of the information, I guess. He may keep the information hidden from powerful agents, but there must be some lowly shmucks he uses for chores that know the location.” James answered. “Can you keep divining the memories of dead agents, Denmac?”

“Well, of course. I think.” Denmac replied hesitantly. “But it won’t be as easy as it was now. Fighting agents within the city would raise alarms immediately. You’d have to keep one-shotting them if we are to do this stealthily. Who knows how many we have to kill till we find one that knows what we need? That sounds impossible.”

“Not for me.” James replied confidently as he looked straight into his eyes, without any trace of hesitation or doubt in his voice.