James didn’t actually feel the explosion. After his heart as well as every other part of body were blown up, his brain was left all alone under the barrier, free from any senses.

But he didn’t have to feel it to know that it was probably his most devastating attack to date. Back when he fought Garantep, he had plenty of mana. But even that was a small amount compared to what he had now. And he had just poured most of that mana into this one attack.

Naturally, he still had some mana left. And with his insanely high regeneration rate, he probably had more mana left than most mages would go through in a year, even now after he just spent most of it.

So he was pretty sure that all his enemies were dead.

Unless one or two of them were smart enough to stay far away from him and just watch. And since they are invisible, there’s no way to tell.

“Damn it.” James tried to spit, but he had no mouth.

However, he knew that this was just his anxiety talking. That explosion was so large that it probably annihilated anything within dozens of miles. Even if the stalkers were super cautious and paranoid and just watched him from many miles away, they definitely died too.

And unlike the previous explosion, this wasn’t something they could survive, no matter who they were. James himself was barely clinging to life, and that’s only caused SARM was pumping blood and mana to keep him and his barrier barely alive.

Now all he could do was wait for Lunaris to remake his body.

After what felt like an eternity in an empty, lonely void, James finally felt something. The much too familiar feeling of his limbs growing back. Not many people knew this feeling, but for James it was an almost weekly occurrence. Sometimes even daily.

“Thank you, ma’am.” James mumbled awkwardly as soon as he could open his mouth and eyes.

“You could thank me by not losing most of your body on a daily basis.” Lunaris rolled her eyes as she kept pouring heals into James, growing his body by the second.

“So, are they dead?” Helios asked as he looked around suspiciously.

“I mean, I hope so.” James sighed. “This whole stalker business has been a confusing, boring, disappointing and anticlimactic mess.”

“But we gotta know for sure!” Helios insisted. “We can’t go back to Hedonia unless we know for a fact that there isn’t anybody else stalking us.”

“Well, that’s where our buddy Denmac comes in!” James said as he coughed some blood. “Denmac, do your little divining thingamajig please.”

“But if there are stalkers remaining, even if they were greatly hurt by your … detonation, I still won’t be able to detect them!” Denmac lamented. “I don’t have nearly enough power, and you’re too drained to give me any. Two minutes ago you were nothing more than a bleeding brain under a cracking barrier.”

“Ah, come on. Who do you think you’re talking to? Mana is my whole shtick! Even in this state, I have more than enough for you.” James laughed and extended his arm.

As soon James touched him, Denmac’s body turned numb. It was as if he didn’t have a body anymore. Hell, it was like he wasn’t even on this planet anymore. His head felt like it was way up high, above the clouds, above the planet itself.

And yet, even from that far, he could sense everything in his surroundings. It was even more detailed than the previous time, he could sense every movement of every bug and worm underneath the ground. He felt like he could sense and count every raindrop within a thousand miles.

“Time to focus!” Denmac told himself as he turned his attention towards the stalkers.

It didn’t take long for him to sense every single one of their corpses. They were all dead. Unless whoever was alive had already fled, this annoying little problem was finally over.

And yet, Denmac wasn’t happy.

“James, what did you do to me? I’ve never felt like this before. The previous divination was already incredibly powerful, but this one is ridiculous.” Denmac couldn’t stop himself from alternating between a smile and a frown. It looked like he had a stroke.

“What, is something wrong?” James asked in a panic. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to hurt you! All I did was pump you with half of my remaining mana. Which I guess is a lot more than your body can handle.” He said as he looked at Denmac’s twitchy face.

“No, no, no. Nothing is wrong.” Denmac shook his head. “It’s just that I never thought this would be possible. This wasn’t divination, this was an actual astral projection! And not only that, I could sense and feel everything that was happening, down to the smallest detail!”

“Astral projection?” Lunaris smiled. “That’s fantastic! Oh my God, that will be so useful for our future missions. I can’t believe we have an astral projector among us, what a splendid little surprise! Wait, what’s with the frowns and the twitching then?”

“Well, while the good news is that my divining became so powerful that I could literally see and feel everything within many miles, the bad news is what I actually sensed.”

“You mean the stalkers aren’t all dead?!” Helios immediately turned into his magmatic self.

“No, no. They’re dead.” Denmac sighed. “But you see, my divine sight was so sensible that I actually managed to read their memories already. Well, the ones that I could access before they collapsed, anyway.”

“Lovely. I don’t suppose it said that they should eliminate us and not expect any reinforcements?” Lunaris sighed too, even though she knew the answer already.

“I see that you’ve already guessed what it said.” Denmac replied dejectedly. “Apparently these guys were just the scouts who were supposed to monitor us. The real welcome party is on their way.”

“Ok, so we can just run and hide then.” Lunaris quickly yelled out. “Hurry, we can’t waste a single moment!”

But Denmac shook his head. “No, there was actually another juicy little nugget of information I’ve managed to come across. You see, they weren’t just normal scouts, and their invisibility wasn’t their only unique trait. One other nifty thing they were capable of doing was directly relaying information about us. Even in these lands full of turbulence and interference, where our Aetherphones barely work, they were able to basically livestream everything we did.”

“So?” Helios asked. “They’re dead now, can’t we just run and hide?”

“No.” Denmac sighed again. “If I understood their powers correctly, and I think I did, then they’ve already relayed enough information that the ones who are coming after us have managed to lock onto our frequencies. There is running away! There’s only one way out of this, either they die or we do!”