“You’re writing them off based on the words of diviners?” James protested. “Come on, it’s not like divination is foolproof. I’ve seen diviners make mistakes before. We can’t let millions die just because of some mystical predictions.”

“Every soul we can’t save feels like a stab in my heart.” Cadmus replied while shaking his head. “But we can’t do anything for them. I’m not talking about some diviner’s hunch. These are experienced diviners that collectively estimated the force of the invader. There is no mistaking it, the dark armies attacking Andarmat will crush them. There is no way around it, they will lose no matter what. You can’t save them.”

“I can at least try.” James insisted. “I won’t die, I’m strong enough to at least try to save them. If push comes to shove, I can just retreat.”

“You don’t understand.” Cadmus sighed. “When you’ve fought agents, you did it mostly on your terms. This time around, it’s essentially a battle at a country level. This is an actual war, and their intention isn’t just to destroy Andarmat. It’s to inflict as much damage on mankind as possible. That means that the nobility will their primary target. They’ll try to wipe them out at all costs. Therefore, you can’t split your focus and try to save everyone. By doing that, you’ll endanger the lives of the ones that we can’t afford to lose. I know it’s grim, knowing that you have to let millions die. But if these nobles die, then our world will suffer a much heavier blow. We need them to live.”

James closed his eyes, trying to contemplate the situation. This isn’t a scenario he hadn’t heard of before. Just how many times did he read about sacrifice, about the hero not being able to save everyone? It would be a classic mistake to not listen to Cadmus. It’s not like he didn’t want to save everybody, it’s not like Cadmus was a worse person than him. Cadmus wanted everybody to live just as much as he did. But you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

“Fine.” James finally acquiesced. “How do I bring them back though? The whole point of the pocket dimension is that it’s hard to access. I can teleport myself, but how about the others?”

“That’s right, the pocket dimension can’t be accessed without being attuned to it with the correct encryption key. But since you are attuned to it, you can just take them with you when you teleport.”

“Isn’t the teleportation supposed to be extremely expensive? Can I truly take thousands of people with me?” James asked. For the first time in a long while, he questioned if he had enough mana to do something.

“Well, I’m glad you’re not completely of how much mana things take.” Cadmus finally seemed to lighten up. “But no, you should be fine. After seeing you fill that cube without even flinching, I’m sure you could even teleport millions and you’ll be just fine.”

“Ok, so the mission is very easy then, isn’t it? All I have to do is go there and teleport them back to Hedonia, easy peasy.”

“Well, you didn’t let me finish.” Cadmus sighed. “Even though everybody is on the same side, united against the Darkness, people aren’t willing to just let thousands of their brightest minds go to another faction. Most of the nobility themselves won’t be willing to go, they’ll definitely insist on staying to protect their homeland.”

“What are you saying? That I have to take them by force?”

“No. Your mission is to keep them safe and make sure they don’t die, until their will is broken enough that they’re finally willing to flee.” Cadmus could barely get the words out. “I’m sorry, I know this sounds heartless. But otherwise, the fools will just let their lives go to waste for no reason.”

“That’s ridiculous. Surely they wouldn’t just sacrifice themselves for no reason? Do I really have to wait until many people die until I can finally rescue our targets? That’s silly!”

“It’s not silly. Think about how you’d feel in their stead. If that were Hedonia, you’d stay and fight until you were the last man standing. Nobody is willing to let their home be destroyed, everyone in their country be killed, while running with their tails between their legs. These people love their country, and they won’t abandon it until it’s truly obvious that there is no way to win.”

“Fine, I understand.” James replied. “I’m not enthused about the prospect of having to watch countless people die, but at least I’ll be saving lives that would have otherwise perished senselessly.”

“There’s one more thing.” Cadmus said.

“I don’t like the sound of that. This mission is already a huge bummer. What now? I gotta kill some of them myself to convince them to come with me or what?”

“It’s not quite that bad, but you won’t like it either.” Cadmus sighed again. “You see, the nobility will be under heavy guard already. They won’t refuse help from an outsider, especially now that you have this.” Cadmus handed James a golden envelope. “It’s my seal, proving that you are an ally beyond the shadow of a doubt. However, even with it, you’ll still basically just have the status of a bodyguard. They’ll allow you to fight beside them, but it’s not like you’ll have much say when the fighting actually starts. In othe words, nobody will listen to you, and you’ll basically be a lone wolf in the midst of a desperate war.”

“Lovely. Sounds like a swell time. At least that’s all the bad news, I hope?”

“That’s it, that’s all you needed to know.”

“Well, take care of Hedonia for me then.” James bowed and turned around towards the portal.

Cadmus bowed as well. “Good luck. And make sure you return alive. Lunaris and Helios love you like a brother, I can’t imagine how hurt they’d be if they lost you.”

As he entered the portal, James nodded. He knew that all too well.

This was the first time in a long time that he was without the two of them by his side. It felt odd, like a quintessential piece of himself was missing. Even though they weren’t necessarily useful to him in battle, he loved them more than life itself, and their presence was always a warm ray of sunshine even in the darkest of moments.

But he was actually glad that they didn’t come with him this time around. He didn’t need to be a diviner to predict the horrors that would soon happen.