As soon as he stepped out of the portal, James darted in the direction of the strongest energy signatures. Undoubtedly, the nobles would be there.

He couldn’t use his flight spells, which consumed a ridiculous amount of mana, and would likely cause a huge disturbance now that he was surrounded by soldiers from every direction.

Still, he had other ways to travel swiftly. He began transferring mana into his feet until he felt a slight sense of discomfort. That probably meant that he’d be in terrible pain, if he was still able to feel pain. As soon as he felt the discomfort, he launched himself into the sky, the mana from his legs catapulting him into the stratosphere.

From here, he only needed to gently pulse mana in order to guide himself towards his destination. Seconds later, he was above his target. And that’s when he made a parachute out of mana, gently dropping out of the sky towards his goal.

“That’s ... quite an unusual spell.” A tall, slender man bowed towards James as soon as he landed. He was quite sharply dressed, obviously being some sort of noble.

“Oh, it’s not a spell.” James bowed back. “It’s just mana.”

The man began gasping. But since James had come to hate it when people gasped around him, he quickly pulled out the envelope Cadmus had given him in order to change the subject.

“Ah, an envoy of Hedonia. How lovely.” The man bowed again. “From your aura, I sense that you’re no ordinary visitor.”

“Well, these aren’t exactly ordinary circumstances. Anyway, I’m here to help. Mainly, I’m interested in protecting your nobility. Not that I wouldn’t love to prevent all deaths, but I’m not omnipotent, unfortunately.”

“Your help is appreciated, of course. But I’m afraid I can’t allow you, or anyone else for that matter, anywhere near our nobility. Since you chose to land here, I’m assuming you sensed their presence here even through the wards. And your senses were right, the nobles are indeed gathered in the castle behind me. I’m one of the few still outside the wards. But since you know how important securing their lives is, you understand why I can’t let you inside. In several hours, the last wards will be placed, and no one will be allowed to enter or leave. I too will be stuck inside the castle.”

“Do you really think that the castle and the wards will keep you safe?” James asked. “If the rest of your army is crushed, that castle will crumble within minutes. Let me teleport all the nobles to Hedonia, they’ll all be safe there.”

“Thank you for the invitation, master ...” the noble waited for James to present himself. But it took a few seconds for him to figure it out. He had plenty of experience killing monsters and agents, but it came at the cost of forgetting how to behave around people.

“Oh, sorry, my name is James.” He bowed.

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“Thank you, master James.” Pinorolo nodded. “But unfortunately, I must refuse. Even though the nobles will be holed up inside the castle, they will be restlessly working towards our cause. Brewing potions, enchanting gear, divining attacks. There are countless ways in which we will be contributing to the war effort. None of us are willing to abandon our home just to save our own lives.”

“How ... noble of you.” James replied. “All right, I guess I’ll just have to offer again when the circumstances are more dire.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t get to that point.” Pinorolo said with a stoic smile.

“I hope so too, but we both know that this battle won’t be won easily.” James sighed. “Wait, I didn’t think about it up until now, but how come that you know that they’re attacking in advance? Don’t their armies have teleportation abilities now? I thought that the whole threat was that they could attack anywhere, anytime.”

“And they did attack anywhere, at any time.” Pinorolo replied. “They destroyed hundreds of cities throughout the world, often retreating before any considerable reinforcements could arrive. But this attack is different. We are at the periphery, right next to the lands of Darkness. This attack is like no other, this won’t be a hit and run. It’s a full-scale war, a wave of agents and monsters that will not stop until it destroys everything in its wake.”

James didn’t press the issue any more. It was as Cadmus said, they wouldn’t abandon their homeland. It looked like he’d have to wait until the massacre claimed the lives of most of their soldiers until he could offer the nobles the chance to teleport to Hedonia.

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t try to assist them as much as possible.

“All right then. I’ll just try to help in any way I can. Perhaps we can stop this wave of monsters before it even gets to your nobles.” James said it with a smile, even though he knew they had no chance. If Cadmus insisted that it was futile, then it truly was so. Still, he wanted to save as many lives as possible, and kill as many agents as he could.

“Splendid.” Pinorolo bowed again. “I can assign you to a squad, depending on your powers and preferences. Since you’re a foreigner, I can even make sure that you are assigned to a squad that will keep you relatively safe for as long as possible, if you so desire.”

“No need for a squad, I’m more of a solo player anyway.” James shook his head. “Actually, a squad would just get in my way. I prefer to cause havoc all by myself. There is one thing that I do need, though. I hope it won’t get to that point, of course. But let’s say your armies are destroyed. I need a way to get to the nobles so I can teleport them to safety.”

“Well, that’s impossible I’m afraid. The only way to bypass the wards without a noble by your side would be to destroy them. And all the nobles will already be inside at that point.”

“Hmm...” James thought of a solution right away, but he knew that his crazy ideas wouldn’t be accepted as easily by strangers as they are by Lunaris and Helios. But he needed to make sure that he could get to the nobles before the agents. Waiting until the wards were destroyed was not an option. So he decided to go ahead with the crazy idea anyway.

“Then I need a noble by my side. Someone that I could bypass the wards with once the battle is obviously lost.”

“Are you daft?” The polite Pinorolo’s tone immediately changed. “I can’t just ‘give’ you one of our nobles. Each one of their lives is incredibly precious, I can’t entrust them to a stranger.”

“Oh, come on. I’m strong, you know it. You were gasping at that mana parachute thing, and that was nothing. I can do things a thousand times more impressive than that. So just give me one tiny noble, so I can save you all once shit hits the fan.”

“Absolutely not!” Pinorolo protested. “Never in a million years would we risk the life of one of our nobles that way.”

“Well, I guess that gives me no choice.” James grinned devilishly as a wave of bright blue mana shot out of him.