Suppressing my exhaustion, I immediately summoned Cygnus. Jumping atop the white, pristine back of the gigantic swan, I waited for Dad to join me before I had him take off. Cygnus flapped his wings and we soared into the air after a slight lurch.

As tired as I was, I still had some reserves to summon a few Constellation spirits and fight for a bit longer. Unfortunately, I probably couldn't use a second Strategic-scale spell, at least not for another day or two. I simply did not have the mana to afford such luxuries.

So no more Antares or Thuban to nuke any monster army. d.a.m.n it.

"We've to hurry!" Dad urged me needlessly. I nodded silently, too drained to speak, but urged Cygnus on a little faster. We were flying toward Sakha City as quickly as possible, and Dad craned his neck to look into the distance. His expression turned even more grime than before, and his jaw clenched. "There's so many of them."

Despite myself, I glanced below and in the direction Dad was looking in. he was right. There had to be thousands of monsters moving through the forest and toward Sakha City. However, it seemed they had developed some of tactics, or the Dark Church had messed up in their control. The monsters were moving in large, disparate groups rather than being clumped up together in a single ma.s.s. That mean that even if I had the ability to nuke them with Scorpio's Antares or Dracon's Thuban, I wouldn't be able to destroy all of them. There would be at least a few separate groups that would escape the blast, and even the smallest of them were sizeable.

Dad also noticed their new movements and he gritted his teeth.

"They're going to hit the city from multiple directions.'

"That can't be good." I wasn't sure what else to say, so I made quite the pointless remark. Dad didn't seem to be paying attention, though.

"The b.a.s.t.a.r.ds…the Dark Church really want to destroy this city too. Sakha City is one of the commercial hubs of this country. If they raze it to the ground with monsters, the poor nation's economy would be crippled, and the other cities would be vulnerable to more of these monster attacks. The Dark Church also plans to make use of the surviving monsters to move on from Sakha City and invade the next. It appears that the nearest city, Rejia City, is next on their target."

Dad was getting all the information from the holographic screen that was beamed from his hacking device. Apparently the administrative workers of the Dark Church had recorded the minutes of the higher-ups' discussion and stored them digitally. Good thing the Dark Church ascribed to the bureaucratic bulls.h.i.+t too, or we wouldn't be able to find out about the attack in time.

"Sakha City doesn't have a standing garrison, and few very mages. They are going to need our help."

I nodded at Dad's words, even as I tried to conceive of a plan. How could we fight against such overwhelming numbers? Dad probably could, but given the amount of mana I had left, and my inability to use Antares or Thuban over the next day or two until I had fully recovered, I didn't see how I could make a difference. Perhaps I could save several lives here and there, but there was no way I could kill all the monsters.

"Don't worry." Dad must have seen the concern on my face. "We just need to save as many lives as we can, and kill as monsters as we can. The government will respond to this threat soon enough and mobilize their military. In the meantime, we will save as many civilians as we can before the real soldiers arrive."

"So just do our best, huh?" I muttered.

"Of course. Keep the monsters occupied until the military comes. At least they'll be too busy trying to take the city instead of moving on to attack other cities."

"…and villages."

Something occurred to me, and I turned my head back. My eyes widened in horror. One of the group of monsters were moving toward the village where Dad and I spent the night yesterday.

s.h.i.+nra and Guo Hao's village. I still remembered the kindly elderly couple who offered us a night's stay in their house, and how they had just literally sent us off this morning. Their village was standing right in the path of a ma.s.sive group of monsters.

Even though the village was normally protected by a barrier, the barrier usually worked against only low to mid-level monsters. Each of these groups were led by at least rank C monsters and above. The Elemental-cla.s.s monsters could tear through the barrier easily and open the way up for the weaker but more numerous monsters to flood into the village.

That was why the cities, even though they possess stronger barriers, were still vulnerable to such invasions. Even without high-ranked monsters, the sheer numbers and ma.s.s of low-ranked monsters were enough to overwhelm the enchanted defenses. Throw enough low-ranked monsters at the barrier for long enough, and it would eventually buckle and break.

Thousands of low-ranked monsters acting in concert was more than enough to break the barrier.

"d.a.m.n it!"

"What is it?" Dad turned to me.

"The village! Mr. Guo Hao and Mrs. s.h.i.+nra's village! They are right in the path of one of the monster groups! At this rate, they will be…"

Dad remained silent, but said nothing.

"We have to help them!"

I was about to turn Cygnus around, but Dad reached out and stopped me.

"No. Proceed to Sakha City. Our destination remains unchanged."

"But…!"

He tightened his grip on my shoulder.

"I know it's frustrating and hard, but we don't have a choice."

"Of course we do! It's just a small detour…"

"With that number, we won't be able to destroy all of them. We'll spend too much time weeding them out." Dad's voice grew somewhat cold. "But if the monsters get into Sakha City, more people will die. There are three million people living in Sakha City. There are barely a hundred villagers down there. What do you think our priority should be?"

To my horror, I understood what Dad was saying. Sacrifice the minority for the majority. Sacrifice the few to save the many. I hated him for that, but I found that I could not fault the logic. Of course it was a given. The lives of the many far outweighed the lives of the few.

However, my heart was screaming inside my chest, raging against such unfairness. Such cold ruthlessness.

Even then, I couldn't…

"Dad, I'll drop you off at Sakha City first. Then I'll come back here."

"No." Dad shook his head coolly. "I need you with me. I can't protect Sakha City alone."

"But…"

Dad ignored my protests and retrieved his smartphone. Conjuring a new holographic map, he expanded it so that it filled the s.p.a.ce in front of us.

"As you can see, the monsters have divided them into several groups. They will be attacking here, here, and here."

He pointed out and marked several points on the map, gates and main roads where it would be easy for the monsters to flood inside.

"I'll take this path because the largest concentration of monsters seem to be heading here." as always, Dad was leading from the front. He indicated the biggest gate of Sakha City, and also the location where the majority of the monsters seemed to be heading toward.

Then he pointed at a new location of the map, a second smaller gate where a few of the other groups were streaming toward.

"I need you here. And the monsters will be there in under an hour. If you detour to save that village instead, there will be n.o.body to stop the monsters from getting through here." he took a deep breath and looked at me seriously. "And neither of us will be able to completely eradicate the monsters. But that's fine. We only need to distract and delay them long enough until the military reinforcements arrive in two or three hours."

I didn't say anything.

"This plan will minimize the number of casualties in Sakha City," Dad continued calmly, his eyes scanning over the holographic map. He then did a few calculations and paused, and I could sense him refraining from saying something. "Three hours. That's how long you need to delay them. I know it will be difficult for you to do so, given how much mana you have left, but we do not have any other option. Summon as many soul beasts as you can and do your best."

There was nothing more for him to say. I understood the hidden, underlying meaning in his words. I should do my best to stall the monsters for as long as I could…even at the cost of my life. Dad knew there was a chance I wouldn't survive this. Even so, he had no hesitation ordering me to what might amount to a suicide mission.

We weren't blood-related. He adopted me on a whim, and trained me to be able to fight like him. Despite his usually cavalier and relaxed att.i.tude, he hadn't really seen me as a son.

To him, I was but a tool to save other people's lives. I was but one person in the grand scheme of things. Dad was looking at the bigger picture. If he had to throw away my single life to save many others, he wouldn't hesitate in doing so.

"The people in the village will die. Mrs. s.h.i.+nra. Mr. Guo Hao. They won't be able to survive the onslaught when the monsters rip through the barrier."

"I won't deny that." Dad sighed, but his eyes remained detached. "But the people in Sakha City will die too if we don't help them. I won't stop you from doing anything you want. It's your choice. I'm merely explaining the options that will save the most lives. The option that will bring about the least casualties. No matter which path you take, many people will die. It's inevitable. It comes down to how we can minimize the number of deaths."

"…d.a.m.n it."

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"Another thing." Dad' voice was still icy. "If you choose to protect the village, you won't get any reinforcements. The military will focus on saving Sakha City. They won't be able to get to the village in time, not until Sakha City is secure. You can sacrifice yourself to kill as many monsters as you want, but eventually you will die and the village will fall. It's up to you whether you want your death to be meaningful or not."

Again, with that callous reasoning. Already Dad was already resigned to the fact that I would die, no matter what I did.

"At least if you're in Sakha City, it'll be easier for me to come and reinforce your position once I'm done with cleaning up the front. And I believe there should still be a few mages in Sakha City who will come to our a.s.sistance. It'll maximize your chances of survival."

In the end, Dad was still concerned about me. Well, we had been through a lot for the past five years or so, and he was still human. There was no way he wouldn't feel anything if I died.

Even so, it rankled me that we were forced into making this cruel decision. Glancing at the village, I clenched my fists so tightly that my nails cut into my palms, drawing blood.

"d.a.m.n it…d.a.m.n it!"

"This is why it's so important to eradicate the Dark Church," Dad said frostily. "In order to prevent such atrocities from being repeated in future."