Summoner Sovereign 173 Chapter 173: Guarding the Gate

"Richie."

I stopped for a moment to glance back at Dad.

"I'm sorry. But we can't be everywhere at once. We are not gods. We can only do so much with the hand we are dealt with. Perhaps you'll understand it eventually, but…"

"I already understand, Dad."

Sacrifice the minority for the majority. Choose the many over the few. That was only logical. I hated that decision, but as Dad said, we weren't gods. We couldn't split ourselves up and be everywhere at once.

"…sorry."

"It's not your fault."

I made my choice according to Dad's logic. I was going to have to live with it.

"We'll do our best to save as many people in Sakha City as possible."

Dad grinned, back to his usual self. "Now you get it. Run along now."

Turning away, I urged Cygnus toward the gate. Dad didn't notice how forced my demeanor was, how it was so difficult for me to speak. I had always looked up to Dad, always thought of him as a hero and wanted to emulate him.

However, today I understood for the first time how naïve I was. Dad wasn't a god. True, he was a hero, but he was still human. There was no way he could save everyone in the world.

Did Dad have to live with such hard choices like this all the time? Knowing that he had consigned a few to doom while choosing to save the majority?

Did I still want to become a hero like him? Was that what it meant to be a hero? To save the many at the expense of the few? To be able to live with that choice? To harden yourself against guilt and move on to the next day, and make the same calculated, ruthless decisions again?

If that was the case, then I wasn't cut out to be a hero. I couldn't make such a decision. Who was I to decide who should live and who should die?

But…if Dad didn't do that, then everyone would die. If Dad didn't make that decision, then nobody would be saved. At least in this situation, the people of Sakha City would be saved, even if the village of Shinra and Guo Hao wasn't.

"I…"

Perhaps I shouldn't dwell on this too much. I should just focus on holding the gate for now, and doing my best to survive. Most people would claim that I wasn't obligated to save others, that I should just run away and think only about myself.

What nonsense. They wouldn't be saying that if they were the ones inside the city, the ones who were facing impending doom. It was so easy to be self-centered and selfish when you weren't the one in danger. Those same self-centered commenters will immediately turn on me and demand that I do my job as a mage-soldier and protect them if they were the ones in the city and seeing the monsters arriving. That I had no right to leave them to die after being provided a military education and taught how to use magic to fight thanks to taxpayers' money.

Honestly, if I was an ordinary person living inside the city, I would be looking to the mages to protect me to. I would be outraged if they were derelict in their duty to stand up for us. Just like how any civilian in my previous world would be furious if the soldiers they relied on to defend their country suddenly ran away when in invading army landed upon their shores. What the fuck was the point of raising and maintaining a military, and blowing large amounts of cash on a defense budget, if the soldiers were too cowardly to defend you?

Great power came with great responsibility. I had lived off other people long enough, now it was time for me to pay my dues.

"Gr…"

I could almost see the first row of monsters approaching. Taking a deep breath, I summoned a horde of Canis Minor, Ursa Minor and Leo Minor, each pack led by Canis Major, Ursa Major and Leo. I also summoned Aries, Capricorn and Taurus. Whatever I could summon, I did at the moment. Then I drew Gan Jiang and Mo Ye.

"Ready, guys?"

They didn't say anything. They didn't have to. We were linked mentally, and they would obey my commands without question. Sometimes it felt lonely, and I wondered if it would be better if they each had their own personality traits and whatnot. But it was certainly convenient when it came to combat, especially with soldiers who would never go against my orders.

Taking a deep breath, I swung Gan Jiang and Mo Ye, unleashing twin waves of black and white mana. The first row of monsters, which were Horned Hares, immediately disintegrated as they were swallowed by the devastating technique.

The bigger, stronger monsters followed in their wake. Dark Apes. Dire Wolves. Ravagers. Scaled Drakes. Dark Panthers.

Even so, I stood strong. And then, I unleashed my small army of Constellation spirits upon them.

"FILLER!"

Excuse me?!

I raised my head and saw a few humans tearing the fabric of time-space open. They were raging and jabbing fingers in my direction, their mouths frothing and their eyes bloodshot as they leveled absurd accusations.

"STOP WITH THIS FILLER!"

"HOW DARE YOU WRITE FILLERS?!"
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"I don't care about some stupid city you never mentioned in the story before!"

"Are you dumb? Who cares about this city?! I only want to know what happens in Jing Tian City and Jing Tian Academy!"

"DON'T WASTE A CHAPTER ON FILLERS!"

I glared at them for a moment, dropped my couple of swords, summoned Orion, and then fired a few arrows at them. The raging commenters shrieked as the azure arrows pierced through them, detonating and reducing them into shreds of skin and blood.

"This is MY story. I will be the one to dictate what I write. And you have no right to decide what is filler and what is not in MY story. If you don't want to read this chapter, then skip it. I have a reason for including it, and it's not my problem if you couldn't care less about my reason. In which case, why are you reading in the first place?"

I believe I was the one writing this story, not the readers. If they weren't satisfied, they can go write their own stories. Constructive criticism was fine and greatly appreciated, by raging flames and nonsensical accusations of "fillers" (when they clearly misunderstand the term) were not. Seriously, fillers referred to non-canonical material that an anime studio made up because they caught up to the manga and needed to create new episodes to continue airing. This story is the canonical, original material. Nowadays, readers just labeled whatever they didn't want to read as fillers, all because the writer wasn't writing what they wanted to read, or they were too impatient to appreciate the bigger picture of the story. Readers' impatience wasn't a flaw in the story. I could understand if they complained about the pacing of my story, but if it was about "fillers" then there was no way I could take them seriously.

And for them to die so easily from low-powered arrows of Orion…I guess it's true what they said. Empty vessels made the most noise.

With the annoying distractions gone, I turned my attention toward the monsters. Taking aim with Orion, I unleashed a volley of arrows that pierced through their ranks. The rank F monsters were obliterated immediately. The higher-ranked monsters were tougher to take down, but even the Dire Wolves found themselves maimed or heavily injured by my numerous arrows. The sheer volume of fire that Orion offered made it almost impossible for them to escape unscathed.

My Constellation spirits, tied to me mentally, knew exactly where I was aiming at, and which areas to avoid. Instead, they watched out for gaps on my flanks and tore through the monsters that tried to ambush me. They descended in a flurry of claws and fangs, ripping and tearing through the surprised horde of monsters.

However, there were far too many monsters. If they were a few thousand rank F monsters, I could probably annihilate them, given enough time, but I could see rank D and rank C monsters coming through. Huge Treeants that manipulated vines and leaves that ensnared my Constellation spirits or cut through them. Salamanders that unleashed gouts of flames that incinerated my smaller soul beasts. Shadow Leopards that melted into the darkness and reemerged to spring surprise attacks on my bigger guys. Even Taurus's armor couldn't fully protect him from vicious slashes.

The sheer numbers of monsters meant that I couldn't kill them all before they reached my position. A Dire Wolf lunged at me, and I was forced to abort summoning an arrow. Picking up Gan Jiang with my right hand, I cleaved the Dire Wolf in half before spinning around and kicking a Dark Ape in its gut. As it staggered, doubling over from my blow, I dismissed Orion and snatched up Mo Ye before decapitating the reeling monster.

Then a Scaled Drake lashed out at me, forcing me to duck. Even as I lowered my head, my swords came up and eviscerated it, causing it to topple over with a screech. I stomped on its head to finish it off before striking at another Dire Wolf.

A sudden gout of flames seared through the area and nearly incinerated me. While I hit the ground and tried to roll away, a Shadow Leopard emerged from the shadows and mauled me. I cursed in agony as blood spurted from my back, along with red-hot pain. Spinning around to confront the Shadow Leopard, I suddenly found my movements restricted as vines from a Treeant caught me, wrapping around my arms and hindering my attack.

Another Shadow Leopard struck and slashed me, causing me to shriek in pain, but I somehow managed to survive its lethal blow. Groaning, I tried to focus on the battle through a crimson haze of agony, only to see flames scorching my surroundings and burning me.

The damned Salamander again.

There were too many rank C monsters. They were ganging up on me now, using the advantage that their sheer numbers afforded them, and bashing through my Constellation spirits using brute force. They instinctively knew that as long as they eliminated me, my Constellation spirits would naturally disappear along with me.

That was why they were bringing the big guns out against me.

Unfortunately for them, they weren't the only ones with big guns.

Lightning exploded around me, searing through the two Shadow Leopards and causing them to recoil in pain. Claws cut through the vines entangling me and I dropped to the ground. Severing the rest of the Treeant's vines with Gan Jiang and Mo Ye, I left my back to the newly materialized White Tiger, who roared and saturated the entire area with lethal lightning.

Even then, he wasn't enough to contend against the sheer number of rank C monsters assaulting my position. The Treeant lumbered over, its branches flailing and smashing through concrete, its attacks leaving small craters on the ground. I wove through its vines and razor leaves, lashing out with my swords when necessary, but careful not to get too close where it could bathe me in acidic sap.

Then Taurus broke free of a bunch of Ravagers and Dire Wolves to reach my position. With a grunt, he unleashed Aldebaran on the Treeant, incinerating it. The rank C wood element monster whirled around with a screech and smacked the giant bull away.

Fortunately, Taurus had bought me the time I needed. Above, Vermillion Phoenix burst into being, fiery meteors unleashed as he spread his wings in a majestic manner. The flaming projectiles slammed into a cluster of Treeants, burning the screeching monsters into ash.

As for the Salamander that was trying to incinerate me, it suddenly found itself hammered down by a gigantic pincer. Cancer slapped it away with 40,000 horsepower, and then unleashed a stream of bubbles that detonated against the flailing Salamander. The water type spell was super-effective, but Cancer's Altarf was even more effective. His gigantic pincer obliterated the Salamander, leaving nothing but blood and scales on the soil.

But more were coming. I could see at least three more Salamanders in the distance, crawling toward us and getting ready to launch their ranged fire spells. Even though Vermillion Phoenix was incinerating another cluster of Treeants, I could see another horde lumbering from the back of the monster swarm, accompanied by a pack of Shadow Leopards.

"Huff…"

Fending off another Shadow Leopard's claws with my swords, I gritted my teeth. Never mind the current fight, I was slightly tired from summoning Draco and using Thuban earlier. I was actually surprised that I could put up such a fight for this duration. Evidently I had become stronger.

Whoosh!

A burst of flames scorched through the ground and incinerated a bunch of my Ursa Major, who were unable to get out of the way in time. Canis Major's jaws opened and he unleashed a devastating Sirius attack that knocked one of the Salamanders off its feet in revenge, but the other two continued to lumber forward. Several of the Shadow Leopards also diverted their direction to deal with him and his dwindling pack. Leo and his surviving Leo Minor intervened – there were so few Leo Minor left – and his Regulus spell smashed through a couple of Shadow Leopards, destroying them.

Another blast of flames incinerated Aries as he was trying to trample upon a pack of Ravagers.

Perhaps I should do something about those Salamanders. Cancer was too slow, and he was busily fending off a bunch of Scaled Drakes at the moment, so I decided to summon Black Tortoise. Hell, I had already begun casting his summoning spell immediately after Vermillion Phoenix. Even though trying to summon and maintain the existences of three Celestial Guardians would be incredibly taxing on me, I had no choice.

If I didn't push myself to my very limits, I would die. No doubt about that.

Fortunately, even as the flames vanished against Black Tortoise's newly conjured water barrier, I spotted a few golden streaks of light arcing from behind me to slam into the two Salamanders. They vanished in a colossal explosion that also consumed the nearby Treeants and lower ranked monsters, cutting a huge swathe of destruction into the horde.

"Excellent job holding the line so far, kid."

Turning around, I spotted a group of adults in armor striding forward, each of them equipped with gleaming, hi-tech weapons. The guy in the lead, someone who looked like a Paladin from some fantasy game, rested his broadsword on his shoulder and grinned at me.

"You can relax now, kid. The cavalry has arrived."

Then the new group of adults charged into the monsters and began obliterating the horde.

Chapter end