Author's note: Sorry it took long, I got sick yesterday and wasn't feeling good. That being said, hope you enjoy this chapter. Read the note at the end after you have finished reading this chapter please...

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(Carmen’s perspective)

What in the world is this ungodly sound?!

It sounds unlike anything that I’ve heard before! Everyone in the ballroom is covering their ears but it does nothing to stop the horrible sound! It sounds as if it is coming from somewhere below…

The sound then stopped as abruptly as it started. Thank God! But soon after everything started shaking! “EARTHQUAKE! GET SHELTER!” someone shouted.

We all scurried about, some of us standing under door arches while some of us hid under tables. I was among the ones hiding under tables.

Instead of getting weaker, the shaking kept on increasing in intensity! Windows started shattering and the fake ceiling fell hitting a lot of people who had still not taken shelter yet, rendering them either unconscious or dead! I felt bile rising at the sight but I forced it down, no time to get sick I have to stay clear-headed!

All of a sudden, the ballroom doors burst open and a bunch of those green-skinned monsters entered! I immediately went on guard, got out from under the table and prepared myself to fight. A lot of us in the ballroom had been secretly training, even though Ben didn’t want us to train. But how long were we going to sit on our asses and rely on one person? Thus, we had been training for a few weeks now, we especially started training harder ever since Ben got his arm burned…

The few of us who had offensive abilities and were still in a calm state of mind despite the earthquake stood up and prepared to fight; however, instead of the monsters fighting us they simply ran past us and hit the end of the ballroom! There were about 20 or so monsters, but they didn’t seem to want to fight, instead it looked like they were running away from something…?

Before I could process all this, a sudden jerk went through the building and I fell down, and then the building started sinking into the ground! The only way I could tell it was sinking was because I could see the adjacent buildings rising slowly through the windows!

The earthquake seems to be seriously strong! I racked my brains trying to think of a possible way to get out of this, but I could think of nothing at all! And then, I started hearing something out of the ordinary… it sounded like a large crowd was moving on the roads below… and does it sound like this crowd is moving in this direction…?

I saw as the green-skinned monsters left the ballroom because they couldn’t find another exit and ran away as fast as they could, and a bad premonition came to me. First, this massive earthquake, and second, something was making these green-skinned monsters scared to the point that they had to run away…

I suddenly thought of the creatures Ben had told us about from underground and a severe chill ran through my whole body! As if answering my thoughts, the sounds of something climbing the sides of the windows came to me and then they arrived!

They were horrible! I now knew why Ben called these things abominations! They came from all over and their numbers never stopped! They rushed in through the windows, they came in from the ballroom entrance and some even came straight through the ground!

In just a few moments we were all surrounded! We tried our best at fighting back, but despite all our recent training we couldn’t do anything! I threw anything sharp I could see but everything just bounced off their skin harmlessly!

Then, they started attacking back! I couldn’t even realize what happened before all around me people were dead by either being burned alive, or impaled by earth or ice spikes or cut apart by wind attacks!

The few of us left kept trying to fight back but it was to no avail. These abominations didn’t even finish things off quickly and let our attacks hit them, as if mocking us! They then slowly started picking us off one by one, some of the lucky ones got killed quickly by getting their heads cut off while the unlucky ones were eaten alive right in front of me!

Soon, I was the only one left alive! Everyone else had been killed off in less then two minutes! I backed away into a corner and my only hopes were on Ben…

He had saved me once before, he could do it again somehow right? I didn’t trust him, but he had kept us safe all this time hadn’t he? He had taken care of a similar situation before when we were all surrounded by the green-skinned monsters, he could do it again!

In my desperation I screamed “BEEEENNNNNN!” at the top of my voice and shut my eyes hoping for a miracle… but there was no reply… the only sounds I could hear were the abominations coming closer and closer…

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(MC’s perspective)

I had decided to try and save them.

Logically speaking, there was no reason for me to save anyone at all. I had taken all abilities from them already and they would all be dead-weight anyways, slowing me down. Despite all reasoning screaming at me to abandon them all and just escape while I still can, there was one thing that made me decide to save them…

This was all my fault. I had been driven by revenge over my burned arm and didn’t think of any consequences at all. I didn’t study whether these creatures were like the ogres who would not bat an eye over their dead comrades or if they had some sort of pack-mentality. Even after I killed the abomination, I was too focused on drinking its blood for my own gains instead of thinking about stopping it from dripping onto the floor. It was definitely the blood of their own that had started this uprising…

That being said, I won’t risk my own life trying to save them. First priority was my own survival after all. If they were in a hopeless situation I would leave them and escape. If they were already dead… too bad for them. Hopefully they got a quick, painless death…

I dove down into the carnage below quickly. The building had already sunk far enough that the sixth floor which had the ballroom was now just two stories above ground. I could see the place crawling with the abominations who had most probably already killed everyone off, but I could at least check and confirm if there were any survivors.

I entered through a broken window and saw the ballroom completely covered with the abominations! There were a few people still left fighting over in a corner, including Carmen, but they were quickly going down. I saw as in a space of five seconds, ten of the others were killed off in a number of different ways, the best being a quick beheading while the worst being eaten alive! I cringed as I saw two of the guys screaming at the top of their lungs while they were eaten alive… the abominations even started eating them from their legs, prolonging their torture!

Soon enough only Carmen was left as she backed away further into a corner. She was completely surrounded by the abominations on all sides and would soon be dead. I felt a bit sad, but there was nothing I could do without putting myself in danger. I was still using my hiding presence, so I could easily sneak off and fly away. Sure, I had a few feelings for Carmen, but it wasn’t love, just simple attraction, I would feel a bit sad over her and then be able to move on..

I turned around to fly away, but before I could I heard a shout from behind me…

“BEEEEENNNNNNN!”

My heart sank. The desperation in that single shout moved my emotionless heart, and before I knew it I rushed at top speed over to Carmen! My brain was screaming at me to turn around and not bother with her, and while I knew that was the smarter thing to do I couldn’t just leave her behind after I heard her desperate shout!

I reached her in a split second and lifted her straight through the ceiling while covering her body with mine! I continued rising through ceilings for four more floors while Carmen screamed in my arms. I then shouted at her to shut up and that it was me, and then I moved through the floor at top speed and smashed straight through the end of the hallway and out of the building. I had no time to use windows and the building was doomed anyways, so smashing through the walls using my steel-skin and super-strength seemed like the smartest idea to quickly get out of the building.

However, it felt like I had stepped out of the frying pan and straight into the fire after smashing through the building’s wall! I was completely invisible through hiding presence, but Carmen was not. She was completely visible for all monsters to see in the broad daylight, and to make matters worse I had smashed through the wall, alerting every single monster in the vicinity to look up.

It took barely a second before a number of elemental attacks headed straight for us! I flew at top speed and avoided them, but soon more and more attacks came. They were actually targeting the area in front of us with their elemental attacks and their aims were pretty accurate! This is how they must have shot down all avian monsters in the area…

Shaking my head to get rid of such useless thoughts, I concentrated everything I had on dodging, but it was just too difficult! There were just too many of them! Plus, they were attacking from every direction and covering a large area with their attacks! I hugged Carmen as close as possible while I felt wind-blades, earth spikes and ice spears hit my body. I used my newly gained ability of elemental control to try and stop attacks from reaching us, but there were just too many attacks! Therefore, I simply concentrated on the most dangerous of them all, the fireballs. I concentrated as much as I could on stopping any fireball from reaching us, and so far none of them had hit us thankfully.

There was another problem though, I couldn’t fly at a high enough altitude to clear the rooftops of these high-rise buildings, therefore I had to maneuver my way through all of them, making my progress slower. On top of it all, the ground was still shaking and as a result a lot of buildings were still dropping shards of glass and huge stones, forcing me to dodge them at the same time as I dodged the attacks from below.

I cursed myself for getting in this predicament, and the thought of dropping Carmen below and escaping ran through my mind more then once, but I preserved. I didn’t feel many emotions, but I wasn’t someone to drop a person to their death just because it was inconvenient for me! So, I dodged, weaved, concentrated and did just about anything I could to try and make sure both of us survive.

Soon, we cleared the buildings and reached the suburbs! The lack of buildings made the monsters below spot us more easily, but at the same time I could move a lot faster and didn’t have to worry about the falling debris from the buildings.

I kept flying at top speed in a zigzag pattern to avoid getting hit from their surprisingly accurate elemental attacks. It took a few minutes for me to get out of the city, but even here the ground was covered with the abominations! Thus I continued flying and dodging…

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It took what felt like hours, but in reality must have been around 20 or so minutes, before the ground below finally got abomination-free!

We were well out of the city now and I could see the ground below was no longer completely lifeless as the city had been. There were a few animals here and there, and I could see birds and avian monsters in the distance… it seemed like we were finally away from the area of the abominations!

I slowed down as I didn’t want to attract the attention of the avian creatures in the distance and start another battle, and dropped down to a height of about 4 meters above ground. I didn’t want to land on the ground just yet for the risk of abominations still present underground was in my mind…

“Hey Carmen, we are finally away. We survived!” I exclaimed happily and turned off my hiding presence ability as I pulled Carmen away from my body to look at her face. She had been surprisingly quiet throughout the time I was flying, which was strange as it couldn’t have been easy for her getting to terms with flying at such heights supported by seemingly nothing as I was completely invisible to her.

She didn’t answer though, and I examined her face and saw that her eyes were closed completely. Was she perhaps still terrified, or had she gone unconscious while I flew at such high speeds…?

I shook her and called her name again, but there was still no answer. I felt a shiver run throughout my entire body and I started examining her closely. Her chest wasn’t rising up and down at all! I put my hand on her neck to feel a pulse… but nothing!

My mind went blank! What’s going on? How can she be dead…? I looked at her body, but couldn’t see anything… I turned her around and then I saw it. The end of an earth spike was sticking out of her lower back. It had most probably severed her spine…

After all that… I couldn’t even save her. Why did I even bother…? I felt my eyes tear up and I almost dropped Carmen’s lifeless body down in shock! I hadn’t cried for over 12 years, I hadn’t shed a tear when my entire family was killed… why was I crying over someone I barely knew…?

And then I realized the answer. It was because I had basically killed her… First I made the abominations rise up due to selfish reasons, then I almost left her for dead and finally when I did try and save her I didn’t think about her much. I only concentrated on stopping the fireballs which could hurt me, but I let the other elemental attacks hit me because I knew they couldn’t hurt me because of my abilities. I didn’t even think about how they could still hurt Carmen…

I hovered 4 meters in the air, and for the first time in a dozen years I actually cried. Not because someone had died, but because for the first time in my life I had practically killed someone...

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Author's note (2): I put this at the end here so that you guys could finish reading the chapter first. I have a few things to discuss:

1) I was surprised by the concerns last chapter about me creating a world filled with these monsters from underground. Obviously I won't do that! It would make the story completely monotonous! Think of it as a sort of monster area like in RPG games, where a particular area is filled with a particular type of monster. This city the MC was in just happened to be the underground monsters domain... He left their domain at the end of the chapter, and thus in the future a lot of different types of creatures will enter the story.

2) I can already feel some of you will not like the fact that the MC tried to save them. The MC is logical, yes, and has a dampened emotional state, but that doesn't make him completely inhumane! That being said, I did try to make his thought-process reflect his logical side... hope I succeeded...?

3) Carmen's death. It was planned to happen from the start... everyone in the ballroom was supposed to die. That's why I didn't develop their characters much and didn't even name a lot of them! This was done to develop the MC's character a bit. The development will be revealed in the next few chapters, but one thing I guarantee is that he won't suddenly become emotional and try and save everyone or something like that...

4) I have just killed off everyone except the MC, does this mean I am not going to add more characters? The answer is no, more characters will come soon and this time they will be permanent characters with more character development. For those of you wanting a romantic relationship, you guys will have to wait... sorry! I just don't see the possibility of romance blooming in a hurry when the first thing running through everyone's mind is how to survive. That being said, the female lead will also enter soon, though remember this fiction doesn't have the harem tag and never will!

Those were some things I thought I should say after this chapter to reveal a bit of my thought process and to address any concerns you guys might have. Let me know what you thought of this chapter, and of the fiction so far!

As always, thank you very much for reading! :)