"Are a couple named Simon and Lydia Caddel still inside?"

"I don't know, I'm just a chef. I will say that VIPs were escorted out before most of the staff after the initial earthquake. There were still customers inside when the kitchen blew up the entire building. No one who escaped left the area. It's just us."

Rob drops next to me, but instead of comically shattering on impact, I [Martyr] the damage allowing him to get to work.

Rob's [Sense Life] - and his various shovel-based skills - make him a one-skeleton rescue operation.

I hold my breath as Rob makes his initial prognosis.

He counts over a dozen living people trapped in the rubble and starts getting to work. He conjures a shovel for me, stabs through the concrete, and almost effortlessly moves it away.

I grab the tool and join in. Duchess uses her [Telekinesis] to support when necessary. I have Prometheus put out the nearby fires with his [Swallow] ability.

Khan doesn't have the finesse for such an operation. Even though I want him to help, he might make things worse. We don't need more natural disasters.

As my emotional support rock, Flash Gordon doesn't need to do much except be there for me, something he can accomplish in his sleep.

I know Rob can sense how "vibrant" the life is, but I am unsure if Rob can identify people using his ability.

Halfway through uncovering whoever Rob is digging for, a presumed bodyguard approaches me.

"Sir, I can't wait for emergency services any longer. Someone inside needs me. If you have any extra tools, I'd like to help."

I don't answer him. I look over at Rob, and he spreads out his fingers.

Shovel after shovel materializes in his hand as he lines them out on the sidewalk for anyone to grab. The bone shovels are heavy-duty. With the appropriate strength, you can split concrete.

The rest of the guards - even the heavily injured ones - pick up a shovel and start digging. The only problem is that they don't know where to start.

I found a use for Khan. I have one of his bodies hovering over where Rob points out a living person.

When Rob pointed out the living people, I was hopeful. But that hope started to waiver when the first person we uncovered wasn't either of my foster parents.

Some random lady on the verge of death, shrapnel from the explosion liters her body. Her wounds aren't bleeding because the concrete dust packed her wounds shut.

I give her the minimum healing to stabilize and have someone else move her away. They can continue healing or medical shenanigans, but I'm not wasting more mana than I need to.

Honestly, if I didn't have the [Life Bringer] title - a title that makes healing others more efficient - I wouldn't even bother healing anyone until my foster parents are uncovered.

Duchess took up the task and causally moved them using her magic. Since she can apply force over the entire person, she can move them like they are on a gurney.

The following person we uncovered was as on the verge of death as the last person. A bodyguard-looking fellow - fully conscious - has twelve inches of rebar piercing through his chest.

If his heart was half a beat faster, his heart would've been clipped. I bet the feeling of your heart beating against a foreign body is something that no man - no matter how tough - is prepared for.

Blood mixed with rubble dust foams out of his mouth as his eyes show a mix of pleading and relief. He tries to speak, but gurgling noises are the only sounds escaping his throat.

He'd be dead if we arrived a minute later. What a hardy guy.

Ripping him out would force me to waste mana if I don't want a murder charge... I have Prometheus melt the rebar rod an inch from the entry and exit points.

I stand him up regardless of his broken legs, pop out the piece of metal in his chest, and give him the minimum treatment. Duchess airlifts this one out onto the street also.

Every second that passes hurts. It's not like I can barrel through the rubble to find my foster parents. If I make a mistake in my haste and injure them beyond healing, I'd don't think I'd be able to stay sane.

I'm feeling a deep dread. If I- When I find my foster parents if my [Heal Anything] fails me, I-I don't want to talk about this hypothetical anymore.

One of the bodyguards that started digging with us abandoned his post to oversee the "patients." It seems that they have first-aid skills.

I'd rather have him keep digging. Those people will be fine for the next hour, minimum.

Rob is about to dig up the next person, but I hear someone shout, "We got one!"

I scramble over, stumbling in my urgency. The scene before me makes it hard to breathe. It feels like I'm falling off a cliff in my own body.

My foster father, face down on the ground, has roughly half his body crushed by a large chunk of debris.

His entire bottom half, from the pelvis down, is ground meat. A guard attempts to move the large chunk of debris, crushing my foster father, so I punch him in the face.

"That's the only thing keeping his organs from spilling out, you fucking imbecile!"

The guard falls backward, clutching his jaw, and tries to say something. I ignore him. I'm passed that now.

I kneel next to my foster father and attempt to stabilize him. It's hard to tell if he's still alive, but [Scientific Insight+] doesn't show him as an object but as a person.

[Simon Caddel Lv.50

Critical Condition.]

Please.

My mana leaves my body in a rush.

Fuck. Please.

The healing goes through but leaves just as quickly. It's like trying to catch water with a fishing net.

It's not enough. I don't have enough in me.

I use [Broken Blood]. My health drains to refill my mana. Everything goes into healing my father. It still isn't enough.

Mana left me as soon as it came in, allowing me to cycle the ability once more. It hurts. I can feel my life force strain. The crack that I buried resurfaces.

I need a little more. If I end it here, my foster father can wake up in a few minutes, but regaining the ability to walk would be a shot in the dark. Regenerative magic for half of his body would be costly and improbable.

I wouldn't be able to look my mother in her face if I didn't do the most I could for my foster father.

I kick the rock crushing his lower half to the side. He's in no danger of dying without it, but now it's in the way.

I dig deep and push myself harder. I almost gave up, but the conversation I had with Master Wang earlier in the day rang out in my head.

"Is your life force better?"

"It hurts when I strain myself."

"Ah, that's normal with age. Just tough it out."

I grit my teeth. My mouth fills with blood. I can feel my bones dry out, but I endure. Fuck it. Fuck death. Death has nothing on me.

Instead of being a smear, my foster father's lower half forms into some more like ground beef in the rough shape of body parts. The bones are shards, the meat is barely connected, and he might've lost a few inches in height.

If I didn't do this now, I wouldn't have a base to heal in the future. The ability is [Heal Anything], not [Heal Nothing]. Maybe it could still work, but that doesn't mean I'm willing to risk it to a 'maybe.'

He's not leaking blood. I can see him breathing. I did it. Thank fucking god I did it.

The sense of relief is almost enough for me to ignore the leaky plug that reopened. I'm just going to tough it out until it gets fixed.

I also feel a deep sense of guilt. If I didn't put it off and given my gifts earlier - like I contemplated - my foster father wouldn't have been in such a terrible condition.

My dwindling sense of relief is immediately replaced with urgency as a single question pops up.

But where's Mom?

"Ellis? Ellis, is that you?"

My foster father's eyes open with a tremble. His voice is hoarse like he's hiding the pain he's feeling in front of his child. He manages enough strength to grab my arm. To reassure me or to prove he's not imagining things, I don't know.

"It's me. I'm here."

"Ellis, are you alright? You aren't hurt, are you? Where's your mother? What about your sister?"

"I'm fine. I don't know where Mom is, same with Val. Val can handle herself. I know it. I worry for you two."

"It happened all so fast... Where's the guard?"

"Can you tell me what happened? Which guard?"

I gesture for Rob to come over and start digging out this area.

"I don't, I don't... It's hard to remember. After the earthquake, we started evacuating the building in case of aftershocks. Then I guess a gas line blew, or whatever enchantments the kitchen uses, and everything fell around us."

I'm feeling woozy.

"We were near the kitchen. It was a consuming blast of fire. One of our bodyguards put himself in harm's way. I tried to shield your mother, but he blocked the explosion. Another guard was next to your mother. Then I... then your mother disappeared?"

Rob uncovered the burnt remains of who I assumed protected my parents. A goddamn hero. If he weren't pieces of carbon on bones, I would've tried to resurrect him.

"I think the guards mentioned something about that, but... I... Fuck. Sorry, son. It's getting harder and harder to think right now."

"It's alright. I'll travel to the ends of Iona if it means finding my mother."

"Find your sister while your at it, hehe *cough*."

[You know, it was probably teleportation magic.]

"Huh?"

[Thisss one believes your kin was teleported to a presumably safe area. Why your father of foster did not go with escapes thisss one.]

"I'm going to scour this area before making assumptions. But, god, I hope so."

I quickly check my phone, but the service is still out. This phone is absurdly expensive, but it still doesn't have independent peer-to-peer lines of communication.

[If thisss one's magic was more refined, thisss one could theoretically hijack radio waves. They fall under the electromagnetic spectrum.]

"I don't need a science lesson right now. Duchess, I know you are trying to console me in your own way, but I don't need it right now. Not right now."

My foster father was put with the rest of the injured for the time being. I want the guy with the first-aid skills to do his part before I take my foster father somewhere safe.

Rob and I focused on where my foster father was found, searching for any trace of my mother.

We found burned and buried dead bodies. None are my mother. We found a very grateful living patron. We found something that back's Duchess' idea, or rather the lack of something.

The other guard is also nowhere to be found. My foster father said there was another guard near my mother when the explosion happened, and there was no trace of them.

I'm about to move on and continue the search elsewhere, but I hear a voice that makes me perk up.

"MOM! DAD! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!"

My foster sister Val caked in blood and dust, bow in hand, yells over the rubble.

"ELLIS, I KNOW YOU'RE HERE! I SEE YOUR DAMN BEASTS!"

I walk up some rubble so my foster sister can easily spot me. Once her eyes are trained on me, I point over where my foster father is getting more medical treatments.

She rushes over as I make my way there as well.

"Oh, god."

"High darling. I'm alright. Your brother got to me just in time."

"You're far from alright! Ellis, fix him!"

"I did the most I could. I'm also out of mana."

"Here's a mana potion. Fix dad better."

I'm not going to say no to that. I drink the potion and feel incredibly ill. I try to keep it in, but I uncontrollably vomit off to the side.

My body is rejecting the foreign mana. More accurately, it can't handle an artificial injection after what I've just been through.

"Holy shit, Ellis. Did you strain yourself that much?"

"This sucks. If you have one, feed a health potion to our father. I'll handle any healing complications later."

"Alright, then we'll have to move him somewhere off the street... Ellis, where's mom? Don't tell me-"

"The working theory is that a guard managed to teleport away with her. We need to find her asap because I'm still dreading the worst-case scenario."

"Alright. Alright."

"Also, I have a safe place we can take him. Duchess, can you bring the door over?"