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Klein drew a breath, and the dust and thick smoke rushing into his nostrils sent him into a fit of coughing.
The round of bombing had long since ended. Now, ruins filled his field of vision. Buildings along the street had collapsed one after another, and fierce fires burned amid the rubble and scattered stones. Blood and death made for a horrifying sight, but there were few cries. It was terrifyingly quiet.
The flames crackled, and the quiet was frightening.
There were some dismembered corpses on the ground, but far more burning strips of cloth and heaps of black, pulpy matter.
After silently facing the devastation for half a minute, Klein gritted his teeth and approached. Doing everything he could to keep his gaze from lingering on those chilling black heaps, he began searching the ruins for survivors.
"Is anyone there! Cough, cough!"
He shouted as he moved through the ruins, beginning to worry about Melissa and Benson.
He wanted to rush over immediately to see whether his brother and sister were safe, but everything before him made it impossible to leave with any peace of mind.
"Is anyone there!"
"Is anyone there!"
His voice echoed alone through the street that had still been bustling just moments earlier.
In truth, however, this was unnecessary. He activated Spirit Vision and scanned the entire stretch of ruins. Countless black Spirit Body Threads drifted limply in the air, their roots attached to a few dying people whose spiritual radiance was almost gone. Faced with this, Klein, a Bizarro Sorcerer, was virtually helpless. He did have a lifesaving skill that transferred injuries, but it could not transfer someone else's fatal wounds.
"Help... me..."
Just as Klein grew so disheartened that he was about to leave, a faint cry came from a gap nearby,