I let out a deep sigh as I relaxed, watching the last Anomaly crash down onto the ground after I punched a hole in its torso.

My first thought after that was to fly back to the portal to make sure that the other Anomalies there were also dealt with until I fished out my phone to see a message from Ava telling me that they had dealt with all the Anomalies on their side.

Funny... An elf mage using a mobile... There’s a joke in there somewhere.

With the immediate threat dealt with, I took a look around the place and couldn’t help but frown at what I saw.

Despite everyone’s best efforts, the defense was not without casualties nor damage to the city.

I was not able to be everywhere and anywhere all at once so the Anomalies still managed to breach the perimeter of the city and knocked down several buildings before they were stopped.

There were some bodies that littered the street which we would need to cremate quickly before they turned into Anomalies themselves.

If I wasn’t here to suppress the transformation with my aura, the dead bodies would have already transformed at this point.

Still... Even though you could say that the Anomalies did minimal damage compared to what could have happened if I wasn’t here... It’s still a fact that there were casualties.

Shouts, alarms and even the anguish cries of the survivors still echoed through the air around the city.

A short distance away from me, I saw a woman holding the hand of a man laying at the side of the street while crying her eyes out. In his hands was a broken shield which did not protect him from the Anomaly that struck him.

Further down, several men were hunched over the remains of a mangled body that was missing its bottom half, their faces stern as one of them slowly tossed the match that lit the body on fire.

At the end of the street...

At the end of the street was an overturned minibus... With what looked like school backpacks scattered around it and blood pooling under the bus.

If I had been stronger... I might have been able to prevent those deaths too...

I clenched my fists, trying to hold back that sense of helplessness that washed over me and that sense of guilt for not being able to save everyone.

I need to get stronger...

I should have been stronger...

I...

"Someone, help!"

A cry came from somewhere to the side and I immediately turned towards the source of the sound.

There was a guy that was hunched over a slab of concrete, trying to lift it up from the floor.

I did not question it and immediately went over to stand beside him.

Without a word, I bent down and gripped on the edge of the slab, lifting it up off the ground easily.

A groan came from underneath and I realised that within a small crevice amongst the rubble underneath the concrete slab was a child that managed to survive being crushed as the rubble had managed to hold up the slab from crushing him.

The man quickly pulled the child out and hugged him to his chest before turning to me to bow to me repeatedly.

"Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

I gave him a nod before I dropped the concrete slab back on the ground.

The sound of the concrete slab falling back on the ground seemed to be some sort of trigger as the cries of help started reverberating around the city.

I realised that the fight between us and the Anomalies might be over, but my work was not done yet.

I steeled myself and started flying towards the closest cry for help, this one coming from a few people trying to move an overturned car.

I pushed it back up on its wheels before pulling off the door that was jammed shut, allowing the woman trapped inside free.

A building nearby was on fire and while I wasn’t sure if there were anyone inside, I felt it would be a good idea to put out the fire anyway.

For this, I made use of that heat absorption ability I got from that other guy, which I wasn’t even sure was going to work until I tried it.

I raised my hand to thrust it into the fire, letting the heat from the flames move into my body to start putting it out.

I initially wanted to shoot off the heat into the air as a gout of flames but I had the idea to try and absorb it into my core instead.

Surprisingly, that worked so I just absorbed the rest of the fire into my core to put it out.

Once the fire was out, I realised the only occupant that had been inside was a small cat that was hiding in a corner of a room where the fire had yet to reach.

It was shivering in fear and since it wasn’t safe in this building, I tried to bring it out with me. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

I was worried it might strike at me in fear but it surprisingly leapt into my arms when I approached, cuddling itself against my chest and allowing me to fly it out of the building with me.

There was a woman on the street who let out a shriek when she saw me, rushing towards me with her arms outstretched.

"Oh you’re alright! You’re alright!!"

The cat in my arms meowed at her and I figured she was the owner so I handed the cat over.

She took it and bowed repeatedly just like the other guy, "Thank you!! Thank you so so so much!!"

I nodded at her as well, not stopping for small talk as I simply moved on to the next area that needed help.

Slowly, I became lost in the work as I simply let my body move on autopilot.

I was pulling people out of collapsed buildings, putting out fires by absorbing them, clearing out roads of rubble for emergency personnel to move through and also gathering the corpses for the friends and families to say their final farewells before they are cremated.

Or, in quite a number of cases where they had no relatives nearby... I left it for the authorities to handle identifying the bodies and contacting their next of kin before disposing of the bodies.

We could not risk any of the corpses transforming into Anomalies so there was no option but to burn all the bodies that we have found here.

Each time I uncovered a body to bring over to the grieving families, I was expecting people to berate me or insult me for not being strong enough to prevent it.

Yet surprisingly... What I got in return was gratitude from them as they thanked me for protecting everyone else and letting them see their loved ones one last time.

I would have thought that they were just afraid that being rude to me would result in their deaths as well since I was, at the end of the day, still a Mortal God.

But the looks in their eyes and the tone of their voice suggested that they meant every word they said.

I didn’t know how to deal with that so I just kept on doing what I was already doing, trying to help wherever I could.

I don’t know if it was just because of the guilt that I felt from not being able to save everyone... Or it was because my mind was still not caught up with processing everything that was going on... But time around me seemed to pass in a blur and before I knew it, the sky was dyed orange from the sunset.

Even if I wanted to do more, I don’t think there was anything else I could do to help as the rest had to be done by professionals restoring the damaged city back to normal.

I found myself standing at one of the streets, watching a pair of electricians working on restoring a power line while another pair of workers hooked up a crushed car to a tow truck to be driven away.

Just off to the side, some construction workers were already working on hauling debris to clear the streets to restore it back to working order.

There were a few locals around and they kept a respectful distance away, though most of them gave me thankful bows before moving on in which I returned with a curt nod.

Someone stepped up beside me and I didn’t need to look to know who it was.

"Always trying to be the hero eh?" Dan chuckled.

I paused for a moment, wondering if I could even be called that after all the people I failed to save today.

"How’s your family?" I asked.

"Safe. Thanks to you."

"You were the one that protected them though."

"Would have been worse if you weren’t here."

"... Perhaps..."

"Come on now. The dead would have turned into Anomalies. There is no way the people here could have protected the city if we had turned into Anomalies."

I could not refute that.

He looked like he was going to pat me on the shoulder but stopped himself, probably realising that doing that would make people realise he knew me personally since a normal person would definitely not be touching a Mortal God so casually.

He settled for shooting me a grin instead, "Anyway, don’t you have other work to do? Should you really be slacking here?"

I couldn’t help but grin back at him, though he couldn’t see it because of my mask, "Enjoy your vacation, Dan."

"Yeah, I will. Beats needing to camp inside a rift. Poor you."

"Fuck you."

"Suck on it. If I’m still in Chiang Mai when you’re done, call me and we’ll go get some food."

Never change, Dan.