Turning away from the destruorris remarked, “This is exactly why I ried to advao the highest positions; I ’t put a value on lives, and would expend all resources possible to save them. I uand in theory that sometimes saving resources is best, but in practice…”

  “That doesly sound like a bad thing, just another perspective that is important,” Viera stated with a smile as she put a f hand on his shoulder.

  Dawn simirly excimed, “All that means is that there aren’t enough people who are strong enough, right? We should all try to work towards that goal so we help everyone more!”

  This remark resulted iire group expressing agreement in one form or another, making Morris smile before he led them baside. Before anyone could sit down or leave, however, another voice came from the spire around them, “All mages above lorentice cssification are requested to aid in the recovery effort. Apprentices are to assemble in teams directed by a high mage. If you do not have one already w with you, head to the base of the spire and wait.”

  “I hope you didn’t exhaust yourselves, as this will likely be somewhat rough, despite how many of us there are. There are only a few spires close enough to the destru to help, the others will be aiding the damaged spires. Let’s get going, and I will expin our roles along the way,” Morris stated, waving them to the doorway.

  Once everyone had emerged bato the hall, Morris waved a hand at the door, resulting in it switg over to locked mode, and then he headed towards the stairs down. As the group followed, he expined, “While earth magic is easily uood, as it is useful for both shifting debris and rebuilding, the other forms are less obvious. In this case, we have flooding, whieeds to be directed to the sewer system, hopefully quickly enough to avoid more deaths. Light is rather clear as well: the rger light spell will fade, aill o be able to see what we are doing. Air magi be used to make sure that air reaches those trapped in the rubble, help clear dust, and provide a cooling breeze to those who are overheating from the work.”

  Morris paused in his expnation to catch his breath before tinuing, “Fire magi be used to provide heat in colder areas, assist with lighting, and boil off water that has been gathered in safe locations. This level of water is beyond what the city is desigo handle, so that will be important as well. Oh, and I almost fot that air magi be used to locate people who are trapped. Given our mix of skills, I will be assisting in the recovery and rebuilding efforts. Thomas, Viera, and Richard will focus on finding and assisting survivors, direg earth mages where to recover people. Miana, Dawn, and Niphru should focus on dealing with the water.”

  As they left the tower, he stated, “Don’t worry too much about the areas close to the spire, roups with less skilled apprentices will hahe lesser issues there. We will be heading towards the heaviest hit areas. Don’t feel like you ’t help along the way, though, if it is quick, easy, or will save lives.”

  Expressing their agreement, the group split up to match the goals he had expined, following his brisk pace toward the outer wall of the city. Along the way, they only stopped thrice, freeing a man from beh a colpsed baly and a woman who was struggling to free her leg while trying to keep her head above the water she was trapped in. Finally, they also put out a small fire before it could grow any rger.

  The dire they headed was clearly a disaster area, with rge, fming ks of meat standing out even from several streets away above the roofs. As they got closer, they began to hear cries for help alongside the sound of falling stone. Upon arrival, there was a swath of partially colpsed buildings, stone fractured and crumbling. In many cases, the colpsed structures formed small cavities that were beginning to fill up with water.

  As they began to split up into their different tasks, there was a groaning noise as one of the massive ks of flesh shifted, the top story of the building it had nded on uo support it any longer. Seds ter, a loud crack echoed out as the walls gave way, allowing the full weight to drop on the first story, shattering it as well. Fortunately, a man escaped out of the front just before it was fttened and, upon seeing them, informed them that he was the only one present in the building.

  Worried about simir occurrehey quickly got to work, with Morris brag himself and dragging stone from the street upward into braces to help hold up the visibly weak areas. Meanwhile, wind whipped through the cracks in the ruined buildings, catg on edges and swirling around. As people or bodies were located, Viera marked their locations with orbs of colored light.

  Miana, meanwhile, focused on the most damaged areas at first, removing the deepest pools of water and bringing them to a crater for Dawn and Niphru to boil off. Soon the markers for survivors began going up, and she shifted focus to each of those areas, trying to ehat none of the survivors drowned while waiting for assistance.

  However, while Morris was still focused on brag the rge ks of exploded monster, one of the buildings with a survivor in it colpsed further. A quick check by Richard brought a frown to his face, and he directed Viera to ge the light to signal that there were no survivors before moving on again. By this point, roups began arriving and spreading out to the nearby streets, w simirly to their own team.

  Occasionally, the crackle of a breaking building rang out; however, Morris was able to stabilize all the buildings in their area that still had survivors. After the arrival of a runner from another area, however, Morris left them to go help elsewhere, instrug them to tinue, with Thomas switg to carefully removing rubble to free those they had located.

  Before Thomas began, however, he took a moment to raise a thin stone bowl from the street on supports, keeping it above the ground. O was capable of holding many dozens of gallons of water, he stopped and quickly began w oask of freeing the survivors. Taking advantage of his struiana moved the water into the tainer as Dawn and Niphru moved their fires below, making use of the heat rising from the fmes rather than only the fmes themselves to speed the boiling process.

  Around half an hour into their work, it began to bee difficult to draw in ambient mana, as it had been nearly pletely drained by the many teams of mages. Luckily, it seemed that the less experieeams closer to the spires had finished, as members of them started to arrive with bags full of charged mana stones. As they raced into the ter of the various areas mages were w at, they pced down their cargo and took off back towards the tral areas.

  Several hours ter, all of the survivors had been evacuated, and corpses were being excavated from the ruins. While this was an unpleasant task, they had at least saved quite a few people who would have otherwise perished iermath. Sometime along the way, the masses of flesh above had ceased burning, their flickering light masked by the bright mage-light hanging above the devastation.

  Eventually, Morris returo the group, expining, “I am sorry for running off. Anroup had their earth mage injured when a structure colpsed a several fragments into him. He made it to a healer, but was uo tinue supp his group, and they had not yet stabilized the areas around the survivors. And rather obviously, I trusted you could hahe rest of this area, just as you did.”

  With his assista only took a few dozen more minutes before all of the deceased were id out on the damaged street, and Morris stopped them, exg, “Alright, we stop; nothing else desperately needs magical assistance for the moment. Everyone has earned a good long bath and sleep, wouldn’t you say? While I’m sure it doesn’t matter for any of you, this will be credited to you, so you won’t o tinue assisting with draining mana to refill the mana stones. This is one of the bes of the hard work at the ter of the destru. Feel free to head back to the spire; I’m going to keep w for a while loo tidy up a bit.”