novelraw Chapter 170: The Collapse
Chapter 170: The Collapse
The situation inside the building slowly calmed down afterward, though it was less because everyone had regained composure and more because nobody dared to speak anymore.
The only sounds left inside the room were the quiet sobs of children while their parents desperately tried to comfort them despite trembling themselves.
Robert had gone deeper into the building to check on something, he didn’t tell him the details at all. Before leaving, he firmly ordered Eugene to stay beside his mother and make sure nobody inside did anything reckless again.
His father had been unusually persistent about it, and Eugene did not have the courage to argue back. It was not because Robert frightened him, but because he already felt he had disappointed his father enough today.
Meanwhile, the two corpses still lay in the middle of the room surrounded by dried blood. The sight alone was enough to make several people avoid looking in that direction entirely.
Eugene quietly took off his robe and draped it over the bodies. No matter what those men had done, it still was not something children should witness.
After making sure his mother had calmed down slightly, Eugene began to walk around counting the remaining survivors inside the building. The number made his chest tighten painfully.
Only around thirty people were left alive and among them were merely two surviving members of Freebound. Which meant the others were probably already dead.
The nausea from earlier returned immediately.
What will happen to this traveling group now?
The thought alone made him feel dizzy, but before he could spiral further into despair, someone suddenly placed a hand on his shoulder.
When Eugene turned around, he saw Eric standing there together with the two remaining Freebound members from earlier. Their expressions looked far calmer now, though guilt was clearly visible in their eyes.
"We’re truly sorry for what happened earlier," Eric said quietly. "Can you send that apology to your father for us?"
Eugene frowned in confusion. "Why don’t you tell him yourselves?"
One of the men shook his head slowly. "No. We don’t really have the right to face him after what happened."
Then his expression hardened slightly. "And if your father needs bait to help rescue the survivors trapped outside, we’ll do it."
The other man nodded silently beside him.
"Ah, right. My name is Victor," the first man added awkwardly. "And he’s Dustion."
Eugene nodded absentmindedly before all of their attention gradually shifted toward the shattered windows.
Morning had finally arrived. The rising sunlight illuminated the entire desert clearly now, revealing the true scale of the disaster outside.
The screams from before had mostly disappeared, replaced only by the weak cries of wounded survivors stranded in the middle of the open sands, still desperately begging for help.
But the Verdant Devourer remained there. It slowly circled around the open area like a shark surrounding drowning prey, waiting patiently for anyone foolish enough to step outside.
Eugene swallowed hard. Deep in his heart, he already knew the truth. Even if they managed to save one or two people, the others sent as bait would almost certainly die. The amount of people that died would increase instead of decrease as they hoped.
He wanted to say something, anything at all, but it felt as though a giant lump had lodged itself inside his throat.
What if his decisions killed everyone here?
Suddenly, the ground shook violently beneath them.
The ceiling trembled overhead, dust falling everywhere as the entire building groaned loudly. Cracks rapidly spread along the concrete walls while the sound of straining pillars echoed throughout the structure, instantly throwing the survivors back into panic.
Eugene and Eric immediately stepped away from the shattered windows while several people screamed in fear again.
"Is that monster trying to destroy the building?!" Eric shouted furiously, his jaw tightening.
But after several long seconds, the shaking suddenly stopped. Everyone collectively sighed in relief.
"I don’t think so," Eugene muttered while staring outside uneasily. "This feels... different."
And he was right.
A deafening metallic screech suddenly erupted outside, so loud that everyone instinctively covered their ears. The sound was unbearable, like giant pieces of metal being torn apart violently. Then the ground began shaking again, this time far harder than before.
BANG!
A terrifying shockwave exploded through the building.
Eugene was thrown backward violently and slammed against the wall hard enough to knock the air from his lungs. Pain instantly shot through his chest, making him groan as he struggled to breathe. Several of his ribs were probably broken.
The screams that followed afterward were immediate, but this time they sounded completely different from before. The panic was far worse, so intense that Eugene instantly realized something catastrophic had happened.
Slowly, he forced his eyes open and finally understood why.
Half of the building was simply... gone.
The entire side of the structure had collapsed outward, exposing the open desert directly in front of them. Massive chunks of concrete had fallen onto nearby buildings below, crushing them beneath the debris.
Yet the thing that truly terrified everyone had not even appeared fully yet. Something enormous was moving beneath the sand.
Eugene could see its massive shape shifting under the desert floor before it finally rose slightly and let out a deep roar directly in front of the ruined building.
The Verdant Devourer remained completely still afterward.
It simply stared at them. Its enormous eyes slowly observed the survivors one by one, almost as though it was deliberately studying them.
Then, without attacking, the monster slowly disappeared back beneath the sand.
A horrifying realization suddenly settled inside Eugene’s chest. That creature understood they would eventually be forced to leave the building anyway. Because sooner or later, the remaining half would collapse too.
"Eugene! Eugene! Help me!"
His mother’s voice rang through the ruined building, instantly snapping him out of his thoughts as he desperately forced himself to stand despite the sharp pain spreading across his body.
"Mom?! Where are you?!" he shouted frantically while searching through the dust and debris. "Say something again!"
Around him, the other survivors had also started searching for missing family members and friends. Voices filled with panic echoed everywhere while groans of pain could be heard from every corner of the building.
Massive chunks of concrete littered the floor, and the sight alone was enough to make Eugene’s chest tighten, especially when he saw some survivors bleeding from shattered glass or trapped beneath fallen debris while others desperately tried pulling them free.
’What if Mom is buried under them too?’
The thought terrified him more than the Verdant Devourer’s roar from earlier.
"I’m here!"
Eugene immediately turned toward the voice and spotted someone waving weakly at him from behind a pile of broken concrete.
He ran there without hesitation, the pain in his ribs completely drowned out by adrenaline, and the moment he saw his mother alive and conscious, relief hit him so hard he almost collapsed as he pulled her into a tight hug.
"Oh, thank God, you’re okay." Nelly rubbed his back gently despite her trembling hands.
"You disappeared earlier and were so close to the collapsed side of the building. I thought something happened to you."
"Yeah... I’m fine," Eugene muttered shakily.
Most of the survivors had gathered on the right side of the building before the collapse happened.
If they had chosen the other side instead, they would probably all be dead now because the entire left half had completely fallen apart.
"Help me move this first," his mother suddenly said softly.
Eugene separated from the hug and finally noticed that her left leg had been pinned beneath a chunk of debris.
Panic immediately returned.
Using all the strength he had, he pushed the concrete away while his mother cried out painfully in the background. It took several seconds before he finally managed to move it enough to free her leg, but the sight underneath made his face pale.
Her leg had been badly crushed. There was no way she could run like this.
"Oh no... Mom, are you okay? What should we do now? Where’s Father?"
His breathing became uneven again as panic threatened to consume him. Around them, the survivors were struggling just as badly.
Some managed to help each other, but others were impossible to save anymore, their bodies crushed beneath concrete pillars and broken ceilings.
"Hey, hey, it’s okay. We’re alright."
Nelly gently cupped his face to calm him down before slowly letting go.
Despite the pain, she still smiled at him instead of crying.
Eugene quickly wiped away his tears afterward, feeling ashamed of himself for panicking this badly while his injured mother remained calmer than him.
"Mother, I’ll help the others first," he said while ripping part of his shirt apart and tying it tightly around her injured leg to slow the bleeding.
"Yes, son. Take care of yourself too." Her eyes shifted nervously toward the cracked ceiling above them. "This building is unstable now. More debris could fall at any moment."
Eugene nodded before carefully helping his mother move toward a section that still seemed stable enough to hold.
After making sure she was safe for the moment, he immediately began helping the others by lifting broken poles and pushing away chunks of concrete trapping the survivors beneath them.
For those who could not be saved anymore, he silently prayed before moving on.
At the same time, his eyes constantly searched for his father among the survivors.
Robert could not die here yet. The traveling group still needed him. He was their chief, their leader, the one keeping everyone together.
And more than anything else, Eugene simply did not want to lose his father.