[Hoo boy, he might as well explain, at least partially.]

Yeah. There's something in my world called Black Iron Syndrome. Basically, pretty much every living thing in the vicinity of some fucked up magic gets turned to metal, rendering them effectively dead. The government's pretty intent on covering these incidents up, but I'd wager the casualties are probably at around tens of thousands at the least.

[It's all said so matter-of-factly that you'd think he's talking about the weather report, honestly. But in other words:]

There's a limit to how much one person can do.