Ross watched with teary eyes as Julia broke down on the floor and cried her eyes out.
He had already searched every room in this place but found no traces of Alex, whatsoever.
'Alex is really gone.'
He struggled to hold back his own tears and refused to believe that he was dead. Alex had survived a cosmic mana wave once, he could do it again.
*WHOOSH*
Ross turned around to the entrance and saw multiple people arrive.
Among those who appeared were the Principal, Seraph Yiny, and a few of their instructors with Horvey Doe on the list.
Their expressions were ugly to look at as the consequences of what had just happened would have been unimaginable if the veil tear hadn't disappeared the way it did.
Only then were they able to make their way to the location where the system detected the veil tear.
Imagine their surprise when it was in the room of one of their star students, and Alexander for that matter.
"What happened here?"
Seraph turned to Ross with serious eyes after glancing at the crying Julia.
She and the others didn't need to be geniuses to know why Julia was crying, but they still needed to understand what happened.
But before Ross could even open his lips to talk, another presence arrived at the scene.
"James?"
The principal was shocked to see the personal aid of Julia in the academy. But it wasn't that surprising considering James was her assigned guard.
In built in the safety protocol of her watch was an alarm system that would prompt him the moment it detected something wrong with Julia.
James ignored everyone and went to cater for Julia.
'Thank god nothing happened to her,' He sighed in relief and carried Julia off the floor.
Then he also turned to Ross, his gaze clear on what he wanted. Alex was nowhere to be seen and that was strange, considering they always moved together.
Left with no choice, Ross explained to the people what happened.
He began is explanation from when Alex found a way after their void creature experience, going to Academic City to procure the void core and how it all led to that moment.
"Why didn't you guys report this? You could have said something and the academy would have helped."
Instructor Horvey was the one to speak as he was there when Alex behaved strangely. But to think that was what it was, was a blow to him.
It meant his students didn't trust him enough to tell him what they planned.
"It doesn't matter. No one could have predicted something like this could have happened. Just like Ross mentioned, all they wanted was to test their theory before saying anything.
"Have you ever heard of a core causing the emergence of a veil tear before?"
James defended the kid. He understood their train of thought as he had been with them long enough to know how they did things.
What's more, there had never been an incidence where a veil tear appeared as a result of a void core.
There was something they were missing and without evidence, everything was just conjecture.
Now, the bigger question was: where was Alexander?
The veil tear seemed to have displaced him from the planet to who knows where. He could be anywhere in the universe at this point.
And even if he survived the displacement like he had before, what about the cold vacuum of space, the void creatures and other monsters out there in the universe.
"Hm… This is bad."
Seraph could already foresee a major headache coming on. They needed to find Alex, dead or alive. He was too important to leave to his fate.
'Where do we even begin to search for him?'
"What about his watch? Did he have it on him?"
James asked Ross who already had tears falling.
'Crap. The kid is already blaming himself for what happened. This could crush him.'
James observed with a serious face and gritted teeth.
Julia on the other hand, was still hiccupping in his embrace. She was already feeling exhausted from the amount of tears she had already shed.
'Lord Zol is going to have my head for this. And why didn't their tails report anything?'
He knew he was being unreasonable as those guys were only tasked with protecting the kids in the shadows, and not to interfere in their daily affairs.
"Y-Y-yeah. H-he still had his watch own."
Ross stuttered, finding it difficult to bring out the words. His state of mind was a mess right now.
'I should have listened to what Julia was saying! She knew something was not right, yet we went on anyway!'
He bit his lips in anger, the survivor's guilt already crushing his psyche. He didn't want to think about what Alex could be going through right now. He was too scared to even think about it.
Seraph took Ross's word and then turned to one of the instructors who nodded in understating and then bolted off to carry out the instructions.
The chances were low, but it was all they had at the moment.
Locating someone via his device was something only in the hands of their family as they needed to know the whereabouts of their loved ones from time to time and of course, the government.
But the government only resulted to this when they needed to find someone as soon as possible or if the said person was in danger.
After all, they had better things to do than to track the movements of everyone in the empire. We were talking about billions on billions of people.
Turning back to Ross, Seraph approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Kid, don't blame yourself for what happened to your friend. None of you foresaw any of this.
"We will do everything in our power to find him, but for now, why don't you retire to your room."
Ross nodded with a lowered head and clenched his fists, feeling useless at this moment. He raised his head to look at James carrying Julia in his arms.
'She's already exhausted herself.'
James gave Ross a nod, agreeing with the principal's words. There was nothing he could do for now.
He had already described to them what occurred and was now up to the adults to do their thing.
With nothing else to do, Ross turned around and eschewed himself. But there was one thing at the back of his mind, and that was that things would never be the same ever again.
'How am I going to face his parents?'
This was what he was dreading at the moment.
In any case, Alexander Grey was gone, and no one knew where he was.