Chapter 29: Ashen Dawn Rises: The Chaos Forest Incident
The test tower of the Elemental Excellence Academy had fallen silent. The students were gone, and only the instructors remained. One by one, they filed into the surveillance room, grim-faced and tense. Instructor Lucius, tall and commanding with eyes sharp as blades, stepped forward and asked, "How's everyone doing in there?"
On the magical monitors, the workers appeared uneasy, their hands trembling, eyes darting around in panic.
Minutes passed in silence.
Lucius's voice cracked like thunder. "I asked—how are they doing?"
The workers froze. One of them, a thin man with sunken cheeks, stepped forward, his voice barely more than a whisper.
"Sir... we... we can't locate the students on magical surveillance. The device is functioning properly inside the dimension, but... the students... they never arrived. And..." He swallowed hard, "We've lost signal from the teleportation tokens."
Lucius's eyes narrowed. His voice roared through the room. "What did you say?"
"Calm down, Father," a firm, commanding voice cut through the rising panic.
Emilia, his daughter, and one of the academy's most gifted instructors, stepped forward. Her presence was sharp and controlled, her tone breaking no argument. "Half of you, check the teleportation array. The rest—come with me. We're inspecting the portal. Father, go with them."
Without waiting for a response, she strode toward the portal chamber, her boots echoing ominously on the stone floor. Upon reaching the portal, her expression shifted. Her senses flared—this wasn't an ordinary anomaly.
"The portal's locked," she muttered, eyes narrowing. "The energy radiating from it... this is a high-ranking dimension."