“I’m sorry, what do you mean they are just gone?” Cal said as they got closer to Earth and his mana spirit was able to reach him again.


    “What we’ve determined so far was that when all of their mana spirits manifested inside of the school, something happened with the fabric of the reality there. Andrew and Libby believe it was tied to the nature of some of the mana spirits,” Fulginanis explained. Cal’s stomach dropped. He shouldn’t have left the voidhouse until this was done. This was his fault.


    “What do you think happened to them?” He asked next, terrified of the answer.


    “We are reasonably sure they are alive. Dennis, and Bug has confirmed she believes it really was Dennis who appeared to get Ethel and Alfred away from the school before it happened, apologized, promised they’d be fine, and vanished. Ethel is not taking it well,” Fulginanis replied


    “Okay, we will be back in an hour. I’ll figure out what to do once we get there,” Cal said. He had had this whole conversation in his head as he looked more and more confused, the others staring at him.


    “Everything okay?” Andy asked, his voice full of concern.


    “No, not even a little. Something happened with the kids, and the school Ethel built vanished with them and others inside. Apparently, this just happened, and they are trying to figure out who is missing while Andrew and Libby determine the why. Ethel is panicking. Any chance we can get there faster?” Cal asked.


    “Yeah, you’re lucky my fuel and credit supply resets on a loop, but I can’t make it that much faster,” Twonger answered.


    Half an hour later and Cal was standing in the situation room. “Okay what do we know so far? How many people are gone?” Cal asked.


    “So far we can’t account for any the children, four capybara, all of my teaching staff, including Sarah and her kids, Captain Lightspeed, Cindy Hopper, Serilina and her cat, Many Eyes, Many Legs, and several of the other people Bug got to surrender, and one of the ogres,” Ethel answered.


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    “Wait, Serilina and Mr. Wiggles are with them?” Bill asked.


    “Yes, does that somehow make this worse?” Ethel responded.


    “No, much better. Okay, that message you said a future Dennis dropped off, now I really really believe it’s true. That cat of hers has some weird powers. It’s not really a cat,” Andy answered.


    “Okay, well, I suppose that’s good news. Do we have any idea where they went?” Cal asked, looking at the faces of the people in the room.


    “We ended up somewhere in primal dream space, but I don’t know enough to explain much there. Libby may be able to, but they are extremely busy right now,” Andy answered.


    “From what I understand, we were in the heart of abyssal space in some special areas set aside as part of fundamental reality,” Bill added.


    “Is it possible that’s where they ended up?” Cal asked, trying to go through the story Andy had told them about their time there.


    “Maybe. Andrew’s summoning ability is tied to reality, so it is entirely possible we could work with his friends to search for them. That said, if the cat is there, he will be better at getting out than we will be getting to them,” Andy responded.


    “Ethel, what do you think? How bad is this?” Cal asked, turning to her as he did.


    “Bad. Those kids didn’t need more people to fail them, I don’t even know what happens if the loop starts without them. Do they just splinter off? I’m working with extending my root network faster to find them. I will not abandon them,” Ethel replied.


    “And don’t worry, you don’t. I can’t stay for long, but I know this happened, so I’ll complete the loop,” the figure Bug had earlier identified as Dennis said, popping up into the middle of the room.


    “Dennis, just tell us where the kids are, and we can save them now!” Ethel said angrily.


    “I don’t really know, so I can’t tell you. Things shifted a lot where we were. I can promise though, you really will save us all. But I also know that I can’t do much to ease your anxiety during the time it takes to do it. We will be okay, though,” Dennis replied. His forms started to fade as he answered.


    “What’s happening to your body?” Cal asked.


    “Sorry, not really here, just had to close out the loop of what happened, as I said. See you all later,” Dennis replied with a smile as he vanished entirely.


    “Dammit, okay, here’s what we’re going to do. Let’s get other ogres out of those collars. Ethel, continue your search. We are meeting back here in eight hours for another big discussion. This time, I want everyone,” Cal said. Several people nodded.