"...." Ilias was silent for a moment, before nodding.

"Okay." he responded.

"I'll try. I've been managing so far." he told her.

But now he had several things on his mind... 2 being more notably prominent. The biggest one being that, with Robyn out of commission... what the hell were they to do NOW? All the alchemists in the building were down.

The second one was less pressing, by comparison, but it concerned him. So he spoke up about it.

"Personal?" he asked.

"I hope it's nothing TOO serious..." he commented, trailing off at the end, concern in his tone.

".....what?" Ilias asked, in a barely audible tone.

"M-missing." he stammered.

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. This couldn't be real. Liv, a sweet and innocent child (though not a child anymore), missing.

"...I see." he said.

"I... I'm sorry to hear that." was all he managed to get out.

He had no idea what else to say here. He couldn't believe it. It seemed everything was crashing down around them, and he didn't even want to imagine how stressful this was for Angela.

Ilias could only nod in response, and Angela was off with Robyn.

When she was gone, he sat against the wall and stared into the distance.

Erica had disappeared. Liv was missing. The Unit was still under siege, people's souls were being disconnected from their bodies.

He then gritted his teeth, before slamming his fist into the wall beside him in a backswing.

"DAMN IT!" he yelled, tears of frustration streaming down his cheeks.

"Why are we being punished like this!?" he demanded of no-one in particular... and because nobody was around, he received silence as an answer.

"........" Ilias was silent for a moment.

He was about to consider saying something, when Angela spoke to the one that had responded.

It was low... it was dark... it was ominous. She told them to get out of her sight, and that she had better not see them again for the rest of the day.

He gulped audibly as the one slunk away quickly, before sighing.

"Great." he muttered.

"Now we have even less to worth with for Erica's disappearance." he said.

Nate seemed a little jumpy, but that was because an angry Angela was a scary Angela. And when one was scared of the head medic, then they knew that even the slightest thing could push her over the edge.

"I... I..." he stammered, before pausing.

"...wait." he said.

"Wait, there WAS." he realised.

"Hold on!' he exclaimed, before rushing off deeper into the wing. Ilias was silent as he saw this, and then approached Angela.

"I..." he stammered.

"Now Agent King is gone?" he asked her.

Ilias looked over towards where she gestured, and sighed.

"I'm not surprised." he said.

That was when Nate returned with a tiny glass specimen bottle. And it in looked to be a tiny pearl or bead... that looked to be unnaturally dark.

"This." the medic said to Angela.

"I remember hearing that the room had been cleaned, so I decided to... well... investigate the remnants of what they had disposed of." he told her.

"...sifted through the trash." Ilias translated.

"..........yes." Nate mumbled after a pause.

"I noticed this was there, and carefully extracted it from the garbage, making sure to wear protective gloves and such, and placed it in this bottle." he then told Angela further.

"Agent King obviously doesn't wear or have anything like this, and I don't think any of the staff here wear beaded jewelry, aside from earrings. But this is clearly not an earring." he added.

Ilias looked closer at the item, before taking it in his hand.

"....hmmm." he mumbled, concentrating.

"It's not just you." he said.

"There IS mana in this." he told her. "Strong mana, too." he added.

"I have no idea WHAT it is, but I know it's mana." he went on.

"You think it's connected?" Nate asked.

"Most assuredly." Ilias replied.

Nate snapped to attention and gave her a salute.

"Yes, Ma'am!" he responded.

To anyone else, that would have been seen as sarcasm. But not to her. She knew that when Nate did that, it meant that he was taking things seriously, and that she could trust him.

It was just a quirk of his.

Ilias was silent, before sighing.

"I'm going to speak with Alicja." he told them.

"...assuming she has time."

The receptionist tried to get her to stop, tried to tell her to wait, and Angela argued back... just as the door opened, revealing Hal.

"It's all right." he said.

"Doctor Edwards has special permissions during the lockdown to speak to me at any time, no matter what." he told his receptionist.

"I left a note for you on that." he finished, before looking at Angela.

"Come in." he said, stepping out of the way.

"This sounds urgent."

Hal was silent, and she could tell he was angry right now.

"....I see." he responded.

"And you don't know the base of this mana?" he asked.

She nodded.

"And you want to know?" he asked further.

Again, she nodded.

"Well, there's a direct way to do that." he told her, his eyes narrowed.