Sharp paused for a brief moment, and sighed.

"Illias." he told her.

He then relayed to her what Kiah had told him, sparing no details, but making sure the information was passed on quickly, so no time was wasted.

"So I have good reason to believe that he has it." he said.

"Meaning the help you sent in hasn't gotten to him yet." he then reasoned.

"One second." Hal replied.

He then went to one of the walls, slid open a small panel, and pressed some buttons on the electronic pad that was there. As he did, a blue light shone out from the device, and formed into a complete wire-frame 3D plan of the entire building.

He pressed a few more buttons, feeding more information into it, before a red dot appeared somewhere in the scheme.

"Right then." he said.

"Looks like Kiah was right." he commented.

"Illias is right in his dorm."

"Yeah, had it installed a couple of months ago." Hal replied.

"The confirmation to make it technically hasn't come back, but... well... he had a good case of 'she'll allow it, you know it, lemme get to work on it while I'm here'..." he then admitted.

"Anyway, yes, let's go." he agreed.

"We need to separate them, and we need to do it now." he reasoned.

"...I shudder to think about what is happening to Illias at the moment." he then said quietly.

Sharp nodded, and the two of them left his office immediately.

They hastily made their way to where Illias' down was, able to pass through the lockdown barriers thanks to Hollie's mana. She could get through them naturally, and she quickly gave Hal 'special permissions' with her mana.

As they got closer to Illias' dorm, both could feel just how steeped the area was getting with arcane mana... but that was mostly because Hollie was arguably the most powerful mage on the planet, and Hal was a djinn.

"...for arcane mana, this is thick." he said quietly.

"And we're going to need to act extremely fast, we can't waste a moment." he went on, looking at the door handle and very gently trying to open it... only to find it locked, unsurprisingly.

"It'll be too noisy to pick the lock or break down the door." he whispered to her.

Hal was silent for a moment, before smirking.

He then flicked his wrist, and they saw the lock glow for a fraction of a second.

They looked back at each other for a second, nodded, and Hal burst open the door.

What they saw was rather harrowing.

Illias was sitting at his desk, pen in hand, tome in front of him. He was surrounded by arcane mana, to the point where it was visible to the naked eye, the closer it was to him. It seemed to envelop him, almost like an aura... but it was clear that the man was acting on its own.

His eyes were filled with arcane mana, the substance almost oozing out of them, and sparking as well. Though his pupils and irises could no longer be seen, when he looked at them, his expression was clear...

'Help me'.

When the beam connected with Illias' head, he let out a scream... but it was a scream that wasn't human OR animal. It didn't even sound of their world. The best way to describe it would be "if mana could scream, that was what it would sound like".

As soon as that happened, Hal stretched out his hand. When he did, the pen was surrounded by a very dark purple glow... so purple, it was almost black.

"Nngh..." Hal grunted.

"The pen's got a good hold on Illias." he told Hollie.

"But I've managed to get it to not be able to get to the tome." he said.

As she did so, it seemed that the mana within the pen 'knew' what she was doing... and it didn't want her to do it. So, using Illias as a puppet, in a way, it caused him to do something.

Or, rather, it caused some things ON him to do something.

As she reached closer to the book, several of the snakes on Illias' head became violent and hissed at Hollie, before they started to actively snap at her.

As she grabbed one of them and pulled, the others continued to try and snap at her... it seemed like no part of Illias was in control of itself right now.

"HOLLIE!" Hall called out.

The struggle and fight dragged and raged on for what seemed like forever, but eventually, through the efforts of Hollie and Hal, they managed to knock Illias to the floor.

All three of them were in very bad shape, but Illias and the pen were now on the floor, while the book was still up on the desk.

Meaning Hollie had a clear and uninterrupted path towards it.

All of a sudden, Hal felt himself devoid of any injuries, as though he'd never engaged in the battle.

"..." he was then silent, as she made her second wish.

"Didn't need to wish that." he muttered to her.

"And fine, go to your brother." he told her.

Meanwhile, Vincent had been reading one of the books he had, when the tome suddenly appeared right in front of him.

"What the...?" he wondered.

"Is this...?" he muttered aloud, as he looked it over.

Vincent paused when he heard his sister's voice, and sighed.

'Oh my way.' he replied.

He then got up from his desk, and made his way upstairs to the den, where Hollie was.

"All right." he said when he saw her.

"Fill me in." he told her.

"I'm willing to bet there's QUITE a story to be told." he then muttered with a sigh.

"Care for some tea while you talk?" he offered.