"No." Sharp replied.

"That's all." he said.

"Good luck." he finished, before the call was ended.

"....hm." he mumbled.

"Well, it's 'officially' our territory now." he said.

"Meaning we can officially clear Kiczys of the suspicion cast on her." he continued.

He then cracked his knuckles, and started to work on that. The sooner Casey had her freedom to move, the better.

-An unspecified amount of time later-

"...wow." Illias said, looking at the statue in the lab.

"...it still amazes me that they actually managed to get one here." he commented, mostly to himself, but also to Kiah, who was also there.

"That... had to have been weird, or hard, or outright genius." he mumbled further.

"So... someone needs to be looking at this thing at ALL times?" he asked her.

"Hm." Illias muttered.

"Well, good." he said.

"And from what I hear, most of the statues have been destroyed already." he commented.

"Seems this nightmare is almost over." he went on.

"....though my intellectual curiosity just won't be satiated until we find out more about this thing." he then admitted.

"....I want to know two things." Illias replied.

"I want to see if we can find out HOW it moves. As in, how it's animated to do what it does." he said. "Because it's clearly not just enchanted to do so. They move with a purpose." he told her.

"And maybe we can study it to find out where it came from." he continued.

"Maybe find a clue as to WHO created them." he reasoned.

"Perhaps stop them from ever coming back by going to the source."

Illias just sighed.

"Well, you're the boss." he said.

"If you say it gets destroyed immediately, it gets destroyed immediately." he told her, grabbing some papers.

He then started flipping through them, looking at all the formulae contained within, studying a few of them in specific.

"...seriously." he mumbled.

"None of these formulae show anything akin to... well... either enchanting it to move, or using mana to move it. But mana is still involved. It's puzzling."

Illias raised an eyebrow.

"....ooookay..." he said.

"That's... macabre." he commented.

"Regardless... let's be careful." he told her as he approached the statue and looked hard at it.

"...I... can't help but think there's more to this than what we're seeing." he said further.

"Just... I dunno, I feel it."

They spent some time looking over the statue, and then going over the notes they had, before Illias realised something.

"Wait." he said.

"I... hold on..." he muttered.

"In some of these notes, the phrase 'the spark of life' is mentioned over and over again." he told her.

"But... I don't see anything that indicates adding something that... would... create... life." he went on, before pausing, looking almost terrified.

".........." he was then silent, and looked at the statue again.

"If... oh god..." he mumbled.

"That can't be right..." he said.

"....but to think..." Illias said quietly, before stopping.

"Wait." he muttered.

"Then we might have a way to know for SURE where these things came from." he told her.

"You said you have your suspicions, but I might know a way to have them confirmed or denied." he went on, crossing his arms over his chest and thinking once more.

"But it's going to require a VERY strong and talented necromancer." he said.

"Or... you know... someone that personally knows the reaper." he added with a small laugh.

Illias was silent for a moment, almost tongue-tied.

"Ah, yes, hello there." he said.

"I'm Illias." he told Casey.

"....you can talk to the reaper?" he then asked.

"That's... that's amazing." he commented, before shaking his head slightly.

"Wow." he mumbled under his breath.

Illias was still silent for a moment, before shaking his head.

"Ah... well..." he stammered.

"It hadn't occurred to me that you would know THE Casey Kiczys." he admitted.

"She's one of the most famous and revered necromancers in the world!" he went on.

"She's really amazing."

Illias was silent again, before nodding quickly.

"R-right!" he said, before dashing off.

He quickly raced off to the front door, and just as he got there, he heard Jake and Casey finishing up whatever they were saying.

"Ah, Illias." Jake then said, darting his tongue out a little and unlocking the door for Casey to enter.

"He's your guide to the lab." he told Casey.