Colin's posts

Ilias did NOT react well to this.

He yelped in shock and fear, and the snakes hissed at Erica once more.

One of them even made a play for her arm, opening its mouth and darting for her... however, just as she felt its fangs touch her arm, it stopped. She was unaware if it had even punctured, but given that she wasn't feeling any pain or numbness, she guessed it hadn't.

The snake then withdrew and looked at her, before communicating to the other agitated snakes, causing them to calm down slightly.

They then all looked at the huddling and shivering Ilias, noticing he was starting to actually calm down, before looking back at Erica.

"........." Ilias was silent as Erica said what she did and made her offer.

He flinched for a moment, before slowly stepping away from his hiding place.

Step by step, he made his way closer towards her.

"H-H-Hello..." he stammered quietly when he was close enough.

"W-Welcome to the lab." he continued.

"How... how can I help you, Erica?" he asked her.

"And... And what do you mean by... you... can help...?" he asked further.

She received silence in response.

An almost deafening silence. It was like the lab was desolate and empty... almost... deserted.

However, after looking around, she swore she saw someone looking at her, peeking at her, from behind a wall in the distance.

And judging from the brown and green hair, it was Ilias.

He looked quite frightened.

"Then go." Hal told her.

"Go and get this solved." he said.

"Contact me if there's anything I can do to help, and hopefully, I won't have succumbed to this again by that point." he reasoned.

He then sighed once more, and shook his head.

"Ugh, this is just one big mess." he lamented.

Hal just sighed.

"Neither am I." he said.

"But very well." he told her.

"I wish you the best of luck." he repeated.

He was then silent, before sighing once more and shaking his head.

"And when this is done, you're seeing someone about these spells of yours."

Hal nodded in response.

"Indeed." he replied.

"You WERE able to help me." he admitted.

"If you can come up with some way to mass-replicate that effect, then good luck to you." he went on.

"Now. Is there anything I can do to help with that?" he asked.

"Bearing in mind, you and the alchemists have direct access to the lab." he reminded her.

"....I see." Hal replied.

"That is, indeed, concerning." he said.

"Perhaps you should see someone about that. Someone more... professional, and capable, when it comes to matters such as these." he suggested.

"...assuming you can in the future, anyway." he clarified.

"With what's happening, that... might not be viable. Or anything else, for that matter."

Hal raised an eyebrow.

"THIS time?" he asked.

"Your level of calmness about this is quite alarming." he told her.

"But, since you asked, and have a right to know, I'd say you were 'gone' for between 2-3 minutes." he informed her further.

"Now let us back up for one moment." he said.

"How long has this been happening, and is this a common length of time for it to occur?" he asked her.

"Because such an occurrence is not something to ignore, especially when it's one such as yourself, who has never experienced anything like this in the past." he then reasoned.

Hal was silent for a moment as Erica... drifted off again.

"....?" he was a bit confused by this, as he'd never seen it before.

"Erica?" he asked.

"....Erica." he said further, getting up and making his way closer to her.

"This is concerning as well." he mumbled.

"I've never seen this happen." he went on.

He then checked to see if she was all right, and finding that she was still breathing, sighed heavily.

"...nothing to do but see when she returns."

"Yeah, it's never pleasant." Hal sighed.

"Just something you have to deal with." he muttered.

"But your mana was duplicated?" he asked.

"That is a very rare occurrence." he commented.

"And it's quite concerning."

"....." Hal was silent, before sighing.

"All right." he said.

"Take a seat." he told her.

"You're going to get a MASSIVE rush of knowledge." he warned as she sat down.

"It'll take a moment to get your head back together." he said further.

"Ready?" he asked.

When she nodded, he snapped his fingers, and she instantly knew EVERYTHING that Aedan and Cain's test proved.

There was silence on the other side for a moment, before Erica felt herself get swooped up in mana. A few seconds later, the door opened, and was brought in, and the door was shut and locked.

"Hello again." he said.

"So, tell me." he continued.

"Any news?" he asked.

"Anything to help us? At all?" he asked further.

"Because I've been doing some research on world events, and frankly? If we don't do something, this entire planet's society is going to collapse."

"....uh, hello again." Jake said, darting his tongue out slightly.

"Yeah, sure, in you go." he told her, buzzing her in.

"Again, you know the drill." he said.

"...then again, your body pretty much says that FOR you." he muttered.

"It's outright dangerous in there." he commented.

"Then again, from what I've heard, seems the outside world's no better."

Cain was just silent, before sighing.

"I see." he said.

"...this is confusing." he mumbled.

"How would a duplicate happen?" he wondered.

He shook his head a little, and looking at Erica.

"Well, if you're going to follow it, follow it." he told her.

"I need to clean these things up."