Colin's posts

Ryker and Savra looked at each other, the latter having a concerned look in their eyes. He sighed and shook his head, before exiting the RV as well, hands in his pockets.

He made his way closer to Eke, and sighed once more.

"All right." he said.

"Speak up." he told him.

"I'm sure it's nothing good, given your lack of smile now."

Ilias was silent for a moment.

"Mostly just wildly postulating and hypothesising." he told her.

"Just... wondering about multiple mana being involved and... yeah." he muttered further.

"Anyway, you might have an idea?" he asked.

"That's already a step forward." he reasoned.

"What is it?"

"Same." Ilias replied.

"It's like... this mana is comprised of other manas." he said further.

"...is that possible?" he asked.

"And if so, this is an attack from multiple people, willing or not." he said further.

"But this means the solution to this will be far less simple than we thought." he then sighed.

"...I think so." Ilias responded.

"Let me check." he said.

They'd been working on it for close to 6 more hours straight, and progress was being made. Slim... slight... but it was there. It was better than the walls that they'd been hitting before.

"Hmmm." Ilias mumbled, looking at the reaction that was happening in the container.

"Interesting." he said further.

"Aedan, come and look at this." he told her.

"This colour change is... fascinating."

Ilias was silent again, before thinking about it.

"So... we need to try and analyse the mana itself?" he asked.

"Find out what else is in it?" he said further.

"Maybe find something else... and see if THAT'S what we need to work on..." he went on.

"Hm." he mumbled.

"Definitely worth a shot."

Ilias paused as well, before looking at her.

"...oh?" he asked.

"How?" he asked her.

He was a scientist, he was a chemist, but he was certainly no doctor or biologist. He wasn't really too familiar with biological maladies and phenomena, but he knew that Aedan had more experience in it.

And her saying that gave him a small ray of hope. Larger than the one he had before, anyway.

"You think we can work with that somehow?" he asked further.

"......" Ilias didn't say anything more for a moment, but nodded.

"Yeah." he said.

"That's true." he agreed.

"...I still don't know what's happening." he went on.

"I mean, it's clear this is what the mana in the attacks is meant to do, but... what can we DO about it?" he asked.

"It's just... happening. And there's nothing we can do, it seems." he lamented.

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

"Well, she survived the shock." he said.

"At least there's that." he commented.

"..." he was then silent again, before looking away.

"She's gone catatonic." he then informed her.

"She's unresponsive. Alive, but in a coma."

Ilias looked back at Aedan as she said what she did, and grabbed at his hair.

"But these SHOULD be working." he said.

"Yet every single time we try to put it into practice, it fails." he went on.

"This makes NO damn sense." he growled.

"And more and more victims are piling up while we beat our heads into this metaphorical wall." he said further.

"...or so I've heard. I don't dare see what's happening in the medical wing." he admitted.

Abandoned formulae were scrawled out on the whiteboards in the room, and they all seemed to lead nowhere. Just the walls they'd been constantly hitting.

"Damn it." Ilias muttered.

"This isn't real." he said.

"There's NO way ALL of these have failed." he went on.

He was then silent, before looking over towards the pacing Aedan.

'...taking its told on Aedan, as well...' he thought.

He then looked at the equation that had gotten them the closest, and tried to see if there were any variables that could be altered to produce a more favourable result... but nothing. No matter how hard he concentrated.

"...tell me about it." Hal muttered.

"It seems like nothing is safe now." he told her.

"We may have to go into a literal blackout mode." he went on.

"Use generators not connected to the main power lines, fueled by mana." he continued.

"..." he was then silent, and then sighed.

"This keeps getting worse and worse."

"That's what I'm going to find out." Hal replied.

"She was in her bathroom, and I didn't look around in specific, so I'm going to check there." he said.

"See if I can find an indicator as to where this originated." he continued.

"A hairdryer, something else, I don't know." he admitted.

"But I'll return when I find something out." he went on, before he received a call from Levi.

"Yes?" he said, answering it.

"........I see." he then said after a pause, his tone unimpressed.

"Thank you for finding that out. Please be careful and don't touch ANYTHING." he stressed, hanging up.

"According to Levi, there are scorch marks around the light switch in that bathroom." he growled.

"Very little." Hal responded.

He then told her why he had gone to the dorm, the state of the place, what he had found, where he had found Erica, and how.

"I'm going to give a more thorough examinations of the dorm." he said further.

"...but I have my suspicions." he mumbled.

"And they're not good."

"Good heavens!" Hal exclaimed, as he rushed to her and checked her over.

When he ascertained that she was, in fact, still alive, and looked towards Levi.

"Levi!" he yelled.

"If you're staying here, stay here! I'm taking Erica to the medical wing!" he told him.

Then, before Levi could answer, Hal and Erica were gone in a burst of mana, appearing in the receiving section of the medical wing lobby.

He then cleared his throat loudly, so someone would come to see what was happening.