"....yeah." Vincent mumbled.

"....actually, wait." he then said.

"I've heard murmurs about the Order, but I don't know what's actually going on." he told her.

"Can you explain what's happening?" he asked.

"And why I suddenly feel like sleep is something I can definitely do without?"

Vincent was... stunned.

"Corrupted?" he asked.

"Oh dear, I didn't know such a thing was possible." he said.

"And... you did something like that?" he asked.

"I... you can do that?" he asked further.

Vincent shook his head in response.

"No, no." he said.

"I realize this is important." he told her.

"Good luck getting the rest of those ingredients, though." he then said.

"Some of them will be a real bugger to get..."

After about a minute or so, she heard uneven footsteps headed her way.

When she looked towards the entrance to the room she was in, she saw Illias.

But he didn't see her.

That was because he had a stack of containers and things in his arms, and couldn't really see ANYTHING.

"Woah... woah, woah..." he then muttered, as he started to become off-balance.

Illias just chuckled a little, and exhaled slowly.

"Yeah. Yeah, much better." he said.

"And I'm headed to one of the 'testing' rooms." he told her.

"I gathered most of what I need that's here, but there's still a few more things I need to get." he went on. "But they ARE here." he added.

"You're back pretty quickly, though." he then said.

"How did getting those ingredients go?" he asked.

"....here, please." Illias replied.

"It's where I'll be dealing with them, anyway." he reasoned.

"And you managed to get most of them? That's awesome." he told her.

"Depending on what you managed to get, I may be able to start working right now." he said further, hope in his tone.

Illias looked in the bag, and his eyes widened.

"Oh... oh, wow!" he exclaimed.

"I can totally start working!" he told her.

"In fact, I can-" he started to say, before pausing. "Wait, no." he then mumbled.

"Right, how can I put this....?" he then muttered further.

"To get to the conclusion I'm planning to get to, there's going to need to be 5 phases." he told her. "All the ingredients that are missing are needed for phase 5... except the Magmoss." he said.

"That's needed for phase 2." he went on.

"So I can get phase 1 done, but then I'm stalled." he finished.

Illias shook his head.

"No, it's all right." he said.

"I can get to work on stage 1." he told her.

"I'll probably need your help in stage 4, but... that's down the road." he said further.

"Don't let me keep you back." he then added.

"The sooner these things come together, the better."

"........" Illias was silent as he saw the dark gold.

"....hm." he mumbled, before getting to work.

Meanwhile, Ash had just finished making himself up a sandwich... which was impressive, for sandwich standards... before he looking over at Syraene.

"Oh! Miss Syraene!" he said.

"....all right, this sounds serious." he then commented.

"Yeah, I have a minute." he told her, setting the food down.

"What's up?" he asked.

"....well, you'll need Lindsay for that." Ash replied.

"Magmoss grows literally IN magma, and Lindsay's the only one that'll be able to survive grabbing it." he told her.

"Beyond that, Ashley and I should be able to divvy the rest of these up and get them within... 24 hours." he then said.

"Basically, we'll split hemispheres, and each go for half of the list." he reasoned.

"That work?" he asked.