After battling against the Charon Soldiers, Rook, Epel, and the others explain to Briar and the boys about how they're able to find the Island of Woe, and how they're able to find them in the building.

Rook continues to explain, "...And that's how I used my signature spell to follow you from Sage's Island. Once we made it in, I was able to track you down thanks to Vil carrying my 'special' serum. I didn't enclose a note lest it draw suspicion. That was a rather discerning guess on your part, Vil."

1 normally never use enchanted skincare products. It wasn't hard to put two and two together," Vil says, "It's nice to see my 'good luck serum' working its magic so soon."

"But what matters is that everyone is safe," Sereia says.

But Tanznantie says, "Wait, guys, where's Grim? Isn't he with you?"

Briar sadly says, "Well, the thing is we don't know where he is."

"Yes. Briar told us what happened, but ever since we got here, we haven't seen Grim around. Ortho notified Briar and the rest of us that he's okay, but he was never with us since we got here," Riddle says.

"Why not?" Jasper asks.

"Yeah, the last time we saw Grim, he was captured by Styx soldiers and trapped in a cage as he was kidnapped by Vil and Jamil. We thought he'd be with the rest of you." Epel says.

"Well, I didn't see Grim during any of our examinations, or at any other point since we've been here, like Briar said," Azul says

Suddenly, Leona realizes something, "...Wait a minute."

Flashback:

Leona sniffs a bit and looks at the room with the door destroyed, "Who was in the room at the end of the hall? I'm gettin' a whiff of some vaguely familiar magic..."

"I haven't the faintest idea. The door was already destroyed by the time I got out, and no one was in there," Vil says.

"Whoever they were, they blew a door made with anti-magic materials clean off. They must be quite the formidable mage," Azul says.

Flashback Ends:

Soon, Leona explains, "There was that subject who blew off their door and escaped before we did. Was that the furball?"

Everyone becomes shocked by Leona's theory.

And Riddle says, "Don't be ridiculous! Grim's even more unskilled with magic than Ace and Deuce. There's no way he'd be able to destroy a door made with anti-magic material. Even we had trouble with them."

Briar soon looks at her hand where Grim injured her. She then remembers that Grim suddenly goes savage after the fair and scratches her hand in the process.

Briar says in thought, "Grim, what's happening to you?"

Vil then asks one of the technicians, "Tell me something -who was in the room at the end of the hall where we were staying?"

The technician answers, "That was Subject F, the direbeast brought in from Night Raven College."

"...So it WAS the furball," Leona replies.

Then the Technician says, "But his test results for magic performance were all subpar compared to an average mage. As Subject A pointed out, we had no indications he had the kind of power it would take to destroy that door. None at all.

"Hold on," The female technician says and types on the computer, "What about that one note in Subject F's file? Here, I found it." And opens the files on the computer.

She then explains, "We were unable to get an accurate reading on his blot accumulation levels no matter how many tests we ran."

"What does that mean?" Epel asks.

We couldn't find any other instance of this in Styx's entire database. We performed a thorough examination, but still couldn't identify the cause. Our analysis team found layers of ancient sorcery cast on him. They couldn't figure out the effects of it... But they concluded it was likely some sort of curse -or perhaps a blessing -that triggers when certain criteria are met. Then I say we strike while the iron's hot. Let us The direbeast was in stable condition. We were going to keep him under observation and run further analysis...

"A curse...?" Tanzanite questions.

Jasper also questions, "A blessing...?"

Then the twins look at each other. Even Briar, Sereia, and Trinket show some concern to this.

But then Vil says, "Blessings and curses are essentially the same thing. People just categorize them differently based on their effect. My signature spell can produce positive effects as well, depending on the terms I set. Basically, a practitioner's emotional state can dictate whether a spell is positive or negative. I have no clue why Grim would have such a thing cast on him, though..."

Just then, a male technician, who's been typing on the computer, says, "Oh! Tartarus's internal sensors have logged Subject F's collar! But how...? Oh, of course! There's been free access in and out of Tartarus ever since its security went offline. According to this log, Subject F went through the Tartarus gate immediately after the emergency started,"

The second technician asks, "But why'd he go there?"

"Grim went to Tartarus?" Briar asks, shocked.

Then Epel says, "Ortho described it to us. Tartarus is a really dangerous place, right?"

"Absolutely," The first technician says, "It's a containment facility that holds over 10,000 Phantoms. And all its freezing systems have been shut down. The Phantoms could awaken at any moment.

"Oh, no..." Sereia says, shocked.

"At least we know where Grim is. It's actually better that he's in Tartarus," Vil says. "We'll pick him up on our way down to the Underworld."

The technicians are shocked to hear this.

Then the second technician says, "That's absurd! It's much too dangerous!"

"That's where Idia and Ortho are, right?" Vil says, "If we want to stop their reset plan, our only option is to go down there. Regardless of the danger."

Azul sighs, "It does sound like the only way, but even so..."

"You say it like it's no big deal," Jamil says.

But the technician says, " Now hold on. You're students! None of you have your mage license yet! We can't let amateurs handle an emergency like this. We need the pros -the Arcane Response Unit. I say we wait for help to arrive from the outside!"

"You can't expect us to just wait and hope help arrives. If we don't do something, the Phantoms will be released. Plus, Grim is down here. I need to go get him. I also feel that he really needs help, like now," Briar says.

"We'll help too, Briar. Grim is part of our dorm group," Jasper says.

Tanzanite and the other girls agree.

Leona then turns to the female technician, "...So how long 'til all the Phantoms in Tartarus thaw out?"

"Um... About six hours," The female technician answers.

Then Leona says, "And how likely is it that you'll restore communication and get help in that time frame?"

The technicians remain silent.

Leona continues, "Then I say we strike while the iron's hot. Let us You've got barely any hope of rescue, and most of the people here are helpless researchers. Ortho's taken over all your fallbacks - your Charon power armors and technomantic devices. They're totally useless. And your response is to just cower together and hope for a miracle?" then makes a frown, "Don't make me laugh."

Then Riddle says, "It's true that we're not licensed mages yet. But we've all been trained by our school as first responders in the event of an emergency."

"And then there's the fact that we're all here because we've overblotted," Jamil adds.

What was the criteria for overblotting again? 'You have to be a capable mage with a pretty big magic pool for it to happen at all.' Did I get that right?" Azul responds. I believe that proves we're not your average mages. Wouldn't you all agree?

"Well, ah, I suppose..." The technician replies.

Then Rook says, "I came here because I wanted to make sure I did all that I could. And there is still much we can do to prevent the worst-case scenario."

"I'm ready to go down there too!" Epel says.

"Then I say we strike while the iron's hot. Let us be off - to Tartarus!" Vil says.

Everyone agrees and knows that they need to head to Tartarus to stop Idia and Ortho, and find Grim.