“What’s happening to her!?” Harry panicked as Isabelle screamed in pain.

“I don’t know!” Benjamin shouted. “What’s the book even—?”

“Her human body cannot contain the dark magic in the book,” Troy explained. “There’s no way she can handle all that power by herself. She’s weak, and if she tries to hold all of it in...”

“Isabelle, no!” Benjamin hurried over and pried the book from her hands before anything terrible could happen to her. The spell book fell to the ground, right near Troy’s feet.

“Benjamin?” Isabelle looked up, her eyes watering. “You saved me?” She rubbed her eyes and smiled. “T-Thank you.”

“Yeah,” Benjamin muttered and looked away, unsure how to respond. “Well…”

“Are you alright?” A familiar voice asked through the laptop, temporarily breaking the tension.

“Yeah, I think so... Nicholas?” Isabelle went over to the laptop and saw he was on the other side of the screen. “How are you doing this? Are you communicating through—?”

“Never mind that,” Benjamin interrupted, “Do you know how we can beat this guy?”

“You’re asking him?” Isabelle asked.

Sparks shot at Benjamin and Isabelle from the laptop, which they both dodged. They both looked up and saw Troy, with the book in hand, being carried into the air as the weather went crazy around them. More Benjamin clones showed up and surrounded the two.

“We got to get out of here; it's way too dangerous!” Nicholas cried. “Hurry and create the portal again, stat!”

“On it!” Isabelle replied.

Troy spewed out darker synergy magic as Isabelle used her force shield to reflect it off. Benjamin and Harry hid underneath it while the girl got worked with the keys to see which button did what.

Benjamin helped too by trying to use telekinetic magic for his wand, which was back at their base of operations. Finally, Isabelle activated the portal, and the others scrambled to get out.

Before Harry could escape with them, he heard some banter between Troy and another Benjamin clone. He turned and noticed the clone had two different things in his hands; the hamster couldn’t recognize the second thing the guy had.

“Oh hey, there Nimajneb, what’s up?” Troy greeted the clone, “Did you get them?”

“Sure did.” Nimajneb showed him the drawer with all the crystal spheres.

“Excellent!” Troy complimented.

“Also, what should I do about this?” Nimajneb had also gotten a magenta floating orb behind himself and brought it to full view for his Master to see.

Harry squinted his eyes and noticed what was inside the bubble. “Chi-Chi! Can you hear me Chi-Chi!?”

There was no reply. Chi-Chi just floated there with her head hung low, and back turned on her brother.

Benjamin stopped and turned to see that Harry didn’t follow him to the portal. “Hey, Harry, something wrong?”

Harry knew they wouldn’t stand a chance and didn’t want to put his Master and friend on the line. But he didn’t want to abandon Chi-Chi when he had finally found her at reach.

“Sorry, Master, I’m not going back.”

“Uh... what?”

“I can’t leave Chi-Chi behind! Go on without me!”

“But—”

“Just hurry and go, before it’s too late!” Harry pushed his Master inside the portal just as it was about to disappear.

Benjamin screamed for his name, but his visions grew fader, and soon the location disappeared from his sight.