Illyana finds Storm's massive oak and spends years trying to use it to help create a living acorn from her essence, only to produce still more rotten acorns. When the oak finally crumbles to dust from her efforts, Illyana realizes that she was only trying to create life as a means to an end: destroying Belasco. She tries instead to manifest her desire directly, using the last of her power to create a "Soulsword". The enchantment that held her in Storm's garden is banished in the process and she takes a stepping disc to confront Belasco. While fighting Belasco she realizes she is replaying the same scene by which Storm was corrupted, so she spares his life and he escapes. She then uses a light circle to return to Earth, rejoining the X-Men seconds after she had left them.