Illyana spends three years learning magic from Belasco, while secretly reading every book in his library, plotting his downfall. Alone in her room, she attempts to imitate the creation powers Storm showed her by forming an acorn from a part of herself, only to find the acorn is black and rotten. Hearing Belasco's voice outside her room, she panics, and her mutant power to create teleportational light discs manifests itself. Illyana uses a disc to enter Belasco's library, hoping to steal his grimoire, but Storm intervenes, accidentally sending her into another disc. She finds herself in the past, witnessing Storm "killing" Belasco, who claims to be immune to death while in Limbo; it is this act which binds Storm to Belasco. She teleports back to the present to find Storm battling Belasco. Cat fatally wounds Storm, then attacks Illyana. She kills Cat in self-defense. Belasco orders her to sacrifice Storm's soul to the Elder Gods. Instead, she kills Storm to save her soul and teleports to Storm's garden, where she buries her. Enraged by her defiance, Belasco captures Illyana, extracts another bloodstone from her essence, and casts her out into a wintery wilderness as punishment.