Lilith was a split second too late to stop the angel, and Gabrielle made it last an eternity.
It drove her nuts to have to face her mistake even longer.
Getting caught off guard—despite knowing this time would come.
"You sonuva bitch—"
The firebolt crushed the outer layer of the time bubble as if it were nothing.
It didn't bring Konrad back, but it sent Gabby flying through the camp.
That was all the time she got to bring her plan into motion, and the angel froze the scene again.
The frilly blue dress was in shambles; she hit her square on the chest, holding nothing back.
"You damned heavenspawns recover too fast," Lilith snarled, both angry and excited. "I thought you liked him, too, but you didn't hesitate a second before taking him away."
The truth was, it had to happen. It already did—for her, at least.
But she was still mad about it.
"I hesitated longer than you," Gabby moaned, rubbing her chest. Fragile she might've looked, she couldn't leave a mark on her skin. "Fuck, that hurt. What are you, a dragon?"
That was one wild guess.
If she knew—but that didn't matter now. Her second bubble was so much tighter than the first; it almost made it impossible for Lilith to break out.
Almost. Odd as it sounded, she needed a little extra time for her past to catch up.
A few unfrozen seconds to act, and—
"He's alive," Gabrielle claimed, as if she didn't know. "This was for his own safety."
But to follow up with that?
"Bullshit," Lilith scoffed, feeling for the cracks. "You froze him in time outside space, to let him go only after this world has collapsed. You trapped him because he was no longer useful."
The angel had to hold her dress in place to cover her modesty.
"He became a liability. You saw the same futures as I did, Lilith," she argued. "This is the only way I can keep both him and all the other worlds safe."
"Keep telling yourself that," the demoness snapped back.
It was a tamer response than she wanted to give, but she was too busy otherwise.
She had finally found a crack.
A little more, and—she needed to keep her distracted somehow.
Even with stating the facts, if she had to.
"I lived through those futures," she yelled. "I tested every single outcome for your inquiry."
Maou Midori weren't the only time traveller here.
And in case the angel hadn't figured it out yet, she could have distracted her with the truth.
Three seconds. That's all she needed for her past to happen.
"Your future sight is not the same as experiencing things," Gabby retorted. She knew nothing, after all. And she couldn't read her mind, either, or she would've realised how close she was to—
"Don't tell me about differences when you can't even see beyond your nose, idiot."
Time continued. It wasn't the outstanding victory she had hoped for.
It was only a snail's pace, but she still broke the deadlock without Gabrielle noticing.
Too bad, pouring all her mana into the crack didn't cut it.
She needed finesse—never her strong suit. But for Konrad?
"What are you talking about?" the angel asked, still clueless, but seeming annoyed, too. "I have known you for thousands of years. I wrote a study about all your skills. What did I not see?"
Three seconds.
At this pace, that would still last an entire day—but she already spotted her past self.
"I am many times your age, sweetheart," Lilith noted. So close, yet still so far. "And I even lived through everything twice. All this, too. Ever wondered why your old man gave you this skill?"
The crack widened. Only a little, but she had to be careful not to blow her cover.
Her taunting worked well so far.
She got Gabrielle pondering on her words again.
"My skill to stop time?" she asked, crossing her arms. "It's effective on everyone and everything, including yourself. Why wouldn't he give it to me? Or do you think it was all because of you?"
Lilith knew that for a fact, to be honest.
But since she had her guessing, why tell her the truth outright?
Let her guess. Make her mad; anything but having her notice how close she was.
"Who else did you ever fight? As long as you did me, at least?" the demoness laughed. "He created you to counter me. And you think stopping time is a counter to my future sight?"
Her time almost sped back up to half real speed, and she still didn't notice.
The red face of the dragon was so close, yet Gabrielle paid no mind to anything outside her bubble. It was worth letting her think she was stronger. She became overconfident.
"No, it can't stop visions," the angel groaned. "But as I said, it's not against you alone."
"Remind me to thank the old man," Lilith said. "He loves to keep you all in the dark. To find your true purpose. The spirits forbid he'd tell you the truth for once."
Gabby was fuming, but had no comeback to that. Not in time, anyway.
The demoness won. The bubble crumbled.
Maple crashed through it like a freight train.
The archangel was fast, raising her arm to snap her fingers—but her past self was even quicker.
The dragon's maw closed around her slight body like a vice.
While her teeth couldn't penetrate her skin, they restrained all her movements.
And her present could finally break free.
"What the hell are you doing?" the arcangel screamed, but couldn't escape. "How?!"
Lilith, both her past and present, laughed in unison.
The same voice, the same tone, even the same thoughts—confusing the hell out of Gabrielle.
"The only way to find my time anomalies is from the inside," she gritted out in pain, thrashing against the huge jaws. "How did Maple crush my bubble from the outside?"
"She didn't," the demoness chuckled. "I was. Then we synced up."
"What?!"
The angel went limp, her otherwise pretty face deformed from anger and scowling.
"Okay, you might be dumber than I thought," Lilith noted, her victory feeling a bit hollow now.
Oh well. She had to prepare for a big fight. She could spell it out for her at this point.
She only had to shift her body back the way it used to be.
A shape she hadn't taken in thousands of years.
And when she first saw it after so long, she made sure to stay away from her past self.
Act like she was jealous. Like she hated her.
Prank her—which was necessary, because Konrad found her a bit too early.
Not that she feared time paradoxes—the fact that she was here and now told her they didn't happen. But she wanted to keep it a secret from everyone, even from herself.
Until this moment.
'I knew you were somehow too familiar,' Maple's thoughts echoed in both of their minds.
By then, Lilith transformed, too.
She was in the shape of a red dragon, the same form she saw the light for the first time.
"For a moment, I thought you figured me out," her voice boomed as panic broke out in the camp. She snapped her teeth and laughed. "But let's see how you'll deal with two of me now."