Lilith's head almost exploded from the soldiers' panicked thoughts.
Her synapses became hypersensitive from syncing up with her old self. And she only shared the most important memories with 'Maple' before she set out with her lover.
His final battle—one of many in a series as she predicted—was about to begin.
But the camp was in a complete upheaval, warriors leveling their spears at her.
Complete, utter chaos.
Like, come on, didn't they see their commander flying off on an identical dragon?
Couldn't they tell friend from foe?
Or did Konrad's big secrecy about their true powers finally come back to bite them in the ass? What was that about anyway? Was he feeling embarrassed about them? Overshadowed?
Did he fear retribution from—from whom?
They had a pact with both the spirits and the saints.
The everyday weaklings might've been mad about her demon-ness, but like—
They could do anything to her or anyone under her wings.
Whether she was in her human shape or this, she was near indestructible to their weapons.
Even the strongest magic would've had to go through layers of her defenses before it could make a dent in her skin. Right now, the only one who had that power was the angel.
And she was right where she wanted her to be.
"What have you done?!" Gabrielle choked out, still restrained by Lilith's enormous dragon mouth. "He's flying towards a battle he'd lose. You saw the visions, too."
She expected—well, how to say it?—more of a shock?
At least a little surprise from the revelation?
Lilith pulled the greatest prank of all time, spanning across thousands of years.
And that was it. The angel was still only worried about her own goals, shortsighted as she was.
"First off, the future is always in meow-tion," she noted without loosening her grip. "And what you saw was what Meow Midori wanted you to see. That he'd win no matter what."
Wait, was that too much? Did she become too affectionate?
Especially while she took the shape of a dragon.
Her lover had already ridden into battle on her old self, and she kept her catgirlish talk.
It was childish, but reading his mind, she figured it was something Konrad liked.
Why did she keep it up when he was away, though?
She might've gotten too used to it by now. But with all the witnesses—and for the first time in forever—she felt a little embarrassed. Not to the point where it distracted her, but—
"Wait a minute," she snapped at Gabrielle, almost crushing her. "You're messing with my head?!"
Since when could she even do that? Or did her synapses get fried for real? No, it was an outside influence, even if very subtle. Who had the power to alter her mental state without her noticing?
And since he couldn't trace it back to anyone, they even hid their presence.
"Come on, you have to wake up earlier to mess with meow demonic highness," she scoffed. A taunt might've worked. Make 'em jump. Let them know she knew.
But she had to do that in moderation, or the angel might've gotten away.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Gabby said, thrashing as much as she could inside her mouth. Yeah, it wasn't her. She wasn't even that strong once she took away her time powers.
"Nevermind that," Lilith shot her down, clamping down on her tighter.
Konrad was at a safe distance by now—well, for him, it was straight into danger, but she trusted his strength. Even if the angel escaped, her fear of Meow Midori would've kept her away.
Ah, she did it again, even in her thoughts. Yeah, it felt a little embarrassing.
Which meant that—
"Someone or something is trying to play with my head," she claimed, scanning the camp.
It was all the soldiers she already knew and Stella.
Her long, blonde hair was flying in the wind, her face looking impassive from the outside, but her head? A mess like it always was. She still wore her simple grey nun-robes, even after—
Hold on.
She wasn't in the camp before. Not that she had the affinity for something like that, but—
Next to her was Father Alastair, completely devoid of usable mana and pale as snow.
"Lady Gabrielle," he gasped, trembling too hard to do anything, let alone cast a spell.
And also. Not fair.
All everyone saw was a scary dragon attacking the fragile little noble girl?! She was Konrad's wife, too; in fact, she was the first one and the cuter one when she wasn't a dragon.
But if she shapeshifted again, the angel might've gotten away and—
Nope, that was still someone planting doubts into her mind, and damn, they were good.
Behind Stella and the priest—who shouldn't have been there—she spotted an actual outsider.
A man who was old and wrinkled, leaning against a poplar cane—
No, that was a magic staff with only the faintest mana leaking out of it. A mastery in concealment, which meant the guy must have been crazy powerful.
For this world's level at least.
But where had she seen him before, if ever?
Lord Schwertburg barged into the scene to cut her pondering short.
He screamed and yelled, pretending to be brave to save his daughter.
As if his pathetic sword could do anything.
But he caused so much interference. And that fragile little daughter pushed hard against her jaws, too. Still, if not for that huge duke's shouting, she might've never figured it out.
"Do something," he demanded. "You're the Silver Mage. Even if it's a dragon—my daughter is—"
That name did ring a bell.
The old dude Konrad broke out from Meow Midori's time anomaly earlier.
No, even before that—hadn't they met?
"She means the duchess no real harm, My Lord," the old man claimed, his voice weaker than his actual magic. "I have read her mind, and she's only defending her husband."
"H-her husband?!"
Chokes and gasps all around the camp. Finally.
But wow. So he even got through the barrier without her realising? Mages of this world were scary. One trapped her when she was young, and this one—
Right, the Silver Mage. She met him even before that sealing incident with the Green one.
When the realisation hit, the old man's eyes brightened up, too. Which meant—
How old was this dude, anyway? And despite his age, his memory must've been excellent.
That subtle influence on her mind finally stopped.
She only realised how strong it was once it was over.
A friend. She focused so hard on letting Maple catch up on her memories that she forgot to refresh hers. It's been thousands of years after all, and even for the Mage, well over a century.
Having unexpected allies like that was always nice, but it was even better to remember them.
And if anything, she relaxed way too much, missing the moment when Gabrielle freed a hand.
The tug on her mind was very different from the one before, and it was much less subtle, too.
Right. Because even in this dragon shape, her pact with the heavens was still active.
"You'll answer for your crimes to my brother," the archangel claimed.
And Lilith felt her body go limp as she ripped her consciousness away.
Crap.