Lillith had almost forgotten how fun it was flying as a dragon.
It's been thousands of years, and she sure missed it.
Even if this flight speed couldn't match teleportation, she reached Halaima in no time. When the angel finally jolted awake, she already circled the town from above.
Gabrielle thrashed as she'd expect, but couldn't break free.
"Don't bother," Lilith purred. "We're a safe distance now."
"Who cares?!" the archangel snapped, seeming more upset than she expected. "This world is already doomed. There's nothing to—but Lucifer."
"What?" the demoness asked as they touched down. "What about the emo kid?"
She chose the courtyard behind Konrad's temporary office to avoid witnesses.
It was unnecessary, as the town seemed even quieter than usual.
Those who weren't already in the camp she came from must have evacuated the city by now.
She let the angel go to take her usual shape as the ginger tribesgirl.
But Gabby was hyperventilating, rubbing her wrists, and looking at her with wide eyes.
"When you left the heavens," she panted a minute later. "I followed Lucifer. I-I wanted to reprimand him. To hunt down that demon Kaede as soon as possible, but—"
She paused, falling to her knees.
Lilith raised an eyebrow. Sure, she smashed her with a firebolt and carried her like prey, but she wasn't that rough. Knowing who Kaede was, she saw no reason for panic so far.
"Get yourself together," she demanded, yanking Gabby back on her feet. "What happened?"
Gabrielle tried and failed to slow her breathing.
By the time she talked, Lilith started worrying too. Only a little, though.
"Wh-when I arrived," the angel stuttered. "Lucifer stood over Michael's cold body. He—he must've stabbed him in the back with that despicable demon."
Okay, that couldn't have been right.
"You sure?" she asked, shaking her by the shoulders. "Doubt Kaede and Lu would work together."
Even in her past, she'd know better than that. Although to have the little angel brother rebelling?
That seemed amusing and terrifying at once.
She spent so long trying to corrupt him, and when she expected it the least—
"T-then he might've exploited their fight to come out on top," Gabby theorised. "There's no other way. Michael was the most powerful archangel."
Not that he was dead yet.
One could not kill their stupid kind for good. But that did make sense.
Lilith knew she wouldn't lose to him in a one-on-one fight, but to win? Especially with her limited strength from thousands of years ago? She didn't even have a reason to fight him.
It would have altered the timeline in so many ways that she might've disintegrated.
"So?" the demoness asked. "You want me to catch and punish Lu, or what?"
"He's on his way here," Gabby claimed, shaking her head. "He was the one feeding glimpses of the future to Maou Midori. I'm sure he'll take him to Earth, too."
"W-wait, did he tell you that?!" she demanded, starting to worry as well. The angel nodded.
That made a terrifying amount of sense.
They never figured out every detail, but this fit like a perfect puzzle piece.
"Still, one does not open a portal to this world like that," Lilith noted, grasping at straws. "If we could, we wouldn't have needed these bodies, remember? Only soul transfers are possible."
And it was a major pain in the butt, but at the same time, a logical safety measure by—
"Michael's barrier is gone," Gabrielle shouted in her face, now crying.
Oh. Right. And she even felt a portal open, not that long ago.
***
The battlefield was terrifying.
The smell of scorched earth and stone, the buzz of static electricity, muted even the voices.
Smoke covered everything.
It might have been too late.
But life forces were still present—two as bright as suns, and a few, fainter ones in the distance.
One of them leaked a strange yet familiar energy, the other latching onto it.
A syphon—and those presences must have been—
"I let Lucifer take it from here."
That wasn't a voice to recognize. But the mage, the more powerful of the two essences, looked right through the smoke, and his smirk faltered.
"The hell are you?!" he demanded, pointing a staff that way, causing the wind to twirl.
And what a staff it was.
It teemed with energy—not with mana, but it had a life force of its own. The signature was so close to the mage's own that it was impossible to tell them apart at a glance.
Someone carved a skull into the wood where other sorcerers would often place a mana stone.
A necromancer? No, that seemed unlikely, even if he tried to mimic their methods.
But as the smoke dissipated, it was easy to recognize the other life force, too.
Konrad. Weakened, almost broken, but not yet beaten.
So that mage with the staff must have been Maou Midori.
"I'm asking you one last time," his voice boomed, low and menacing.
The staff started to glow in his hands, the life essence evaporating. It must have turned into mana, and then into something way more terrifying. But this wasn't the time to theorise.
Before the spirits could do what they did best, raw, bright energy struck from Konrad's palm.
It never reached the Demon Lord but caught his attention.
The staff changed targets, the terrifying power discharging in one single bolt.
The thunderclap that followed shook the ground. Seeing this world-changing duel from up close was too much. It was a mistake to come here, but to abandon Konrad—
"Stella," he yelled, and hearing that name finally flipped a switch.
A second bright flash—this time the staff aimed for her heart—but now she was ready.
It was all but life force. That's simple. She could handle it.
How? She didn't know, but her body and the spirits did.
Holding out a palm with eyes closed, she created a syphon of her own. The air grew cold before the light could reach her—and it passed right through her system.
She stole and processed it so it wouldn't harm her. Yet.
But the energy needed somewhere to go, to find a vessel it could occupy.
A corpse. There should have been plenty in this terrifying place.
And she found nothing but ashes or those who were still alive. As her body started to overheat, she decided that they would have to do. One in particular, one already broken—Konrad.
She redirected the energy and gasped, feeling the connection only for a split second.
And it almost sent her to the heavens. Whatever it was about this man, whether they had a magical or any other connection, it always left a mark on her.
At first—when he freed her from those transmutation artifacts—he didn't seem to notice.
But now? Konrad gasped with her, his essence already brighter, more whole.
"What did you do?" the two asked her in unison.
What indeed. Such a powerful transfer of essence would've killed anyone else. But as Stella figured—or rather, she felt deep down—that life force got stolen from Konrad before.
She only gave it back to him.
The Demon Lord might've acted like a necromancer, but she was the real deal here.
Feeling calmer than ever in the last months, Stella raised her gaze, staring the enemy in the eye.
"I leveled the playing field," she said, preparing another syphon.
And now she felt like coming here was always the only choice for her.