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Book 3: Chapter 56: Stopwatch and Unsummon

Zel snapped his fingers and a chair of black flames appeared behind him which he quickly occupied. "You did. Assumptions can be made, of course, but I cannot, as you suspect, hear what it is you say to each other wordlessly. How many unique skills do you have?"

"Fishing for information for the one you\'ll hire to kill me, huh. I have seven. Who do you intend to employ to kill me?" Lone asked.

"Big information for big information. Very fair. I shall not refuse to answer this time, I am trying to sway the tendencies of an Omni Devil. What are your seven unique skills, exactly?" Zel asked as he placed his hands on a knee before crossing his legs, seemingly getting comfortable.

"Basic Regeneration, Creation Magic, True Contract Magic, Growth Accelerator, Dimensional Storage, Mental Destruction, and The Summoning Room," Lone replied honestly as the contract forced him to if he wished this session to continue. "What is the soonest possible time you expect the Omni Devil to act, assuming you can sway them?"

"Five years, give or take a couple of months, excluding any unexpected variables," Zel replied.

\'So six months, maybe sooner. I have to account for those unexpected variables,\' Lone thought.

He had no real basis to leap to six months, but it felt much more accurate to his instincts than five years did. He had gone from a normal human on Earth to the strength he had now in less than two, so he would likely be more than powerful enough to handle Zel and whatever he could throw at him in over twice that duration.

The Arch Devil Zel grinned widely and asked, "Are they important to you, the children?"

"Not a specific question but I won\'t answer that in an annoying way. Somewhat, though if they die, they die. Involve them if you wish, but I will never do anything under the threat of their deaths, or anyone else I consider a companion except Sofia and Kyuubi, but you already knew that. Do you intend to include them in your plans? I need to know if investing in them is pointless or not," Lone asked.

"A very demonic response from you, Lone. I did initially plan to arrange their demise, but they haven\'t been factored into my rolls for quite some time given your lack of selflessness and the trouble it is to work around your True Contract Magic. I approve, by the way," Zel said quite happily. "Explain all of your unique skills to me in detail, won\'t you?"

\'He\'s really hung up on them, isn\'t he? Is that what he\'s going to pay the Omni Devil with? Then he can figure it out for himself. Although... It could be a mask. The important question might have already been asked or he\'ll sneak it in somewhere later...\' Lone thought and then remained silent for ten seconds.

Zel chuckled. "I expected nothing less. Well, shall we continue? I won\'t ask the same thing again, though I will leave if you would rather that."

\'A bluff, or he knows what he needs to know already?\' Lone was concerned. "Let\'s continue. Between you and Grand Guildmaster Sarah, who is stronger?"

"Without a shadow of a doubt, Grand Guildmaster Sarah. What do you do at the last bell of every seventh sun?" Arch Devil Zel asked.

Lone sighed. He did not want to expose that secret, but he did want to keep prying information out of devil, so it was time to experiment. "Clicker is an interesting being - I visit the halls of the Great Existence - and so is Snapper and the supposed Flicker that Clicker spoke of once."

Lone was very confident the mention of those three existences would be wiped from Zel\'s memory, but the real question was, would the real answer he squeezed in there be considered answered by his contract but also get erased by whatever power was behind Clicker, Snapper, and Flicker?

If it had failed and Zel recalled the real answer, so be it. It made no sense to Lone even if it was true. Monsieur Librarian had stated that the room hosting the table surrounded by empty bookshelves was known as the hall of the Great Existence back during the very first fortnightly meeting, when Lone thought Darkness still had any control over it.

Revealing that tidbit could give him some clues or, more aligned to Lone\'s desire, the Arch Devil could be just as confused if his plan of answering without answering ended up working.

\'Let\'s start the test by asking a question he\'ll probably answer. Please, please work. This will be so fuckin\' useful if I can exploit these all-powerful beings and the erasure of their mentioning to get one over on this bastard,\' Lone prayed to anyone who might be listening.

"You asked about my skills, so let me ask about one of yours. Detail your most powerful defensive skill for me, won\'t you?" Lone asked.

He tried his best to control his urge to shake from the anxiety. If this worked, it would be monumental. If it didn\'t, Zel would grow incredibly suspicious and an Arch Devil having a reason to be suspicious of him on top of wanting him dead could make the damned thing become significantly more cautious when dealing with him, which would be extremely disastrous.

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Zel smiled deeply and nodded. "That\'s perfectly reasonable. Demonic Law: Seventh Order. It connects my lifeforce to that of my territory, so as long as my lovely little demonic plane doesn\'t get destroyed, then I cannot be killed in the truest sense of the word."

Before he asked his next question, Zel reached into the air beside him and pulled out a stopwatch from a hand sized flaming portal. He held it away from himself and flicked it open before nodding and returning it to the flaming portal it had come from.

"That\'s twice now time has been stolen from me while talking to you. Once is odd and explainable in many ways, twice, however, speaks of the origin of the source. So, would you be so kind as to explain that for me, Lone?" Arch Devil Zel asked before a dangerous and threatening feeling enveloped the area, snuffing out the life from all vegetation and wildlife for hundreds of metres around the two of them.

Lone knew he couldn\'t be killed here thanks to the contract, but this had been a disaster that could not be allowed to have actually happened. Zel was likely threatening him to not be coy with his answer, but he couldn\'t care less about that right now.

Lone needed time to grow in strength and make arrangement, especially with what he had just learned. Zel becoming infinitely more wary of his capabilities could accelerate whatever background plans he was scheming to incite this supposed Omni Devil into action. That had to be corrected.

\'Use Minor Time Control. Recount the last two hours to me in painful detail, just like we planned,\' he ordered telepathically and with a heavy heart.

\'So it finally came to this,\' Sophie replied instead of Soph.

"Minor Time Control," Sophie said without even the slightest hint of hesitation.

She hated what using this skill meant for her for the next two months of her and Soph\'s live, but the both of them had discussed the use cases of Minor Time Control, special circumstances, and the fallout of the temporal manipulation, in detail with Lone. The fallout, in particular, was what she feared the most currently.

Time froze around her as a green shade blanketed the world. The leech was carefully avoiding the last of the ants, maintaining a position that would see her falling on her side were time not being twisted. Lone\'s sister was sitting against the wall looking at Sophie oddly with her pen pressed motionlessly against the notepad she hadn\'t earned.

Then, all of sudden, time resumed, except in reverse. Sophie was powerless to stop her body from moving any differently than it had done previously, nor could she control her mouth and stop it from saying any words it had not actually spoken.

Time flowed on in this backwards state long enough for Lone to return, and then for their group to re-enter Golden Pass City, the residential district, and then the home of Lone\'s sister and her friends.

Sophie was used to being a spectator in her own body but this was... uncomfortable. Half an hour rewound of her just leaned against the living room\'s wall with Lone busy undoing the work he had put into curing his new toy, when suddenly, the green shade that had enshrouded the planet disappeared.

Sophie almost found herself collapsing from the feeling of unstoppable restriction that was placed upon her mana organs. A sensation of unparalleled weakness manifested itself over her entire being, but her iron will barely allowed her to maintain her position while she gritted her teeth.

\'Hold it together. He needs to finish fixing the boy. He can\'t be distracted until then. Soph, do you think you could handle this sensation better? We cannot falter and risk the boy\'s death. Lone needs those doubled stats,\' Sophie asked.

\'...We really used Minor Time Control... I, uh, I don\'t know. Probably since I\'m better with magic and mana overuse then you, but you\'re so much better at pretending you\'re not in pain than me. It might hurt less if I take control, but Lone will notice. What does it feel like, exactly?\' Soph asked.

Sophie frowned. \'Like we are incomplete. Like we will know no comfort until what has been taken from us is returned... or violently reclaimed. We imagine it would be a similar experience should we lose you or Lone.\'

\'O-Oh... Then, we wai- Hazel is looking at us. Can she hear us right now?\' Soph asked, a bit of panic in her voice. \'Oh no! Master Mezro\'nan is looking too. What do we do?!\'

\'Be silent. Hazel, if you can hear this past Lone\'s locks, mind your own business,\' Sophie demanded before saying, "Should you not be looking towards Lone\'s magic, Master Mezro\'nan?"

\'Do not bring attention to the fact you can no longer detect our mana sun, Lizard. Be wise and keep your mouth shut until Lone is finished. Even better, keep it shut long after that too,\' she hoped privately. Well, more privately than speaking out loud would have been, at least.

"... Right you are," the X-ranker replied before returning his full attention to Lone\'s Creation Magic.

Sophie almost sighed in relief but instead had to focus the rest of her energy on avoiding crumpling into a sobbing mess. This feeling of being bereft of such an essential part of who she was... she knew she would hate this, and the fallout was only going to get worse from here.

Fifteen or so minutes passed when something she hadn\'t considered happened. Lone had reached into his Dimension Storage and retrieved his mana orb before presenting it to Sophie. "Fill this a few times for me as I use it, please? Almost tapped out on my end but he\'s not quite safe yet."

Sophie\'s heart jumped and while she didn\'t panic - she wasn\'t her softer half, after all - she didn\'t know what to do. Perhaps sensing her predicament, Master Mezro\'nan used some freeform earth magic to take the orb from Lone who, thankfully, didn\'t resist.

"Pleassse, allow me. It may help my perssspective to participate in aiding you with thisss magic of yoursss," the X-ranker said, smiling as much as a large lizard could.

\'Lone was right. This mage is trustworthy. How does he have a sense for these things when we, a woman over thirty times his age, do not?\' Sophie wondered not in jealously, no, just in sheer amazement with the slightest hint of adoration.

Regardless, she was thankful towards Master Mezro\'nan; a rare thing for her.

It only took another ten minutes for Lone to pull away from Scott as he had done so last time this happened. As he wiped his sweat from his brow, Sophie spoke to him via their - thankfully unaffected - telepathic connection.

\'You are likely already aware that something is wrong given our sorry state, the lizard\'s actions, and your intuition, so we shall say it clearly. We were forced to use Minor Time Control an hour and a half from now. You had a discussion with Arch Devil Zel and he discovered your trick of bringing up Clicker and the other odd entities. You decided it was needed to erase that from ever happening, thus, we are now void of mana and suffering greatly. And you, my love, no longer have access to your free, convenient, and extremely attractive teleporter,\' she explained.

"Fuck," was all he said in response before uttering the three words both she and Soph didn\'t want to hear but knew were required right now, "Unsummon Sofia Vladimirovich."