DID YOU KNOW? YOU CAN NOW READ THREE TO SIX CHAPTERS AHEAD. CHECK MY PROFILE FOR THE LINK.
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By the time Velzard even realized what was happening, she was already standing a full foot taller, the petite, young girl-like demeanor she usually presented completely dissolving into the imposing, majestic presence of a True Dragon in her prime.
What was this insidious, utterly ridiculous claim? Only three beings left in the entire future?
And she wasn't even listed among them? Neither was Guy, nor even that blasted Rudra?
If Velzard were asked to rank the absolute strongest existences across the infinite universes, it would have been those three who stood unchallenged at the apex ever since her elder brother's tragic demise all those eons ago.
Yet, standing there staring down at the mere human who had just boldly claimed that the top three spots in existence belonged to someone else entirely, Velzard couldn't stop the quiet, suffocating rage from boiling over in her heart.
From the very moment Chloe Aubert had first presented herself at the Ice Palace, Velzard hadn't believed a single word that tumbled out of the girl's mouth.
Time travel?
It was a complete and absolute impossibility.
[Gabriel, Lord of Patience]—that was the Ultimate Skill Velzard possessed. Its fundamental essence granted her absolute authority over the fixation and deceleration of all physical and conceptual states.
It provided her with several devastating forms of time manipulation: she could lock specific objects or beings into fixed points in time, anchor the fabric of time itself to a single static moment, or simply bring every atomic particle in the universe to a grinding, permanent halt—stopping time entirely.
But traveling backward through the flow of time was something even she had deemed fundamentally impossible.
She knew the theoretical mechanics required to send raw information back to a predetermined point in the past. But that was mere data transmission, not true temporal displacement. It wasn't time travel.
So this human girl claiming to be a genuine time traveler had drawn Velzard's intense, murderous scrutiny from day one.
Guy, however, had actually believed her. And that rattled Velzard far more than she would ever care to admit to anyone.
He hadn't even attempted to disprove the girl's outrageous claim. He had simply accepted her word as absolute truth and casually set off into the unknown to do who even knows what.
Of course, she hadn't really been worried about Guy. He was overwhelmingly, impossibly powerful, after all. In all their countless battles spanning since the very dawn of time, she had yet to claim a single victory against him.
'Yet, if that girl is to be believed, then Guy is currently trapped in that sub-dimension alongside this... Maple. An existence who might very well be far more powerful than any of us. That is beyond ridiculous!'
"Perhaps we should all take a moment to calm down," the Maple Tree envoy, Kanade, his name was, offered smoothly, raising a hand in a gentle, soothing gesture. "We are all allies in this room, Lady Velzard."
"Tch."
With a faint click of her tongue, Velzard vanished from the center of the hall, leaving only a biting, razor-thin gust of sub-zero air lingering in her wake.
Naturally, she hadn't actually departed the premises; she had simply slipped beyond the observable plane, concealing her presence entirely while remaining anchored right there in the room.
Oddly enough, a small handful of individuals present could still track her location effortlessly.
Her brother, for one. Veldora's golden eyes subtly followed her movement through the dimensional fold. He truly had grown astonishingly sharper since the last time she had checked on him.
Kanade was another. She was genuinely beginning to find that man deeply intriguing. By all rights, his baseline Existence Value was easily among the absolute lowest in the entire room, yet every instinct in her ancient soul screamed that he was the single most dangerous entity present, perhaps even more so than Veldora himself.
And the last was the other envoy from Maple Tree. Ari, her name was. An Insectar by origin, but one who had clearly diverged onto an entirely unprecedented evolutionary path.
It felt as though the balance of the world had shifted with terrifying speed in such a ridiculously brief span of time. Perhaps Chloe hadn't been spouting complete nonsense after all...
No. No, it was still utterly ridiculous.
From beyond the threshold of observation, Velzard let out a quiet, unseen sigh, watching the war council resume its tense deliberations below.
'I haven't lost control over my own emotions like this in eons,' she thought, her eyes narrowing as she locked onto the spatial fracture pulsing outside. 'Just what on earth is happening to me?'
With the overwhelming pressure of the Ice Dragon finally lifting, Benimaru let out a long breath he hadn't even realized he was holding. He rolled his shoulders, attempting to shake off the lingering phantom cold. "Alright then. Let's continue."
Kanade gave a brief nod before stepping up to stand directly beside Benimaru at the head of the long war table. "Do you mind?"
"Not at all," Benimaru replied, adjusting his posture slightly to make room for him before the holographic map projection.
Kanade turned his sharp, analytical eyes back toward the Hero. "What exactly is this future version of Kaede, Maple, after? What is her ultimate goal?"
Chloe shook her head slowly, a helpless look settling over her delicate features. "I don't know."
Instantly, a wave of restless murmurs rippled through the gathered commanders and officials.
"You don't know?"
"How can you not know? You literally came back from that future!"
"What was your grand plan then, if you don't even know what she wants?!"
"Everyone, quiet down and give her some breathing room," Benimaru interjected, his deep voice cutting through the rising noise. "Let her finish."
When the strategic hall quieted back down into a tense, expectant silence, Chloe drew a steadying breath and continued. "I wasn't particularly close with her or any of her allies. My focus was always turned toward other matters... toward managing my own endless cycle. You see, I've been looping through time for what feels like an eternity now. Every single time, I try to make things better. I try to save the ones I care about, to steer history toward a peaceful outcome. But in almost every loop, a massive, apocalyptic war breaks out, and that's when everything inevitably begins to spiral out of control. Most of the time, we were never properly prepared for the sheer scale of the conflict, and we were simply overwhelmed."
Chloe paused, her gaze drifting toward the floor as she recalled the divergent timeline. "The last loop was fundamentally different, though. For one thing, an entire contingent of unique Otherworlders ended up taking center stage... and among them was Maple herself. Thanks to their incredible intervention and overwhelming military output, we were actually sufficiently prepared when the war finally arrived."
"I am assuming this war you speak of is the conflict against the Eastern Empire?" Hinata spoke up from near the window, her hand resting firmly on the trembling shoulder of Litus. The Saint was still visibly downtrodden, her head bowed in quiet grief over the tragic loss of her paladin comrades just minutes prior.
Chloe offered a somber nod. "Yes. The Eastern Empire does eventually launch a full-scale invasion. And they are far more advanced than anyone ever anticipated, technologically, at least. They wielded magical firearms, armored tanks, airships, and an entire roster of mechanized, modern military hardware. Of course, unlike in previous iterations where we were caught completely off guard, we weren't outmatched that time. The Empire's vanguard was thoroughly crushed and driven back."
She took a long, heavy breath, her brow furrowing in genuine distress. "And... that is honestly where my direct knowledge of her timeline ends. The next thing I learned was that Maple had officially ascended into an Awakened Demon Lord, and the Nonagram had fractured, diving into an all-out civil war amongst themselves. Strangely, Rimuru and Maple were fighting on the very same side during that conflict. Milim ended up going on an absolute rampage, and I was forced to step in to try and suppress her... which didn't go particularly well for me, to say the least. By the time I finally recovered from my injuries and regained my senses, the entire world had already fallen into ruin."
"By then, it was Maple herself who went on a rampage."
A heavy, suffocating quiet settled over the strategic hall as everyone present digested the staggering weight of her words. Gobta looked thoroughly terrified, Kaijin rubbed the bridge of his nose with a harsh sigh, and even Rigurd looked visibly shaken by the mental image of two True Demon Lords tearing reality apart at the seams.
Hinata was the first to shake off the paralysis, stepping forward with her boots clicking firmly against the stone floor. "We cannot afford to sit here dwelling on a future that hasn't happened yet," she declared, her sharp tone slicing through the gloom. "What matters right now is the present. Our immediate priority must be figuring out a concrete plan to aid Lord Rimuru and the others. They are currently locked in another dimension, isolated and fighting against this monstrous entity."
A sudden frost swept across the table as the air shimmered, and Velzard materialized smoothly back into visibility at the head of the room, her silver hair fluttering in the phantom cold.
"I suggest you don't waste your breath holding out hope for a rescue operation," Velzard remarked coldly, though her expression was far more controlled than before. She swept her icy gaze across the assembled council. "Nor should you be wringing your hands in useless panic. Within that sub-realm, your leaders, Rimuru, Kaede, and Luminous, are not fighting alone. They are flanked by Guy Crimson and Milim Nava. Offensively speaking, I cannot fathom a higher concentration of sheer firepower existing in all of creation."
She paused, her eyes shifting back to fix lock-tight onto Chloe.
"However," Velzard continued, her tone dropping into something far more calculated, "reckless confidence is a fool's vice. Hero... list out every single ability, skill, and technique you witnessed this 'Maple' employ during your timeline. Do not leave out a single detail, no matter how insignificant it may seem."
'If I can gather a complete profile on her power,' Velzard reasoned internally, her mind coldly analyzing the tactical reality, 'I can transmit the analytical data directly to Guy. Once Guy possesses full information on an opponent's mechanics, there is no one in existence he cannot dismantle.'
Chloe nodded slowly and began to speak. She didn't hold back, detailing the grotesque array of powers the future entity had manifested.
As Chloe went through the list, Kanade stood silently beside Benimaru, his arms crossed over his chest. But as the description dragged on, his brow began to furrow deeper and deeper, a cold, unnatural realization slowly dawning in his mind.
'Wait a minute...' Kanade thought to himself, his sharp eyes narrowing as his mental gears turned at lightspeed. 'Aren't these a bit too game like? Could it really be...'