Somebody That I Used to Know
Once Millie stepped out of my embrace, Cordelia came over, reaching out her hand to rest it on Millie's shoulder.
"There's absolutely no reason to fight using magic that would harm yourself while I am here. I'm more than capable of protecting...urk!"
As Cordelia's hand came into contact with Millie's shoulder, I clearly saw a soft glowing spark pass from Millie into Cordelia.
A bunch of things happened at once. The expression on Millie's face became hard. Cordelia jumped back. Gilda took a battle posture while I just stood there like an idiot.
Cordelia looked me in the eyes. I could see the dawning horror she was fighting through as she spoke.
"She's lying..."
Nobody moved for a moment. Then Millie spoke, but her facial expression didn't match her words or tone of voice.
"What do you mean, silly. Why would I lie?"
Cordelia shifted around toward me until she was standing next to me. What she said next rocked me to my core.
"You should remember the future too... Don't you?"
It was like a switch getting flipped. Now that I had confirmation that it wasn't a dream, suddenly the events in the nightmare from before came flooding back into my mind with startling clarity. I saw my last moments, the Pyrrhic victory soaked in blood. I clearly saw the faint glimmers of Cordelia's dream self rise from the corpse of the nightmare monster Millie had become. Suddenly I understood. There was only one question to ask.
"Is it already too late for her?"
"No... maybe... I don't know. This wasn't the way it happened before."
"Yeah. It worked. We've changed history. But maybe it still wasn't enough..."
Millie was glaring at us both with an intensity I'd never seen from her before. When she spoke, there was a coldness to her voice that was unfamiliar to me.
"What in the world are you two talking about? And why are you trying to stop me from getting revenge? The Demon Lords would gladly kill us all. You both really should be happy for me to use these new abilities."
Before either of us could answer, Gilda dropped another bombshell.
"Willie, I am unable to shut down Millie's technological enhancements. She has locked me out. Whatever is going on, be cautious of her."
I didn't even know Gilda could shut down our enhancements, but I realized it made sense there would be some sort of fail-safe. The fact that Millie was able to override that fail-safe meant Gilda had lost control as well.
"Of course, I erased your little control system, Sweetie. I was a slave for far too long. I'll never let myself go back to being helpless."
I moved in front of Cordelia. We had to keep Millie away from Cordelia at all costs. In the future that I saw Millie had absorbed Cordelia in a fit of murderous rage, using Cordelia's magic to make her summoned nightmares physically real. Once that happened, there was no stopping her, she could read anybody's mind, and she could create an army of horrors at a moment's notice. However, it was still a long time in the future when this occurred. Both of our memories had moved in time to the earliest point I was aware of time travel, in a last-ditch effort to try to stop those events from ever happening.
The tanuki couple didn't know how to react, but Idomu came to his senses first and moved his mate away from us. Byakuren seemed torn about what was going on, but thankfully she listened to him.
I spoke up first, trying to keep my voice even and calm.
"Hey Millie, I'm gonna need you to surrender. You are a danger to us all as well as yourself right now."
"Oh, silly boy, exactly how am I danger to you? I want the same things you want. To defeat the Demon Lords... Isn't that why you're here?"
"Yeah, sure. But the way you are going about it is going to destroy everything that matters... including yourself."
I only realized she was reading our minds when she wasn't shocked by what I had said. I had gotten some practice controlling my thoughts from when I fought the Psychic Lich, but I wasn't sure about Cordelia.
"Hmm... well, sometimes you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet, you know? If I have to lose myself but in the process, get revenge for my murdered family and destroyed planet, that is a small price to pay."
Then it really clicked for me. At this point, whoever this was, it wasn't the Millie I knew anymore. She was now speaking as the last princess of a world conquered by the Demon Lords. There was nothing she cared about more than revenge, and she was willing to do whatever it took to get it. I had only one card left to play.
"I'll swear to be the tool of your revenge. I'll fight for you until you're satisfied, but in return, I'll need you to submit to a slave seal. You know who I am. You've seen all my memories. You can even read my mind right now. You know I won't mistreat you, but without some sort of insurance that you aren't an enemy, the only other thing we can do is lock you in stasis."
Millie looked genuinely amused at my proposal.
"And why in the world should I submit to you? I am the rightful ruler of an entire world, and you're just some cowhand from a nothing world in the middle of nowhere."
That was hard to hear, but I couldn't disagree with her assessment. There was something she didn't know, though. Fighting back the tears, I admitted the horrible truth.
"Because I'm the one that has to kill you. If you care about me at all, please... please don't make me do that again."
Millie caught her breath. I could tell she was scanning my mind to see if I was lying. She looked at Cordelia, who nodded and then finally hung her head.
"So I make you be the one to kill me? That kind of fate really is too awful... I want revenge more than almost anything, but I meant what I said before. I will protect you always. Even if the thing I am protecting you from is myself... after all, I wouldn't even have a chance for revenge at all if you hadn't helped me. I owe you more than I can repay."
I was happy to hear her say that, but I couldn't let down my guard.
"Gilda, do you think you can hold her for a second? We need to be cautious here."
"Yes, that seems wise."
Gilda came behind Millie and put her hands behind her back using some device I hadn't seen before. As soon as she had her in hand, I used my magic to Reposition myself and used Drain to pull out all of Millie's mana.
I felt a little guilty, watching as she collapsed to the ground, but it had to be done. I retrieved one of the slave crests and fitted it on Millie's back while she was unconscious.
When she woke up. She gave me a sardonic smile.
"So, William, are you satisfied now?"
"Not yet. Here are my two commands for you. First, you must never attack Cordelia in any way. Second, you are commanded to never harm yourself."
Her eyes shot open at the second command.
"Why ever would you command me to not harm myself, silly boy?"
I gave her a sad smile as I replied. My memory of the future was getting hazier again as we moved further away from events from that timeline. But I still remembered more than enough to feel the weight of this moment.
"Because losing yourself to the rage is a form of harming yourself. More than anything, I still want you to be happy."
She didn't seem to have anything to say in response to that.
"So, do you understand my orders?"
There was a difficult to read set of emotions swirling behind her eyes. But she softly answered.
"... Yes."
