Chapter 2297: Arad’s Hibernation IX

Gojo sat behind a large wooden desk with Liliana facing him, and the two of them were going through hundreds of pages of magical spells and scrolls. "The problem isn’t the spell itself, but how the Fates would react." Liliana growled, and Gojo scratched the back of his head before leaning back and taking a deep breath.

"Yes, but no. Time Magic is hard, but not impossible to master. The catch is, as you said, the Fates. Those triplets aren’t just a variable that we can build around. They are conscious, active, and reactive variables. If they were a boulder, we could’ve just gone around them, but they are boulders that would actively roll toward us to kill us."

"Perfect." Lilia, who sat on the table with her bare toes on the papers, leaned back and smiled. "Getting around those three is the biggest problem. Yog had been trying to decode their thoughts for ages, but it’s as if they are the will of existence itself."

She reached with her toes, grabbed a pen, and wrote on the paper that Gojo was reading, changing the meaning of the whole spell. She then spun the pen between her toes, and threw it right back to the ink bottle.

"See that? I changed it. That’s what the Fates do, and they are nasty. They let you work, wait until your work is complete, and then kill it by changing the tiniest of things. They want to break you at the finish line so you never try again." Hearing Lilia’s explanation, Liliana frowned. "So... we have to create a spell that won’t fail no matter what is changed about it?"

"Wrong." Lilia pointed at Liliana’s face with her toes. "The Fates don’t just change the spell you create; they can even influence the universe’s rules, events, and flow. You can create the perfect spell, but they’ll just change the universe’s laws themselves and make it obsolete."

Lilia lay down, looked at the white ceiling above them, and then lifted both of her feet up, letting her robe drop to her belly and expose her bright red panties. "They are spiders, and this entire universe is their net. They aren’t watching so we can hide from their gaze; they are sensing everything and messing with it, quite boldly."

She could feel the breeze on her body, and when Gojo looked down, he could see her exposed groin. "You should’ve worn something." He sighed, and she blinked. "With Yog busy, they can mess with things. I seem to have forgotten to wear my panties this morning, but that can’t be; I never forget. It can only be the fates shifting the thread just to mess with us."

Lilia’s eyes shifted, still keeping both of her legs up and spread wide. "Won’t you agree? Mary." Right now, they weren’t in Gojo’s library or lab; they were in the Dragon Queens’ Royal Chamber.

The Metallic Queen Mary was in the back, sitting on her massive red bed and reading a book while wearing a simple white tunic. "True, time did shift. You wore those panties in the first timeline, and in the new one you forgot them."

Gojo looked at her. "Is there a way to detect the change in timelines?" As he asked, Mary lifted her head and looked at him. "For anyone besides me or Yog herself? No. Lilia is so stupidly smart that she can trust her own understanding, but everyone else isn’t the same." She shook her head. "You can’t do the same."

Liliana looked at Lilia for a second. Noticing her gaze, Lilia shifted her legs toward Liliana. "Here, want a better look?"

Lilia ignored the half-halfling’s stupid jokes and just asked directly. "How did you figure out that something changed."

Lilia thought about it for a second, and then replied. "It’s nothing important, just sheer arrogance. I’m never wrong, and if something isn’t working as I expect, then it is because the universe itself was changed." Her eyes were glowing dark blue. "But I suggest that you never mimic me."

"She is right." Mary added. "Lilia is a monster that even Yog, the omniscient guardian of the forbidden knowledge, approved of. She operates on a whole other level of thinking."

At that moment, the room’s door opened up, and someone loud walked in. "MARY! It’s been a while! This time I’ll make you scream like never before!" The one who just barged in was the Chromatic Dragon Queen Lola, and she was like a beacon of radiant light.

Tall, loud, only wearing a translucent gown that covered nothing, and yet looked absolutely stunning. Her hair rapidly changed color through every single chromatic color, and so did her eyes. Gojo could sense that the colors themselves weren’t the important part, but the violent draconic magic shifting through them.

She was every chromatic dragon at the same time, and her power even surpassed all of them individually. Gojo could also tell that she could even mix those chromatic colors for more power, the same way red and white dragons can give birth to temperature dragons, or how red and blue give birth to plasma dragons.

Lola then froze, looked at Mary, who sat on the bed with a calm face, then at Gojo and Liliana, who had the half-naked Lilia on their desk and approached. "Mary, you have guests here?"

"Yeah, they are here to get advice on time magic from me." Mary replied, "But don’t worry about them. Did the plan go as we expected."

"Let me greet them first." Lola greeted Gojo and Liliana normally, but when it came to Lilia, it was nothing but. She immediately pressed her massive body on the halfling and sucked her lips into a loud, deep kiss that lasted for almost four minutes. Her hands didn’t rest either as they quickly slipped between Lilia’s legs and started working their magic, right on Gojo’s desk.

Liliana looked violently appalled and annoyed at the two making out right beside her face, but Gojo, on the other hand, was unbothered at all. He was fully immersed in his magic to care for now.

"Can you two act normal for once?" As Liliana growled, Lola looked at her with a smug smile. "We can, but there is a problem. Power decides right from wrong. Neither you nor Gojo has the power to order us in our room."

Liliana ground her teeth, and Gojo spoke. "True, we’re nowhere near as powerful as you." He looked at Lola, who had just finished making out with Lilia. "But that doesn’t mean you have to ignore us."

Lola stared at him and that sharp glare alone released enough draconic magic that Liliana could barely handle it, and for a second, it looked as if Gojo and Lola were about to fight.

"You know..." Lola growled. "I’m too stupid to think of complicated things, and you’re weaker than me by a lot. But being allowed here is enough..." She shifted her attention back to Mary. "How much respect should I give them?"