The truth about the Demon Boy's relationship with Belldandy is revealed, as is his motivation for stopping time.
Summary[]
As Belldandy experiences another dream of the past and wakes up, the Boy reveals that he and Belldandy are doublets. He explains that according to the rules, Gods and Demons are permitted to fight over their market share, but not to the death. To ensure things stay that way and nobody gives into their temptation to kill, the Doublet System entangles two souls together—if one doublet dies, the other dies as well; the boy reminds him of how when he collapsed at Whirlwind, so did Belldandy. Keiichi is shocked at the possibility that Belldandy could die and immediately calls the Boy a liar, and Peorth tells the Boy that the only reason the Doublet System works is that people don't know who their other half is. Once the ritual is over, the memories of both the child God and Demon get erased, so nobody dares to kill someone because any one of them could be their doublet.
The Boy explains that he didn't want to lose his memories, and found a loophole: by placing a curse on himself that would keep him a child forever, he could remember the ritual. However, he admits that it's impossible to bend the laws of physics forever and that his power is starting to exceed the carrying potential of his child body. Because of this, he's now running the the risk of disappearing into nothing at any moment, in which case both he and Belldandy would die. At that moment, Belldandy straggles out of the house and begs the Boy not to follow through with his plan, as it would hurt Keiichi and others. While the two of them converse, Peorth whispers to Keiichi and tells him that while she can't summon her Angel, she can block the gravitations of the balls and chains weighing him down.
While the Boy is distracted, Keiichi rushes forward and snatches the time switch from out of his hands, just before the weight of the chains kicks in again. The Boy asks what Keiichi's going to do with that switch, since resuming time would mean that he would mean he would still die, and Belldandy along with him.
In Heaven, Urd, Skuld, and the other goddesses are unable to prevent the Boy's virus from spreading all over Yggdrasil. Skuld notices that one sub-system is still functionally normal; it's as though it's waiting for a password, but they don't have time to crack it. Yggdrasil sounds an alarm warning that Time now has a possibility of stopping in the area, and recommends that all personnel evacuate the area. Urd, Yggdrasil's head administrator, orders everyone to evacuate, but Skuld refuses to leave knowing that Urd herself won't go (as Yggdrasil can only be operated from the inside) and she doesn't want to let her hog all of the glory. Urd lets up and instead only tells the other goddesses to leave, but they pretend to not hear her and continue as normal, causing Urd to cancel the evacuation order and promise to buy everyone dinner if they survive this.
Belldandy walks over to Keiichi, who knows what she wants to do. They both hold the switch in their hands and press it.