Have you tried by specifying the state?
a:link - a normal, unvisited link
a:visited - a link the user has visited
a:hover - a link when the user mouses over it
a:active - a link the moment it is clicked
https://www.w3schools.com/Css/css_link.asp
I mean at that point let's try all the lamest hacks... Maybe something will stick
Edit:
Also, I would try :before
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21421948/protect-e-mail-address-with-css-only
Problem is that we probably need to throw that shit after ".links a" gets "!importanted" in order to overwrite the !important
And we can't
...
Unless we use an anim eventually
That's dirty as fuck but it can work
(post is archived)