Parallel Memory

Frey stood no chance as she slowly froze.

Her only hope of escaping has also turned into her despair. In her last moment, she knew that she had lost everything.

Zero was looking at her before making an attempt to escape the place. He thought that he might be attacked by Professor Mia. He still had the appearance of Jester and it wouldn’t be weird for him to be considered an enemy by Professor Mia.

“Zero Elea!”

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“Yes?”

He involuntarily responded.

-PAK!

He immediately closed his mouth. He still did not want others to know that he was there as he still had something to do. However, contrary to what he wanted to do, he turned around and responded to Professor Mia as before.

He knew that Professor Mia had already confirmed his identity much to his dismay.

He was really surprised that Professor Mia could guess that he is Zero even though he is perfectly camouflaged.

Professor Mia couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw Zero walking towards her after two long years.

She was still not sure that he was Zero as he had a different face. However, the voice that Zero responded in was still similar to what she remembered.

“Zero?”

She said, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Is it really you?”

Zero smiled, and his face lit up.

“Yes, it’s me.”

He said while scratching his head. He had also stopped using the Morphc Mirror and showed his real face.

He didn’t know what to say after he had not seen her for so long. She was as beautiful, perhaps even more beautiful than before.

Zero, who was not very good at talking, found the situation very awkward. He believed that this was not the best place to get found out. However, what can he do? Professor Mia has already found out about his identity.

Professor Mia felt a rush of emotions – joy, relief, longing – all mixed together. She had always cared for Zero deeply, and it was even stronger when she met him again. She was always worried that he would be in danger or that she might never see him again.

Therefore, knowing that he was okay was a big relief for her. She also noticed many differences in him. He had become more handsome and stronger. He was no longer the kid that she remembered and had become a proper adult.

Professor Mia took a deep breath and gathered her thoughts. She calmed down and asked.

“Where were you for the past 2 years? What have you been doing?”

“Hmmm… Training, I guess!”

Zero answered. It was a fact that he had gone to the Tower Of Obelisk for training though he didn’t explicitly say that he was in the Tower Of Obelisk.

Professor Mia nodded, understanding his situation.

“I see.”

She said. She knew that being weak and the desire to get strong was normal, especially after the Devil’s Invasion. She thought that Zero had gone to train because of that incident.

“Had the Dark Guild members been taken care of?”

“Yes!”

“Did you get injured?”

“No. They were nothing. I could have handled them with my left hand.”

Zero said. Though he was left-handed and had actually taken care of them with his left hand only.

“How have you been for the past 2 years?”

Zero was like some criminal getting interrogated by some cop. However, he knew that she was only asking because she was concerned about him.

He would love to talk more with her but he knew that he still had something that he needed to do. Moreover, he doesn’t want to be seen by others.

He changed his face back to that of Jester. Professor Mia also knew that he still had something to do before he could come back.

She didn’t stop him but she couldn’t help but be worried.

“Professor Mia, goodbye! I will be back soon.”

-WHOOSH!

With that said, he disappeared from Professor Mia’s side.

Professor Mia just watched as Zero disappeared from her sight. Honestly, she didn’t want him to go away and was about to stop him. However, she believed that as he had said, he would be back soon.

She then went inside the building to check on Hiro and the others. Since Zero had already told her that there was no problem, she knew that she could trust him.

However, to ensure that there was no mistake, she had to go and check on them. Also, they had to get out of this place as she felt that it was not very safe.

******

-SLASH!

[ “Ice Shard” ]

Zero quickly took care of the Dark Guild members who were stationed outside. They thought that their mission was complete when Jester came out.

However, the next moment, he killed every one of them.

Today, Zero had no plans to let any of the Dark Guild members escape. He was going to complete what he had been planning for the past few weeks.

The first step in his plan was to disarm the Mana explosives which would ruin their plans. And the second one was to let The Authority eradicate all of them.

With their mass destruction, The Authority should have already deployed many high-ranking Explorers to handle the Dark Guild.

In the novel, Dark Guild survives because they have many hideouts and those high-ranking are called back for the war. However, this time Zero was not going to give the opportunity to the Dark Guild.

For the past few days, not only had he infiltrated the Dark Guild headquarter, but he had also hacked their system and obtained a lot of information that is only in the hands of executives and higher people of Dark Guild.

And he was going to make this public. Most importantly what he wanted to separate was the map containing the location of all the hideouts of the Dark Guild including the headquarters.

He also mailed it to The Authority, so that they could verify the information. While I also had to send it to those explorers that are pursuing the Dark Guild. While not all of them would believe the information, there would be certain people who might believe and go.

And this would give the Dark Guild no time to hide nor would it be possible to run away in such a short period of time. The only option available to them is to be annihilated by The Authority and other guilds.

“And send! I hope that The Authority responds quickly and verifies the information.”

If The Authority could verify and give it to the Explorers, they could go and destroy those hideouts Moreover, the faster they act, the less time they are giving to the Dark Guild to escape.

Furthermore, Dark Guild has provoked many guilds with their attacks. Now was the perfect time to eradicate this organization.

*****

Just as Zero thought, Dark Guild had placed the Mana explosives and went into hiding. They were excited as they thought that they had completed their mission.

However, the Mana Explosives that they placed were already disarmed. They waited for the explosion to happen but all that happened was produce a loud sound without any actual destruction.

This puzzled many of the executives who assumed that the product was defective. While disappointed by the result, they were at least happy that they had escaped.

On the other hand, the Explorers who were sent for reinforcement were very furious by what Dark Guild did. While Mana Explosives had failed, they had taken many lives and some had stolen the artifacts of many guilds.

Not only that, they had indirectly disrupted their war preparations. Many of them had been called when they were going to war with the Devils.

On top of that, they just disappeared out of nowhere. They knew that the Dark Guild was hiding, however, they had no idea where they were. This led to them having nowhere to vent their anger.

That day, they had come there with the full intention of destroying the Dark Guild. And many more were on their way to come.

A day passed and many reinforcements and forces had come to destroy the Dark Guild but there was no sign of them.

Just when they thought that Dark Guild had triumphed, The Authority revealed information on all the locations of the Dark Guild hideout. The group near those locations was ordered to gather and attack that location.

Dark Guild members were pretty startled when they were discovered. They ran away in fear, however, with the numerical advantage that the attacks had, they had no chance of escaping.

The reason why The Authority was able to verify the information so quickly was because of some group of Explorers who believed in that map and went to destroy the hideout. In such cases, The Authority was made to believe in the information and sent it to the teams that were responsible for annihilating the Dark Guild.

The nightmare began for Dark Guild as one after another, their hideout was destroyed.