Parallel Memory

Zero sat there for a while longer, lost in thought.

Many things have happened and many things will happen in the future. The battle with Cardinal Hildred was just the beginning of the conflict between him and the Devils. He still had to take care of the mastermind.

There were many things that he needed to do. However, right now, he decided to forget all those things and take the time to rest.

Being worried was going to yield no result. Anyway, one of the problems was solved and he believed that Saintess Amelia would be safe, at least from The Church.

Nothing could be said about the Devils as they would surely send assassins to kill Saintess Amelia. However, they would surely have a harder time killing Saintess Amelia as their spy had been killed.

Even so, for the time being, Zero believes that The Lord who had lost his connection with Cardinal Hildred wouldn’t be impulsive to send someone to kill Saintess Amelia. He would first take the time to gather information and then he might send an assassin.

As far as Zero knew about his personality, he thought that was what was going to happen. In that case, Saintess Amelia should be safe for now.

“ARGH!”

“Where am I?”

“What happened here? Where is the Cathedral?” …

People were regaining their consciousness and they looked in shock at the state that their once beautiful Cathedral is in.

Many even thought that they were still dreaming or something. But the reality was that the cathedral was destroyed to the point that it was unrecognizable. Not only that, many people were injured and some were even killed. Though the ones killed were all the traitors, they didn’t know that and thought some unknown enemy attacked them.

They just thought that something had happened to them and at that time, many people were killed.

Despite that, they were asked to help by other people who were currently helping other people who were still unconscious.

ƥαṇdα-ηθνε|·ƈθm

Without her, it was certain that there would have been chaos. But with her in charge, others continue to do what they are told to without much argument.

Zero glanced at Priestess Helena and Cardinal Hildred. He has been keeping an eye on them, though there doesn’t seem to be resistance from them.

Priestess Helena didn’t do anything and just kept staying where she was. It seems that she didn’t have any thoughts about escaping at all. As the person who remained a puppet for all her life, she didn’t have much choice but to stay as a prisoner or to do as she was told by someone.

Even if she escaped, she had nowhere to go. As for going to The Devil’s Domain, she would be even more dead there than here. With Cathedral Hildred dead and their betrayal is known, she was useless to The Lord.

She would only be killed if she went there.

As for Cardinal Hildred, it didn’t seem like she would be able to do anything in the state she was in. It would be even a miracle if she could stand.

Having rested, Zero stood up and went to help others. Anyway, he didn’t have anything to do for now.

Unbeknownst to Zero and Saintess Amelia, they were being watched the entire time. The group of Devil Contractors who had been defeated by Zero had been using an undetectable drone-like artifact to spy on them from a distance.

They had been sent by Rank-SS Devil Aamon to obtain information about Jester/Zero. They had no problem being able to infiltrate the Church with the help of information from Cardinal Hildred.

Though they were afraid of Zero and stayed as far as possible from him. They used artifacts to collect information and refrain from going near Zero, in case he detected them.

After having seen Zero slaughter Rank-A Devil Contractors, this group of Devil Contractors had no courage to even be in one km radius of Zero. They maintained at least a distance of 2 km and used artifacts to monitor Zero.

As they watched the two of them, one of the followers spoke up. “What should we do, Leader? Should we attack them now?”

He was a very greedy person and thought It was a good opportunity for him.

Both Zero and Saintess Amelia were in a weak state and they might be able to defeat them easily. If they do that, they would not only be able to obtain the reward for killing Saintess but also for killing Zero.

The Leader watched the drone’s feed intently, a sly grin spreading across his face. It was indeed an opportunity but then he shook his head.

“No!”

He firmly rejected his idea.

Although he was eager to avenge his previous defeat and get rewards, he rejected the idea of attacking Zero. He knew that Zero was extremely powerful and feared that they would end up dead like Cardinal Hildred.

He had seen the limitless power that Zero had shown. As a matter of fact, he even thought Zero might even be on their side, but Zero mercilessly killed Cardinal Hildred and protected Saintess leaving no doubt that he was their enemy. He feared that he would need to face the same power.

Even if he was 10x stronger, he didn’t think that he would even be capable of hurting Zero who had unleashed his Dark Energy.

The other Devil Contractors nodded in agreement, their eyes glued to the artifact’s feed. They had been following Zero’s movements for days now, collecting all kinds of information about him.

But what they got today changed all the information that they had. They had for the first time seen the real face of Jester.

Now, all the information that they collected about Jester was useless. All the information that they managed to collect for weeks was all about Jester who is one of the Dark Guild members.

But earlier, they managed to get the information that Jester/Zero was just in disguise. They captured the image of his real face.

They need to collect the information about the boy that they saw after his face was revealed and discard the information about Jester.

Anyway, their mission was not to kill Saintess or Zero. They thought it was better for them to concentrate on their job which is to collect information and give it to Lord Aamon.

“Let’s collect information about him and give it to Lord Aamon. Honestly, I don’t want to mess with this monster.”

One of them said. He said what many of them wanted to say. Even if rewards were good, they need to first have the ability to complete the task. And he for one was scared to even think about going against Zero even if he was extremely weak.

Many agreed with him. The rewards were great for killing the Saintess but nothing was more important than their life.

Although the greedy Devil Contractor had something to say, seeing many Devil Contractors already disagreed with his idea, So he gave up.

“We should leave now! We got the information that we needed.”

The leader said. He didn’t think he would get more information about Zero. And there was also a risk of exposing themselves to Zero if they decided to stay any longer.

Other Devil Contractors nodded to the Leader’s decision.

They got a lot of information about Zero and now they just need to research and find more information about Zero. And then give that information to Lord Aamon. As for how to deal with Zero, that was for Lord Aamon to decide.

Let a monster deal with another monster!

They thought. Zero was as much of a monster as they thought Lord Aamon was. They didn’t know who would win in a fight, nor were they interested in finding out.

-WHOOSH!

They retreated! They knew that they would be found out if they continued to hide there. With all the Holy Knights regaining consciousness and Zero present, they would be killed if they were to be found out.

Moreover, they already got what they wanted. They discovered the secret of Zero’s identity and it would be enough to satisfy Lord Aamon.

“…”

Zero gazed up at the sky, a deep sense of unease gnawing at his gut. It was as if a sinister force was lurking above him, waiting to strike. He scanned his surroundings, but nothing seemed out of place. Yet, the feeling of impending doom persisted, making his heart race with fear.

( Maybe I am thinking too much? )

Zero thought. With how cautious he had been for the past few days, he thought that it was affecting his mentality. He needed to learn to relax.

He chose to ignore the unease in his heart and continued helping Saintess Amelia.