Parallel Memory

Chapter 612: The Battle Rages

The quiver beneath Zero’s hand did not fade.Instead, it spread. The parchment trembled faintly, as if a heartbeat pulsed beneath the ink itself. He drew back instinctively, his breath catching in his throat, and the page began to turn on its own. Slow, deliberate, inevitable.

Lilith’s soft gasp echoed faintly behind him, but she didn’t stop it. She only whispered, almost reverently:"The records choose. They always choose."

The page rolled forward, parchment rasping like bone dragged across stone, and stopped at a place that felt predetermined. The ink darkened, lines thickening and reshaping, revealing fresh script that gleamed as though written only moments ago.

Zero’s pulse quickened. He leaned in.

"Thus came the Seventh Night, when the braves and the King of Devils waged war beneath a sky choked of stars. Their strength was frayed, their bodies broken, yet still they endured."

The words sprawled across the parchment, vivid enough that Zero felt them reverberate through the room. His vision wavered, the lines blurring until the letters bled into images. Shadows rose from the page—moving shapes, flickering echoes of a past replayed.

The chronicle was no longer just words. It was a window.

He saw them.

The five heroes stood within a grand hall of black stone, pillars carved like twisted spines, ceilings so high they disappeared into shadow. At the far end, the Devil King loomed—vast, monstrous, his form wreathed in an aura of searing darkness that made the stone walls tremble.

Two swordsmen faced him at the center of the hall. One cloaked in shadow, his blade an extension of midnight itself. The other wreathed in silver light, each swing of his starlit weapon cutting arcs of radiance through the gloom. Together, they moved like twin halves of a whole—yin and yang, darkness and light—each one covering the other’s weakness, striking with perfect rhythm.

The Devil King met them blow for blow. His blade was heavier than steel, forged from a darkness so absolute it seemed to devour even the memory of light. Each strike split the air like thunder, and when it met the swordsmen’s blades, the impact rattled the very hall.

Zero’s breath caught. The duel wasn’t just battle—it was a storm.

Behind them, the other three heroes fought their own war. The spear-user dashed through ranks of guards, his weapon spinning in brilliant arcs, scattering armored fiends like wheat beneath a scythe. The mage stood behind him, her hands weaving shields of flame and walls of shimmering energy, halting barrages of arrows and waves of devilish spells. At her side, the healer’s staff glowed, her chants mending wounds as quickly as they opened, pulling comrades back from the brink with each soft word of power.

And yet—it was clear they were outnumbered.

The Devil King’s palace poured forth soldiers in endless waves. Armored monstrosities, creatures twisted with claws and horns, blades that dripped with venom. Each one was stronger than a man, yet the heroes held their ground, refusing to give an inch.

The chronicle’s words burned across the page:

"For six nights and seven days, neither side yielded. Each dawn found the swordsmen bloodied, their blades heavy, yet still they rose. Each dusk, the Devil King laughed, his power swelling, but the braves endured, their courage unbroken."

Zero’s throat tightened as he watched. The shadow swordsman staggered under a crushing blow, only for the starlight warrior to shield him, answering with a counterstrike that drove the Devil King back a single step. Then, when the starlight faltered, the shadow would cover him in turn, striking with speed that blurred his form into darkness.

They weren’t just fighting side by side. They were surviving because of each other.

Zero felt the weight of that bond in his chest like a blade twisting. Was this what the prophecy meant? Two humans, blood and spirit of heroes past, bound together to face the Devil King again? Was this what he and Hiro were meant to become?

The chronicle gave him no answer. Only more truth.

The Devil King roared, his aura flaring in a surge that cracked the floor. Black fire spilled from his blade, a torrent that devoured everything it touched. The shadow swordsman leapt into it, his form melting into darkness itself, cutting through the inferno like a phantom. From the other side, the starlight swordsman drove forward, his blade glowing brighter, pushing light into the heart of darkness.

The two met at the center, their blades crossing through the Devil King’s body in perfect unison. The impact shook the hall. For a heartbeat, it seemed victory had come—until the Devil King’s laughter rolled out again, deeper, more terrible than before.

He rose unbroken, shadows surging thicker, and his blade lashed out, cutting the ground in a sweeping arc that hurled both swordsmen backward.

The chronicle’s words grew harsher, the ink darker, as though straining to capture the fury of the fight:

"Exhaustion gnawed their bones. Blood stained their every step. Yet still the braves endured. Not for glory, nor for crowns, but for the hope of dawn that would rise beyond this night."

Zero’s hand trembled as he reached toward the page. He wanted to tear it, to stop reading, to escape the weight pressing into his lungs. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t look away.

Because this was the truth he had demanded.

The heroes fought like men and women bound to something larger than themselves. And the swordsmen... they weren’t just wielders of shadow and light. They were proof that strength wasn’t born alone.

They had each other. Always.

Zero thought of Hiro again—loud, infuriating, unbreakable Hiro. Always smiling, always charging ahead, never letting Zero’s silence drag him down. How many times had Hiro’s hand dragged him forward when he would have stayed behind? How many times had Hiro’s laughter pierced the gloom he carried like a shroud?

The thought sent a hollow ache through him.

What if that was the point? What if he had never been meant to stand alone?

His reflection stared back at him from the gloss of the ink. His own eyes, hollow yet burning, trapped between fear and resolve.

The chronicle’s writing flared again, brighter, harsher, pulling him deeper into the vision. The seventh night stretched on, endless, blades striking until the sound of steel was all that remained.

And still, neither side broke.

The Devil King stood unyielding. The swordsmen refused to fall. The heroes fought on, each one battered but unbroken.

Until at last, the page darkened again, the words shifting to a close:

"Thus ended the seventh night. The King of Devils still stood, though his strength waned. The swordsmen still drew breath, though their bodies bled. The battle was not yet done—but the scales had begun to tilt."

The vision faded. The ink stilled. The page lay quiet once more.

Zero sat frozen, his chest heaving, sweat chilling his skin despite the stagnant air.

The duel was far from over. The chronicle had shown only the breaking point—the razor’s edge where victory or despair could still be decided.

He knew what was coming next. The decisive clash.

And though the heroes had triumphed centuries ago, for Zero, the weight of their fight pressed forward into his own time. Their struggle was not just history. It was warning.

Shadow and starlight. Two swordsmen. Two humans.

Him. Hiro.

The thought was inescapable.

And for the first time, Zero wasn’t sure whether he was afraid of destiny——or of living long enough to meet it.