Parallel Memory

Chapter 663: The Crumbling Palace

The ground trembled beneath their feet.

Mia staggered, gripping the wall for balance as cracks split through the marble pillars. Dust rained down like mist from the ceiling. Across the shattered hall, Hiro steadied himself, his sword buried deep in the chest of a half-reformed devil. Its body dissolved into black smoke, only for another to claw its way from the floor where the blood had pooled seconds ago.

It wasn't stopping anymore. The devils were no longer trying to win—they were overflowing.

"...It's done," Hiro muttered, his eyes fixed toward the direction of the throne room beyond the corridor. His voice was low, almost drowned by the echoing hum that filled the air. A pulsing vibration—ancient, rhythmic, and suffocating. "That power… it's awake."

Mia's breathing hitched. Her instincts screamed at her—the same way they had once before in the Tower of Obelisk, when the air itself had turned against them. But this time was worse. This wasn't just mana. This was domination.

Aaron, though bloodied and barely standing, smiled through the pain. "You feel it now, don't you?" he said weakly, dragging himself up by the edge of a broken statue. His eyes glowed faintly crimson. "Lord Aamon has ascended… he is no longer just a devil. He has surpassed the realm of mortals. Even your Saintess… even Kaelion… none of them matter now."

Hiro lunged forward in a blur, slamming his sword into Aaron's shoulder before he could finish the sentence. The impact sent both crashing through a column. "Shut up!" Hiro roared, his mana bursting like a storm. "You think we'll let him destroy everything?! We still have a chance—"

"Chance?" Aaron coughed, laughing between broken breaths. "You're already too late. Look around you, human."

And Hiro did.

Through the fractured walls of the palace, the city outside was burning. Towers had collapsed under the pressure of an unseen force. The divine light that had once covered the sky—the Saintess's blessing—was fading, cracking like glass under the weight of something massive pressing from above. The barrier was shattering.

Mia's chest tightened as she tried to raise her staff, summoning a sphere of ice around the collapsing ceiling. The frost extended across the cracks, holding for a brief moment before the next tremor ripped through it. "Damn it—!"

"Mia, stay back!" Hiro yelled, blocking a descending claw strike from one of Aaron's shadows. He spun and countered, cutting it clean through, but three more emerged instantly, writhing from the ground.

Aaron smirked through his own blood. "You're fighting against inevitability. Everything you see—every scream, every death—was decided the moment he opened his eyes."

Mia's mana flared in defiance. "If it was decided, then why are you still standing here fighting us, Aaron?!"

For a moment, he didn't answer. His smile faltered, his gaze flickering toward the direction of the throne room. A sliver of doubt appeared in his eyes—then vanished beneath rage. "Because… I have faith in him!" he shouted, summoning a spear of darkness that pulsed with the same rhythm as the hum shaking the world.

Hiro and Mia exchanged a quick glance. No words. Just understanding.

They moved together—Hiro charging forward, sword blazing with condensed mana, while Mia's spell circles spun behind him. Ice surged beneath his feet, propelling him faster as a stream of frost followed, twisting like a dragon's tail. Aaron threw his spear, shattering the ground in its path, but Hiro deflected it midair with a heavy strike that sent the weapon spiraling upward into the collapsing roof.

Mia's eyes glowed faint blue as she unleashed her spell. "Frozen Lotus—Bind!"

Dozens of crystalline flowers erupted around Aaron, freezing the floor in every direction. But the moment the ice touched him, it cracked—shattered from within by the surge of black energy pulsing from his chest.

Aaron laughed, blood pouring from his mouth. "You can't hold me anymore! My lord's power flows through me now—"

Before he could finish, Hiro appeared in front of him, his blade already mid-swing. The impact cleaved through Aaron's arm and shoulder, throwing him against the far wall with a thunderous crash. The wall exploded outward, revealing the sky beyond—blood-red, swirling with a massive vortex of energy centered right above the palace.

It looked like the heavens themselves were being torn apart.

Mia stepped beside Hiro, both panting heavily. "We need to move," she said. "If that power keeps growing, the whole capital will collapse."

Hiro tightened his grip on his sword, gaze locked on the throne room far ahead. "Zero…" he whispered unconsciously.

Mia's expression softened for a second. She hadn't told anyone what she knew—but in that moment, she didn't need to. She could feel it. Somewhere beyond those walls, hidden from the world's eyes, he was fighting alone.

And the very sky was trembling because of it.

Aaron stirred again, dragging himself upright with only one arm, the remnants of his body regenerating in twisted bursts of dark matter. "You think you can stop it? You can't even stop me!"

Mia raised her staff again, frost forming across her palms. "Maybe not for long," she said, "but we can still buy time."

"For who?" Aaron snarled.

"For the one who's already fighting him," she answered quietly.

Aaron froze for a brief moment—his face flickering with confusion. But before he could react, Hiro was already in motion again, his aura flaring like fire.

Outside, the devils roared louder. The tremors became earthquakes.

Kaelion's troops were still fighting desperately at the gates, unaware that the true war had already begun within the palace walls. The barrier of light above the city split completely, a blinding flash tearing through the skyline as the divine radiance of the Saintess flickered and broke apart.

The world seemed to hold its breath.

Then, from deep within the palace, a sound echoed—low, resonant, and dreadful. A sound that wasn't human.

Mia's knees buckled for an instant. Hiro turned pale, his body trembling as the air around them thickened with pressure.

It wasn't just power. It was will. A presence vast enough to crush everything beneath it.

The moment it appeared, Aaron fell to one knee, laughing through blood. "He's awake… truly awake. Lord Aamon… the Devil King has returned."

Mia clenched her teeth, forcing herself upright. The air burned as her mana collided against the oppressive darkness seeping through the cracks.

Somewhere beyond, unseen by all but Lilith, two forces clashed—one born of despair, the other standing against it alone.

And though no one outside knew it, the fate of the entire war had already begun to change.