Parallel Memory

Chapter 741: The oppression

The room grew louder.

The Church demanded.

The Authority negotiated.

The War Council attempted to mediate.

And Lilith sat in the middle of it all.

Then one representative said something that finally pushed Zero past his limit.

"The Devil Kingdom should consider itself fortunate that humanity is willing to tolerate its existence."

Silence.

Complete silence.

Zero’s head slowly lifted.

Mia immediately noticed.

"Zero..."

He didn’t answer.

The air changed.

At first, it was barely noticeable.

A faint chill passed through the chamber.

Several people shivered.

One of the candles flickered.

Then another.

The temperature began dropping.

A thin layer of frost appeared across the stone floor.

"What...?"

A confused voice came from one of the observers.

Before anyone could react, an oppressive wave of mana exploded outward.

Dark.

Cold.

Sinister.

It swept through the entire chamber like an invisible storm.

People froze in place.

Some guards instinctively reached for their weapons.

Several mages staggered backward.

Even the strongest people inside the hall felt their bodies grow heavy.

The pressure was suffocating.

It wasn’t simply powerful.

There was something terrifyingly familiar about it.

But most of the people in the room reached the wrong conclusion.

Their eyes immediately turned toward Lilith.

"Her..."

Someone whispered.

"That mana is coming from the Devil Queen."

Another person nodded.

"It has to be."

The reasoning seemed obvious.

Lilith was the daughter of the previous Devil King.

She was the successor to the Devil Kingdom.

She had just arrived from the devils’ domain.

And the records collected by the members of the meeting had already established Zero as nothing more than a relatively ordinary human.

After Zero had made his powerful suggestion during the previous meeting, several factions had quietly investigated him.

His background had been checked.

His history had been examined.

His known accomplishments had been compared.

The conclusion had been simple.

Zero was believed to be a B-Rank combatant.

At most, some believed he might have reached A-Rank.

Nothing more.

There was no record suggesting that he possessed the strength necessary to produce an aura like this.

So when the pressure filled the hall, nobody considered the quiet man standing behind Lilith.

Nobody except those who knew better.

Lilith herself felt the mistake immediately.

She knew exactly where the aura was coming from.

Her eyes shifted slightly toward the man standing behind her.

Zero.

She could feel the anger rolling from him.

But she said nothing.

She didn’t correct them.

Perhaps because she understood why he was angry.

Perhaps because, for the first time since entering the hall, she felt someone standing behind her without asking her to defend herself.

The pressure intensified.

The frost spread farther.

A few ordinary guards dropped to one knee.

Some of the representatives struggled to remain seated.

The strongest warriors in the room were affected as well.

One of the SS-ranked members clenched his teeth.

"What kind of pressure is this?"

Another stared directly at Lilith.

"She hasn’t even moved."

The confusion only strengthened their assumption.

If Lilith could release such overwhelming pressure without moving, then perhaps the stories about the Devil King’s bloodline had been severely underestimated.

But on the opposite side of the hall, several people were experiencing something completely different.

Mia Frostine had gone completely still.

Her eyes widened.

She knew that feeling.

She had felt it before.

Not in a meeting hall.

Not surrounded by politicians.

But on a battlefield.

At the place where the Devil King had fallen.

Her fingers slowly tightened.

"Zero..."

Hiro’s expression changed.

Zion stopped breathing for a moment.

Lisa’s eyes widened.

Sylvia’s face lost its usual composure.

Even Misha, who rarely allowed herself to show fear, felt goosebumps spread across her arms.

They knew.

They had all been there.

They knew whose aura this was.

It was impossible to forget.

The man who had stood against the Devil King.

The man who had fought in the place where nobody else could reach him.

The man whose existence had been hidden beneath the false credit given to Mia and Hiro.

They had watched him disappear after the final clash.

They had wondered whether he had survived.

And now—

He was standing behind Lilith.

One of them swallowed.

"That’s..."

Hiro didn’t finish the sentence.

He didn’t need to.

Zion quietly muttered,

"He’s alive."

Lisa nodded slowly.

"And he’s angry."

Sylvia felt a chill run down her spine.

Not because she was afraid of Zero.

But because she suddenly remembered just how terrifying his true strength was.

Misha stared at him from across the hall.

She had seen Zero fight before.

She had watched him move.

She had watched him overwhelm opponents who should have been stronger than him.

But even she had never completely understood the difference between the Zero everyone knew and the Zero who had fought the Devil King.

Now she understood.

The aura alone was enough.

And if this was only the pressure he released while losing control of his emotions...

She didn’t want to imagine what he was capable of when he actually fought.

The War Council members had reached the same conclusion.

Commander Rurik’s eyes narrowed.

He remembered the battlefield.

He remembered the moment the palace had collapsed.

He remembered the strange, overwhelming aura that had erupted from within.

At the time, there had been too much chaos to identify its source.

But now there was no mistaking it.

Rurik slowly looked toward Zero.

So did several of the other veteran members.

One of them whispered,

"That pressure..."

Another answered,

"It’s him."

Rurik didn’t respond.

His expression became increasingly serious.

They had known the official reports.

They had seen the records.

They had accepted that Zero was merely another promising young human.

But the War Council had also heard fragments of what happened inside the palace.

They had heard accounts that didn’t match the official story.

They had heard about an unknown fighter.

A man whose strength had been impossible to classify.

A man who had fought alongside the Emperor of Destruction.

A man whose mana had vanished immediately after the final attack.

Now the pieces were beginning to fit.

Rurik looked at Zero again.

The quiet young man stood perfectly still.

His face revealed nothing.

But the aura surrounding him told an entirely different story.

The commander slowly exhaled.

"So the reports were wrong."

One of the veteran warriors beside him nodded.

"Very wrong."

Across the hall, however, the majority of the representatives remained convinced that Lilith was responsible.

Some were frightened.

Others were angry.

A few Church representatives even began whispering prayers.

"The Devil Queen is threatening us."

"She hasn’t threatened anyone."

"Look at the pressure!"

"She’s sitting there!"

"Exactly!"

Lilith heard every word.

Yet she remained silent.

She could have corrected them.

She could have pointed toward Zero.

She could have explained that the person they feared was not the Devil Queen.

But she didn’t.

Because Zero had made no attempt to reveal himself.

And she understood that he probably had a reason.

Behind her, Zero’s aura continued to rise.

Mia finally stood.

"Everyone."

Her voice carried across the chamber.

The room slowly quieted.

She looked toward the representatives.

"Enough."

Several people stared at her.

Mia continued.

"Nobody here is being attacked."

The Church representative frowned.

"Then what is this?"

Mia glanced toward Zero.

Only for a second.

Then she looked back.

"It is a warning."

The word sent another wave of silence through the chamber.

She didn’t explain further.

She didn’t need to.

Those who understood already knew.

Those who didn’t would simply have to continue wondering.

Lilith finally turned slightly toward Zero.

His eyes met hers.

Neither spoke.

But she could see that he was beginning to regain control.

The dark aura slowly withdrew.

The frost stopped spreading.

The oppressive pressure weakened.

People began breathing normally again.

The candles stopped flickering.

The chamber gradually returned to normal.

But the atmosphere had changed permanently.

Nobody was laughing anymore.

Nobody was casually making demands.

And several of the strongest warriors in the room were now looking at Zero differently.

The majority still believed the power had come from Lilith.

They couldn’t imagine any other explanation.

After all, their records had already told them what Zero was.

A B-Rank human.

Perhaps A-Rank.

A talented young man, certainly.

But nothing extraordinary.

Nothing capable of frightening SS-Ranked warriors.

Only Mia’s group and those who had witnessed the truth understood what had actually happened.

They knew the man standing behind Lilith was not an ordinary guard.

He was the person who had fought the Devil King.

He was the person who had survived the final battle.

And now they were standing in the same room as him.

For the first time, some of the people who had dismissed Zero’s earlier proposal began wondering whether they had made a serious mistake by underestimating the quiet young man.

Zero slowly opened his eyes.

His expression had returned to normal.

He said nothing.

He simply resumed his position behind Lilith.

Like a guard.

Like nothing had happened.

Lilith looked forward again.

But inside her heart, something had changed.

She had entered this room believing she would have to defend her people alone.

Now she understood that she didn’t have to.

Someone was standing behind her.

And for reasons she still didn’t fully understand, that knowledge made the impossible burden sitting on her shoulders feel slightly lighter.

Across the chamber, the debate remained unresolved.

The treaty was still hanging by a thread.

The Church still wanted concessions.

The Authority still wanted compromise.

The War Council still feared that the disagreement would tear humanity apart.

And the Devil Kingdom was waiting for an answer.

Neither side knew that forces were already moving behind the scenes.

The peace that Lilith had come to negotiate was becoming more fragile with every passing moment.

And somewhere outside the capital—

those who had already decided that peace must fail were beginning to move.