Parallel Memory

Chapter 766: The Glitch

Zero remembered the battle.

The Emperor of Destruction.

Aamon.

The Unison Raid.

The destruction that followed.

The world after it.

He remembered disappearing from public view afterward.

Mia receiving the recognition.

Hiro standing beside the others.

The world had remembered what it could understand.

Mia.

The powerful ice mage.

The hero at the center of the celebration.

But Zero’s involvement had changed everything before that point.

His existence had created possibilities that hadn’t existed in the expected sequence.

Mia’s role had expanded.

The final battle had shifted.

Hiro’s position had changed.

One event.

Then another.

Then another.

Zero slowly looked down.

"So Mia became the center because of me."

Earth Zero’s expression didn’t soften.

"Partly."

Zero looked toward him.

"Partly?"

"Don’t reduce it to one choice."

Earth Zero’s voice was calm.

"The deviation didn’t happen because you made a single mistake."

Zero frowned.

"Then what?"

"You kept changing things."

The answer was simple.

Brutal.

"You grew."

Zero remained silent.

"You learned."

Earth Zero continued.

"You gained abilities."

The other Zero’s eyes moved toward the paper.

"You survived situations that should have changed you less."

Zero’s expression hardened.

"That doesn’t explain anything."

"No."

Earth Zero looked toward him.

"It explains why this is difficult."

***************************************************

Zero placed the page on the table.

"Then what exactly did I do?"

Earth Zero looked at it.

"Do you remember when you first realized Parallel Memory was more than just a skill?"

Zero’s expression changed.

A faint memory surfaced.

Fragments.

Another world.

Earth.

Knowledge that wasn’t his.

Or—

knowledge that felt like it belonged to him.

Zero looked toward Earth Zero.

"You know about it."

"I know enough."

"Then tell me."

Earth Zero remained silent.

Zero’s patience disappeared.

"You’ve spent all this time blaming my choices."

"I’m not blaming you."

"It sounds like you are."

Earth Zero’s expression hardened.

"No."

For the first time, his voice carried emotion.

"That’s the problem."

Zero stopped.

Earth Zero looked away.

"You didn’t know."

The same words again.

But this time, they sounded different.

"You had no reason to know."

Zero watched him carefully.

"Know what?"

Earth Zero’s gaze returned to him.

"That some things should not have been possible."

The room became silent.

Zero felt something cold settle inside him.

"What things?"

Earth Zero didn’t answer immediately.

Then he looked at the paper.

"That."

Zero followed his gaze.

Parallel Memory — point of instability.

**********************************************

Zero’s eyes narrowed.

"You said it wasn’t supposed to be there."

"I said it wasn’t supposed to be there like that."

"What does that mean?"

Earth Zero walked toward the table.

He stopped beside the page but didn’t touch it.

"There are abilities."

Zero waited.

"There are techniques."

Earth Zero continued.

"There are talents people are born with."

His voice remained controlled.

"And then there are things that don’t fit neatly into any of them."

Zero stared at him.

"Parallel Memory."

Earth Zero didn’t deny it.

Zero stepped forward.

"Why is it different?"

For several seconds, Earth Zero remained silent.

Then—

"Because every time you use it, I can’t tell where the change ends."

Zero froze.

"What?"

Earth Zero’s expression had become completely serious.

"Your growth should have had limits."

Zero’s eyes narrowed.

"Should have?"

"Everyone has limits."

"That isn’t an answer."

"Your ability doesn’t behave like everyone else’s."

The words echoed in the empty room.

Zero looked down at his hands.

Parallel Memory had always been strange.

It had given him fragments of another existence.

Knowledge.

Images.

Feelings.

At first, he had treated it as part of himself.

Another ability.

Something he had to understand.

But now—

Earth Zero was looking at it differently.

As if it had never belonged beside the rest of Zero’s abilities.

******************************************************

"You’re saying my skill caused all of this?"

Zero asked.

Earth Zero’s answer came slowly.

"I’m saying I don’t know where the deviation would have ended without it."

Zero looked at him.

"That’s not the same thing."

"No."

Earth Zero looked toward the wall.

"But it is enough for me to be afraid of it."

Zero’s expression hardened.

Earth Zero had fought him.

Manipulated events.

Threatened peace.

Watched the world as though it was falling apart.

And now—

fear was visible on his face.

Not fear of Zero’s strength.

Fear of something connected to Zero himself.

Zero’s voice became quieter.

"What happened because of it?"

Earth Zero immediately looked at him.

For a moment—

something changed in his expression.

Zero noticed.

A mistake.

A reaction.

He had asked the right question.

"What happened?"

Earth Zero turned away.

"Nothing you need to know yet."

Zero’s mana rose.

"Earth Zero."

The other Zero didn’t move.

"You told me the difference is growing."

Silence.

"You said things begin disappearing."

Silence.

"You said I helped move the path."

Still nothing.

Zero stepped closer.

"And now you’re telling me my ability is connected to a point of instability."

Earth Zero closed his eyes briefly.

When he opened them again, his expression had returned.

"Yes."

"Then explain."

"No."

*******************************************************

The refusal made Zero’s expression darken.

Earth Zero looked directly at him.

"You want one answer."

"Because you keep giving me half of them."

"You think if I tell you everything, you’ll understand it."

"I’ll understand more than I do now."

"No."

Earth Zero shook his head.

"You’ll understand the wrong part first."

Zero stared at him.

"What does that mean?"

Earth Zero stepped toward the doorway.

"It means you still think this is about your power."

Zero followed.

"Isn’t it?"

Earth Zero stopped.

For several seconds, he didn’t turn.

Then—

"Your power is only one of the changes."

Zero’s eyes narrowed.

Earth Zero looked over his shoulder.

"Your choices are another."

********************************************************

They stepped outside.

The night air was cold.

The capital could be seen in the distance.

For a while, neither spoke.

Then Zero finally said—

"So that’s it."

Earth Zero looked toward him.

"You believe I changed the world."

"Yes."

"You believe Hiro was supposed to remain at the center of major events."

"Yes."

"You believe my involvement shifted those events."

"Yes."

"And because of that, Mia gradually became the person people looked toward."

Earth Zero remained silent.

Zero’s voice became firmer.

"And now you’re trying to restore Hiro’s position."

"Yes."

For the first time, Earth Zero gave him a direct answer.

Zero looked toward the capital.

The pieces were finally beginning to connect.

Not everything.

But enough.

Hiro had not simply been forgotten.

His place had gradually been replaced.

Not by one person.

Not by one decision.

But by a chain of altered events.

Zero’s growth had changed what happened.

Those changes had expanded Mia’s role.

The public had responded.

The attention had shifted.

And slowly—

the center had moved.

Zero understood the deviation.

At least, the part Earth Zero was willing to show him.

*******************************************

"Why didn’t you stop me earlier?"

Zero asked.

Earth Zero was silent.

"If you knew my actions were changing things, why didn’t you interfere?"

Earth Zero smiled faintly.

"You think I didn’t?"

Zero turned.

"What?"

Earth Zero’s expression became distant.

"There were changes I tried to prevent."

Zero stared at him.

"What changes?"

"You don’t remember them."

The words made Zero freeze.

Earth Zero continued.

"Some paths never reached you."

Zero’s expression hardened.

"You’re saying you interfered with my life before?"

Earth Zero didn’t answer.

"Earth Zero."

But the other Zero was already stepping away.

Zero moved immediately.

Earth Zero stopped.

"Wait."

For several seconds, neither spoke.

Then Zero said—

"If Parallel Memory is connected to all this..."

Earth Zero didn’t turn.

"...why do you have a body here?"

Silence.

Zero’s eyes narrowed.

The question had been in his mind for too long.

Earth Zero had come from Earth.

Yet he stood in Edolas.

The Emperor of Destruction had also appeared in ways Zero still couldn’t completely explain.

And both of them—

somehow—

were connected to things Zero had never understood.

Earth Zero’s hand slowly tightened.

For the first time that night—

he didn’t have an immediate answer.

Zero watched him carefully.

"What connects us?"

Earth Zero finally looked back.

His expression was unreadable.

"That’s another question you’re not ready to understand."

Zero’s mana surged.

"Stop saying that."

Earth Zero smiled faintly.

For once, there was no amusement in it.

"I’m serious this time."

Then space distorted around him.

Zero moved.

But Earth Zero was already gone.

********************************************

Zero remained alone.

The cold air moved around him.

For several minutes, he didn’t move.

His thoughts were louder than before.

He finally understood one thing.

The deviation had not begun because Mia had stolen Hiro’s place.

Mia had done nothing wrong.

Hiro had done nothing wrong.

The world had changed around them.

And at the center of those changes—

was Zero.

His growth.

His choices.

His presence.

His ability.

Parallel Memory.

Zero looked down at his hands.

For years, he had believed every ability he possessed belonged to him.

That every improvement was simply the result of effort.

But now—

for the first time—

he wondered whether one of his greatest strengths had entered his life from somewhere else.

Somewhere it was never supposed to reach.

Far away, the lights of the capital continued shining.

Somewhere within them, Hiro was continuing his life.

Unaware that the path around him had changed.

Mia was doing the same.

Unaware that her growing importance had become evidence of a deviation.

Neither of them had chosen it.

Neither of them understood it.

And Zero—

Zero had never intended to change anything beyond the people he wanted to protect.

Yet the consequences of his choices had continued moving outward.

One event.

Then another.

Until even the center of the world’s attention had changed.

Zero slowly closed his hand.

He understood now why Earth Zero was trying to restore Hiro.

Not because Hiro was more important as a person.

But because something about his place in the world’s major events had been altered.

The balance had moved.

And Earth Zero believed it had to be moved back.

But one question remained.

The question Earth Zero had refused to answer.

Why?

Why did it matter who stood at the center?

Why did it matter what order events followed?

And what exactly had Earth Zero seen—

that made him afraid of a world changing around Zero Elea?

Behind Zero, inside the abandoned building, a single sheet remained on the floor.

Neither of them had noticed it.

The paper had slipped beneath an overturned crate.

Most of the writing was hidden.

Only one line could be seen.

Deviation continues beyond observed limits.

Below it—

a second line.

Partially covered.

Possible convergence—

The rest was hidden.

And somewhere beyond the world Zero knew—

something had already begun moving closer.