Parallel Memory

Chapter 769: The Dannger Averted

Silence.

Zero froze.

The strange sensation disappeared.

The second image vanished.

The battlefield.

The empty horizon.

The overlapping worlds.

Gone.

For several seconds, Zero couldn’t feel anything.

Then he heard the adventurers shouting.

Hiro had succeeded.

Not alone.

But through his actions.

His decisions.

The people around him.

Zero slowly turned toward Earth Zero.

The other Zero stood completely still.

His expression was unreadable.

"Did you feel that?"

Zero asked.

Earth Zero didn’t answer.

Zero stepped closer.

"Earth Zero."

Then—

the other Zero slowly closed his eyes.

His shoulders relaxed.

Only slightly.

But Zero noticed.

For the first time since their confrontation began—

Earth Zero looked relieved.

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

"It’s gone."

The words were almost too quiet to hear.

Zero stared at him.

"What is?"

Earth Zero opened his eyes.

"The pressure."

Zero frowned.

"What did Hiro just stop?"

Earth Zero looked toward the ruins.

"Himself."

Zero’s expression hardened.

"That doesn’t make any sense."

"I know."

"Then explain."

Earth Zero remained silent.

Zero stepped closer.

"Was that the convergence?"

For several seconds, Earth Zero didn’t answer.

Then he nodded.

"Part of it."

Zero stared at him.

"What does that mean?"

"It means it was trying to happen."

"What was?"

Earth Zero looked toward the northern ruins.

"For a moment, two paths were moving toward the same point."

Zero remembered the torn paper.

...two paths occupying...

The strange battlefield.

The overlapping image.

"Two paths."

Earth Zero nodded.

"Yes."

"Whose paths?"

Earth Zero remained silent.

Zero’s eyes narrowed.

"Mine?"

Earth Zero looked toward him.

"One of them."

Zero’s expression changed.

"And the other?"

Earth Zero didn’t answer.

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

Hiro emerged from the ruins.

He looked exhausted.

But alive.

The adventurers around him were celebrating.

Some laughed.

Others shouted his name.

Zero watched.

Earth Zero watched beside him.

Then Zero noticed something.

The pressure didn’t return.

Not even slightly.

The strange sensation had vanished completely.

Earth Zero’s efforts.

The attacks.

The manipulations.

The carefully arranged circumstances.

The attempt to restore Hiro to the center.

For the first time—

something had changed.

It had worked.

Zero looked toward Earth Zero.

"You knew this would happen."

Earth Zero shook his head.

"No."

Zero frowned.

"Then why bring him here?"

"I didn’t."

Zero stared at him.

Earth Zero looked toward Hiro.

"I only made sure he wasn’t taken away from it."

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

The answer remained with Zero.

He looked toward the ruins.

At Hiro.

At the adventurers gathering around him.

Hiro was explaining what had happened.

The others were listening.

For once, Zero didn’t need to count the names.

Didn’t need to measure the attention.

The event had found its center naturally.

And somehow—

that had been enough.

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

News of the northern ruins reached the capital quickly.

Zero watched the aftermath carefully.

Not because Earth Zero had told him to.

Because now he wanted to understand.

The guild report placed Hiro’s name first.

The adventurers described how he had directed the group.

The mana disturbance became important.

But the story attached itself to Hiro.

The next day—

people were discussing him.

The day after—

the War Council requested his presence.

The attention remained.

Earth Zero’s pattern.

For once, it had reached the result he wanted.

Hiro was there.

At the center.

And the world continued moving.

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

Zero found Earth Zero later that night.

The other Zero stood on the same rooftop where they had spoken before.

Zero approached.

"You’re satisfied."

Earth Zero looked toward the city.

"For now."

Zero stopped beside him.

"For now?"

Earth Zero nodded.

Zero frowned.

"You said it was gone."

"I said the pressure was gone."

"That’s the same thing."

"No."

Earth Zero’s expression became distant.

"It isn’t."

Zero looked toward him.

"What aren’t you telling me?"

Earth Zero remained silent.

Then he said—

"Do you know why I didn’t interfere today?"

Zero remembered.

This isn’t yours.

"Because you wanted Hiro to resolve it."

"Partly."

"Then why?"

Earth Zero looked toward the city.

"Because I needed to know whether the world would still move around him."

Zero’s expression hardened.

"And?"

Earth Zero looked toward Hiro’s distant location.

"It did."

The answer was simple.

But relief appeared again.

Small.

Almost invisible.

Zero noticed anyway.

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

For the first time, Earth Zero’s efforts had produced something undeniable.

The convergence had not continued.

The strange pressure had disappeared.

The overlapping images had stopped.

The world had settled.

At least for now.

Zero looked toward the city.

"So you succeeded."

Earth Zero was silent.

Zero turned toward him.

"Didn’t you?"

After a long moment, Earth Zero answered.

"Yes."

It was the first time Zero had heard certainty in his voice.

Not confidence.

Not calculation.

Relief.

A burden had been lifted.

At least partially.

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

Zero expected to feel relieved too.

Instead—

he felt uneasy.

Earth Zero had succeeded.

That meant the convergence had been real.

It meant restoring Hiro’s position had actually changed something deeper than public attention.

And Zero still didn’t know why.

He looked at Earth Zero.

"What would have happened if Hiro hadn’t gone there?"

Earth Zero’s expression immediately changed.

Zero noticed.

The relief disappeared.

Silence returned.

Zero stepped closer.

"What would have happened?"

Earth Zero looked toward the horizon.

His answer was quiet.

"I don’t know."

Zero frowned.

Earth Zero continued.

"And that’s why I couldn’t let it continue."

The words settled heavily between them.

Zero understood.

Earth Zero had not been certain about the consequences.

He had only known enough to be afraid of the possibility.

And his efforts had finally paid off.

For now.

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

Below them, the capital continued living.

People returned home.

Merchants closed their shops.

Adventurers entered taverns.

Somewhere, people were already telling the story of the northern ruins.

Hiro’s name moved through those conversations.

Not because anyone had forced them.

Not because Earth Zero had commanded it.

Because Hiro had been there.

Because the event had unfolded through him.

Because, for that moment—

the center had returned.

Zero looked toward Earth Zero.

"What happens now?"

Earth Zero didn’t answer immediately.

Then he looked toward Zero.

"Now?"

Zero waited.

Earth Zero’s faint smile returned.

"Now I find out whether we were fast enough."

Zero’s expression hardened.

"What does that mean?"

But Earth Zero was already stepping away.

The space around him began to distort.

"Earth Zero."

The other Zero stopped.

Without turning, he said—

"The convergence was a warning."

Zero froze.

Earth Zero continued.

"And warnings only matter if something was listening."

Then he disappeared.

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

Zero remained on the rooftop.

The city stretched before him.

Peaceful.

Stable.

Unaware.

The convergence had been averted.

Earth Zero’s efforts had succeeded.

Hiro had returned to the center of an important event.

And whatever strange pressure had begun pulling at Zero’s existence had disappeared.

For now.

But Zero couldn’t forget Earth Zero’s final words.

A warning.

He looked toward the dark horizon.

If the convergence had been a warning—

then something had caused it.

Something had noticed the deviation.

Something beyond the records.

Beyond Earth Zero.

Beyond even Parallel Memory.

And while the world below continued believing the northern ruins had simply been another successful mission—

Zero knew better.

The world had almost moved toward something.

Something neither he nor Earth Zero had been willing to name.

And although that path had been avoided—

Zero had the growing feeling that avoiding a path did not mean it had disappeared.

It only meant—

for now—

Edolas had not reached the place waiting at its end.