Parallel Memory

The first attack had been frightening.

The second had been alarming.

By the third, people began calling it a calamity.

By the fifth, nobody knew what to call it anymore.

And after that, the attacks stopped behaving like a pattern at all.

They became a storm.

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

The eastern border had barely recovered when another report arrived.

A fortified town several hundred miles from the first settlement had been attacked during the night.

There had been no warning.

No scouts had spotted an approaching army.

No messenger had reported unusual movement.

There was no evidence that a large force had even entered the region.

Yet by sunrise, part of the town had been destroyed.

The soldiers stationed there had fought back.

Then the attackers disappeared.

No bodies.

No prisoners.

No survivors who could describe what they had seen.

Only remnants of dark energy lingering in the streets.

And that terrible smell that remained whenever devil mana had been released in large quantities.

Mia read the report twice.

"How many?"

The messenger swallowed.

"Forty-three soldiers confirmed dead."

"Devils?"

"None recovered."

"Not one?"

"No."

Mia lowered the report.

I stood across the room from her.

Lilith was beside the window.

Her hands were clenched.

"Where?"

The messenger pointed to the map.

"Northwestern district."

Mia immediately looked at me.

I walked toward the map.

"That’s nowhere near the eastern border."

"No."

"How long between the two attacks?"

"Less than three hours."

I stared at the map.

Three hours.

Hundreds of miles apart.

That shouldn’t have been possible.

Unless there were multiple groups.

Or...

I looked at the marked locations.

They weren’t random.

But they weren’t forming a recognizable military formation either.

They were scattered.

Almost deliberately scattered.

"How many settlements have been attacked?"

The messenger hesitated.

"Since yesterday?"

"Yes."

"Six."

Lilith’s expression tightened.

"Six?"

The messenger nodded.

"And there are reports of smaller incidents in at least four other locations."

Mia closed her eyes for a moment.

"Send this information to the Authority."

"Already done."

"Then send another message."

The messenger waited.

"Tell them we need every available tracking unit."

He nodded and left.

The door closed.

Silence returned.

Lilith slowly turned away from the window.

"This is getting worse."

"Yes."

"Could the rebels have divided themselves into several groups?"

"Maybe."

I looked at the map.

"But even divided forces leave traces."

Lilith frowned.

"These don’t?"

"Not enough."

Mia folded her arms.

"Then how are they moving?"

I didn’t answer.

Because I didn’t know.

And that bothered me more than the attacks themselves.

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

By the following morning, the number had increased.

Eight.

Then ten.

Then twelve.

The human domain had become a collection of fires.

One would appear in the north.

Before reinforcements arrived, another would erupt in the south.

A military depot would be attacked.

Then a farming village.

Then a trade road.

Then a border watchtower.

Every attack was different.

Some caused heavy casualties.

Others barely damaged anything.

Some targeted military structures.

Others appeared to have no purpose at all.

Yet every single one left behind the same thing.

Dark mana.

The attacks had become so widespread that the Authority could no longer deploy enough forces to respond to every report.

Entire units were being forced to choose which settlement to protect.

And that was exactly what made the situation terrifying.

Because whoever was doing this had understood something the military hadn’t.

The human domain was too large to protect everywhere at once.

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

Three days after the first attack, I found myself riding through the northern plains with Mia and a small group of soldiers.

A messenger had reported a devil attack near a farming settlement.

We had arrived within minutes of receiving the information.

Or so we thought.

When we reached the village, nothing was happening.

There were no devils.

No fighting.

No soldiers.

Just smoke rising from several damaged buildings.

Mia jumped from her horse.

"Search the area!"

The soldiers scattered.

I remained still.

Something was wrong.

The smoke was already thinning.

The damage looked fresh.

But there were no footprints.

No blood.

No discarded weapons.

No bodies.

Mia walked toward one of the ruined buildings.

"There’s no one here."

I crouched near the ground.

Dark energy lingered faintly in the soil.

I touched it.

Cold.

But weak.

"How long ago?"

One of the soldiers answered.

"Maybe thirty minutes."

Mia looked at me.

"Can you track it?"

I shook my head.

"No."

Her expression hardened.

"Nothing?"

"Nothing useful."

I stood.

The dark mana was disappearing.

Not dispersing naturally.

It was being erased.

Someone had cleaned the battlefield.

Mia looked around.

"Again."

"What?"

"We’re late again."

I nodded.

The same thing had happened at the previous settlements.

We were always late.

Always arriving after the fighting had ended.

Always finding the remains.

Never the attackers.

Never witnesses.

Never a trail.

It was almost as though whoever was behind this knew exactly how long it would take us to arrive.

I looked toward the horizon.

A thought entered my mind.

And I didn’t like it.

"They know where we’re going."

Mia’s expression changed.

"You think someone is monitoring our movements?"

"I don’t know."

"But?"

I looked at the ruined village.

"They always disappear before we arrive."

Mia was silent.

Then she turned toward the soldiers.

"Nobody leaves this village."

One of them looked confused.

"Lady Mia?"

"Search every building."

"But there’s nobody here."

"Then search anyway."

The soldiers obeyed.

I remained near the edge of the settlement.

A faint pulse of dark mana passed through the air.

I turned immediately.

Nothing.

It disappeared before I could identify the direction.

My heart sank.

Again.

That same feeling.

Someone was watching.

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

The next attack happened before sunset.

This time, it was inside the central region.

A city that had never experienced a devil attack in decades.

The report arrived at the Authority headquarters.

By the time Mia and I reached the city, half the military district had been damaged.

Again, no attackers.

Again, no bodies.

Again, no witnesses.

People were screaming.

Soldiers were running.

The city guards were trying to organize evacuation.

A woman grabbed Mia’s arm.

"Where were you?"

Mia stopped.

"We came as soon as we received the report."

"My husband was in the military district!"

"I’m sorry."

"You were supposed to protect us!"

Mia had no answer.

The woman began crying.

Mia slowly lowered her head.

I watched her.

She had fought devils.

She had fought monsters.

She had stood against Aamon.

But there was nothing she could do against grief.

Not every wound could be healed with mana.

Eventually, the woman was taken away by another soldier.

Mia remained still.

"We were late."

I said nothing.

"We were late again."

I looked at the damaged street.

"This isn’t your fault."

"It doesn’t matter."

She looked toward the civilians.

"Tell that to them."

I understood.

A hero could defeat an enemy.

But a hero couldn’t be everywhere.

And whoever was behind these attacks had turned that weakness into a weapon.

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

That evening, the Church made its position clear.

A formal statement was delivered to the Authority.

The message was short.

The Church demanded that Lilith be detained.

Voluntarily.

They deliberately used that word.

Voluntarily.

If Lilith truly wanted to prove her innocence, they argued, she should willingly surrender herself to Church custody until the attacks stopped.

The statement spread throughout the capital within hours.

The reaction was immediate.

Some people agreed.

Others called it an insult.

The Authority refused to answer immediately.

The War Council was divided.

And Lilith...

Lilith sat silently in the room as the statement was read aloud.

When it ended, nobody spoke.

Finally, she looked up.

"They want me imprisoned."

Mia corrected her.

"They’re calling it protective custody."

Lilith gave a bitter smile.

"That’s a nicer name."

I remained against the wall.

The Church’s demand wasn’t surprising.

What bothered me was the timing.

They had waited until fear had spread.

Now they were offering the people a simple answer.

Blame Lilith.

It was politically convenient.

Perhaps too convenient.

Lilith looked toward me.

"What do you think?"

"About the demand?"

"Yes."

I considered it.

"If you agree, they’ll claim you’re guilty."

"And if I refuse?"

"They’ll claim you’re hiding something."

She closed her eyes.

"Then either way..."

"They win."

Mia slammed her hand onto the table.

"No."

Lilith looked at her.

Mia’s voice was firm.

"They don’t get to decide that."

"They already are."

"Then we stop them."

Lilith looked at her for a long moment.

"You still trust me?"

Mia didn’t hesitate.

"Yes."

Lilith’s expression softened.

"Why?"

"Because if you wanted war, you wouldn’t have walked into that meeting."

She looked toward me.

"And because Zero trusts you."

I remained silent.

Lilith smiled faintly.

"That’s enough for me."

But the attacks continued.

The following day, another town.

Then another.

Then two at once.

The Authority began moving soldiers from one region to another.

Every movement created another weakness somewhere else.

The Church used every new attack as evidence.

The public grew more frightened.

Rumors spread.

Some claimed Lilith had secretly ordered the attacks.

Others claimed the Authority was hiding devil sympathizers.

Some said the Church had been right all along.

Others accused the Church of using the attacks to seize power.

The truth became buried beneath fear.

And somewhere in the middle of it all, Zero kept searching.

I examined the sites.

I spoke with soldiers.

I studied the remnants of dark mana.

I compared attack patterns.

Nothing.

Every clue disappeared.

Every trail ended.

Every witness was either missing or too frightened to remember anything useful.

It was as though the attacker didn’t exist.

But I knew better.

Someone was there.

Someone was thinking ahead of us.

Someone knew exactly what we would do.

And that thought kept becoming harder to ignore.

Because the more I studied the attacks...

the more familiar they became.

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

One night, I sat alone in a room at the Authority’s temporary command center.

Maps covered the walls.

Red marks covered the human domain.

I stared at them.

One attack.

Two.

Five.

Ten.

Twenty.

The marks looked almost random.

Then I stepped backward.

I looked at them differently.

Not as individual attacks.

As decisions.

The attacker wasn’t choosing locations.

They were choosing responses.

Attack here.

Humans move troops there.

Attack somewhere else.

Humans move again.

Create another crisis.

Force them to divide their forces.

Make the Authority look incapable.

Make the Church look justified.

Make the War Council look weak.

Make Lilith look guilty.

And eventually...

force the humans to abandon the treaty.

My breathing slowed.

"This isn’t about the attacks."

The door opened.

Mia entered.

"What?"

I pointed toward the map.

"They aren’t trying to destroy the human domain."

She looked at the marks.

"Then what?"

"They’re destroying our ability to trust each other."

Mia stared at the map.

The realization slowly reached her.

"Oh."

"Every attack creates another argument."

"Church against Authority."

"Humans against devils."

"Military against politicians."

"Everyone against everyone."

She looked at me.

"Then whoever is behind this doesn’t need an army."

"No."

I looked toward the red marks.

"They only need patience."

Mia remained silent.

Then she asked:

"Do you know who it is?"

I shook my head.

"No."

It was the truth.

But only partially.

Because there was something else.

Something I hadn’t told her.

Every time I studied one of these attacks, I felt as though I was reading something I had written myself.

Not literally.

But the thought process.

The choices.

The traps.

The deliberate misdirection.

It was too familiar.

Uncomfortably familiar.

And I had begun to realize why.

The person behind the attacks didn’t simply understand how I thought.

They seemed to understand how I would think next.

That meant either they had studied me for a very long time...

or they knew me better than anyone should.

I stared at the map.

A faint chill ran down my spine.

For the first time since this began, another possibility entered my mind.

What if I wasn’t chasing someone who had learned my methods?

What if I was chasing someone who had always known them?

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

The next morning, the Church delivered another demand.

This time, it was no longer phrased as a request.

They demanded that Lilith surrender herself immediately.

If she refused, they would consider her refusal evidence of guilt.

The Authority called an emergency assembly.

The War Council was summoned.

Mia was ordered to attend.

Lilith was asked to remain in the capital.

And I received no invitation.

That wasn’t surprising.

Officially, I was still a relatively unknown individual whose records placed me somewhere around the upper ranks of ordinary adventurers.

Unofficially...

I had begun to realize that someone was watching me.

Someone who knew exactly how dangerous I could become.

I stood alone on the roof of the building that night.

The capital stretched beneath me.

Thousands of lights.

Thousands of people.

Thousands of lives continuing as though the world were still normal.

Then I felt it.

A faint pulse.

Dark mana.

Close.

Much closer than before.

I turned.

Nothing.

The pulse disappeared.

I closed my eyes.

For the briefest moment, I felt something that I hadn’t felt since the battle with Aamon.

A presence.

Not powerful.

Not threatening.

Just familiar.

Too familiar.

I opened my eyes.

"Who are you?"

The wind answered.

Nothing else.

But somewhere in the darkness, someone had already made the next move.

And this time...

I had a feeling the next attack wouldn’t be aimed at a town.

It would be aimed at peace itself.

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