Parallel Memory

There were 8 dead bodies ranging in age from 7 to 10 on the ground. The body had been crushed or cut into several pieces.

It even made professionals who had witnessed countless dead and slain thousands of monsters feel like vomiting. They had never seen someone so cruel.

In war or a life-threatening battle, they had seen many dead bodies but they were all adults. In wars too, there is a minimum level of respect for the people.

No one would deliberately kill a small child. Given the option, many would avoid it even if they were on the enemy side.

But what they were seeing was the cruelty of the enemy that they had yet to encounter. They don't know who their enemy is but they did know that he/she was sick in his head.

Judging by the scene, they could tell that the murderer had obviously targeted those kids specifically. If not, there would also be some dead bodies of adults.

Among them was Mia Frostine who had lots of experiences in the dungeon but was seeing such a scene for the first time.

"WHO? Who is this cruel?"

Mia Frostine was burning with anger. She already expected some kind of violence and unpleasant scene but the thing that she was seeing had exceeded what she thought.

She thought that she might encounter some kind of kidnapper or Devil who wants to convert Kids into their worshippers but this was simply an act of cruelty.

What was crueler in her mind was that the boy she saved had also witnessed the same scene or even worse. In her head, she imagined Zero watching this all and breaking down.

Even she can't comprehend what would happen to that boy's mental state. She reckons that someone else of that age would have gone insane.

However, remembering the words of Zero, she thought that maybe he had avoided seeing this scene and ran away. Or like she previously thought, someone had delayed the murderer.

The second explanation was more likely because she could see a clear sign of battle. She could feel the use of Dark Energy and from the destruction done to the place, she felt that the fighters were around Rank-C to Rank-B.

After the initial state of shock, they quickly resumed their work. While some took the dead bodies, others searched the place thoroughly.

Mia also knows that there should be someone who had fought with the murderer. Their assumption is that the age of that person should be higher than 17 years old.

It was the age of most people around Rank-C and based on the area, they knew the person was an adult.

However, they had yet to see the dead body of an adult or the Devils, which are primarily responsible for the incident.

However, no matter how much they searched the dungeon, there was no one. No sign of an adult dead body nor the Devil. In the end, they concluded that the Devils had run away and whoever was fighting them was either taken by them or he/she had also run away.

But judging by what Mia heard from Zero, they concluded that the first scenario was most likely. They also thought that this incident might even be a plan to lure the person who helped Zero. But this all was just an assumption and they needed to ask Zero to know.

They asked The Authority for a more thorough investigation and ordered that dungeon to be sealed up for a further search.

Their main concern was that Devils were able to infiltrate the middle of a city and no one knew about that. Moreover, they still didn't know about the purpose of the Devil.

*****

*BEEP! *BEEP!

Mia's friend had transported Zero to the hospital and he was receiving the best medical treatment that they could provide.

With all the medical equipment and high-ranking healers, Zero was currently out of danger. His previous injuries were fully healed.

However, he was still sleeping. While he had recovered from physical injuries, he still needed rest to recover from his mental exhaustion.

Sophia was waiting for Mia to come. She had already informed Mia which hospital she was in. She didn't know what happened after she disappeared and expects an explanation from Mia.

"Sophia!"

"Mia! Where have you run off to? Do you know how much I was worried for you?"

"Sorry! There was an urgent thing that I needed to handle."

She looked very guilty as she spoke. It is obvious that she should have explained the matter clearly to Sophia. However, she herself had little information and from what she heard from Zero, things looked very urgent which prompted her to act quickly leaving no time for explanation.

*SIGH!

The truth is, Sophia wasn't actually looking for an apology or thinking Mia did anything wrong. Judging by Zero's condition, she could tell that something serious had happened. But what she didn't like was Mia rushing without thinking much about the consequences.

Sophia didn't have an idea of the level of danger but she thought that it would have been better for an actual adult to handle such cases. Students like them should steer clear of trouble.

She worries about the future of her best friend.

"How is his condition?"

Mia asked worriedly.

She was already concerned about Zero's injuries previously and because of what she saw, she was feeling more sympathy towards Zero.

She didn't know whether Zero saw the murder happen before his eyes or not but one thing was clear, his friends were dead.

Zero would hear this one day or the other. She didn't know how much he would be hurt. He was injured and after recovering, she knows that pain is all that is waiting for him.

"He is fine! Just doctors are not sure when he will wake up."

Sophia said.

She had heard about him not waking up because of his mental state or whatnot but Sophia didn't understand any of that. She just understood that he would eventually wake up, just not now.

Mia looked at Zero from the windows.

She kind of thought that she knew why Zero was not waking up. She thought that maybe he didn't want to wake up and find that his friends were gone. He wants to just think about all the things that happened to be just a dream.