Parallel Memory



Zero's heart raced as he watched the intense exchange between Sylvia and Princess Elenia. He knew that Sylvia was giving it her all, pushing herself beyond her limits to face an opponent of such overwhelming strength.

As Elenia's and Sylvia exchanged devastating attacks, Zero prepared himself. He could already see that Sylvia's mana was running low but chose to wait and see if Sylvia had any other trick up her sleeves, however, there was none.

Even he didn't expect that Sylvia would pour everything into her attack and abandon defense altogether.

He couldn't just stand by and watch Sylvia get annihilated. Judging by the power of Elenia's attack power, there was no way Sylvia would survive. Without hesitation, he swiftly used his skill.

[ Frozen Shadow Dance ]

He quickly reached where Sylvia currently was and swiftly pulled her into the shadow. And narrowly dodged the attack. Fortunately, Elenia's attack flew past the ground and went straight to the reinforced wall.

If the attack was directed towards the ground, even if he had pulled Sylvia inside the shadow world, she might have gotten injured.

Anyway, after having dodged the disaster, he and Sylvia went back to the ground. Of course, Zero carried Sylvia in his arms as Sylvia seemed to have lost all her strength.

( What should I say? )

No matter what, Sylvia had lost the match as he had interfered. With this result, Zero knew that Sylvia would be feeling down as she wanted to win.

So when Sylvia opened her eyes, Zero immediately thought of something and said, "Sylvia, you've truly shown me the extent of your power. I'm amazed!"

This is what he thought when he saw Sylvia fight with determination.

Zero said while looking in Sylvia's eyes.

"Zero!"

Sylvia was surprised to see Zero when she opened her eyes. She was not stupid and knew that Zero had interfered to save her life. She was grateful for it.

"Ah, Zero- "

She was grateful, very grateful but- it was indeed embarrassing for her to be held by him. She wanted to shrug him off and stand on her own feet.

However, she couldn't muster any strength. It seemed like she had really given everything she had at that last moment.

"Don't move! I will take you to the healer!"

Zero said sternly. Sylvia's body was injured in the battle and more than that because she went beyond her limits, her body at the moment was not in a good state. It was not good for her body to do anything at the moment.

Sylvia blushed in embarrassment and slightly nodded her head. The fact that they were being watched by thousands of spectators didn't make it any better.

After a brief moment, Sylvia was able to keep her composure and turned her head slightly to look at where Elenia was.

"What had happened to Princess Elenia?"

Sylvia asked. She had given everything she had in that attack and wanted to know the result.

"The dust is blocking the view at the moment! We need to wait for a second to know."

Zero said as he also looked at the area where Princess Elenia was at. He also didn't know what happened to her as he was solely focused on saving Sylvia at that moment.

*******

*PHEW!

"Looks like Sylvia is fine!"

Misha said after having noticed Alan carrying Sylvia. The thing happened so fast that even if she wanted to go and save Sylvia, she didn't have the ability.

It was the same for others in the group. They only realized that Sylvia poured everything in the last attack and they weren't able to react fast enough to do anything.

When they realized what Sylvia was doing, Elenia's attack was already in Sylvia's face.

"You are right! I'm glad that Zero protected her!"

Lisa replied with a relieved sigh. She couldn't see Zero going to save Sylvia and only noticed him when Zero was already in the arena carrying Sylvia in his arms.

The other spectator also began noticing Zero who had barged into the contest. They also didn't know what had happened.

The Referee also stared at Zero dumbfounded! He saw what had happened, then also was quite surprised.

He was talking to King Tranduil through telepathy about whether he should interfere. He has yet to receive the answer when he already saw someone else make a move.

He thought that someone wanted to interfere with the fight and as the referee, he needed to stop it. However, King Tranduil stopped him.

"No need to do anything!"

King Tranduil said to the referee who quickly obeyed.

But what surprised him was not that he was stopped by the king but the speed at which Zero made the move. Even for Rank-S like himself, he was difficult to move at Zero's speed.

Even if he had tried to stop Zero, he might not have been able to. This was quite embarrassing for him to have such thought as he was Rank-S and the person that interfered was only Rank-A +.

"Huh? Who is this person?"

"Did he just interfere with the fight?"

"How could such a person defend against Princess Elenia's attack?"

"Looks like the girl got lucky. If that kid didn't save her, she would most likely be killed."

"What happened to Princess Elenia?"

"She should be alright, right?"

"She is Rank-S! Of course, she will be alright! There is no way a Rank-B + could even scratch her skin."

Now that everybody saw Zero interference, they knew that Sylvia had already lost the fight.

But now the question was what happened to Princess Elenia. Did she survive after taking on Sylvia's attack?

Although everybody knew that Sylvia was just Rank-B+ but the power of the attack was nothing less than a powerful attack from Rank-A +. Even for Rank-S, if they got hit by it, there was no guarantee that they would be alright.

And if Elenia got knocked out by that attack then the match could be considered a draw!

The spectator didn't need to wait for long to find out. The dust cleared slowly but they saw Princess Elenia's silhouette. She was still standing, confirming that Sylvia had lost the match!

"Look! Princess is still standing. That means that she has won the fight!"

"Congratulation Princess Elenia!"

The Elven spectators all cheered as they began to see Princess Elenia who was apparently standing. They even forgot that this was just a match between Rank-S and Rank-B, and that the result was already predetermined.

However, because of Sylvia's profound power and determination, the Elves had to admit that they were worried that the result might be different than what they thought.

When Sylvia saw the scene, she was disappointed. She gave her all but it was indeed lacking. She has lost this fight!

"Haha… Seems like that little attack did nothing. As expected of Princess Elenia!"

"That human was pretty good. But she has overestimated herself."

"Who gave her courage to think that she could beat Rank-S?" …

Then some who didn't like humans, began to insult Sylvia who gave her all. For them, it was a perfect opportunity to show how ignorant humans were.

"Yeah! It would be a miracle if that human girl could even hur-"

"Stop! Look at Princess Elenia carefully before making that statement."

Someone cried out in shock and stopped the insult.

Previously, the dust was not fully cleared and they only saw the silhouette of Princess Elenia. However, that silhouette was enough to tell that Princess Elenia was standing which meant she had withstood those attacks.

Many believe that Sylvia's attack just looked powerful and it was nothing for Princess Elenia to defend herself from it.

"How?"

"This is impossible!" …

As the dust settled, revealing Princess Elenia's form, a gasp swept through the crowd. What they saw was unexpected and astonishing – Elenia was indeed standing, but her left arm hung limply by her side, clearly injured. The sleeve of her elegant gown was torn, and blood seeped through the fabric, staining it a deep crimson.

The atmosphere shifted from triumphant cheers to a stunned silence. The spectators exchanged incredulous glances, unable to fathom how this could have happened. Princess Elenia, a formidable Rank-S elf, had actually been injured by Sylvia's attack. The implications were staggering.

Elenia herself stood there, her breathing a bit ragged, her gaze locked onto her injured arm. Her pride and composure wavered for a moment, replaced by a mixture of disbelief and anger.

She had underestimated Sylvia's power and determination, and it had led to this unexpected outcome.

One should know that even Rank-A would have difficulty to injure Rank-S, not to mention a genius like Princess Elenia.

Elenia was startled by what Sylvia did. She never expected that there could be anyone who has the guts to abandon their defense against her attack just to attack her.

Due to this, she was unprepared to receive the powerful attack that Sylvia did. However, Rank-S genius like her was not so easily defeated by such a mistake. In the last second, she managed to deploy a mana barrier which should be sufficient to deal with Sylvia's attack.

Just that it seemed that she had underestimated Sylvia's attack. In the last second, the attack had managed to break through her barrier and slightly injured her arm.

She glared in Sylvia's direction. She didn't care about Zero who was carrying Sylvia and was focused on Sylvia.

"Hey, you! What's your name?"