Parallel Memory

[Mia's POV]

Professor Mia was also sucked into the Gate along with Zero but she was spawned in a different place than him.

When they were in Agora Town, she knew the moment she felt the presence of Gate that she was of very high rank.

She felt the aura of Rank-A Gate. She would not have panicked much if not for the presence of Zero.

While she could guarantee her own survival, however, she could not say the same about Zero.

The first thing she did after regaining her consciousness in the Gate was find Zero. With her extraordinary vision, she could easily scan an area of one km in a matter of seconds.

It had been many days since she had been inside the Gate and she was still frantically searching for Zero.

It was difficult for her to even travel in this Gate, not to mention Zero who is just in Rank-D -. She knew she had to find him faster but the Gate is so big that even with her speed and vision, she could not find Zero's trace.

As days passed, she became extremely anxious about finding Zero.

During that duration, many Rank-B and Rank-A monsters fell under her attacks. Due to Professor Mia using mana to boost her speed and vision, many monsters were attracted by her mana.

Although Rank-A possessed some threat to her, however, she was in a league of her own. Nobody below Rank-S could really kill her.

Ten monsters, then hundreds, and then thousands, the number of monsters she killed increased as she traveled from one place to another.

She would finish exploring a 500 km area in one day but she failed to find any trace of Zero even after 20 days passed.

She was not worried about surviving in this Gate even if the Gate was Rank-S. However, her greatest fear was Zero.

Zero could hardly survive in this Gate which is Rank-A or it might even be beyond that. The chance of Zero being killed increases as time passes by. She could not calm her thoughts and even when exhausted, she would do her best to continue and search for Zero.

Currently, she was passing by one of the coldest areas. It had not been long since she was here that a Rank-B, Sabretooth, started to attack her.

-ROOOARRRR!

A roar that had Zero fear for his life was nothing more than a sound of meow in front of Professor Mia.

She didn't even need her staff to kill the monster in one move.

[ "Ice Explosion" ]

Even the monster who used to live in a -50 degree place was frozen by her skill.

-SHATTER!

She instantly destroyed his existence in a few seconds. Professor Mia has no time to waste fighting with monsters.

She quickly went and moved.

"This… This is a bottle?"

She quickly moved closer to confirm what she saw from one km away. In a second she reached the place where she saw that object.

She picked up the bottle.

It was the first time that she saw a sign of a human being in the Gate. She became a little excited to know that she was near Zero.

Other than both of them, she knew there was no other human in the Gate. The area where the Gate appeared was basically abandoned by the humans, and she and Zero were present there.

The possibility of reinforcement was also not there. The Gate was definitely Rank-A, and she knows that The Authority needs to gather many Rank-S Heroes and Rank-A Explorers.

To conquer the Gate of this rank and also to keep the casualties low, much preparation needs to be done before sending in the reinforcement.

She, from her experience, knows that they need to wait for months or even years before reinforcement from outside appears.

She finally concluded that this bottle was discarded by Zero. She finally has a clue as to where she needs to find him.

She looked at the bottle carefully. The bottle was discarded only recently as the condition of the bottle had only deteriorated a little.

She was happy that Zero was still alive, at least there was a high possibility.

These past days, since she had been inside the Gate, was feeling a heavy burden on her shoulder.

Zero safety was her responsibility. She was the one who brought Zero to Agora Town. If something happened to him, she could never forgive herself.

How could she ever have the courage to teach another student if Zero died here?

Zero was a talent that may come only in a thousand years. She believed him to possess talent that is higher than her and also Hiro.

She knows that Zero will definitely become a pillar of humanity's peace for hundreds of years. That possibility could have been destroyed by her own hand.

That possibility has kept her awake even when she is resting after running for days. She could not sleep until she saw Zero, whether alive or dead.

Since she knows that Zero was in this area, she started to search for him more quickly than ever. She would only rest after she saw Zero.

She started to run up the mountain. However, the way was not easy, with Sabertooth coming towards her from left and right, and also with Yeti, a Rank-A monster coming to join the fight.

With such enemies, Professor Mia's pace became slower. Even with her strength, she could not easily kill a Rank-A monster in one move.

As she was running, she became more concerned about Zero. There was some evidence that Zero had gone through this path such as bottles, cloth pieces, and plastic from packaged food.

However, with her encountering so many high-ranking monsters, she didn't know whether Zero was alive or not. Though the evidence showed that he has indeed gone from this path, Rank-B and Rank-A monsters made her highly doubt Zero's survivability.

Even a Rank-B human would have already turned into food for these monsters, not to say a Rank-D - human.

But she didn't lose hope since she could see bottles and plastics every hour or so. However, her fear became more profound after she had not seen any bottle or plastic for an hour after reaching a certain altitude.

"Huh?"

Suddenly, when she was thinking of changing direction, she felt a familiar mana aura from a nearby place.

"This is Zero's mana aura but this murderous aura is..."

She was sure that this was Zero's mana aura even though it seemed to change into a more powerful one. However, it would not be weird for Zero to rank up after being in this dungeon for so long.

But the thing that confused her was the murderous aura that was in the mana aura. The murderous intent that was in the mana aura was something that she has seen only in some Rank-A and Rank-S who would always risk their life.

It felt so dangerous that even Professor Mia who is borderline Rank-A felt chills when she felt that aura.

She quickly made her way towards the mana aura she felt. She thought Zero was with some dangerous being that he could not handle.

-SWISH!

Moving at the speed that might seem like she was teleporting, she made her way toward the source of that mana aura.

Arriving at the place, she saw something she was not willing to accept.

A Rank-A monster, Yeti was present there. Beneath his feet was human blood, a lot of human blood.

Other than her, there was only one more human in this Gate, Zero. That was definitely Zero's blood.

The Yeti noticed Professor Mia but Professor Mia stood there not reacting at all.

Right now, her emotions were in turmoil. The worst thing that she expected had just happened.

"This… This can't be! THIS CAN NOT HAPPEN"

She didn't know what she was feeling, Sadness, Angry, fear, she seemed to experience every negative emotion at once.

Tears naturally flowed from her eyes and trickled down her cheeks which turned into ice before hitting the ground. She unleashed her mana.

When one doesn't know how to express their feeling, it will all turn into anger because anger was the emotion that was most easy to express.

Professor Mia became furious beyond anything she felt before. All her feelings have turned into hatred and anger towards Yeti.

She only thought about killing the Yeti and avenging Zero.

[ "Icy Meteor" ]

Icy Meteor was one of the strongest skills she had in her arsenal. The skill creates a giant meteor that was capable of even flattening a Rank-S Hero.

-BOOOOOM!

The Yeti who was the target of the skill did everything he could to defend himself from the enormous meteor that was coming toward him.

However, all that was left was the blood of the Yeti.

"Hah… Hah… Zero. How can this be? Is this really your end?"

Normally, Professor Mia would not be tired after firing an Icy Meteor but she, in her anger, used almost all her mana. She still could not believe that her student died in such a way.