Chapter 290 - A Sister for Mii (1/2)

Zero had to rush. He only had a few weeks left to create the five Parallel Minds that Merlin wanted. Mii was a great help when it came to information processing. Zero worked hard for two full nights scanning Merlin's massive library into the reader. Zero didn't really understand everything but it didn't matter. Mii gave Zero all the relevant information he required for creating a Parallel Mind. Theoretically, it should be easy for Zero to create a Parallel Mind according to the method stated in the book.

In reality, Zero was still struggling to remember the multiplication table.

”What's five times six?” Bib asked.

Zero held out his hands and started counting them. buy the fourth set of six, he lost count. The household golem failed Zero once more. This has been going on for the last few hours. Zero didn't do very well with Mathematics and wondered if there were other ways of creating Parallel Minds. If this was the only method, Zero would be doomed to forever remain stupid.

”Mii...” Zero whined.

”What is it? I'm busy.”

Zero sulked. ”Is there another way to create Parallel Minds? I can't do Math... it's going to kill me!”

The strawcherry assistant sighed. ”No, Zero. This is the easiest way to do it. All other methods aren't proven. They're only theoretical but nobody has ever succeeded in creating Parallel Minds using those methods.”

Zero pouted. ”I could be the first?”

Mii rolled her eyes. ”I highly doubt it Zero... unless you can find a way to grow multiple hands and write five different essays at once time or play a game of chess with ten other people all at the same time, I highly doubt it.”

Zero considered it seriously. ”The concept of a Parallel Mind is to partition out a portion of the mind to act individually. I don't really have to be doing complex Mathematical calculations to achieve it. Doing something simple like reading more than one book at the same time in different languages or topics will work too.”

The strawcherry assistant sighed. ”Yes. Theoretically, yes it will work. However, you only have one pair of eyes at the moment to read one book at a time.”

Zero grinned. ”That's no problem. I have dark magic. There was a book about manipulations. If I use it to manipulate all the idle spare golems to act as my puppets and read from their eyes in my mind, I can train my Parallel Mind too.”

Not wanting to argue with Zero and his crazy ideas, Mii left it to Zero. She had way too many things to do as it was. Sorting out the huge library and overload of information without Bob took up all of the time she had. The strawcherry assistant didn't have the spare energy to stop Zero. Besides, if the teen failed, it would save her the trouble of satisfying Zero's curiosity.

Zero wasn't shy when it came to sharing resources with Merlin. He ran down to the storeroom and grabbed ten spare golems, not caring if there would be enough for the elemental golem guardians that he had to create later. Right now, Zero needed to make as many duplicates as he could and put them all to work.

The runes were very simple to add. Zero tried possessing two golems at the same time and entered a meditation state of mind, watching everything from his mindscape. He shared some of his consciousness in both golems and had them walk in different directions to pick up two very different books. The first golem picked up a book about magic circles while the second golem picked up a book about magic laws and planes.

Zero relaxed in his mindscape and kept his mind clear of all thoughts. Slowly but surely, the memories and information being processed by both golems started to pour into Zero's mind at the same time, causing a massive headache. Zero did his best to maintain his cool and accept the conflicting thoughts entering his mind at the same time.

Eventually, the connection broke and the golems returned to their inactive state. Zero opened his eyes with a gasp on the library floor. Although there wasn't any breakthrough, he could feel that there was some sort of progress.

”I'll repeat this a few more times to see if it is possible,” he told himself and rested for a while before repeating the process.

Merlin watched his student attempt a new way of creating Parallel Minds and shook his head. Zero was attempting to create Parallel Minds with simultaneous activity. In theory, this would be a great method and probably the fastest way to force a mind to partition itself. However, Merlin would never encourage anyone to train using this method. If not done correctly, the mind would split into pieces that couldn't be recollected back. Instead of creating Parallel Minds, a multiple personality disorder could be triggered by the repeated process of subjecting oneself to continuous pain in an attempt to forcefully rip the mind in two.

Still, the wizard god didn't make any attempt to stop his student. He wanted to see what Zero could come up with by himself. Under the watchful eye of his teacher, Zero reactivated the stolen golems and started reading again. This time, he managed to hold out for two minutes before he had to rest.

”How is it?” Mii asked.

Zero grinned and panted before giving her a thumbs up. ”I'm getting the hang of it. This is like writing two different essays with two hands acting on their own will.”

Mii raised a brow at the description. ”That's not right. Parallel Minds should share the same will under your control. It should be able to split and act independently like another copy of yourself while relaying information back to your mind directly at the same instance it experiences it. At the end of it all, your Parallel Mind must return to you. Acting on a will of its own shouldn't happen. Parallel Minds don't have individual wills.”

Zero blinked. ”But that's not possible.”

The strawcherry assistant scowled and threw down the pen she was holding. ”It is if you stick to Mathematics.”

Zero pretended not to hear Mii and continued on his training method after he rested enough. Merlin started to worry a little after listening to Zero's conversation. Parallel Minds should not have a separate will of their own. What Zero was doing sounded dangerous. He knew that the Great One created Divine Entities by splitting a part of himself and giving them wills of their own. Eventually, nobody knew what happened afterwards until Zero woke up. In theory, Zero should be very weak and unable to split his will apart. In the event that he somehow manages to do so, Merlin dared not think of the consequences.

”I should stop him...” the wizard thought and hurried over.

Zero rolled his eyes and ignored Mii. He continued to practise splitting his mind to accomplish multiple things at once. Mii's words didn't quite make sense to Zero. How could one person possibly do two things at the same time when Zero isn't controlling anything? Surely other forces are at play behind the scenes. If he could argue with himself back in the void from the memories he recovered, he should be able to do something similar. Mii was created by Solo, surely Zero could do something similar.

Merlin was frightened by the strange atmospheric pressure that surrounded his library. He recognised it as some sort of chaos energy mixed with a variety of strange things. He took his eyes off Zero for less than two minutes and already something had gone wrong. What exactly happened?!

”Zero?” Merlin called out and tried to open the library's door but was slightly electrocuted as a result.

That teen had sealed the door unconsciously and transformed the area into a restricted zone for some reason. Merlin cursed. What was Zero doing? Then he remembered the strawcherry fairy with Zero. Reaching for his communicator, Merlin tried to call Mii but the signal was jammed with the strange barrier.

”Dammit all!” he hissed and started to find ways to break the barrier. Of all the magic types Zero had to use, he had to use chaos. Merlin was going to spank that kid when things blew over.

Meanwhile, Mii could only retreat into the mindscape with Zero losing control of his powers while trying to create a Parallel Mind forcefully. The interior of the mindscape was also changing dramatically with Zero's accelerated progress.

Patience was never Zero's strong suit. Recklessness was and that spelt trouble in at least ten different languages. The teenager had a stroke of brilliance pondering over the method. He briefly remembered being able to do several things at once before although it wasn't reading. Back at Endow Hill, he was learning how to stitch from Mitchnew. He wasn't very good with his hands in the craft and was fed up with the needle pricks he was getting. Sure, he conveniently healed up each time he stabbed a needle into his hand but it never made the process less painful. Zero thought that if he could control the needles individually to stitch without him having to come into contact with them, it would be perfect.

Moving the needle with dark magic was the easy part. Holding the tapestry up wasn't too difficult. Threading five or six different patterns into each cloth at the same time was hard. When Zero focussed too much on one, he tended to forget about the others even if he was able to keep them in the air. How was he able to do that again?

”That's right!” Zero snapped his fingers. Back then he heard voices. They must have been pixies or something. There were many voices from the same person who guided him and took over a portion of his body to control what Zero wanted. All Zero had to do after that was free his conscious mind and let the voice take over what he wanted to complete. Sometimes he would be asked questions and Zero would make a decision. That voice would take over again and Zero slipped into the back seat of his mind to watch everything move on its own without him interfering.

Zero closed his eyes and left the mindscape. All ten golems he borrowed were now possessed and ready for action at any point of time. Every golem held a different book and Zero swam through the unexplored parts of his mindscape in Mind's Eye system to look for the voice that helped him.

”Zero, what are you doing?” Lily asked. While Mii took charge of Zero's mental processing at the conscious part of Zero's mind, Lily's duty was to guard the void and unexplored parts that had been locked away by Solo. Zero didn't often visit the dark recesses of his mind and preferred to spend it bantering with Mii. For him to visit, it must mean a great deal.

”I'm looking for a voice,” he told the flower fairy.

Lily nodded. ”What kind of voice? We could search together. It's dangerous to go alone, there are many traps lying in wait within this empty space.”

Zero wanted to ask how Lily knew that but decided to leave it for another time. Right now, he needs help.

”Let's head back to the library. I need Mii to retrieve my memories back at Endow Hill when Mitchnew was teaching me how to stitch. I remember that I was able to perform multiple tasks at the same time. Back then, I should have already mastered the art of Parallel Minds. I heard voices talking to me all from the same person in my mindscape. I want to know who that was.”

Lily agreed and followed Zero back to Mii's library.

”Why are you here? What's going on?” the strawcherry fairy asked in surprise. Her library had been expanding rapidly and the barrier around Zero in Merlin's library forced her to return to the mindscape.

Lily bowed. ”Zero needs help to retrieve a particular set of memories from Endow Hill. It was during the time he spent learning how to stitch with Mitchnew. Do you know where that memory is?”

Mii searched for a while climbing up bookshelves and flying over to a different level. Zero was impressed by the collection of the library. Initially, there was only a pile of books that slowly grew into the small room full of books that he was used to seeing. Now, there was a tower of books. There was even a second level full of books and a special beam of light with several floating books in it. When had his mindscape library changed this much?

”Don't touch that!” Mii snapped when she saw Zero reaching into the light beam. ”Those are memories from your past self and from the Divine Fragments. What you want should be somewhere in this section.”

Lily and Zero went over to help Mii search for the book quickly.