Ball of Nothing 308 Saving Heaven 2

With the fight finally over, everything slowly smoothened out back to normal.

Lovina remained unconscious and Merlin wiped away the sweat on his brows with tears in his eyes. This witch was more than just a promising alchemist. After struggling to remove the curse, he discovered something that was suppressed for a long time. The Tree of Life was indeed this witch's saviour. To think that there would be the taboo curse of a void guardian tied to her soul beneath the curse of the phoenix, Merlin didn't know what to think.

The curse of the plane guardian was still there but looking at it, the wizard no longer thought that it was a bad thing. The Tree of Life must have taken root firmly in the broken plane and the magician was proud of Zero. His student has succeeded in his crazy plan that nobody had any confidence in.

The Demon Lords groaned as the pain subsided, leaving them weak and exhausted. Nobody knew how long the entire process took but there was no doubt about the new plane guardian's existence. Although the miasma was still thick, the burden of supporting the plane no longer felt very heavy. Lucifer felt young again and he wasn't the only one enjoying the change. Mammon decided to take the rest of the day off to recuperate while Amon decided to visit the SPring of Vitality to check in on the young doctor as soon as he was able to move. Sekkin tagged along.

One by one, the great people of importance visited the Spring of Vitality to check on the teen who slept like the dead. Hua Tuo and Buddha had to repeat their stories about what transpired to the newcomers. Eventually, they gave up explaining and repeating themselves, leaving it to the ones who arrived earlier to repeat the tale.

Everyone had mixed reactions after hearing that Zero did to create this miracle. They thanked Hua Tuo and Buddha but cast mixed glances at the sleeping teen. The Demon Lords were thankful to the young doctor for saving the abyss but also angry that Zero acted so recklessly. Nobody could imagine how Zero could continue to force himself even when his body was being broken down and torn apart. Hua Tuo was also no better, stitching Zero back together trying to hold onto the last threads of his vessel just so that Zero could destroy them all over again. Buddha quickly excused himself before anyone could start shooting arrows at him for encouraging that recklessness.

Amon felt a newfound respect for the teenager. While he was keeled over in pain, this twig-like boy was standing and pouring mana into the array to help the Tree of Life grow. There were still traces of pink in the spring's water that was no doubt Zero's blood. Just what kind of will power did this young one have to put all the seasoned warriors of the abyss to shame? His selflessness was on a whole new level and the Demon Lord knelt down before Zero. Before this, he wasn't entirely willing to partake in the power struggles of mortals. He only joined the Onion Union in name but never really contributed to anything, thinking that it was all a mere game of the higher-ups.

Right now, watching the sleeping prince who put his everything on the line for them, the warrior couldn't help but feel that he wanted to devote everything he had for this individual. Now he truly understood how Baal felt. The boy must have saved Baal before to be able to influence him that much. As a Demon Lord, Amon was strong and never really understood the feeling of gratitude from receiving help when he could manage it by himself somehow. Right now, after experiencing the joys of being shown a light in the dark tunnel, Amon made a solemn vow to become a chess piece that Zero could use as he desired.

Gaia and Isis also visited the Spring of Vitality along with Uriel who wanted to watch the prophecy unfold before his eyes. Zero might have successfully planted the Tree of Life but that was only the beginning. The teen still had to sever the roots from the Tree of Knowledge and seal up the crack at Titan Cliff to separate both planes.

To their surprise, the Tree of Life's roots were tangled messily with the Tree of Knowledge's roots. The growth of these roots terrified the archangel who had never witnessed anything more monstrous. Although Zero was no longer pouring in mana or qi into the array, the Tree of Life continued to draw power from the spring and made its own judgement to grow faster, sinking its roots deeper into the plane and out of it.

In contrast to the thin threads of the Tree of Knowledge, the reborn Tree of Life was brimming with power under Zero's care. The roots were thick and created some sort of bridge that clung onto the bottom of Heaven's plane, connecting with the Tree of Knowledge's roots, supplementing it with energy. The crack at Titan Cliff was plugged up by the massive amount of tree roots. Chaos energy was no longer able to enter the broken planes with the barrier of strong roots. As such, Zero had solved two problems with one move. Nobody knew if this was all according to Zero's calculations and plans but for Isis, it was reassuring to know that Zero was able to find a different solution to the problem.

The Tree of Life proved to be a very fierce guardian. She took on the chaos energy attacking at her roots and completely annihilated them with qi and mana, protecting her weaker sister the Tree of Knowledge will giving additional support to the weakened tree in Garden Eden. The Tree of Knowledge's roots were very widely spread out trying to keep Heaven's plane together so the Tree of Life continued to spread her roots to cover the bottom of Heaven's plane while encasing the bottom of Hell's plane entirely in her roots.

Ouroboros was looking a lot better now that the plane had stabilised. Without the burden of supporting a broken plane falling into the void, he was able to focus on recovering although there was an annoying lady who kept on babying him. The lady had a sister who turned out to be that wimpy wizard's daughter of sorts.

"What an annoying world," he hissed and Cleo turned around to stare at him.

"How are you feeling now?" Latitia asked.

Garden Eden was looking better now that the pond was slowly filling up. The first hour they tried to fill the pond, all the water simply got absorbed into the hardened soil. Both gardeners looked worried at the depleted state of the pond and wondered if they were doing something wrong. After the first hour, they noticed the immediate change in the garden's state when the magic barriers started reactivating themselves. The walls and gates repaired themselves and the statues came to life, busying themselves with tending to the barren garden.

Seeds were sown, weeds were pulled and leaves were swept away. Ouroborus remained silent the whole time, bearing the pain of having someone else forcefully take over Hell's plane from his control. Then, he was soothed by the support the new tree gave and eventually regained enough strength after the chaos energy stopped attacking him to focus on recovery.

While everyone celebrated the good news, Zero remained deep in slumber, too exhausted and still fighting the effects of chaos energy that lingered in him when he temporarily forced the crack to seal up before the Tree of Life took over.

Zero was in his mindscape, receiving the greatest lecture of his life from all four ladies. Zoe might not be able to speak but her glare was cutting into Zero's conscience deeply. He knew that he acted recklessly and all his mindscape assistants were screaming at him. They had every right to do so and Zero could only kneel before them on the library floor in repentance.

"Did you not hear it when I screamed at you to stop? If Mii hadn't overridden the administrative system to overclock conversion of seawater, do you think you'd still be here?" Lily snapped. It was rare to see the flower fairy angry and in truth, Zero didn't think that she would ever be angry.

Mii pulled Zero's cheek mercilessly causing the teen to cry out in pain. "Did you think that your vessel was indestructible? Wii was crying when she activated a hundred Parallel Minds but still couldn't keep up with the rate of damage you were causing. She heals one ruptured channel and you destroy five more. You didn't even think to watch your mana reserves and your qi was depleting faster than the Spring of Vitality could replenish it. Were you honestly trying to test the theory of your death?!"

Wii didn't say anything but that disappointed look was like daggers to Zero's heart. The next twenty minutes in the mindscape was spent in yells and tears. Zero apologised nearly a thousand times before the anger was appeased. Eventually, they shared a warm hug with Wii telling Zero never to do something so reckless again.

"Stupid master... don't make us worry so much!"

Zero cringed. "I'm sorry, it was my fault."

He couldn't tell them that he was only this reckless because he had faith in their abilities. Wii told him how Zoe dropped everything in Half Moon Village to help Lily convert anything they could lay their hands on to support his reckless use of qi and mana. The zashikiwarashi also borrowed some of Merlin's gadgets to ease the burden on Zero as much as possible, risking a scolding from the wizard if he found out someone has been sneaking into his high-security lab.

"Did it succeed?" Zero finally asked when everyone was more level-headed.

Mii nodded and let Zero watch the playback of his last moments before darkness took over. "The crack was sealed and the new plane was established. The Tree of Life is a very fierce protector and is helping the Tree of Knowledge by taking the brunt of the chaos energy's attacks."

Zero watched the chaos energy mercilessly try to devour the roots. the Tree of Life never gave up. If one was destroyed, she would grow three more to take its place. The entire bottom of Heaven's plane looked like it was encased in an impenetrable armour of roots. The same thing happened with Hell's plane. The Tree of Life left no chances and sealed all the cracks in the crumbling plane with her roots. Some of her roots could be seen overground in the wilderness in the middle of the miasma. Most of the roots could be found holding the plane together like a cup.

"How is the new sapling coping?" Zero asked, not aware that the sapling he saw before fainting had now grown into a beautiful silver tree.

Lily smiled. "She's doing very well. With the borrowed power of Merlin and Buddha, the chaos energy won't be able to break through her defence. Also, she made a bond with all the Demon Lords who had their souls tied to the plane. Like how she is sharing their burden, they are sharing the burden of sustaining this plane with her. Sins are used as a different source of power. As long as the demons in Hell continue to generate power for them and the aristocracy system doesn't fall, I think Hell's plane will be very stable from now on."

Zero smiled happily. His mind drifted to Baal who was deep in slumber. If Hell was stabilised and the project to terraform it went smoothly, he wanted to see the stunned expression on his best friend's face when he woke up.

"Hey, is it alright if I asked Coux to help me redecorate Baal's castle for when he wakes up? The abyss will become as beautiful as Garen Eden in a few hundred years, right?"

Lily smiled. "I suppose it would. Right now, I think we should focus on helping Merlin create those golem duplicates to strengthen the sealing of the crack at Titan Cliff. It is actually very fragile right now. Also, you need to check on Lovina, Mii said that Merlin removed a curse but it's complicated. Then, there is the harvesting of materials from both trees for the lab rats and your grimoire making project. We can always decorate Baal's castle garden another time. He wouldn't wake up before a hundred years so there is plenty of time to plan how you want to surprise him."

Zero agreed with the flower fairy. Indeed, they had a lot of time. Right now, he was rushing to complete the quests the three divine sisters gave him. Two down, one more to go and that would be the most complex quest of all three quests received. Athena's curse might be harder to resolve when compared to sealing the crack at Titan Cliff. After all, she was said to be more powerful than Zeus.

"Let's take a short break and rest before I tackle the rest of the things on my to-do list... I'm sleepy."

Wii didn't chide her master. "We understand. You should rest, leave the rest to us. The system is currently dealing with the chaos energy that threatens you but it isn't a cause for concern. We still have enough reserves to nullify it."

The teen looked slightly confused. How did chaos energy get in? Mii sensed it and explained to Zero in detail about what happened during the few hours he fought to support the Tree of Life. When the young doctor claimed that he didn't remember most of what happened, clouded by the chaos energy, his assistants could only look at each other worriedly.

"It's fine," Wii told Zero and tucked him into bed in the lamp. "Just leave the rest to us, you did well today."

Zero yawned and finally let fatigue take over him. Once he was asleep, his mindscape assistants got together to discuss their next course of action. Zero's memory loss was worrying. It looks like the chaos energy had more side effects on Zero than they initially thought it did. 

"I will report this to Merlin," Mii told them. "Keep an eye out on our master."

With that, the strawcherry fairy vanished from the mindscape library. She couldn't allow Solo to harm Zero.

Chapter end