Ball of Nothing 307 Saving Heaven 1

"A little more to the left," the blacksmith hollered and Robo Mike carried the pump to shift it two steps to the left.

"That's right, you can place it down now," the djinn thanked the golem and started setting up the water pump.

Back in Heaven, Hyelin and Zero were laying the piping from the water pump to the dried-up pond. The pixie worked nimbly while Zero decided to make himself useful and did the thing he did best, second to his healing magic.

Ouroboros watched them lazily from the highest tree branch and raised a brow when Zero started adding magic into a simple water ball magic. The young doctor looked pleased with himself and started swooshing that around the garden. The serpent guardian was pleasantly impressed with the absurd use of magic to clean but the effects were desirable. Of all the unconventional ideas he heard Zero talking about with the pixie technician, he liked this the best.

Hyelin worked well with her hands and had some of Zero's help to remodel some parts of the garden so that the piping didn't stick out like a sore thumb. Cleo and Latitia offered to help with the landscaping designs and they worked harmoniously, ignoring Ouroboros completely.

The deity felt neglected and sulked, flicking its tongue anxiously as they left him out of the action. However, as he flicked his tongue, the serpent was pleasantly surprised to taste a change in the air. The familiar taste of something from very long ago created a sense of nostalgia. A gentle breeze blew some of the dead leaves away in the garden and Zero looked up at the Tree of Knowledge who seemed to shimmer with something different.

"Is the pump ready?" Hyelin asked in the party call. Latitia and Cleo were already on standby.

The remodelled pond looked prettier and Zero cleaned it very well. While the base of the pond was still cracked and dry, It was now not covered with strange things. The teen busied himself with cleaning the rest of the garden and mending the crumbling brick walls. Hyelin left monitoring of the piping to the dryad while she helped to remove the rust on the white iron gates. Both lab members worked hard to try and restore the garden's structure to its former glory while Latitia flew around, pulling out dead plants and weeds, leaving them in a heap for Zero to take care of them later.

With some sputtering sounds and a crack, the first signs of water gushed out from the pipe. Everyone rejoiced and gathered around the pond to watch the water wet the hardened soil. Ouroboros wanted to tear up. He could feel from the roots of the dying tree that the unquenchable thirst finally eased up a little.

Zero was startled when the walls he was repairing suddenly repelled him. Small yellow orbs started to rise from the dead ground and there was a scent of something grassy in the air. The young doctor turned around and saw that with the help of the Spring of Vitality, Garden Eden was slowly repairing itself.

"Cleo, Latitia, Hyelin, I shall leave it to you! Ouroboros, play nice. These are my precious friends and villagers. If I hear a bad word from them about you, I will not hesitate to feed you sulphur!"

The poor serpent couldn't find words for a reply at the accusation before Zero jumped through the portal. It was time for him to plant the new Tree of Life.

"Teacher, the water piping is ready. I am going to start planting the new Tree of Life. Is Lovina with you?"

Merlin replied to Zero using the party call function. He still didn't understand why Zero wouldn't use the communicator. Having someone else talking in his head felt highly disturbing. It made the wizard's ear twitch whenever it happened and sent shivers down his spine.

"I am ready. Lovina is sipping on honeysuckle tea as we speak."

Zero bit his bottom lip in envy when he heard that. He had to wake up early today to start work and his teacher had the nerve to enjoy a leisure chat with honeysuckle tea without him! Pain and pleasures should be shared equally. Where was the justice in this? Didn't Merlin say he was going to help him with his grimoire? Why did it seem like Zero was doing all the work?

Sighing in defeat and accepting the facts, Zero hurried to where Raj and Tambolt were waiting for him.

The water pump worked great. The fact that they managed to modify it from using coal to using mana was amazing. The inventors only had a day to work but the results didn't disappoint. Robo Mike was waiting for further instructions and Zero smiled in satisfaction when he saw the prepared isle in the middle of the huge lake. The golem was certainly useful and Zero was happy that Merlin didn't demand to take Robo Mike back.

"Thank you, Raj and Tambolt. You should both return to the village for now. From this part onwards, it could go either very well or very poorly. I don't want to implicate both of you in my crazier schemes."

The djinn and dwarf bowed before taking their leave borrowing the portal back to Ten-Path Crossway and back to Half Moon Village from there. Once he was sure that there wouldn't be any distractions, Zero transformed into a hybrid bat form to fly over to the isolated isle. Merlin had set up the formation and all Zero had to do was plant the seed then nurture it with his magic and qi.

After digging up old archives, Merlin and Zero discovered that the Tree of Life needed a lot of energy before it could grow. Endow Hill's mana was dense enough to encourage germination but not enough to let the tree grow without restraint. Zero was hoping that with the Spring of Vitality, this tree would grow strong enough to become a new plane guardian. Of course, the spells woven into the seed itself will force it to accept its new intended role but Zero had to tame it. After all, the Tree of Life had a will of its own.

The soil was dug up and the seed was sown quickly. Zero immediately conjured the magic in one hand and condensed qi in the other, channelling them through the array Merlin drew on the isle and waited for the greedy seed to sprout.

The calm waters of the spring suddenly rippled and became choppy. Robo Mike who was standing in the middle of it, tending to mana lotuses got swept away by the strong sudden current and had to be rescued by Zero who verbally cast an Earth spell to fish the golem out of the waters. The golem stayed at the side of the lake and watched nervously as Zero started drawing in the water from the spring to nourish the seed.

All around the abyss, tremors could be felt. The Demon Lords felt a strange pain in their chest when the tremors happened. News reached them that Zero was going to try and establish Hell as an independent plane from Heaven and sever that lingering connection to save the Tree of Knowledge in Garden Eden. The new Tree of Life had to spread its roots all over Hell in order to become its new plane guardian but nobody was expecting the action to hurt them. The pain was enough to knock out Lilith and Beelzebub but the rest of the Demon Lords hung onto their consciousness with sheer will power.

Unaware of the chain reaction, Zero pumped in more energy into the formation. Why wasn't the Tree of Life sprouting yet? Did he plant it too deeply? It couldn't be. According to Cleo, he should plant it about six inches into the dirt and water it like an ordinary plant. Something must be wrong.

The young doctor could feel the life energy emitting from the seed and it was growing stronger by the minute. The seed should have germinated by now. It continued to siphon energy mercilessly and Zero had to soak his lower half in the Spring of Vitality to keep up with the voracious appetite of the seed. If the Tree of Life needed this much energy to grow into a seedling, Zero didn't know if he could keep up with its appetite until it became a tree.

"Mana reserves are down to sixty percent!" Lily informed him. "Permission to convert sins into mana?"

Zero nodded. "Do it. How is the qi reserve looking?"

Mii checked the status and informed Zero that it was doing well thanks to the aid of the Spring of Vitality.

The mindscape assistants worked with high tension in the air. Nobody knew how long this would have to last but Mii was the least worried. All the eating that Zero did actually came in handy. Not to mention, the pile of dead plants Zero absorbed from the ruined Garden Eden contained a lot of merits.

Zero felt a strain on both arms as the chakra and meridian channels were stretched to the limits of their potential. He might not have a problem with his energy reserves but facing such a situation, Zero felt that his channels and networks were like small pipes that could burst anytime under heavy usage and high pressure transporting an ocean volume's worth of water.

"Wii!"

The eggplant fairy worked quickly and cast healing magic on the damaged parts of Zero's vessel while the teen continued to maintain the steady supply of mana and qi to the seed who still refused to sprout.

It was a tough battle of attrition for Zero and even Merlin worried. He wanted to join his student but Lovina was suffering so much that he couldn't leave her alone. Zero would definitely blame him if he didn't help the witch. Ever since the seed started to take root, strange rune markings have appeared on Lovina's body, causing her intense pain.

Merlin naturally recognised those markings. He was the one who wrote them into the seed to make it a plane guardian. Lovina's curse was definitely related to the Tree of Life and while the wizard worked overtime, activating all his Parallel Minds to uncover the origin of the curse, Zero spat out a mouthful of blood, tainting the waters.

Hua Tuo who was working at Hope Hospital quickly paid a visit to Lord Mammon who was the closest and was horrified to see the Demon Lord reduced to a horrible state. With difficulty, the Demon Lord told Hua Tuo about what his apprentice was doing in the Spring of Vitality and the physician immediately called Buddha up.

"Cultivation monster! I need your help!"

Buddha didn't need to be told twice to know that something had gone wrong with Zero's attempt to grow the Tree of Life. The Enlightened One gathered a few of his best disciples to accompany him down to the Spring of Vitality to meet up with the physician.

By the time Hua Tuo reached Zero, the teen was already delirious with bloodshot eyes that were crying blood. There was blood trailing down from his nose and mouth too, indicating that Zero ruptured some important organs and networks in his body. Yet, the teen continued to shout with a ferocious voice that sounded hoarse and desperate.

Buddha wasted no time and told his disciples to get into formation. He took out the golden pagoda and threw it into the air so that it spun and remained at the centre of their formation, casting a wall of scriptures around them. The Wise One and his followers started chanting in a hypnotic tone while exponentially increasing the purity of qi in the air. Hua Tuo didn't waste time and channelled his energy into Zero, using his Medicine God skills to repair the constantly rupturing chakra channels and meridian network.

Zero was becoming frenzied with the lack of sprouting from the seed. Somewhere along the line, the teen was no longer conscious of his actions. Instead, he was talking to someone else in a different dimension.

"So you are the Tree of Life... why do you look so much like Lovina?"

The Tree of Life smiled. "Lovina is my child. As the tree of life, I cannot see the sufferings of all those in the world. She is to act as my eyes and ears for those in need of help."

Zero was puzzled. "She was cursed to always be reborn every hundred years together with the Tree of Life. Before this, she was an ordinary alchemist. Did you curse her?"

The Tree of Life looked sad. "I didn't mean to do it."

The teen was shocked at the revelation. "Why did you do it?"

With a heavy sigh, the spirit of the Tree of Life told Zero about the young witch who would always study beneath a tree and cry whenever her experiments failed. The young witch grew up alongside the tree and the tree had taken a liking to her despite the short twenty years they knew each other. 

"Lovina is an outstanding witch and a talented alchemist just one step behind Merlin. However, like the history of all humans and Gods, the brighter the light shines, the darker the shadow follows behind. Lovina was targeted by others and tricked into creating something horrifying. The curse backfired on her and made her a slave to the cycle of not being able to die but not being able to live either. I stepped in to counter that curse with one of my own, more commonly known as the phoenix's curse."

"What kind of curse did Lovina have before that making it so terrifying that the phoenix's curse is a better option?" Zero couldn't understand.

The Tree of Life looked grave. "The curse of a void guardian, similar to the curse of a plane guardian that you and Merlin worked to put on me."

Zero apologised but the spirit of the Tree of Life shook her head. "I don't mind becoming a new plane guardian. If anything, it is my honour. However, the curse of a void guardian is different. I couldn't bear to see her become the magnet and puppet to attract chaos energy and bear the constant destruction of both body and mind to act as a decoy for the dark magicians who wanted to borrow the power of chaos energy for their evil deeds."

"Chaos energy can be used as magic?" Zero was shocked at the news.

The Tree of Life nodded. "However, there is a price to pay. The more one used chaos magic, the more the body and mind weaken. Eventually, these mages who overuse it will become nothing and return to the void without even hopes of reincarnation."

Zero was shocked. "How do they use it as magic? I tried to absorb it and use it but it tried to put me into eternal sleep."

The Tree of Life laughed. "It cannot be absorbed by the body. Even if the body cannot produce mana, it will still have life energy. These are natural enemies of chaos energy and it is why chaos magicians grow weaker each time they use the destructive powers of chaos energy. They will have to lure it by suppressing their mana then feed it to obedience for a short period of time with their life energy before the contract is completed. Once the spell is cast and the contract between chaos energy and magician completed, the chaos energy devours the life energy promised and disappears."

The truth disturbed Zero greatly. With his intelligence and many Parallel Minds, it didn't take long for him to guess why the tree would curse Lovina. Becoming an immortal with the purpose of acting as these chaos magician's decoy would be cruel for Lovina.

"How did they manage to curse Lovina? It doesn't make sense. Immortality comes with a price."

"Lovina is Merlin's most beloved follower who has been blessed by him before. The wizard god treats her like a daughter he never had until the incident happened and their holy connection blocked. If he can undo the curse of those chaos magicians, he will recognise her again. My phoenix curse cannot be removed but the curse of a void guardian can be removed by him."

He knew that the time he had with the Tree of Life was coming to an end. Zero could feel his body reaching its limits. To be honest, he didn't expect to last this long.

"One last question. Can you help me guard this new plane and support the Tree of Knowledge to protect Heaven? Once Solo knows that his plans have been thwarted, I fear that he may return to try again."

The spirit bowed. "I will do my best, Zero. I see that you've chosen to walk a different path yet again. It is reassuring to know that things will not be the same this time. You can come back at any time if you wish to chat again. As the Tree of Life, I will always be around even at the end of the world."

Having one more confident about his identity who knew about his fight with Solo made Zero's heart feel lighter even if he knew that his vessel's condition might not be the best after he returned. Still, he found the parting words of the spirit odd. She spoke as if she had seen Zero before and was rather familiar with him. Did he meet her before somewhere in the past as Zero and not as Solo?

Chapter end