Ball of Nothing Chapter 219 - Baal's Gift

Zero's gift made quite the ripple throughout Hell. Every Demon Lord felt the heavy shackles on their souls lighten drastically. Mammon shuddered in his chair, Coux felt her wings twitch and Lucifer's wings starting shedding heavily to reveal a new grey undercoat.

Baal felt less sleepy and breathed a little easier. He knew that the other Demon Lords were probably experiencing something too at this moment. The pillar of light pulsed steadily for a good ten minutes or so and helped the sanctuary transform into a field with grass and growing saplings. Robo Mike started planting lotus seeds into a nearby pond that was starting to fill up again under the gentle shower.

Ruth took a look at the gravestones and wondered if fate had planned everything out for him from the massacre of his clan to his meeting with the young genius. It seemed some sick sort of plan that he had to lose his family before he could meet Zero. Still, the vampire could not find it in himself to hate his saviour. Ruth wouldn't say it was worth the pain of having to lose his clan but as a weak and powerless creature of this universe, he was thankful for the second chance to be happy again. Zero had given him new reasons to fight and will to live.

Baal took the time to marvel at Zero's newly created dungeon and asked if he was able to create a connecting portal in it to Half Moon Village.

"Ruth will be in Half Moon Village most the time, it would be easier for him to travel to and from the abyss. Also, someone needs to monitor the progress of your farm. Coux and I are a little too far from this dungeon. We'll have to travel to the Spring the normal way."

Zero wasn't a town building expert. He didn't consider many things before creating the dungeon. What surprised him more was the vast knowledge about such things Baal possessed. For the laziest demon lord who cared nought about his people's welfare, he was throwing a lot of useful advice.

"Ruth, what do you think?" the young doctor eventually redirected the heated attention onto his forcefully appointed dungeon manager.

Baal stared at the vampire with a slight disdain on his face. Zero didn't catch that but Ruth felt his skin prickle. For a Demon Lord to need the permission of a commoner was something unheard of. If it weren't for Zero's influence, Ruth was very certain he would've been sent to join his clan.

"Yes Ruth, what do you say?" Baal smiled fakely.

The vampire involuntarily stiffened and simply agreed to everything Baal suggested. Zero merely shrugged. If Ruth was alright with it, he didn't see why not. Besides, building the various teleportation gateways in one area sounded great. What better way to honour the fallen Roths than to build the teleportation station around the graves?

In the next ten minutes, with Ruth's 'permission', Baal created a total of nine unique gates in the area. Zero wondered why there needed to be so many and Baal simply explained it as a necessity. Truth be told, it was only because he had the ability to do so and it would be very convenient for him to simply walk through gates sustained by the mana produced from the dungeon itself. He hated taking time to travel and long-distance jumps weren't his favourite methods of travelling. Even if Wiser improved the taste of mana recovery potions, Baal didn't want to spend more energy than required. Why not create gateways that he could easily access by walking?

"So there is a gateway to each of the seven other domains in Hell, one to Half Moon Village for Ruth and one for the angels. There are ten gates here and I doubt this number will be increasing any time soon in the next millennium so shall we give it a name? I vote for 'Ten-Path Crossway'."

Ruth thought that Baal's naming sense was sloppy but quickly agreed to it when Zero started getting excited about naming it.

"I know! We should call it the "Vampire Tomb Station"! Or how about "Roth Garden Elevator"... maybe even "Ten Ways to Hell Station"?"

The Demon Lord wasn't exactly surprised with Zero's lack of naming sense. For someone who named the powerful Eternal Dragon Bobbinskrier, this was considered an improvement.

"Tacky but no. Ruth gets the final word. What do you think, Dungeon Manager?"

The vampire knew that razor-sharp look in Baal's eyes daring him to disagree and this time, Zero caught on. He cuffed the smaller Demon Lord at the back of his head and chided his best friend for a good two minutes about bullying the vampire.

"Friends should be nice to each other!"

Baal wanted to point out that although the brunet was friends with the last Roth Survivor, he wasn't. Still, he held his tongue knowing that it will only open a new can of worms with Zero if he said that.

"Got it, I apologise. Now can we continue? There isn't anything much left to do in Hell and there are people who have been waiting for you since a few hours ago."

Alarmed, Zero quickly agreed and hustled Ruth through the portal before grabbing Baal's hand and jumping through it. The vampire didn't have time to protest before he was shoved through the shabbily prepared gateway to Half Moon Village. How could Zero be so sure that the coordinates of this gateway created by Baal would be accurate? Most times, teleportation gateways without properly drawn magic circles can kill a person who exits in the wrong area. One could find themselves half stuck in a quagmire or lose a limb from a gateway curiously places between slate rock cliff formations. For those who didn't have the ability to respire underwater, it would be a real killjoy.

The vampire landed gracefully on the ground and immediately felt his skin blister. Before he could find his bearings, someone dumped a large cloth over him and Ruth struggled but was held down by gravity magic.

"It's a good thing Lord Baal informed us beforehand... imagine if we didn't come with thick fur blankets for the poor child!"

Hua Tuo chuckled and cast some healing magic. Ruth must be very confused at the moment but it wasn't Hua Tuo's job to explain anything. The small welcome party waited for Zero and Baal to arrive with some small chatter and a general sense of harmony.

Zero and Baal arrived in no time. Joy reflected on Zero's face when he saw his teacher. The young doctor quickly took notice of the vampire who was still struggling. Beside Grandma Moppo was another familiar face.

"Lovina!"

"Hello kiddo, did you enjoy yourself?" the witch chuckled.

Zero smiled. "I did, thank you. Everyone loved your pancakes, I think Beelzebub is your biggest fan. Oh, it's ok now. Did you bring it?"

Grandma Moppo gave Zero a wink and pulled out a small handcrafted wooden container. "It's the salve you proposed. Hua Tuo and Cleo put in a lot of effort perfecting the formula but it isn't very stable. You'll have to reapply it every two hours."

Zero accepted the precious cream with thanks as Lovina eased up on the gravity magic. Hua Tuo also eased up on the healing magic now that the blisters were gone. Zero's approach to magic and medicine was very unique. Most people simply accepted that vampires only drink blood for sustenance, were weak to silver and sunlight as part of their bloodline traits. Zero took it a step further by considering that as a possibility of some genetic defect. The problem with the blistering under the sun was thought to be an allergic reaction so Zero devised a cream that could help block out the sun rays. Hua Tuo wasn't sure if it would work but did his best to perfect the formula anyway.

"Ruth, don't come out of that blanket just yet. The sun could still hurt you. With my teacher's help, we managed to develop a salve to help block out the harmful rays of the sun that are causing the allergic reaction with your skin. There's just a slight problem... we've never tested it on a vampire before..."

Ruth stilled under the thick fur cover. Leave it to Zero to create solutions without assurance. "Of course... why would you test it on a vampire when you can just try it out on me?"

"It's not like that..."

"It's fine. Bring it here. I just need to apply it evenly on any exposed skin right?"

Zero didn't like the biting tone Ruth was using but decided to let it slide. Naturally, having your village ruins completely transformed into a sacred zone in the abyss was a little too irresponsible on Zero's end. He should have consulted Ruth for permission before deciding that it would be alright. The young doctor felt the guilt stinging him as he passed the small container underneath the fur blanket. Ruth's cold fingers accepted the salve and they waited for him to finish applying it.

"I'm done. Can I come out now? It's getting stuffy and warm underneath this..."

Baal merely watched as Zero and Hua Tuo helped the cranky vampire. For once, the Demon Lord felt like he could sympathise with the combat mage warrior. Zero's idea of a gift was too much. While he was grateful as a Demon Lord, he didn't know how he would react having his best friend trample over his old graveyard and making it a prime spot for tourists and business. Even that necromancer would be writhing in his ash at Zero's forceful destruction of the peace.

When Ruth threw the fur blanket off, he was hit by the strong rays of the mid-noon sun. Prepared for the angry blisters to appear, Ruth was pleasantly surprised at being able to exist without suffering the wrath from the heavens for being born an undead.

"But... how? I thought the sun was created to eliminate filth from the Earth and keep the filth in the abyss... Undead who live on Earth can never step foot underneath the sun without retribution... it's the price to pay for our sins..."

Zero grinned, elated that his hypothesis was right on the money. "I knew it! It's a genetic mutation and an allergic reaction! This would explain why half-blooded vampires have reduced regenerative abilities and the ability to withstand silver and sun."

Ruth didn't understand the technical terms pouring out from Zero's mouth but the brunet seemed satisfied with the positive results.

"I'll still caution you about staying under the sun for too long... the salve and cream formula isn't very stable. There will be reactions under the sun causing it to weaken. Once the salve completely breaks down, you'd be back to blistering. Lovina had a hand in this, I'm happy to say that alchemy would be the bridge between magic and science. What should we call this salve cream?"

Lovina hummed and thought hard. Baal yawned. Seriously, was naming it so important? He just wanted to give Zero his gift and throw the teen to the villagers. Whatever they wanted from Zero would be none of his business. As a demon, meddling with the affairs of Earthlings without a contract was forbidden. Besides, Baal had more important matters to attend to now that Zero was finally away from Hell. He had a meeting with the other Demon Lords to discuss the development of the abyss plane.

"How about something simple? It blocks the sun, right? We'll call it sunblock cream." Ruth suggested.

Lovina thought that it was a great idea and Zero didn't seem to think of it as too tacky so the verdict was passed. "Good, now that we have a name I can let Coux know about it. We'll sell it to the undead who wants to do business on Earth. I heard that you've established the Central Terminal?"

Zero nodded. "Of course! It's called the Ten-Path Crossway. Baal came up with the name."

After some chit chat and catching up, the young doctor turned to his friend. "Thank you Baal, for everything. I will see you again, right?"

Baal smiled. "Of course. You've given Hell one of the best gifts even if you gave us a fair share of headaches and trouble along with it. The terraforming project will change the lives of many and with a better economy, someday demon-kind might be able to live on Earth and reunite with their families. For now, there's one last thing to do before I return to my duties..."

Zero turned solemn at once. Parting with Baal would be the hardest thing to deal with for him. They've gone through so much together and Zero didn't want their time together to come to an end.

"Channel mana to your eyes and use your Observation skill carefully, I'm only doing it once."

Zero did as he was told and marvelled at how different the world looked with mana in his eyes. They acted as some sort of filtered lens and gave him a very clear view of the mana in the area. Combined with the Observation skill, Zero was able to make out the chakra channels in Baal's body. 

Knowing that Zero was watching him, Baal did it as slowly as he could so that Zero could process it. Shape-shifting wasn't a particularly difficult skill. It only required one to be able to manipulate their chakra channels in the body and assume a different physical form either by possessing a summoned creature by contract or storing their real body in a space-time dimension while creating a puppet vessel to use in the meantime. Of course, there were some exceptions like being able to rapidly regenerate cells or stop the reproduction of cells to change the actual body. However, that ability was only available to those who have beast blood in them. For folks like Zero and Baal, shape-shifting was better done using magic.

Zero watched in silence as Baal swapped places with a different body and injected his mana into that new body to control it as his own. His real body disappeared into the shadow and Zero recognised that as dark magic. The bat version of Baal fluttered around and collided clumsily into Zero's face before falling. Zero caught Baal in his hands before the poor creature hit the ground. Apparently, shape-shifting using the swapping method retained the weaknesses of the original host's body. The poor bat couldn't see in the blinding noon sun. Baal quickly shape-shifted into a spider and Zero giggled when the Demon Lord crawled all over his arm before jumping off and transforming back to his normal appearance.

"That's how you do it. Shape-shifting is a useful skill but it has two limiting factors. You must possess dark magic or have awakened beast blood in your veins before you can attempt it. It's the reason why humans cannot shape-shift and why some of us are limited to only a few forms when shape-shifting."

Zero nodded and Baal waved his hand before suppressing a yawn. "That's all from me, I've taught you what you needed to know. The rest is up to you to experiment. Just be sure to have a safe landing pad to fall on if you ever try to learn how to fly. I'm not responsible for accidental suicides."

Zero pouted at the mean but weak jab at his reckless nature but quickly pulled Baal into a teary hug. The Demon Lord allowed Zero to wrap his arms around him until he felt the coil around his neck get tighter.

"Cut it out!" he growled before Zero finally let him go.

"I'll miss you," the young doctor told Baal.

Baal merely looked into Zero's eyes before snorting and turning away with a casual wave. Zero watched Baal disappear back into the portal and continued to look at the swirling gateway even after Baal's departure.

Hua Tuo decided that after three minutes of zoning out, Zero needed a distraction. Truth be told, Half Moon Village had a proposition that he couldn't refuse.

"Ahem!" the Sage God of Medicine cleared his throat and cast a side glance to Grandma Moppo who took the hint.

"Zero darling, welcome back to the village. Goodbyes are never easy are they?"

Zero shook his head, eyes not leaving the gateway. "No, they aren't."

"It's all good then. We would also hate to have to say goodbye to you in such a manner. I know it's a little too soon but could we have a little chat? It's about the village's sentiment after you sent Douglas away."

Slowly, Zero tore his eyes away from the portal. "I understand. I would hold no grudges no matter the outcome. However, I do want to apologise to everyone one last time formally before I have to leave."

Grandma Moppo was slightly surprised by Zero's sudden maturity. Her heart ached a little thinking about the things Zero had to go through in the abyss, causing him to grow up so quickly.

"No, it's nothing of that sort. Come, follow me."

having not many options, Ruth trudged along to follow Zero who followed Grandma Moppo. Hua Tuo walked behind his student, unable to think of what was going through Zero's mind.

Chapter end