Ball of Nothing

Sekkin carried Zero on his back as they got out of the carriage. Wiser didn't know if he should be relieved that the carriage has stopped or fearful that they've finally arrived at the castle. Qin Yun appeared relaxed while Amaraline stayed close to Sekkin and Coux. The small escort party waited by the barbed gates of Lord Baal's entrance. The rat familiar left as soon as the guests alighted and nobody knew what to expect.

Five minutes later, Wiser regretted his decision to follow the group. Instead of having someone welcome them at the gate, they found themselves screaming for their lives and falling into a dark portal that opened beneath their feet. Sekkin immediately recognised the shadow magic and shifted Zero into a position so that he could easily shield the helpless brunet from harm.

Thankfully none of them had to worry about getting seriously hurt. No one could see what was happening but they certainly felt the magic that broke their plummet.

With a snap of his fingers, the room lit up and the party found themselves levitating in the middle of a grand throne hall. Coux was speechless. She was invited to meet royalty on Earth several times but none of those throne halls could compare to this.

Heavy black curtains lined the sides and the room was lit by hellfire torches. The throne was artfully crafted from bones and gold on top of the steps. The distance from where they were to the throne was at least fifty paces. However, the thing that caught the trader's attention was a young boy with black hair and eyes who yawned sleepily on top of that throne.

Whatever humans imagined Demon King Baal to look like, it was most definitely not a small boy with pale skin that looked almost white. His pitch black eyes and hair looked relatively normal and the only indication that he wasn't human was the single black horn protruding from the middle of his forehead.

With the wave of his hand, the magic was cancelled and gravity took control once more, sending everyone to the ground. Wiser and Amaraline landed clumsily on their bottom. Coux and Qin Yun had more grace and fell onto the balls of their feet, sustaining no injury. Sekkin flipped mid-air to right himself so that Zero wouldn't hit the ground when he landed. All in all, it was quite the invitation that nobody expected.

Exercising courtesy befitting of royalty, Coux bowed and introduced themselves. Strangely, she was stopped not even two sentences into her greeting by Baal who looked slightly annoyed.

"Let's not go into all that. This is hell and you are in my castle. Basically, I make the rules and I say to hell with formalities. No pun intended."

Wiser raised a brow at the dry humour. He had an idea or two about who that brazen child on the throne was but his brain lagged so badly trying to process that huge gap between what he knew and what he saw. So he continued to gape like a fish out of water.

"Your Highness," Qin Yun began but was cut off by Baal's scowl.

"Just Baal will do. Belphegor is fine as well. I'm not good with the formal titles unless I'm meeting with the other Demon Lords. While I would love to entertain you with a feast upon arrival, I believe Zero's condition takes precedence. Let's head over to the Spring of Vitality now."

Nobody objected and Sekkin looked slightly relieved. Who knew that Baal would be so understanding and easy to talk to? Qin Yun didn't comment but she looked slightly uncomfortable at Baal's casual behaviour. As the mother of all fox demons, she was more cautious than anyone in the party. Baal had quite the reputation even in hell. His tantrums were often unexpected and merciless despite his lackadaisical attitude.

They were led down a twist of corridors and passageways including a secret trapdoor that didn't seem like common knowledge. Coux could only wonder where the servants were. It was a huge castle and they've seen a lot of the castle. It would have been normal to come across a few servants scuttling around, busying away. However, there were none and the trader felt very uncomfortable. Sekkin held onto Zero tighter when they were led down the trapdoor in what looked like a garden.

Amaraline stared at the carnivorous plants with interest before they descended down the secret passageway. Wiser huffed and did his best to keep up. For such a short Demon King, Baal walked fast. Sometimes, it looked as if he was floating. Without any way to tell the time, the party walked for what felt like hours before they heard the sound of water bubbling in the distance.

The trapdoor led them outside of the castle. They only discovered this after travelling for a bit and discovered that the castle was behind them like a backdrop against the red sky. The forest they entered was dead in a literal way. Other than ravens with glowing red eyes perched on dead gnarly branches, there no other signs of life around. Wiser half expected to see pools of lava lying around randomly to complete the image of hell but there were none. Baal would occasionally give a short introduction about where they were. Apparently, the abyss was old. Many things had long histories and Wiser could only imagine how old Baal really was.

The one thing Wiser took away from Baal's short lectures was how he shouldn't take anything in the abyss at face value. After tripping over a dried root on the ground, Wiser was about to grab onto a low hanging branch for support to get up when he was stopped by the Demon Lord who moved faster than one could blink.

"That's the antler of a tubeworm demon you were going to grab. Unless you want to alert it that dinner is here, I suggest you don't touch it. Nothing in the abyss is harmless."

Wiser paled and thanked Baal numbly as they continued the rest of their hike through the dead tree forest without incident. The red sky faded into a melancholic blue and that was when they heard the bubbling of water in the distance. The scenery slowly transformed into something creepier. There was a thin layer of fog as they became closer to the spring. Wiser was utterly exhausted from the long walk, unused to such intense physical activity.

"We're almost there," Baal told them.

Amaraline shivered. The air was getting colder and for some reason, Qin Yun had all nine of her tails out. She was looking more fox than human as they got closer. In fact, she wasn't the only one. Sekkin's eyes turned yellow and his arms were covered in thick black hair. Nobody commented when extra limbs protruded from his back. The cockatrice descendant knew that Sekkin was a spider demon but it was the first time she saw his transformation. According to Mitchnew, he hated his demon appearance and felt more comfortable in his human form. Coux was mildly surprised when the air tingled. There was a very strong flow of magic that only those with demon blood could sense. Unlike Qin Yun and Sekkin, her demon blood was very watered down so there was no forced transformation.

The Spring of Vitality was a huge lake in the middle of nowhere. Wiser didn't know what to think of such an anti-climatic reveal. The fog was very thick above the water and he wasn't sure how deep it was. Baal started shedding his clothes without hesitation and told them to do the same.

"The water isn't deep but someone has to prop Zero up. It is perfectly safe for humans and I apologise for taking the long route. This spring doesn't actually belong to me and it would be troublesome if the keeper of the lake finds out."

Amaraline's heart nearly stopped. "The Spring of Vitality doesn't belong to you?!"

Baal grinned cheekily and jumped into the bubbling lake. When he surfaced he laughed. "Of course not. How can such a good thing be part of hell? This Spring is under the care of an old friend. Don't sweat the small details."

Uneasily, they followed Baal's lead and got into the lake. The water was surprisingly cold despite the bubbles that gave it the illusion that it was boiling. Wiser frowned when he realised that the water wasn't hot. His scientific mind couldn't help but be curious.

"Why does it bubble?"

Baal didn't seem to mind answering some questions. However, what he said took everyone by surprise.

"Of course it bubbles! Where else would the magic come from? The water is supplied by the river Styx. The fog comes from the purgatory. The bubbles come from the air being forced through the gaps separating heaven and hell. We're currently in the borderless zone. Technically, the Spring of Vitality doesn't belong to anyone. However, a pesky archangel by the name of Raphael took it upon his nosy self to tend to it. That angel is a fraud, I tell you. He heals people with 'holy water' procured from this very lake."

"I thought you said the lake was under the care of an old friend... how are you friends with an angel?" Sekkin frowned. Amaraline gasped and wanted to smack the spider demon for speaking so loosely in front of a Demon Lord but Baal laughed.

"Didn't you know? Heaven and Hell were originally on the same plateau. At least on the same plane before the war happened. Just like Earth, you have many countries. Think of Heaven and Hell as countries. I had angel friends before I became a demon. Think of Raphael as my very annoying uncle if you must but that's our relationship at the moment. After the war, the border was drawn and Hell fell to a lower plane beneath the purgatory. It's slightly difficult to tell but in terms of soul placing, we still stand above the material plane and the purgatory."

Mind-blown at the explanation, nobody asked anymore. Qin Yun and Coux took it upon themselves to help bathe Zero. Sekkin finally took some time to relax with Wiser while Amaraline chatted with Baal quietly.

"How long would it take before Zero recovers?"

Baal shrugged. "If it takes the magic reserves of a divine spell to recover, I'll say that we could be sitting here from anywhere between half a day to half a year on Earth before Zero wakes up. I have no idea what tier of divine spell Zero used so I can't make promises."

Amaraline paled. Half a year on Earth... the villagers would be worried sick!

Sensing her unease, Baal snorted. "Don't worry, time passes very differently in hell. It could be twenty days here and only twenty seconds on Earth. It is also the reason why Hell lasts for an eternity. King Yama was smart when he entrusted us with the duty of punishing sinners. It's very different in Heaven. Two days in Heaven would be two years on Earth or something of that sort. It's also the reason why humans who go to Heaven and had their time frozen cannot return to Earth. They disintegrate."

The cockatrice descendant didn't know how to react. Her eyes fell onto the faint outline of Coux who took on the duty of propping Zero up in the Spring. Wiser sounded much better after taking a dip into the water with his hearty laughter. The poor strategist sounded so exhausted after the long walk.

Wiser was the first to get out of the Spring when his fingers started pruning. Amaraline and Sekkin were next. Baal told Qin Yun and Coux to get out of the water when he saw that. He didn't want them overcharging their magic circuits by staying in the lake for longer than they should.

"I'll take care of Zero. Follow my body double back to the castle and rest for today. There are many things in my castle that you can entertain yourselves with during my absence until Zero regains consciousness. It could be anywhere between a few days to half a year before he finally wakes up so feel free to use my castle as you please. If you want to go to town, I'll send my familiar to escort you."

With that, Baal opened a portal and had his body double push everyone in. Once they were gone, Baal weaved a spell and cast it on Zero's sleeping form to keep him afloat. After that, there was nothing much to do apart from wait.

The Demon Lord grinned when he observed from his double's eyes how his guests started quarrelling about what they could and couldn't do in his castle. Eventually, the fox demoness decided to cook in the kitchen and the spider demonling decided to explore the castle while the cockatrice girl, Lilith's descendant and human decided to raid his library.

Baal grimaced when something exploded in his kitchen from his double's point of view. He glanced back at Zero and sighed. As entertaining as his guests were, the Demon Lord was genuinely concerned about his friend.

"I'll definitely flick you on the forehead when you wake up. How could you be such an idiot? At least learn to exercise some control and know your limits... I'll never forgive you if you don't tell me the two stories you still owe me, you hear?"

Zero didn't respond and Baal sulked. Still, the fondness in those black eyes never left. The Demon Lord sighed and closed his eyes. He would have Lilith's descendant teach Zero more about the ugly reality called life after he gives the brunet a good tongue lashing for worrying him so much.