Ball of Nothing

A week. Zero and Merlin toiled away in the fields and kitchen for a week. Merlin was pleasantly surprised to see how quickly learned from demonstrating how magic worked only once. Zero proved to be a magic prodigy of some kind because he understood the principles of balance in magic instinctively without needing Merlin's in-depth explanation from the alchemist's point of view.

The farms were growing well with Merlin's improvement to Zero's original magic greenhouse design. All sorts of seeds that Zero bought were put to good use. Other than vegetables and medical herbs, Zero was able to grow plants that could give them animals, securing their meat.

Merlin proved to be a disastrous cook in the kitchen. Zero got annoyed when his magic teacher got impatient and ruined a perfectly nice piece of steak with a huge fireball. The meat became charred and inedible within a split second and Zero wanted to cry. He spent a long time working on the seasoning for it only to have it ruined in an instant. Now, Zero finally understood how Hua Tuo felt about his hut when the teen tried to use cleaning magic the very first time. His shifu was truly a saint for not disowning him after all the troubles Zero caused. The young doctor grew to have more respect from the old-fashioned man. Hua Tuo was truly someone Zero's respect knew no bounds for.

On the other hand, he was considering kicking the troublemaking magician out of the kitchen. Merlin admitted that he never did any chores in his entire life and Zero couldn't blame him. Being a talented magician from a very young age, Merlin was brought to the palace for work. The palace where he grew up had servants to take care of all his needs. In other words, the wizard never had to lift a single finger in his life to do chores. Merlin was a very spoiled overgrown child but unfortunately for him, Zero didn't want to play the role of a servant that Truen once played.

"We will start learning how to do chores together or find a way to create a house servant to handle that. The golem guard outside can be used to do chores, can't it?"

Merlin paled. Zero's smile was very bright but his intentions were rather sinister. The wizard felt his existence being threatened and could not help but agree to Zero's demands. An angry Zero was a scary one. For such a great magician, he couldn't understand why he was now at his student's mercy.

"I have some spare golems that you can add runes and commands to. We don't have to use the guard outside," Merlin admitted.

Later that day, Merlin gave Zero complete access to his personal lab and warehouse. Zero went through every item and scrutinised them intently. He found several useful items that would help with his projects and asked Merlin for permission to use them for his work. The wizard god was grumpy but agreed to it. None of those was going to be put to any good use even if Zero didn't ask so he might as well allow his student to utilise the white elephants occupying space.

The first thing Zero took out of the lab was the spare golem. Zero didn't know much about runes so he spent a long time researching them in Merlin's library with the help of Mii. The wizard god wanted to deliberately hinder Zero's learning speed by not lending him the speed reading glasses. However, while the wizard was spying on his student, Zero surprised his teacher by scanning the entire content of the books he needed into his communicator. There was a brief communication with the strawcherry assistant but Zero didn't waste too much time in the library. He multitasked studying runes and designing them for the household golem.

Merlin decided to remain in his lab and watch over Zero's progress while he stayed away from the kitchen. the teenager surpassed all his expectations and somehow made the wizard feel inferior with the astonishing progress. At this pace, Zero might really be able to accomplish creating five Parallel Minds without even trying.

Mii, Zero's mindscape assistant, had levelled up tremendously from the things Zero was learning and doing. Merlin was interested to know if Mii was actually a product of Zero's Parallel Mind development but brushed that thought aside. Mii was created by Mind's Eye, a system left behind for Zero by the Great One.

Zero showed no signs of working on the list of things Merlin wanted him to do. Instead, he made steady progress with the household golem. The runes were written in a language that Merlin only saw a few times. There was no doubt that these runes were for divine tier spells. Merlin didn't think such powerful magic was necessary for a golem in charge of chores but he decided to place his faith in Zero so he wouldn't interfere. There was nothing wrong with Zero's rune arrangements and even if it was overkill, it served its purpose. Merlin couldn't protest.

On the third day, Zero brought the spare golem to life and even gave it the name of Bib. Merlin couldn't help but be impressed with the patience Zero showed teaching the dumb thing from the basics of cleaning up, cooking, tending to the garden and mending clothes. Bib made a huge mess and many mistakes on the first day. In the end, it was Zero who had to salvage the situation. For some reason, Zero started teaching Bib to talk as well and taught it how to read.

Merlin thought that it was ridiculous to treat a golem-like an actual intellectual being but after a week, he had to eat his words. Bib turned out to be a very reliable servant. He was able to hold intellectual conversations and developed a dry sense of humour. On top of that, Bib never missed out on anything related to domestic chores. He performed everything spectacularly and Merlin almost thought that Bib had developed a soul. The golem behaved exactly the way a capable living assistant would.

When Zero introduced his newest creation to Merlin, the wizard god couldn't hold his curiosity back any longer.

"Zero, follow me."

The teenager thought that he might be in trouble and obediently followed the solemn wizard to the highest floor of the tower. They reached what appeared as a planetarium. In the centre of the huge space was a stone table with a dial and a glass orb floating in the centre.

"Where are we?" he asked.

Merlin turned around and looked at Zero. "We're at the Observatory. From this place, I can view everything that happens in Arabesque and beyond. It is where I attend to prayers dedicated to me. It is also the place where I measured Truen's magic aptitude and capacity."

It didn't take long for Zero to understand what Merlin wanted to do. "You want to test my magic aptitude?"

Merlin nodded. The child must have a very high magic aptitude to be able to grasp the concepts so quickly and use it so freely. Zero was a genius when it came to mana control and manipulation. Even Merlin found it difficult to keep up at times. While the teenager has not explored with multicasting and layering spells, he exhibited signs of being able to weave very complicated magic together. The creation of Bib was evidence.

"Yes. Are you against it?"

Zero paused. He didn't really want to know the results. Merlin would be severely disappointed if he knew that Zero's natural potential for magic and cultivation were non-existent. Hua Tuo and Buddha explained it before that Zero was like a cup. He didn't produce anything of his own but could store and utilise things that he became filled with.

"No, sir. However, I don't have any aptitude for magic or cultivation. The testing is not going to be very effective. I have an affinity with all elements but that's because I'm simply a blank canvas."

Merlin shook his head. "That's fine, I just want to confirm it for myself."

Stubbornly, Merlin ran all sorts of tests on Zero with the teen's cooperation. At the end of it all, the wizard god was still unable to believe the results. Zero was right. All the aptitude tests didn't reflect any numbers. On the other hand, Zero had 100% affinity with all elements. How could this be? After seeing Zero's genius moments, he was very certain that he'd found a magician greater than him.

"How? I don't understand..."

Zero wanted to sigh. He knew that this would happen. Buddha had already informed Zero about his special condition after he received the new vessel.

"I am the void, sir. There's no way for me to have an aptitude for magic or cultivation. The only reason why that is possible is thanks to this unique vessel."

Merlin frowned. He knew that already. Then, an idea hit him. Of all the magic tests, he hasn't run one of them. Zero wasn't able to create any mana of his own but surely there has to be a way that Zero was able to use magic and cultivate qi. Chalking the reason all up to the convenient Mind's Eye system didn't satisfy Merlin's curiosity. As Zero's magic teacher, he wanted to understand the nature of his student's magic better before he could recommend a good path for the teenager to decide.

Zero was already proficient with healing magic but he also excelled in runes. Merlin wondered if Zero wanted to be a battle mage or a support mage like Truen. Also, what about alchemy, was Zero interested in helping him with his inventions? The creation of that golem was considered a product of alchemy and magic. Perhaps Zero doesn't want any of that and would prefer something more new aged like magic crafting. Merlin had to find out what Zero was good at to recommend a proper career path.

"This won't do," he told Zero, startling the boy. "We need to find Steve for help. Why don't you call for a meeting with your two friends so that Steve and I can meet them while I discuss with him about your unique magic nature?"

Zero wasn't given a chance to refuse and agreed. Lovina would be thrilled to know that Merlin was finally going to answer her prayers. Wiser would be honoured to meet a man with ambitions the same as his. However, Zero didn't know how he should feel about attending such a meeting. Merlin needed Steve's help for more magic aptitude tests and Zero was tired of participating in the tests. No matter what Merlin did, the results were not going to change. He couldn't produce mana.

The meeting was arranged quickly and it was held at the Hall of Attachments in Nirvana. For some reason, Merlin decided to invite Buddha as well. Was there a real need to involve so many people?

"Thank you for attending the meeting on short notice. I'll cut to the chase," Merlin said. "We've gathered here with one main objective and two side affairs. Lovina, I heard about your curse from Zero. As the God of Magic, I know of your brilliance in alchemy and would like to extend to you the position of my research assistant while I find a way to break that curse done onto you."

He then turned to Zero who closed his eyes to look away. Merlin wanted Zero to create another six more golems like Bib with Robo Mike's initial purpose in hopes of sealing the crack at Titan Cliff. Zero agreed to do so in return for the wizard's help to break Lovina's curse.

The witch was overjoyed and cried, accepting Merlin's offer without a shred of hesitation. The wizard told her that they would discuss details later. For Zero, he wasn't very concerned over Lovina's meeting with Merlin. However, it was his first time meeting the God of Technology and inventor of the intergalactic communicator. It would be accurate to describe both Zero and Wiser as huge fans of Steve.

The bespectacled man smiled and introduced himself confidently as Steve Jobs and got straight down to business. Wiser liked the man instantly and agreed to discuss details of their works later to align their interests. However, when Buddha broached the main topic, nobody spoke.

Zero was the one who broke that silence. "If we can understand how chaos energy, qi and mana affect each other, it will change the way things work. merlin and I have discussed this prior to the meeting. We want to try and seal the crack in Heaven's plane at Titan's Cliff. From the previous attempt that ended up in failure, we now know that mana alone isn't sufficient enough to deal with the chaos energy from the void."

Steve grew interested. "So the machine to test Zero's magic aptitude is to see if he is able to create chaos magic as well as utilise mana and qi at the same time. If it is successful, would you replicate that to seal Titan Cliff's leakage?"

Wiser frowned. "Wait a minute. If such a thing exists, couldn't this be used to help stabilise Hell too?"

Lovina hummed. "Not just hell," she said. "All planes that get a hold of this will be stabilised. Arabesque, Nirvana... man-made planes can be created easily too. This is going to be a double-edged sword."

Buddha nodded. "It's true. However, the current problem lies in sustainability. Not many beings out there can support an entire man-made plane like Merlin and me. A huge amount of mana or qi is required to nullify the chaos energy on top of building the plane and sustaining it in the middle of the void."

Lovina didn't look assured. "If another ploy like Kerberos' appears and they gain a huge amount of mana, it is still possible to create a man-made plane for ill intents."

Zero shook his head. "What if the device only helps to regulate the balance between qi, mana and chaos energy and has to be powered by all three sources? I was told that not everyone can simultaneously master qi and mana at the same time."

Steve thought about it and shared looks with Wiser who also agreed. They received notes from Buddha about the properties of chaos energy. It would be exceedingly difficult for anyone to resist chaos energy that attacked a plane. From Buddha's description, the miasma is only a by-product of corruption of mana after being exposed to chaos energy for too long. Without mana or qi to balance chaos energy out, it would end up destroying everything in its path until it merged with something of the same strength that it had.

More often than not, chaos energy that infiltrated a person would latch onto their souls because souls were the purest form of energy that was easily accessible. Those corrupted by chaos energy would often be driven into insanity or slowly disintegrate with the corruption eating away their souls. The easiest way to describe chaos energy was eternal death. Everything that it touched decays away and never returns.

"Mana and qi are merely ways to neutralise chaos energy," Buddha explained to Lovina who was still confused. "If chaos energy and mana or qi were to match each other, they would cancel each other's existence out. We don't know how much chaos energy is in the void but there isn't a way to utilise it either. My belief is that chaos energy was created to subdue life in a more permanent manner."

"Is it true that chaos energy constantly attacks planes?" Merlin asked.

The Enlightened One nodded. "Don't worry, planes are natural mana and qi emitting places. They constantly create life even if the void tries to take it away. It is a balanced game."

"For now..." Zero whispered low enough that nobody heard him. Somehow, listening to Buddha's theory and understanding about chaos energy, he was more certain about Solo's intentions. There really couldn't be light without darkness.

"We will work on that device that you spoke about," Steve told Merlin who thanked them. Wiser was honoured to share his projects with the God of Technology and couldn't wait to leave with Steve. They exchanged contact numbers on the way out while Lovina thanked Merlin profusely.

Buddha took the chance to talk to Zero privately.

"Don't let this affect you. Chaos energy might be something that only destroys but it isn't without its good uses. Sometimes, we require a necessary evil in this world to preserve peace. Solo isn't without his faults either."

It took some time for the meaning of Buddha's words to sink in. When it finally did, Zero let out a bright smile.

"Thank you," he said and hugged the Sage God. At least he knew that somebody would be on his side when the inevitable happened. Zero wasn't alone, he had allies.