Ball of Nothing

\"Hello, Zero.\"

\"Hello, Steve. Have you had lunch?\" Zero smiled.

The God of Technology grinned and explained that he was practising intermittent fasting. \"It helps to keep the mind sharp,\" he explained and Zero nodded.

That was something the teen would never come to understand. Eating was the joy and privilege of the living. Fasting wasn't something Zero would ever willingly do. The notion itself was almost as crazy as wanting to willingly become the void.

Pushing that thought aside, Zero delved straight into business. \"How's the progress of the chaos energy converter and testing device coming along? Merlin said there was a prototype?\"

Steve smiled. \"You're awfully eager today. Did something good happen?\"

The teen grinned. \"Not yet. Soon. I thought I'd drop by to see what's going on because it's going to be related to my personal assignment.\"

The God of Technology took interest and offered Zero a seat. \"Tell me more,\" he said as he put finishing touches to the program and device. Merlin wasn't in a hurry either and decided to leave them to talk while he read through Steve's latest lab notes.

Zero explained the concept of his recreation magic and Steve found it interesting.

\"Merlin is right,\" Steve told Zero. \"It sounds very similar to science that we know of back in the original Earth. However, we never fully understand creation and how it came about. Despite trying our best to understand how it was formed, we only managed to understand atoms. There was a rather interesting theory about how the world was created too and it was all based on a single atom.\"

Steve's fingers flew over the keyboard quickly in a blinding fashion like they were dancing and Zero found himself getting hypnotised by them. Still, the conversation took an interesting turn and he couldn't help but learn more about the humans back on the original Earth before it was destroyed. The stories that Hua Tuo shared about them are greatly different from the ones Merlin spoke of. When it came to Steve, Zero didn't have the impression that these humans were the same ones who took down Gods and eventually created one of their own. if anything, they seemed like a bunch of scholars who simply wanted to know about the world and the creator. They didn't feel like evil power-hungry beings who wanted to dominate everything.

Hearing Zero's opinions about humans, Steve smiled. \"That's because those were the humans that were the top of the world trying to pull it back from destruction. With knowledge freely made available to everyone, humans started to want more. The government made a mistake of letting knowledge be made freely available to the masses. Everything went downhill from there. More humans used it for selfish means and some decided to use what they have to gain an advantage over others. Eventually, humans decided that Earth simply wasn't enough for them. They started spreading their man-made wings and moved to space. That's when they discovered other existences and Gods. Taking down Gods was merely the first step of their subjugation mission. Their aim was to control all knowledge of the world and resources so they could infinitely build and advance as a species. The humans got greedy and messed with a power they shouldn't have which ended up in their extinction. However, just before that, they managed to create a miracle of their own power using the power of collected thoughts. They created the very first God called Null who carried on the dying hopes of mankind. When the first Earth was destroyed, Null took the fragments of hope from mankind to create a new world called the Earth that we know.\"

Zero's eyes widened at the revelation. That newbie God who woke him up had a name. \"Null? Can you tell me more about this God? Whois he? Where is he? What does he do? How do I find him?\"

Steve stopped typing and looked at Zero. \"Why are you so interested in Null? He's a rogue God who is on Heaven's wanted list. The Great Gods and King Yama are currently sending people to search for this God and return him to the void. His existence is what is pushing this world into destruction.\"

Lost, Zero shook his head. \"Why? How can this be?\"

Steve sighed. \"The law of energy conservation states that energy cannot be created nor destroyed. It can be transformed from one form to another. The fact that Null is created from the original Earth's thought fragments of humans means that he isn't an original creation from the Great One. While thoughts and prayers are forms of energy, they should be returned to the void for balance if it cannot be processed by the Gods. That is the rule in order to balance the planes' power. The case becomes more serious when Null uses the power from the extinct humans to create a replica of the old world but add on details that never existed. This goes against the law of this world. Null is like a program bug, an unwanted accidental by-product from a series of commands. It should be gotten rid of.\"

The young doctor let Steve's words sink in. While he still couldn't understand why Null had to be destroyed, he could understand the reason for why he was suddenly awakened from the long slumber. According to prophecy, the Great One will awaken again but as a destroyer. That's exactly what Zero was, a void who consumes everything. It wasn't known how Solo foresaw all these but the trigger was definitely Null who was created by humans. If Zero had to make an intelligible guess, Solo had set aside many fragments of himself after the creation of Gods and Divine Entities to the life on his master planet - Earth.

Following the pattern of this thought, it was easy to understand why thoughts were considered a form of energy. From Mii's research and Lily's analysis of the soul supplement, only thoughts of humans and their kin were convertible to energy. Plants, animals, even Mii and Wii's thoughts did not generate energy. On the new Earth, thoughts of species like beastfolk, elves, pixies and mermaids counted as well. Zero also tried to rob some of Merlin's thoughts and tested them positive for energy. Zero suppose Sage Gods who were once humans could generate energy from thoughts too. Unfortunately, Zero has also confirmed that once a thought had been harvested for energy, the person loses the memory of that thought instantly. Zero couldn't spit the thought out and return it to the owner either.

\"Alright, just give me a moment and we can get this device testing,\" Steve smiled and Zero nodded.

The device beeped when the program had been loaded into it and Merlin checked through the magic array drawn on it. The product of magic and technology had always been complicated. Zero marvelled at how alchemy was the glue that made this fusion possible. Perhaps his recreation magic required something similar. As it was, the operations were very chunky.

\"Zero, wear each gauntlet on each hand. The right is for qi and the left is for mana. For the first test, keep both qi and mana properties neutral. We are going to use it to power the seal stamp in here to observe the reaction they have with chaos energy,\" Steve instructed and Zero nodded.

The programmer adjusted the output after Zero charged both gauntlets with qi and mana. Merlin was on standby to cancel the spell at any time if something went wrong with the experiment.

Zero watched the seal stamp like a hawk as Steve adjusted the output. Initially, he only allowed mana to pass through and as expected, he chaos energy worked to extinguish it, hindered by the seal. When Steve switched the output to only qi, the chaos energy in the seal tried to run from it instead of swallowing it. the interesting behaviour made Zero's eyes sparkle. There might be a better way of trapping chaos energy after all!

Steve then reduced the output amount of qi to observe if there was a change and after reducing it by half, the chaos energy turned to try and devour the qi. The puzzling reaction caused even Merlin to tilt his head in wonder.

\"Zero, can you add more charge the mana gauntlet more?\" Steve asked and increased the output for mana to twice the ordinary amount.

Zero complied and watched as the seal stamp transformed from a predator to prey when the mana output overwhelmed it. The trio played around with variations of qi types, elements and different combinations to record down the observations. They spent hours in Steve's lab simply testing the reactions chaos energy had to qi and mana. At the end of it all, Merlin was confident that sealing the plane's crack at Titan's Cliff was possible.

\"That's enough for today,\" Merlin announced and Steve stopped the experiment. It was a huge success and Zero beamed.

\"What do you think?\" Steve asked the magician.

Merlin nodded. \"It's possible. I will work on the design. Right now, you should help to test Zero for affinity with chaos energy. I suspect he might be able to produce chaos energy.\"

Steve didn't hesitate and took out a metal rod, pushing it into Zero's palm. \"Do you need a break before we continue? It's only going to take a short while.\"

\"It's alright,\" Zero said. \"Let's continue.\"

Steve explained what he wanted Zero to do and quickly ran over to the computer. \"Whenever you are ready, I want you to pulse all kinds of energy that you currently have into the metal rod. It doesn't matter if it is mana, qi or sins. Don't restrict the type and let them all flow.\"

The young doctor was slightly surprised that Steve would know about the kinds of energy types he had but trusted the programmer anyway. He didn't hold back and had Mii to help him pulse one unit of each energy type he currently had in the system into the metal rod.

The program that Steve created immediately went into a frenzy when Zero started. The teen didn't stop even after the program started going haywire. Steve's fingers flew all over the place trying to understand what was wrong. The energy that Zero channelled into the metal rod was stored in a container with a lot of rune writings. Zero only stopped when he was done and looked at his teacher expectantly.

Merlin patted his head and waited for Steve to get back to them with the results. The programmer printed something out and handed it to the magician who looked over it curiously. Meanwhile, Steve asked Zero to run one more test for certainty.

\"The earlier test wasn't very accurate. There were several unidentified energy forms that I need to analyse later. Right now, I'm going to unseal the trapped chaos energy and let it come in contact with you. At any point, if you feel endangered, please put up a mana shield. If you are truly compatible with chaos energy, it wouldn't hurt you.\"

Merlin jolted at that. \"Stop! It's too dangerous. I won't allow it.\"

Zero looked at his teacher and smiled. \"I think it will be fine. My vessel can repair itself with enough food and mana. I don't have a soul that can be harmed either. I'm also curious to know if I can absorb chaos energy. I know I can absorb miasma but I've never tried to absorb chaos energy from the void directly.\"

Seeing how stubborn Zero was, Merlin had no choice but to relent. \"I will be in charge of putting up the mana shield if I sense anything wrong during the experiment. We will not be repeating it.\"

Zero thanked the wizard and the trio got ready for the final test of the day.

The chaos energy was unsealed and Zero waited for the black mist to approach him. Deterred by a huge wall of mana elsewhere, the chaos energy was directed to Zero who waited for it to make the first contact. When the chaos energy landed on Zero, the teen was immediately reminded of a familiar feeling as if he was suspended in the void. The chaos energy robbed him of his emotions, thoughts, feelings and sense of presence. It happened only for a split second because Merlin was already throwing mana at it to eliminate the chaos energy.

\"Zero!\" Merlin rushed over to check his student. The teen was slightly disoriented but appeared fine otherwise.

\"I'm alright... just slightly confused. Give me a moment...\"

Steve looked worried as well while the magician helped Zero sit on a chair. After Zero regained his senses, he explained what he experienced and his thoughts about it.

\"There's no doubt about it, the chaos energy is what held me back and kept me asleep the whole time in the void. If Null's creation of the new Earth was what caused me to awaken, we can confirm that the chaos energy trapping me was destroyed by his power. I cannot control chaos energy or absorb it. I tried absorbing it but it took away some of the things I had stored in my inventory. Chaos energy is not the void but what resides in it.\"

Merlin and Steve shared a look. Of all their discoveries that afternoon, this had to be the biggest.

\"I understand. I'll handle the rest from here, you bring Zero back to rest,\" he told the wizard who didn't argue.

Zero was quickly escorted back to Arabesque while Steve whipped out his communicator. He had to inform the Great Gods about this new discovery.