Ball of Nothing

With a lot of convincing, Zero was finally allowed to visit Titan Cliff. Isis, Merlin, Buddha and Hades will accompany the young doctor to the edge of Titan Cliff. However, it was agreed with great reluctance from Hades' part. He had basically no say when Isis put her foot down and told them that Zero was going. The God of Death didn't know what Zero told the Goddess of Time but the teen had somehow managed to successfully convince the most stubborn goddesses that existed. Hades couldn't stop her even if he wanted to. With Isis' power over time, there wasn't much Hades could do against her.

Zero felt bad for the worried grim reaper but he assured Hades that he would be careful. Hades was uncertain but still decided to trust Zero and Isis. Titan Cliff was literally the edge of Heaven where the plane broke. It was not repaired due to the strong force that sucked everything that came close to the edge away into the void. Every day, the plane grows smaller as bits of it were lost to the void. The mana that Heaven could produce couldn't keep up with the amount of chaos energy that attacked it. As a result, the crack grew wider and the plane grew weaker.

Zero could feel the chaos energy's pressure as they stopped at the winged carriage station at the foot of Titan Cliff. There was still a good distance to cover before they arrived at the broken mountain but the pressure was so strong even if Zero was still far from his destination. The chaos energy's effects of making him drowsy could immediately be felt and the teen stumbled out of the winged carriage into Merlin's arms.

\"Zero! What's wrong?\"

The young doctor shook his head to get rid of the sleepiness and tried to keep his eyes open but he felt very dizzy. \"Sleepy...\"

Almost immediately, Buddha and Merlin started working on maintaining a mana and qi barrier around the small tour group. It still took a while before Zero was able to go back to normal. During that time when he was still zoning in and out of slumberland, Hades carried him on his back. Isis led the group and watched out for any potential threats, ready to freeze time and unwind it to get everyone to safety if the situation required.

Zero felt the blood rushing in his vessel and a strange thumping in his chest. Something else ran through his existence and hummed in resonance with the void. The pull was so great that Zero felt twitchy. It was hard trying not to run towards the edge of the cliff and throwing himself off it. Was this how others felt when they were near him? Zero knew that the Demon Lords were enticed towards his existence when he wasn't in his vessel. Baal said so.

The cliff was bigger than Zero thought it would be. According to Isis who was giving them a short history lesson about the cliff, Titan Cliff used to be where the Titans like Zeus, Athena, Poseiden and Eros resided in before the war with Hell happened.

\"Is Gaia also a Titan?\" Zero asked.

Hades laughed. \"No, she might be huge but she isn't a Titan. This place is what used to be Mount Olympia, the home of Titan gods. Titans are born from the sky. Gaia was born from Earth to be the overseer of the Material Plane. Sedna was born from water, Freya born from blood and Isis born from the undead. Of course, this is a short explanation. There is a longer and more complicated explanation but that's not very important now. After the massacre of Gods, only a few of us remained to support the duties of our fallen family.\"

Zero looked at the tall cliff. \"Mount Olympia... were you sad when your home was destroyed?\"

Hades blinked. \"My home isn't on this mountain. My siblings, nieces and nephews all lived here but I was in Tartarus back then. It was the office that Kerberos was left in. Back then, Hell was still part of Heaven. I just happened to move out of the home to focus better on my work. It's often very noisy with so many people arguing every day.\"

For some reason, Zero couldn't find it in himself to be angry. He could imagine the level of chaos with gods who acted like immature children running around and causing destruction on a daily basis. Zeus' character was a very good guideline for what kind of chaos there would be in the Mount Olympia Titan household. If every single Titan was like him, Zero would have done the same thing Hades did.

As Hades told Zero stories about the old days, Merlin and Buddha were increasing the strength of their barrier. Isis never let down her guard and became more vigilant as they approached the peak. The wind was strong and cold nearing the edge of Heaven but Zero was wearing clothes with enchantments for temperature regulating so he didn't feel it. The others had their individual ways of coping with it too so nobody really mined it.

The cliff was a rocky edge and Zero was slightly disappointed that there were no ruins of the old civilisation of Titans for him to see at the top of the broken mountain.

\"Don't go too close to the edge, it isn't stable,\" Isis warned and Zero nodded.

Merlin held his student's hand and slowly led him closer to the edge so that they could witness the void. Hades grew serious and no longer spoke. He activated his power and altered the permissions for the first three barriers so that the two magicians can pass through.

As Zero leaned in to take a look at the void, the image that greeted him was nothing like he'd imagined it to be. In truth, Zero was expecting to see a big gaping hole that led into a pit of black that would suck the soul out of anyone who laid eyes on it. In reality, the crack reminded him of the Trigression Falls.

Although Mount Olympia was broken, it continued to rain debris into the strong pull of that vortex at the bottom. Stranger yet, there were countless threads from the broken mountain that tangled with each other and held strong even if they were getting pulled into the vortex of the void. There were dense clouds at the bottom that made it hard to see where the threads were leading to but Zero had an idea of what it was doing. The dense clouds collided with each other at the base of the broken cliff with a ferocity that created storms. The storms shook the cliff and caused more debris to fall into the void each time.

\"This is the edge of heaven?\" Zero whispered in disbelief.

Merlin didn't say anything and held onto Zero steadily. The turmoil at the foot of the cliff was enough to let the boy know about the situation. If they wanted to seal this crack in the plane, it wasn't going to be simple. They might be able to create a system to counter the chaos energy attacking it but the more complicated problem was the plane's spirit. Those threads that led were attached to the void cannot be easily cut off.

Zero understood the complexity of the situation better now. It was not a mistake to visit Titan Cliff first. Now that he knew what was troubling Merlin and Steve, he could devise a better plan. If the plane was alive like what Zero suspected, these threads must be connecting to the abyss and desperately trying to keep it alive. The Tree of Knowledge definitely had something to do with this.

The young doctor thought about the seed in his inventory. If the Tree of Knowledge was the plane's guardian and struggled to provide enough mana to support both the Heaven portion and the Hell portion because of the chaos energy, Zero had two options now to prevent the fall of Heaven and Hell's plane.

The first was to plant the Tree of Life in the abyss at the Spring of Vitality so that it can support that broken off plane and reduce the onus on the Tree of Knowledge while reviving the tree of Knowledge to strengthen Heaven's plane so it could continue fighting the chaos energy. The second was to completely sever the connection from Heaven's plane from the abyss and reconstruct it completely to seal that crack. Zero would have to think of a way to stabilise the abyss' plane if he did so but that would definitely save Heaven. The teen had confidence that even if the Tree of Knowledge no longer supported the abyss, he would still be able to find a way to sustain it. If he could repair Heaven's broken plane, why couldn't he do the same for Hell?

\"I understand the situation now, thank you for letting me come here,\" Zero told Hades and turned back from the edge. He'd seen enough to know what needed to be done.

Hades nodded and fixed the barriers after Merlin and Zero returned. He didn't know what the young doctor was thinking about but with Merlin by the boy's side, there shouldn't be anything to worry about. Isis looked at Zero as they headed back with a pensive gaze. What would Zero do this time? In the previous timelines, Zero would often find a way to defeat the chaos energy or try to reconnect the two broken planes.

Neither options were bad. However, that would be the mark of Zero's journey towards his downfall. For a long time, angels and demons couldn't coexist. After the merging and peace, someone would try to sow a seed of discord between the two races. Eventually, the peace treaty would be annulled and the two powerful races would engage in another bloody war. Without the support of angels, the Gods working in Heaven would neglect their duties and cause a huge chain of reactions. The Great Gods would step up to ease the burden and hold up the life cycle but with so much burden on their minds and hearts, they would fall one after another until the world ends up in chaos.

Zero's seriousness made Isis wonder if he would find an option that he didn't think about the previous times. Back then, there really wasn't a way for Zero to save everyone and the Goddess of Time always thought that it might be better if Zero simply chose between the angels and the demons to save. If one race perished, perhaps the end of the world could be avoided.

Once they returned to the winged carriage station, Zero told Hades and Isis that he wanted to drop by the Garden Eden. Buddha decided to excuse himself but Hades and Isis decided to accompany the teen to the garden.

\"There will be a snake guardian,\" Hades warned Zero who nodded.

Isis smiled. \"Would you like me to tell you in advance what kind of tests he will subject you to?\"

Zero was tempted to say yes but in the end, chose to shake his head. \"I cannot cheat. This is also a trial for me. If I cannot overcome this with my own abilities, how will I face myself in the future?\"

Merlin thought that Zero sounded oddly mature with this. He had always told Zero that the best competition he had was with himself. Did Zero finally stop comparing himself with Truen's progress and started trying to surpass his own limits?

Only Isis understood what Zero truly meant. In fact, she fully supported Zero's resolve of wanting to resolve everything by himself. Saving Heaven wouldn't be as easy as introducing hope to Hell. However, if Zero couldn't do it she didn't know if Zero would be able to face Solo with a firm resolve to save him.

The Great Gods and Buddha parted ways with Zero after they reached the town central. Merlin and Zero decided to chariot hop all the way to Garden Eden and as they left, Isis turned back for a last look at the teen.

Was this the right thing to do? As they got further away, Isis sighed. Only time will tell. Still, the Goddess of Time wished that she had the powers to know if the hope she felt in her heart this time would not be betrayed again. As someone who had to be neutral in the fight between Solo and Zero, Isis knew she wasn't being completely impartial with her actions. If she was true to herself, the Goddess of Time would have thrown her lot in with Zero. After all, she was tired of Solo's games and treating everyone as dispensable pawns to kill his boredom.