Ball of Nothing

Zero didn't know why every time he saved someone or something everyone would take turns scolding him. It's almost like a ritual at this point and the teen was very glad for the discovery of noise isolation magic. The one who chewed Zero out the most was without doubt Hua Tuo. The physician was frustrated at his graduated disciple for treating his vessel so lightly.

The teen knew that his shifu was worried but listening to the Medicine God recite the book of rules for two hours really tested Zero's patience. He didn't want to be rude to his shifu but he really had pressing matters to attend to. After much deliberation, Zero raised his hand and caught Hua Tuo off guard.

\"Sorry shifu, I'll listen to your lecture another time but for now, won't you let me off? I have something urgent that has to be done now that both Trees are in top condition.\"

Hua Tuo looked at Zero and sighed, shaking his head in disappointment. Children will one day leave the nest and even if he was reluctant, he knew he couldn't keep Zero for too long. Still, the teen was entering his rebellious stage too quickly! It hasn't even been a month since the teen left his wing and already he was learning all the bad things from Merlin. He knew that the magician would be a bad influence!

Still, now that Zero was no longer under his care, Hua Tuo had no reason to hold the impatient brunet back. With a tired sigh, Hua Tuo left and returned to his hospital. The physician swore to not interfere with Zero's magic training but now, he was beginning to regret making that promise. Between Zero and Merlin, it was sometimes difficult to tell who the child was. If it wasn't for Bib managing the household affairs, Hua Tuo was willing to bet that the tower would be in a greater mess than it already was.

Zero gave the physician an apologetic look as he left. He really wasn't in the best mood after hearing so many people scold him. The Demon Lords took turns to lecture him, the Great Gods had long calls with him, both his teacher yelled at him and all his mindscape assistants didn't let him forget what he did for a few days even after the crisis was averted.

Now that Zero finally had peace and quiet, he decided to start gathering golem materials. As expected, despite the efforts of both trees, the crack at Titan Cliff wouldn't hold for long with the ferocious attacks of the chaos energy. Merlin already had a magic formation that was tested to work. The combination of mana and qi for the formation using infused golems tied to Arabesque and Nirvana's planes will help to nourish the roots holding the plane up and create a deterring barrier to reduce the intensity of the chaos energy attacks.

\"Do we have everything we need?\" Zero asked Wii.

Mii was taking the day off after the hectic schedule. After a long time, the mindscape assistants had finally completed syncing and reading everything. Wii was left in charge of reorganising the books in Zero's eight-hundred floored library. Every hour or so there would be an update and Wii had no problem coping with that level of new information. Likewise, Zero no longer had to suffer an information overload flooding his mind after all the books in the reading device synced with his mind.

There was a very useful magic that duplicated things using the analysis skill. Thanks to Mii and Wii's advanced Arithmetic skills and understanding of philosophy, Zero unlocked a new ability that allowed him to inspect and appraise objects at insane levels. When he activated this appraisal skill to the maximum level, the entire structure and composition of the product will be translated into a mental blueprint. Using this, Zero was able to replicate the product without much effort if he had all the materials.

This was also the basis for Zero's recreation magic. Currently, about thirty Parallel Minds are used to activate the skill and more Parallel Minds were used to help with the actual process of replicating. It was a complicated multi-tiered spell that could only be accomplished if there was perfect coordination between a hundred magicians. Not everyone had more than a hundred Parallel Minds to spare with a vast mana reserve to use recreation magic freely.

Zero already had the blueprint of Robo Mike and gained Merlin's permission to borrow an empty floor in the tower for the assembly of eight more advanced golems. The body of the golem wasn't difficult to craft but it was a very time-consuming process that required a lot of precision and spell layering. Zero didn't have everything in the blueprint initially so he redesigned the golems and suggested the changes to Merlin. Master and student discussed it throughout an entire night to finalise the new golem guardians' design. The improved version would be a lot sturdier and Zero was actually excited to see how much more intelligent they would be once he was done. The exterior of these golems was also designed differently. Merlin gave Zero permission to go all out on the aesthetic department and Zero didn't hold back. Zero modelled the eight golems after the great rulers of each Kingdom on Earth except for the human race simply because of his dislike for Count Carrrabas.

The process of making these guardian golems took Zero three full days. Merlin had expected Zero to take longer. After all, it was understandable to take an entire day to assemble one golem. Zero's speed impressed the wizard who took over from there. Lovina helped Merlin to inscribe runes onto the golems according to the elements that Zero specified. Without the curse of the void guardian on her, Lovina was once again able to recover Merlin's blessing as his direct follower and prophet. The curse of the phoenix was suppressed with Merlin's reactivated mark and the witch was basically an immortal who could visit Arabesque at will.

Zero let them work on the golem guardians and visited the Spring of Vitality alone. He was going to ask for some crafting materials from both the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge now that they were both doing well. Raj and Tambolt were requesting for branches from both trees while Zero actually needed a lot of barks and leaves to create his grimoire.

The Tree of Life was very generous and Zero had to borrow the storage of his inventory to keep the materials she gave him. On the other hand, Ouroboros and the Tree of Knowledge were more cautious. Zero did receive a branch from the Tree of Knowledge but only after the serpent deemed it the most useless branch. Also, the leaves were specially chosen by the fussy serpent who claimed that only the leaves with yellowed edges could be given. The barks were also carefully shaved by the snake guardian and Zero spent a total of four hours in Garden Eden just to get his crafting materials.

The teen returned to the wizard's tower just in time for dinner that day. His to-do list was becoming shorter now that he was a lot closer to what he had to do. It was slightly amusing how he didn't actually need his grimoire to seal the crack at Titan Cliff. If there was something Zero learnt from his training with both Hua Tuo and Merlin, it was that plans should not be completely trusted to work perfectly. There were usually many strange turns of events along the way hindering Zero from his goal. Having a plan allowed the teen to prioritise what he wanted to do and kept his target in sight. He could only imagine how easy it was to forget his true objective without that small to-do list when complications occurred.

\"We can finish inscribing all the golems in a week,\" Lovina informed Zero who inquired about the progress.

\"Do I need to be there for the setup and sealing of Titan Cliff?\" he asked Merlin who slurped his ramen noodles messily.

\"Yes, that would be most ideal. I assume that you should be done with your grimoire by the time the inscriptions are complete. It's a good time for you to test the power of your grimoire while we are there. Buddha and Steve will also be there to witness it and standby just in case something goes awry.\"

Zero agreed and asked Merlin if he had any tips about binding grimoires. \"Also, I still cannot think of what I want to bind the grimoire to...\" he admitted.

Lovina and Merlin didn't know what to tell Zero. After all, every magician valued their grimoires differently. Some magicians were only interested in using their grimoires for regular spells and didn't need them to be very powerful due to their lack of mana capacity. In cases like this, they would tie it to an arm or an eye. However, in some cases where a magician has a huge grudge and desire for vengeance, they would often sacrifice a greater thing in exchange for power beyond their control. Some would tie it to their hearts, others to their souls.

Lovina remembered binding her grimoire to her memories because compared to body parts, she valued the proof of her struggles. Merlin was similar when he bound his grimoire to his brain. The magician basically didn't want to live anymore if he became ruined as a mage. He would forgo his entire life and accomplishments, taking all the knowledge he had accumulated along with his death. The grimoire was also cursed to self destruct when Merlin died so that nobody could steal his research.

Zero listened to Merlin and Lovina's resolve and thanked them for sharing. That night, he turned in early but could not sleep. Zero's mind was full of questions. What did he want to learn and use magic for? Recreation magic was not the same as healing magic. It was the power used to defend against Solo's power of creation. The grimoire was also something that could act as his shield against the chaos energy that threatened to enslave him in the void and put him to eternal sleep.

Magic was a way of life and life was what Zero wanted to protect and preserve at all costs. The reason why Zero wanted to become a doctor to remove the sufferings of this world's inhabitants. He loved what Solo has created and found it beautiful despite the flaws. Zero understood the way of life and the cycle of souls. The entire world was created on a delicate balance that cannot be tipped. Once it was tipped, it was very difficult to balance it again and often, the small tip in scales could result in a landslide towards destruction.

The young doctor frowned. He thought back about all the things he did till date and realised that the world might indeed come to an end. He had been tipping scales ever since his first arrival. Zero tossed to another side with a frown.

Rather than Solo, wasn't he the most dangerous threat the world had?

That realisation made Zero queasy. The grimoire of recreation might just serve a second purpose other than battling Solo. Zero thought about it and nodded. That's right, it was meant to be used to clean up Zero's screw-ups.

\"What should I bind it to? I don't have a body part that actually belongs to me or a soul to bind it to. I'm afraid grimoires cannot tie themselves to unknown existences either... how troubling.\"

If only Zero could bet it on something else or someone else that was precious to him. The idea of a hostage situation was morbid but it somehow made Zero laugh. As a doctor, if there really was a hostage, he would be powerless to act against the enemy until he found a way to rescue them even if it meant having to let them die once to get rid of the enemy and reviving them when it was safe.

\"That's it!\" Zero smiled widely. He did have a good hostage to bind the grimoire to.

Of course, now that he found a good hostage, Zero decided to put off the announcement for tomorrow. For now, he would rest. His ears would fall off if he heard any more protests and scolding so it wouldn't be wise to do it tonight.