Ball of Nothing

Half a month passed peacefully on Hyacinth and Zero's return took everyone by surprise. The lad hadn't sent word in advance and caused the servants in the sea temple to go into chaos after knowing that he was back. Instead of greeting his teacher first, Zero went to the place he created whirlpools and started working on the planet's infrastructure.

Fusing Gummer's weak planet core into Hyacinth's dead core was slightly trickier than Zero thought it would be. The dead core wasn't very receptive to life and even if the planet pulsed with the weak energy, it started to reject the foreign object less than an hour later. Zero was puzzled by the rejection and had to investigate further, delaying his return to the temple.

\"We discovered spirit tracks in the planet's core,\" Mii reported and showed Zero the diagram that she drafted after a very painstakingly detailed scan with Wii's aid.

Zero studied the spirit tracks and quickly demanded his assistants to bring out a few medical books to compare notes. Nobody knew what Zero was doing until the brunet took a picture of the spirit tracks and sent it to the greatest physician alive. Zero's communicator rang not too soon after he sent the picture.

\"Where did you get this map from?\" Hua Tuo asked. He had taken time off from the hospital to clarify with his student what he was seeing.

\"They look like chakra channels, right?\"

Hua Tuo felt uncomfortable answering it. On one hand, he knew that they weren't chakra channels. Even if they were, they would be no ordinary chakra channels of humans. Confirming it will only put silly ideas into his student's head.

\"Zero, what exactly are you up to this time? How did you end up having to restore such a dead network? Who is this person and why have they been injured so badly?\"

Zero grinned cheekily and didn't answer his teacher's questions. \"But you agree that it could be restored, right?\"

Hua Tuo groaned. \"Zero... I'm warning you. This is not something you should be doing. The scale of damage is too big, do you even have enough mana to support the operation and transfusion all by yourself? I heard that there was an organ rejection of sorts.\"

Zero hummed. \"I'm not very sure but I have to try. If I don't do this, my quest won't be complete.\"

\"Ah, the one Murvin gave about the gorgon's grief? Can't you ask Merlin for help?\"

Zero sighed. \"I did. However, Merlin said that there was no other way to remove Athena's curse unless I resolved the root of her grudges which means I need to get to Poseidon and somehow trick this god into becoming a Great God again to resolve Athena's guilt and then somehow hook Medusa and Poseidon up so that Athena could go in peace knowing that the love of her life is happy and well. On the other hand, Poseidon won't leave Hyacinth until he sees land which is why I need to revive this dead planet by infusing a weak planet core I salvaged from a ruined galaxy called Gummer. The complications don't end here, shifu... Apparently Poseidon might have fancied Medusa but his heart had always been Athena's. I don't even know how to properly resolve this so that everyone is happy. You were right to say that there were two illnesses a doctor shouldn't get involved in. I think dealing with idiocy is easier than lovesickness, I really do.\"

Hua Tuo had a headache just listening to Zero summarise the situation. For all he knew, the actual situation might be more complicated but as a third-party, he didn't want to get involved in the business of the Greek Gods. Their family affairs had always been very messy. Not only that, but Hua Tuo also heard from Steve that Eros was made to plant trees on the recreated Mount Olympia. What his disciple wished to do from this point onwards, Hua Tuo was powerless to stop it. However, he was slightly happy that Zero was putting arrogant people in their places. His teachings didn't fall on deaf ears and if anyone could right the wrongs and teach those in power the lesson they needed, he sincerely believed that Zero could accomplish it.

\"In any case, let me know what kind of help you would require. That surgery procedure doesn't sound simple. Nobody has ever tried operating on a planet.\"

The young doctor had to stifle his surprise. \"Oh, you found out who my latest patient is?\"

Hua Tuo rolled his eyes. Zero hasn't improved at all when it came to lying and keeping secrets. The teen was still an open book and Hua Tuo had a feeling he would be like this for a very very long time to come. Some things simply didn't change. Zero's nervous laughter over the communicator made the old physician sigh.

\"Promise me that you won't overdo it like with the Tree of Life or I will send Freya over to you.\"

The threat was effective and Zero made a vow that he would watch his energy reserves carefully this time. Hua Tuo was still sceptical but gave his student the benefit of doubt. Zero was already a full-fledged doctor and probably a very overqualified one. It wouldn't do for Hua Tuo to continue nagging at him over trivial matters when Zero was seriously putting his neck out to help others. Respectfully, Hua Tuo ended the call and believed in his best disciple's capabilities. If there was anyone capable of creating miracles in the greatest times of need, that person would be Zero.

With the confirmation that spirit tracks looked and behaved similar to chakra channels, Zero had more confidence with his diagnosis. Hyacinth was rejecting the foreign core because the body of the planet was dead and too weak to accept something so strong even if the core Zero salvaged was considered weak. It was the same as putting a legendary grade soul stone into the fragile body of a zombie. The host wouldn't be able to contain the power and to avoid destruction, it would spit the foreign object out no matter how good it was.

A simple solution is to strengthen the body of the host so that it would be able to accept the foreign object and somehow fuse with it to become stronger. Zero wasn't sure if Hyacinth would still be the same planet when he was done with it. It might turn out to be a chimaera but that was a risk the young doctor was prepared to take in order to create the land of Poseidon's dreams. Once he did well, he was going to drag the God of Ocean back to have him reinstated as a Great God while he operated his work from Hyacinth. It's alright if Poseidon didn't want to leave this planet, he just had to help Zero complete his quest.

\"First, let's get to work and wake this giant sleeping beauty, shall we?\" Zero smiled and gave orders to his mindscape assistant to pull off one of the most complex operations of his medical career even if he was only starting.

If no doctor has ever single-handedly cured a sick planet before, then Zero would be the first to do it. Making the impossible possible was his area of expertise. A doctor didn't just save lives, they bring hope. If Poseidon was lacking hope in his life to better himself then Zero would give him a very good reason to shoulder his responsibilities and fight to live to the best of his abilities. Not all was lost yet, Athena's soul and spirit might have been severely impaired but Tanya said that she would be able to collect back pieces of it to assemble a fragmented soul of the goddess. It was going to be Zero's gift to Poseidon when he completed his quest but for now, it was work in progress as well as a secret.

The first part of the preparations involved Wii creating several clones and Zero drawing a very complicated magic circle with waypoints all over the planet. Lily and Mii were tasked to carry out a complete mapping of Hyacinth while Zero travelled. The young doctor requested a 3D holographic map of the planet's spirit tracks when they were done and the small party got to work.

Poseidon received news about Zero's strange actions but didn't interfere. The teen appeared to know exactly what he was doing so the titan decided to observe from a distance. However, as the days passed, he couldn't help but be curious when he heard tales about the large-scale preparations required. Exactly how big was the land Zero intending to create? Would his ocean be reduced to the size of a pond by the time Zero was done with it? Poseidon began to become nervous at the prospect and tried to summon Zero for a discussion but nobody could catch the busy teen for long enough to extend an invitation.

Once the first stage of the preparations was complete, Zero announced that he was going into seclusion while he worked on his project. A barrier was set up and nobody could enter it. Poseidon resigned to fate and feverishly prayed that Zero wouldn't do anything too extreme. He was half regretting his request and not even Carlsen could lift the sombre mood in the temple. Poseidon's gloomy mood only made the sea grow colder and the waters stink of stagnation when the blind titan neglected his duties.

On the other hand, Zero was making a lot of complicated calculations and slowly spreading his reach's control all over Hyacinth by pumping his mana reserves into the planet with the help of golem clones while he monitored the health of the sick planet.

Hyacinth seemed to be very thirsty and drank up all the mana and qi Zero pumped into her. She was also surprisingly receptive to other sources of energy like miasma but Zero didn't introduce them into the spirit tracks because they had some properties that were harmful to the marine life on Hyacinth. Zero didn't know if Poseidon would be pleased to know that his servants and citizens were demonised because he decided to change Hyacinth's core nature with miasma. He wasn't willing to risk Poseidon's anger and lose his chance at nabbing the titan back to have his status and position reinstated.

For two weeks, Zero worked endlessly, pushing his vessel to the limits. If it weren't for the recovery potions from Half Moon Village and the food that Zoe sent regularly, Zero might have collapsed from neglecting his self-care. Sleep was the last thing on Zero's mind. Every second that he worked on Hyacinth was critical. The planet was only slowly starting to regain the ability to sense life forces and Zero needed it to be a little more awake before he introduced the weak core and try to fuse it to the reviving planet.

Poseidon found his patience wearing thin when Zero remained in seclusion for over a month now. He didn't know what the teen was doing but there was a change in the waters. For one, the water didn't feel suffocating even without his constant powers. It was becoming easier for Poseidon to maintain the life cycle of the citizens and his creations. In fact, he found himself less fatigued all the time as if the mana of this planet had returned.

What the blind titan didn't know was how Zero was in the final stages of melting the broken core into Hyacinth's empty one. In the heart of Hyacinth, a strange fusion was happening. Zero was only the catalyst but there was something else that was once dead within Hyacinth that was stirred back to life by the introduction of foreign core energy. Zero couldn't understand how chaos energy had seeped into Hyacinth and solidified in its core. It had the same properties as the and-like crystals in his inventory after chaos energy had been neutralised. For this amount of chaos crystals to form, Zero estimated that Hyacinth had been battling it for a long time, maybe even before Poseidon's arrival. When the titan arrived, the planet had been battling with the last of its breath.

Zero didn't have the chance to analyse the solidified chaos crystal core because it was quickly melted by Gummer's remaining core energy and fused together, forming a strange seed that grew in the centre of the planet. Zero didn't stop the seed from taking the mana and qi as nourishments it required to spread its roots through the spirit tracks. Compared to growing the Tree of Life, Zero thought that this planet guardian tree was a lot easier to pacify even if it wasn't intelligent enough to have a powerful spirit who could talk.

It was about forty days before Zero finally exited his seclusion. Poseidon had Carlsen to welcome his strange student back immediately and Zero took a week to crash from exhaustion. The titan held himself back even though there were so many things he wanted to ask Zero. Why did the brunet spend so much time in seclusion instead of creating land? Also, why did it feel like Hyacinth had changed? The changes were subtle and Poseidon was blind but not dumb. He could feel the differences in the very water that they swam in. It reminded him of Neptune, his home planet that was destroyed along with the old Earth.

Zero ate and slept as his vessel required, too tired to care about anything else now that the surgery was a success. Still, before Zero slept, he sent a text to inform his shifu that the mission had been a success. Satisfied that Hyacinth was now out of the red zone, Zero slept soundly for a long time, indulging in dreams about the less gloomy days above the surface.