Ball of Nothing

Chapter 203 Different Goodbye

They decided to stay for a few more days at Baal’s castle before Hua Tuo came to fetch his disciple. Zero clung onto Baal more than usual and was absolutely devastated to know that Coux and Wiser will be remaining in the abyss with Baal.

"We’ll write to you often, don’t cry..." Coux wiped Zero’s tears away and held out a handkerchief for him to blow his nose into.

Wiser didn’t know what to do. He simply stood around and watched as Baal flicked the teenager on the forehead. Even as a teenager, Zero wasn’t very tall. The Demon Lord in his child form was able to reach Zero’s forehead without even tip-toeing.

"Stop sniveling and man up! You’re the one who’s going to become a great doctor. What would your patients say if they knew that you had such a weak resolve?"

"My Lord!" Coux was horrified by the harsh reprimanding. She was about to go coddle Zero again when the brunet smacked himself hard on both cheeks till they reddened painfully.

The tears were still there but they weren’t running freely any longer. Zero held them back and choked back another sob as he met Baal’s onyx eyes. He looked at his stern best friend and found his resolve wavering. Yes, Zero still wanted to be a doctor very much. However, he didn’t know if he was able to sacrifice so much in order to achieve his dream.

"You’ll meet many people along the way, goodbyes are only part of the routine. You’ll have to start getting used to it. This won’t be the last time we will be seeing each other. Besides, we can always be in contact, you have some rather unique skills."

Zero pouted. Baal’s perspective made it easier to put aside the fact that they might not ever meet again. While Baal might not have said it out, Zero had a feeling that this would be the first and last time he was welcomed in the abyss. It wasn’t easy to travel in and out of Hell. Even Gabriel had to apply for a travel pass whenever he made a trip with an official purpose. Even if Zero was a friend of Baal, he would still need to have official reasons to visit.

"Don’t worry, Zero. We will be here to assist Lord Baal with his business and your dreams. The terraforming project will help to cure many sick and weak demons. Once the mana lotuses are ready, we will spread them across the plane to minimise the miasma."

Wiser agreed with Coux. "I will be finding a way to create a purifier machine that converts miasma into mana. We will be in close contact, Raj and the rest of the lab members will help out. I’ve received Lovina’s reply and they want to talk to you as soon as you return. Grandma Moppo has an announcement to make on behalf of all the villagers."

Zero blinked. Grandma Moppo? It had been a long time in the abyss that the young doctor almost forgot the reason why he was in the abyss. The brunet looked slightly worried after he remembered the trouble he caused the villagers. He also wanted to apologise for meddling with Douglas’ punishment but what was done couldn’t be undone.

Fear and anxiety about the unknown future gripped Zero. Baal noticed the change in his friend’s behaviour and sighed. He should have seen this coming. While he did lecture Zero earlier about causing inconvenience for others and poking his nose into things that wasn’t his business, it wasn’t quite a bad thing if it was Zero. After all, he did everything with good intentions in mind... mostly. None of the Demon Lords truly hated Zero for what he did but as the strong pillars of Hell, they couldn’t allow a no-named human-looking creature influence them. The power balance would tilt and internal strife will tear the fragile harmony apart.

"Just go back and listen to what they have to say," Baal advised. "You can apologise later and think about how to make it up to them. We have two more days here. What do you want to do? I’m sure work can wait for now..."

Coux didn’t look too pleased but agreed. She understood Zero’s desire to spend the rest of his time in the abyss with his best friend who’d helped him through tougher times. If it wasn’t for Baal, Zero might still be in a coma. If it wasn’t for Baal, Zero might never have experienced a sudden growth in mental maturity. Coming to Hell was an eye-opener to the naive apprentice and Coux can only thank the Demon Lord for playing the role of the necessary evil in Zero’s life.

Zero thought for a while. He’d been to many places in the abyss so nothing really surprised him now. However, he wasn’t going to turn down having Baal as his guide. If Zero was going to say goodbye, he was going to do it properly.

"I want to visit everyone here."

"Everyone?"

Zero nodded and made a list of people he wanted to say goodbye to. Baal wasn’t surprised that Zero included all the Demon Lords in the list. However, the last place Zero wanted to go surprised him.

"The Roth village?"

Ruth wasn’t here to hear that but if he was, the vampire would have called Zero a moron. Of the little time he had left, Zero chose to spend it visiting the ruins of his miserable past.

Baal studied Zero carefully. "Why? Are you going to bring your servant with us?"

Zero shook his head. "I just wanted to pay respects to his family. After all, I am taking him away to a very different place. I feel like I should do at least this much."

The Demon lord nodded his head. It sounded like something Zero would do with his still annoyingly upright sense of morals. Despite receiving four sets of memories from the less pleasant Divine Entities, Zero hasn’t shown much change although there was now a shadow if one squinted past his light. It was a shadow that wouldn’t consume the doctor but protect him and that alone was enough for Baal.

"I see. We will set off in an hour. There is a lot of travelling to do. I shall write to the other Demon Lords, we should visit the village of Roth first."

Zero agreed and Coux helped the brunet pack. Baal waited for his secretary and friend to leave before turning to Wiser.

"Have you made up your mind?"

The frail inventor nodded. "I will become your family and sign the pact. I still can’t abandon my mortality, not even for Zero. Just promise me that you will not use my inventions for mass destruction."

Baal nodded and threw a scroll at the thin man who caught it clumsily. Wiser fumbled with a feather pen and signed on the bottom of the contract. The moment the ink dried, a different kind of contract seal was formed behind Wiser’s right ear near his nape. The contract scroll went up in black flames and Baal nodded in satisfaction. He should inform Truen that Baal’s faction in the Zero Army was ready to put things into action. With a brilliant businesswoman-secretary and a genius-inventor, Baal and the rest of the Demon Lords who were in the alliance would be able to prepare the resources that Zero required. Preparing for Zero’s multi-world, multi-dimensional and multi-space travels will be costly beyond imagination.

"Baal, let’s go!" Zero called from downstairs. He was already waiting by a carriage that Coux readied. The Demon Lord wondered how anyone got anything done at the speed they did. While Zero didn’t have much belongings to pack, Lucifer and Olaf did give him many things before sending him away from the Academy. Even the Charybdis’ son gave Zero something rather bulky and disturbing but Baal didn’t see the teenager carrying it.

"Must be King Yama’s dimensional storage bag... or his other skill. How unfair..." he grumbled and jumped off the window ledge before morphing into a bat to join them in the carriage.

The rat demon coachman departed as soon as Zero said goodbye to Coux. Little did he know, that casual goodbye would be the last he would say to her. Baal had no intention of letting the brunet go through long and painful goodbyes drawn out with lots of tears. He had sent Ruth away to the village who would greet Zero when he returned. The plan was also to visit the Demon Lords in the sequence of those Zero was most fond of to the ones he wasn’t as close to. Baal would be the last one to accompany him on his journey back to Earth. They would part at the foot of Endow Hill where Hua Tuo would be waiting.

There was a stinging pain in Baal’s chest and that surprised the healthy Demon Lord. He was very sure whatever side effects from mana overuse were over. Was this some sort of mysterious new illness?

"No, who am I kidding?" Baal smiled wryly when Zero dozed off on the opposite side of the carriage. He took a good look at the growing teenager and went over to drape a blanket they had on the seats over him.

"If it weren’t for you teaching me that I still had some good left in me, I don’t think Earth would have survived as long as it did," he confessed.

It was a plan that the Demon Lords made together. With Rhinestone opening the gates, they would kill the Arachne Demon and take over control of that unstable dimension to conquer the lower lifeforms on Earth and siphon off their mana to stabilise the abyss plane. Things turned out a little differently when Zero proposed a more peaceful method of stabilising the plane with Buddha’s rare mana lotuses. It was an olive branch to mend the broken relationship Heaven and Hell had. It also saved Earth from becoming like the first planet.

Thinking about letting his very first and last friend go made Baal feel strange on the inside. It wasn’t as if they were parting forever. They would probably meet again when the world was going to end but Zero was someone destined for greater things. Wherever he went, action would follow and change will happen. Baal knew that his trouble-making friend was going to be that final push this world needed to break or to make.

Baal gently caressed the cheek of the sleeping apprentice and leaned down to place a very chaste kiss on it. The kiss sizzled and Zero squirmed in discomfort but never woke up. Baal thanked Coux’s foresight to dust the interior with sleeping powder. With this, Baal could put his feelings back into place before they arrived. He had to perfect the mask so that Zero wouldn’t see how much letting Zero pursue the path he has chosen was hurting him.

Baal closed his eyes to rest and enjoy the bittersweet companionship while it lasted. Of all the things that Zero chose to do, he chose to become a hero even if he wasn’t aware of it. It was a path that the Demon Lord couldn’t follow no matter how much he wanted to. The Demon lord only wished that his naive friend wouldn’t solely view the world in black and white but also take note of the shades of gray in between.

With Ruth and Truen guiding Zero, Baal was counting on them to protect Zero’s kind heart. Although he often disagreed with the way Zero did things, it would be incredibly sad to see the young doctor give up on hope. After all, Zero was Baal’s hope. He was Baal’s light. He was the only one who reached out to him in that darkness when he was at his most vulnerable.

"Please don’t take away my light," Baal whispered his silent prayer into the void just before the effects of the sleeping powder took over.