Ball of Nothing

Chapter 204 Bonus: Trick or Trea

As an androgynous creature typed on a keyboard late into the night of 30th October, a grim-looking portal suddenly opened.

"You have been summoned," the figure in black hooded cloak announced and the writer dropped her glasses.

"Hades is that you?"

The summoner said no more and dragged the sleep-deprived and coffee overloaded author into the world of ink.

>>Xxx Destiny Aitsuji xxX<<

On the night of 30th October, a certain someone was also studying complicated alchemical formulas to make toad-skin cures. Gnarly warts caused by curses can only be undone with the lotion made from...

"Slime excretion?"

Behind the hardworking wood elf, three human children tumbled onto the pile of books. The bodyguard was instantly on high alert when that happened. He readied the most advanced tier of calamity spell at his arsenal and pointed it at them.

There was a girl with a side braid, a female who looked like a male and a boy with hair covering his eyes. Where did these three weirdos come from?

Another portal opened from his shadow, starling the wood elf terribly. However, this time, he recognised the Great God and bowed. As a loyal servant of the Great Zero, he didn’t question who the odd-looking human was on the ground that Hades dragged along.

"Truen, I have a mission for you."

The wood elf put away the wand and stood upright at attention while the kidnapped humans shook hands and marvelled at the interior decoration.

"It comes as a tradition in the original world to celebrate an event called Hallows’ Eve - a customary honorarium of the dead. However, it appears that it has been far too commercialised and the Great Gods have decided to task you along with these humans to collect evidence of the original spirit."

The three mini humans introduced themselves as Scarlet - the one with a side braid and broken leg in a cast and the run of the company, Alex - the confusing girl who looked like a boy, and Jasper - the weird male with hair over his eyes.

Merlin burst into the room with costumes in his arms. "Hot coutu- I mean hot costumes made fresh out of the wizard’s oven. These are magical costumes that allow you to disguise yourselves as various undead for tonight. One for you, you, you and you!"

After throwing costumes at everyone, the Sage God disappeared. Hades told the humans to change into their costumes and Truen was confused. "How do we collect the evidence of the original spirit?"

Hades smiled. "Glad you asked. You need to play them a trick and try to scare them. If they see past your trick, you give them a treat. also, this is a camera made by Steve. Get these humans to help you with it. Your target is to collect three scares by playing tricks on them before leaving them treats. Good luck, you have twenty-four hours."

Scarlet was the first to finish changing despite the broken leg. All she had to do was wrap bandages on her wrist and the magical costume did the rest for her. Truen noticed that it wouldn’t be convenient for Scarlet to walk around with a broken leg so he decided to find her a doctor who could fix it. They now had their first target in mind.

Jasper was the next to get ready. Unlike Scarlet, it took awhile for truen to identify the kind of undead Jasper was dressed as. The boy didn’t appear any different from normal apart from the greyish skin tone.

"A mummy and a zombie, that’s classic. What’s next?" Truen wondered.

Alex came out looking more handsome than pretty and the wood elf was impressed. "A very handsome vampire," he nodded in approval, much to the girl’s dismay.

The last to come out was the mysterious girl who claimed to be the creator of both this world and the world that the three children came from. Truen didn’t really believe that she was the Great One and decided not to mind the ramblings of a mad person too much. Destiny, as the creature claimed herself to be, was dressed up in a sheet with two eye holes. Her entire face and body were covered, giving her the illusion of floating when she walked.

Now that his troop was ready, the wood elf asked who would handle the camera.

"I will," Jasper volunteered. Seeing that the job was to take a picture of the victim before they were scared, it was way better than anything else Truen had in mind. They might have just met but he had a feeling Truen was secretly a sadist at heart.

Satisfied, the wood elf turned to the girls and blinked. Destiny was out of the question with that ridiculous sheet. The same reason applies to Scarlet. They’re going to be good for jump scares at this point. he then turned to Alex and pointed at her. "You’re the mascot."

Destiny had the job of scaring Hua Tuo and Scarlet had the job of getting the doctor to fix her broken leg. With that decided, they left to find the Medicine God who was most likely sleeping at this point.

>>Xxx Destiny Aitsuji xxX<<

Hua Tuo felt a disturbance in the force and jolted awake only to be met with two eyes and a white sheet.

"@#$%$!!!!"

[The system has censored this for underaged readers. Please standby while Hua Tuo collects himself.]

"Hello," Truen greeted and apologised for the unannounced visit. The doctor didn’t know if he should laugh or cry. Dealing with Zero and Ruth was difficult enough as it was. They bickered like siblings all day and now even Hua Tuo’s nights weren’t spared from drama.

"How did you get here? Actually, never mind. What do you want? Isn’t Merlin supposed to be training you?"

Truen sighed. "I’m babysitting on his behalf tonight. We’re on a mission to collect the original spirit of Hallows’ Eve. It’s a timed mission so I can’t see Zero right now. Can you help me fix Scarlet’s leg? I think she broke it..."

Scarlet was amazed by magic when Hua Tuo used it to mend the broken bone. She tried walking, running and jumping after it was healed. Much to her delight, it didn’t hurt at all!

"It’s only temporary. That will last for twenty-four hours while you’re here. I can tell that you don’t belong to this world."

Truen was impressed by the sharp observation. Then again, he should have expected it. Hua Tuo was a Sage God after all.

"What are you going to do next?" the doctor asked.

Truen thought for a while. "I know just who to scare. Thank you for having us here, we must hurry while the night is young."

Hua Tuo didn’t even have time to say goodbye to the wood elf when he disappeared. he was about to go to bed when he spotted something left behind by the wood elf. It was a medicine sachet pouch with dimensional magic imbued in it.

"That punk..." he smiled and happily went back to bed.

>>Xxx Destiny Aitsuji xxX<<

The wood elf did think that it was slightly ironic to be scaring the representative of Halloween itself in the dead of night but what must be done will be done. Besides, whoever said that Jack Lantern wasn’t afraid of the spooky?

The event emcee was the easiest to frighten. Jasper had good shots when he was scared three times in the short span of one minute - the first by Truen, the second by Scarlet and the last by Destiny. The boy wondered if this counted as three tricks because Jack Lantern was probably the biggest coward he ever knew.

To thank Jack for his participation, Truen gifted him a packet of fairy dust that he could use to enhance his natural glow.

The team’s last target for the night was none other than a certain son of Charybdis in the Morning Star Academy.

>>Xxx Destiny Aitsuji xxX<<

Lucifer noticed an unfamiliar presence on his school grounds and shifted into his bat form to confront the visitors.

"Halt! Who goes there?"

Truen stopped the humans toddling behind him and they bumped into one another, resulting in a human chain accident. Luckily, nobody was hurt.

"I came on a mission," Truen explained and held up a token that the Lord of Hell recognised.

"I don’t want any trouble, keep it clean. It’s still a school after all," he told the wood elf who bowed in acknowledgement.

Scarlet was impressed by the quality of this unusual dream while Jasper wondered just how much that piece of Venetian glass would cost. Alex was the only one wondering when they could go back to sleep for she was feeling very tired.

Truen led them down to an underground passageway and the spookers were starting to feel spooked.

Their next target was slightly insane but Alex blushed when she laid her eyes on him. ignoring the blue skin, Rayneld was a handsome looking gothic man. The Wilde princess swooned in silence and didn’t notice the jealous bloody willow creeping up on her.

Alex’s scream when a vine grabbed her woke the slumbering student. The Manta ray demon nearly attacked the intruders in alarm when he saw the party. Luckily, Truen was able to calm him down and explain the situation.

This time, it was Scarlet’s turn to scare so she shyly walked up to the handsome man and whispered "Boo!".

Rayneld pretended to be frightened and Jasper quickly snapped a photo. He frowned. They should have better lighting here for a nicer picture but this will have to do.

"Happy Halloween!" Destiny chirped and gave the Manta Ray demon a book about the twelve steps to finding happiness.

With their mission accomplished, the small randomly put together party was whisked away by a spell and they saw Hades once more.

"Well done," the God of Death commended. "You have done well for collecting the original spirit of Hallow’s Eve. Let the world spread far and wide that Halloween is not just a time for collecting sweets. It is also a time for appreciating life. Now, shoo! I need my beauty sleep."

Scarlet, Alex and Jasper were thrown back to their world while Destiny was mercilessly spat out by the vortex into her room.

She looked at the blank screen that she was staring for the past hour and sighed. A glance at the clock told her how late it was. Two in the morning and well into Halloween, but not a single chapter for Ball of Nothing was ready. Oh well, at least Love Journal was getting contracted.