Ball of Nothing

Chapter 314 Grimoire Making 5

After obtaining the white orb, Merlin gave his student a few pointers about drawing a summoning circle and binding his unique grimoire.

\"You should modify the circle to use this white orb as the guardian spirit of the grimoire so that they will suppress the misbehaving pages from the Tree of Knowledge and Tree of Life. Once that has been resolved, you should add in the part of the chant to bind your memories or soul to the book. If everything goes well, you can start drafting the spells you want to record in the grimoire. I will look through them in three days. Any questions?\"

Merlin’s voice lacked its usual enthusiasm and Zero didn’t want to hold his teacher back any longer. He shook his head and thanked his teacher for the guidance before watching the wizard walk away with heavy steps.

Zero studied the white orb in more detail and silently thanked the sacrifices those strangers made for him. While he knew logically none of what happened was his fault, a dark part of him couldn’t help but constantly berate him for being the cause of everyone’s downfall. Even if Zero knew he was doing what he did in an attempt to save the world, this small voice kept on taunting him and whispering things to make him doubt himself.

Zero couldn’t deny the facts that were thrown at him. The Zodiacs wouldn’t have to sacrifice themselves if he didn’t want to create Origin. Merlin wouldn’t have to be in so much pain if it wasn’t for him. Unlike what most people thought, Zero knew that Merlin was a very dedicated teacher who badly wanted his students to surpass him even if it meant hindering his personal growth. The sacrifice Merlin made for Zero scared the young doctor. Even if those mythical creatures weren’t Merlin’s friends, they were still very close. for their deaths to affect Merlin so much, Zero didn’t know how to make up for all the trouble he caused indirectly. At this point, not even lemon tarts will help.

\"What are you moping around for?!\" Mii’s voice snapped like a whip and effectively pulled Zero away from his darker thoughts.

\"Mii?\"

\"Who else could it be?\" the strawcherry assistant tutted. \"It’s only a matter of time before these zodiacs passed on. Merlin’s grieving is not your fault. Anyone would be sad when someone they know passes away. It only happened sooner instead of later, stop making everything your business. You’re not that capable of a person to be responsible for everything that happens in the world. for a snot-nosed brat like you who doesn’t even have a grimoire and can be taken out by chaos energy at the drop of a hat, you’ve got a lot of nerve thinking that this is your fault.\"

Wii panicked when Mii rattled off harsh words at their master who was in low spirits. Lily also came out from the control room to see what was going on.

Zero didn’t rise to Mii’s bait at first and everyone, including Mii, worried. Was Zero really that far down the rabbit hole that they couldn’t pull him back?

\"Thank you, Mii. I understand that you mean well. You’re right. I cannot undo what is done and even if I did, the outcome wouldn’t change. There isn’t any path for me to turn back on after coming this far. All I can do now is focus on what I should be doing. While I grab dinner for both myself and Merlin, could you girls help me pull out all the rune language writing and archaic languages that might help? Merlin told me to revise that summoning circle. So far, I’ve only seen the circle for one soul. I’m sure this white orb contains more than one soul and not all of them are complete. Some have been shattered and became fragments.\"

Surprised by the positive attitude but not disappointed by it, Lily agreed to help and dragged Wii along with her. Mii and Zero shared a look before the strawcherry fairy huffed.

\"So unfair, working us hard and not even rewarding us with dinner. What a strict master you are,\" she mocked in a complaining mood that got Zero to let out a small laugh.

He was still in low spirits but with capable assistants and friends around him, Zero knew that he would be alright. \"Once I finish my magic training, I will reward you girls. I haven’t forgotten, I swear. It’s been on my mind this whole time.\"

Mii looked dubious but didn’t press the issue any further, leaving Zero to do what he needed to. After the strawcherry fairy left, Zero left the lab and headed to the kitchen to look for Bib. He also took a page from Merlin’s book of tricks and used magic to keep himself awake instead of eating pills. He knew that this wasn’t good practice because the vessel and mind still required rest but Zero couldn’t take it slow now of all times. With everyone pushing themselves to the limit to work hard, Zero couldn’t be the only one taking it easy.

The young doctor checked his communicator and received yet another report from Truen who sounded like he was having a hard time with his training. Although the wood elf never disclosed any details, Zero didn’t pry. At the same time, Zero never included the details of what he was doing to his best friend. Knowing Truen, he would probably trespass Heaven just to check on Zero’s condition if he knew what the young doctor did about a week ago. Actually, Zero was surprised Hua Tuo kept the news of his injury from Truen. He thought that his shifu would have told Truen about it and let the wood elf mother him in bed for at least a week after the incident. Regardless, he was thankful that it didn’t happen.

After inhaling his share of dinner, Zero told Bib to deliver Merlin’s dinner and decided to take a walk around Arabesque to cheer him up. The festive mood around the town made Zero smile. Even though there wasn’t anybody else with him, Zero didn’t feel very lonely. Merlin’s golems were rather life-like and offered interesting responses each time Zero spoke with them.

The boy returned a few hours later when his mindscape assistants had completed their task. At his lab table, Zero stared at the summoning circle and destroyed that. The white orb hummed warmly on the table and rolled around on its own, amusing the young doctor.

\"It’s trying to communicate?\" Zero asked nobody in particular and picked it up.

The young doctor immediately noticed how oddly warm it was and decided to channel a little mana and qi into it. At once, many voices flooded into his head and Zero dropped the orb, clutching at his head in pain.

\"This is...?\"

Mii and Lily who sensed the foreign presence in Zero’s mindscape quickly reacted. \"The spirits of the zodiacs and guardians want to establish a communication channel with you. Master, do you want to accept the invitation?\" Lily asked.

Zero didn’t need to think twice before he pressed the option to accept it on his screen. The system immediately added them to a private call group that sounded like a very messy party call with everyone trying to talk over each other. Zero groaned at the splitting headache that caused and asked Mii to turn that into a text communication channel so that he could hear himself think.

Mii worked quickly and spared Zero the pain. Through the text chat reflected on Zero’s communicator, the young doctor spent half the night talking to them instead of working on his summoning circle design. He was quick to make friends with everyone and had a better understanding of what was happening.

\"Teacher must be hurting badly right now...\" he frowned. \"Why didn’t any of you let me know?\"

The Vermillion bird answered. \"It’s not going to make much of a difference. Besides, without going through the ritual, you’ll never be able to create that grimoire. We’re too rammed in this orb. I’d appreciate it if you could hurry up with that book so we can rest more comfortably.\"

Zero apologised. \"I’ll try... however, it wouldn’t be as quick as I want it to. I’m currently stuck on trying to make a summoning circle to tie all your souls to the grimoire book itself. Normal summoning circles can only summon and bind one soul to one vessel.\"

\"Do you still remember what the sacrificial circle back in the secret room looked like?\" Feng Huang asked and Zero nodded.

Dog laughed. \"You can use that as a reference and modify it accordingly. It was specially created by Merlin to conduct a sacrifice of eighteen souls into one vessel.\"

Zero gaped. \"You’re so smart! Thank you for the tip, I will work on it right now.\"

Boar started bickering with Dog but Zero had already tuned out of the conversation. he grabbed a quill and paper to start drawing what he remembered, often turning to his mindscape assistants for references and help.

The new summoning circle was completed in about an hour with the help of Wii’s Parallel Minds. Zero decided to run several simulations tests in the mindscape with the designed circle before proceeding with the actual ritual. He didn’t want to disturb Merlin when his teacher was grieving but he didn’t want to act too hastily either. It wasn’t easy to obtain the leaves and barks from the Tree of Knowledge and Zero would rather not go through the process of convincing Ouroboros again.

The young doctor was very meticulous in his testing and only deemed the circle safe to use after eight long hours of testing in the mindscape. Thankfully for the inverse time flow, he only spent two hours in Arabesque perfecting it.

The actual circle was drawn using Zero’s mana and qi while the grimoire materials were piled in the centre. Zero looked at the drafted magic chant and inhaled deeply. He practised the chanting many times in his mindscape and aloud so that he wouldn’t mispronounce anything. One wrong word and the thousand-word mantra had to be restarted.

Slow and steady, Zero started reading out the ancient words and channelled magic through them. Mii materialised herself and helped her master flip the pages while Wii worked endlessly in the mindscape to help Zero translate the ancient chant.

Merlin was nursing a glass of wine by his window when he felt the magic in the air change. The tower shook a little and the wizard immediately jumped out of bed to check on his student. What was Zero doing now? This power can only be used if there was someone as powerful as the Great Gods or more. While Merlin knew about Zero’s capability, he didn’t think that the young doctor’s Recreation Magic would be so powerful even in the initiation stage.

Merlin reached Zero’s lab in flash and held back his scream of shock at the intensity of mana in the air. The pressure would have made a lesser magician keel over on the floor, unable to find his bearings but Merlin was a little better than that. Still, he felt very dizzy and nauseous. His student was still chanting in an ancient tongue without slipping up a single word. Merlin knew where this long chant came from. He’d written it himself in one of the books in the forbidden library but he didn’t think anyone would actually be crazy enough to attempt it.

For one, not many magicians knew how to speak the ancient language of Gods. Secondly, long chants are usually more prone to mischanting and end up backfiring on the caster. Many magicians stick to simpler words and chants. Most magicians opted for chantless magic even if it is less powerful because of the speed.

For the next twenty minutes, Merlin was pinned to the ground in a helpless state as Zero chanted. The magic in the air threatened to knock Merlin unconscious and he felt Arabesque protest at the pressure. Thankfully, Zero was already three-quarters done with the chanting. Every additional word added to this insanely long chant only doubled the pressure in the air. With about two hundred more words to go, Merlin didn’t know if he could hold on until the end.

Still, Zero paid no heed to his teacher behind him, unaware that he had company. Mii was struggling badly and Wii had already activated all the Parallel Minds under her control to support her older sister and regulate the qi in Zero’s vessel so that it wouldn’t be crushed under this great magic. The eggplant fairy didn’t say it but she thought that it would be worrying for Zero to use the grimoire in future with such a weak vessel. The creation of the grimoire is already threatening enough to cause Zero’s vessel to explode without the support of qi. What will happen if Zero actually used it?

The white orb shone brightly when Zero had less than a hundred words left to chant. At this point, Zero wasn’t able to tell if he was awake or asleep. In a trance, the young doctor finished the chant and allowed the ritual to possess his body and search for his mindscape.

Mii, Lily, Zoe and Wii felt something shackling them down when it happened. ON the other hand, the spirits in the white orb felt a sense of unification connecting their minds together. Slowly, they lost their sense of self and melted into one with the conflicting wills between the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge.

Zero felt everything come together and could share the feelings of his newly created grimoire - Origin. The book was like an extension of him now and even if it was blank, Zero knew that it was still a powerful thing. He didn’t hesitate to direct Wii and tell her to add the same enchantments on the book that the Great Gods have done for his clothing. If anything, he made them more drastic and robust.

\"Strengthen these enchants to the maximum level, spare nothing. I cannot allow this grimoire to be stolen or used at all cost. If Solo touches it, add a self-destruction command.\"

Mii was startled. \"You’d cease to exist if the book gets destroyed even if Solo doesn’t perish.\"

Zero smiled. \"Exactly. It’s not worth going on an adventure without friends. I’ve used you as collateral for power. Obviously I wouldn’t abandon any of you and run away from a battle. This is my promise.\"

Unable to defy Zero, Wii got to work and Zero stared at Origin. He finally had a grimoire of his own and a new partner in crime. With a huge smile at the success, Zero wondered how his teacher would react to such a deceivingly plain-looking book. Unlike Merlin’s grimoire, Origin was a thin, tatty, creased leather-bound book, slightly bigger than the size of two palms that could fit snugly in Zero’s hold. Zero giggled at the surprise and wondered if it would fool people if he told them it was his personal diary instead.