Ball of Nothing

Standing outside Belles and Begonia, Zero could already smell the heavenly pancakes. However, he couldn't see them with all the customers crowding outside the small shop. While he knew that the shop was popular among demons, Zero never expected the success to be so overwhelming. The clattering of dishes inside made Zero curious. Why would anyone make such a ruckus while eating? Freya said that it was bad manners and Zero didn't have a very good opinion about someone who didn't eat with good manners.

"What's wrong?" Mii asked Coux who was frowning.

"There seems to be a little trouble at hand. Allow me to take care of it. Could you lead Zero in from the back entrance?"

The strawcherry fairy nodded and ushered Zero away from the crowd. Although Zero had grown in height, he was still not tall enough to peer over the heads of most people crowding the shop's entrance.

Reluctantly, he followed Mii out of the rowdy crowd while Coux pushed through the mass of bodies.

In the shop, there was only one customer. Coux recognised him at once, it was their regular diner that they couldn't refuse.

"Good day, Lord Beelzebub. How is the food today?" Coux plastered on a false smile. There were stacks of dirty plates on the Demon Lord's left and right sides. Amaraline looked helplessly at the half-succubus while Qin Yun had to wrestle back a plate of pancakes that the Lord of Gluttony tried to steal.

Coux sighed inwardly. This has become a common occurrence ever since Lord Beelzebub has gotten his personal domain and territory. With Mammon taking care of Beelzebub's businesses and finances, the Demon Lord would come over to Belles and Begonia the moment school has ended. Lucifer was more than happy to see Beelzebub go as the Lord of Gluttony was eating everything the cafeteria had to offer. The half-succubus had a deal with Lucifer and Mammon to satisfy Beelzebub's food cravings in return for money and connections. Still, dealing with someone whose appetite rivalled Zero's wasn't easy.

"As usual, the desserts are too sweet for my liking. However, I must admit that sheep pies are delicious! I need twenty more of that sheep pie to take away. As for the new beverage... what's it called again?"

"Kumquat Squash?"

"Yes, that. It needs more honey. The sourness makes me hungrier."

Coux felt her smile quake. For someone who'd eaten nearly fourteen plates of desserts, not counting the ones he'd successfully stolen from other customers, Coux didn't think it deserved such a harsh rating.

"My Lord, we can send over your order for twenty sheep pies and five complimentary stacks of pancakes to your dormitory later. Would that suffice for today?"

Beelzebub stopped stuffing his face for a while to consider. "Can I also have two lamb legs to go?"

Coux felt her eyebrow twitch. That brat dared to bargain for more when she is handing out free food?

"My apologies, all the lamb we had were used to make sheep pies."

"How about a pitch of Kumquat Squash?"

"My apologies, we do not have enough honey to cater that for your tastes. Honey is an expensive ingredient that can only be harvested once an Earth year."

"... What about some Lemon Meringue Tarts?"

Coux was ready to throw something at the young Demon Lord when Zero came into her vision.

"It's no good to eat so much, you'll become obese."

That statement made everyone grow silent. It was common knowledge that demons would never grow fat. Food simply converted into mana for them and many demons have different sources of food. For the Lord of Gluttony, getting fat was the least of his concerns.

"What's obese?"

Zero smiled and launched into a detailed explanation about the body's process of storing food into unhealthy fats.

"Also, it doesn't stop there. Overeating a certain kind of food can cause other health issues. Too much salt could cause hypertension, too many desserts can cause high cholesterol and even diabetes. Insufficient fibre will lead to constipation etcetera..."

Coux didn't know if such a lecture would have any impact on the Lord of Gluttony. However, Zero was determined to help someone walking the wrong path of dietary nutrition. Qin Yun was amused when she heard Zero's serious doctor advice. He would make a splendid, if not naggy, doctor in future.

Beelzebub let the spoon in his hand fall with a clatter and his eyes widened as round as saucers.

"Am I going to die? I've eaten too many things, I must have a lot of diseases by now... You have to save me!"

The turn of events didn't seem to surprise Mii. With Zero's blessing at work, no wonder the Lord of Gluttony was so wrapped around Zero's finger. Sadly, Zero didn't seem to realise this and was happy to teach Beelzebub more about nutrition.

Seeing that their most troublesome customer was being attended to, Coux took the opportunity to bring them to a VIP room so that Amaraline and Qin Yun could attend to the rest of the customers who were still waiting outside.

In the VIP room, Beelzebub wondered how he got himself into a private consultation session. Zero asked him questions that were completely irrelevant to his eating habits. All the Demon Lord wanted to do was go back to the dormitory and wait for his food to be delivered.

"Did you have a time in your life when you were starving?"

Beelzebub sighed. "I starve everyday. My family was too poor to afford food to keep up with my appetite so I learned how to eat anything and everything."

Zero took notes seriously and Mii watched from the sidelines while keeping an eye on the situation downstairs. Coux finally managed to stabilise the situation and Qin Yun could take a short break while Amaraline served the other customers.

"What kind of things have you taken to eating during that period of time?" Zero asked.

"I remember eating dead trees, rocks, dirt... basically anything I could find in that barren land was edible. At first, I fell sick eating them but as I grew used to them, I found that I could eat almost anything."

Zero blinked. "Does your stomach not hurt?"

Beelzebub shook his head. "No. That's the funny thing. I never seem to be full either. It's just a constant emptiness inside that I need to fill."

Zero hummed. This was a highly unusual case that Hua Tuo hasn't told him about. Perhaps it was a condition special for only the Lord of Gluttony. Like the Sage God of Medicine once told him, there would be many unknown diseases and illnesses in this world and beyond that couldn't be cured. Zero decided to become a doctor for the purpose of finding cures for the unknown. Right now, there was a perfect patient with an unusual condition. How could Zero not be thrilled?

"Don't worry," he told Beelzebub who raised an eyebrow. "I will find a cure for you without fail."

Beelzebub snorted. "Don't worry about it. I enjoy eating now that there is delicious food in the abyss. I just need to know what not to eat too much to prevent all the other diseases that you mentioned earlier. Hypertension and Diabetes sounded really scary. I don't want to be unable to eat anything that I like in the future."

Zero decided that it might be a good time to inspect the Demon Lord with Mii's abilities. The strawcherry got to work right away and Zero was slightly stunned to see how much the status window has changed.

Name: Beelzebub

Title:

- Lord of Gluttony

Ruler of the Gluttony Domain in Hell

Race: Archdemon

Age: 16 Earth Years (160 Hell years)

Skills:

- Godly Metabolism

Allows food to be digested immediately and converted to energy

- Iron Stomach

Allows anything eaten to be digested

- Poison Resistance (Lvl 89/100)

Poison immunity to most poisons

- Curse of Gluttony

Allows food to be converted to mana

Sins:

- Anger

0/100

- Jealousy

0/100

- Laziness

0/100

- Greed

0/100

- Lust

0/100

- Pride

0/100

- Gluttony

Infinite/100

Zero blinked. Infinite Gluttony sin points? Zero wondered if this was the case for all other Demon Lords too. Still, the brunet had an idea.

"Beelzebub, can I try something?"

The Demon Lord blinked. "Sure?"

Before he could take his words back, Zero placed a hand on his shoulder. The strangest thing happened and Beelzebub jumped backwards as if struck by electricity.

"What did you do?" he snarled. The moment Zero touched him, Beelzebub felt power being drained from him. It wasn't mana that Zero was draining either, Beelzebub felt it being drawn from his very soul.

Zero blinked. Beelzebub's complete change in attitude made him confuse. After re-inspection, Zero noted that the number of sins hasn't changed. However, Zero felt that he managed to absorb a small bit of pure energy from that brief contact.

They stared at each other for a long time before Zero explained what he did. Beelzebub glared at Zero.

"Were you trying to kill me? You know what? I don't care for your treatment at all now. If I have to abandon my sins to get better, you can forget about it. A Demon without sins will cease to be a demon."

Zero was left to ponder over those words as Beelzebub stormed out of the shop, leaving many customers puzzled.

"A demon without sins will cease to be a demon... what does that mean? Will they become something else?" he asked Mii.

The strawcherry assistant looked confused. "I'm not a demon expert. Perhaps asking Qin Yun might be a better option."

With that, Zero went to find the fox demoness who was taking a break in the break room.

***

After hearing Zero's explanation, the fox demoness blinked. "Can you really eat sins?"

Zero nodded. "I gained an ability to do so after inheriting the memories of four other divine entities."

"Could you try that one me?" she asked. Zero looked worried.

"But a demon without sins will no longer be a demon... I don't want to put you in any danger..."

Qin Yun smiled. "You won't. I know what I'm doing."

Zero looked unsure. "Alright," he conceded. "But I won't absorb all the sins, only a little to test."

Qin Yun smiled. "Sure!"

Zero then inspected the fox demoness.

Name: Hu Shuang (狐霜) [AN: Literally Fox Frost]

Title:

- Mother of Foxes

Founder of the Snow Fox Demon Clan

Race: Snow Fox Demon

Age: Unknown (Calculation failure due to the destruction of the first Earth)

Skills:

- Shape-shifting

Allows user to transform into desired physical form

- Fox Magic (Lvl 91/10)

Allows user to use fox magic like illusions, elemental magic, charms etc

- Cold Resistance (Lvl 100/100)

Allows User to be immune to cold

- Cold Mastery (Lvl 1/1)

Allows user to be more powerful in the cold with the ability to move normally

- Soul Cultivation (Lvl 55/100)

Allows user to negate their born traits and qualify for a rebirth of their choice after successful cultivation

Sins:

- Anger

20/100

- Jealousy

62/100

- Laziness

5/100

- Greed

3/100

- Lust

11/100

- Pride

41/100

- Gluttony

3/100

Zero blinked. For someone like Qin Yun who'd lived several lifetimes and originated from the first Earth, that was very little sins.

"The system only accounts for sins in one lifetime. Sin points accumulated expires after a hundred years or until death. Remaining sin points are judged in the Purgatory and the soul spends the remaining time after judgement to work the sins off," Mii explained.

"What if they accumulate more than a hundred?" Zero whispered back.

"Then it gets carried on to the next lifetime in karma points. It all depends on King Yama to decide."

Zero nodded. "Qin Yun, Your sins are scattered at this moment with Lust and Jealousy making the bulk of it. Is it alright for me to test my ability by absorbing the sins with the least points?"

"What sin is that?"

Zero took a closer look. "Uh... it's Greed and Gluttony at 3 points each."

The fox demoness laughed. "Sure. If it is successful, would you help to absorb the rest of my sins? It must look really terrible, right? I was a horrible person a long time ago."

Zero shook his head. "It's measurable so I wouldn't say that. Besides, you're doing something to reduce them. I see something called Soul Cultivation? I wouldn't say that you're a horrible person. You might have done bad things but by trying to right the wrongs, it's admirable in my opinion."

Qin Yun didn't say much as Zero activated his new ability. The process was quick but Qin Yun felt the difference immediately.

"What happened?" she asked the teen who frowned. He wasn't too sure about what happened but he knew the sins were converted into pure energy.

"Mii, how many units of energy does on point of sin convert into?"

"At the moment, it converts 1 sin point to 10 energy units. Also, 1 unit of energy converts to 10 mana points."

Zero looked confused. The concept of math was still foreign to him. "I don't understand."

"One wisp of light magic for a minute will consume 1 mana point. With 1 sin point, you can hold a light for hundred minutes straight assuming you do not recover any mana."

Zero nodded. "How about healing magic?"

"The basic healing magic for small cuts cost 20 mana points."

Zero grimaced. That was a lot of mana.

Qin Yun meditated while Zero and Mii discussed the calculations that she didn't understand. Whatever Zero did, helped tremendously. Her soul became lighter and the shackling weight of sins making her cultivation harder was loosened.

"Did it work?" Zero asked cautiously.

Qin Yun smiled. "It worked perfectly. If I didn't have so many sins, I could make faster progress with my cultivation to become a human."

"What will happen once you clear all your sins but have not cultivated completely? Would you still be a demon?"

Qin Yun shook her head. "I wasn't born a demon. I was turned into a demon because of my sins. I was originally a snow fox who lived past a hundred years and transformed into a snow fox spirit. Humans razed my forest and killed my family so I massacred a village of innocents near the mountain. Nezha who was travelling on Earth for fun chanced upon my killing and sealed me up. In order to make up for the lives I took, he told me that I should cultivate my soul before I can be given a second chance at life. King Yama sentenced me to the freezing Hell for a thousand years because I'd lost all rationality from my rage and pain. That was how I gradually became a demon after spending a thousand years absorbing the Hell miasma."

Zero nodded. He didn't know who Nezha was but the fact that King Yama was partially responsible for who Qin Yun because made Zero feel conflicted.

"Do you hate En for turning you into a demon indirectly?"

Qin Yun shook her head. "I don't. If he didn't do that, I wouldn't have the opportunity to visit the second Earth. I might have stayed in the abyss for a longer time than I thought because back then, there was always wars ongoing. The Earth I visited after my punishment was peaceful. At least it was more peaceful than the life I had before. Half Moon village had its fair share of enemies after all."

Zero basked in the silence for a while. "I don't know what will happen if I absorb the remaining of your sins. You might not return to being a snow fox spirit..."

Qin Yun shook her head. "It's alright. I have to clear my sins, it doesn't matter. I must apologise to King Yama for cheating a little with the sin repayment process."

Zero rolled his eyes. "Don't worry about that, I'll explain to En that you were assisting me in my experiment. He should be understanding. Besides, I don't want to resort to kidnapping random demons to test what would happen to them if I absorbed all their sins."

Qin Yun chuckled. That was true. Ordinary demons who cease to become demons will perish in Hell from the miasma, especially in a Demon Lord's domain. For Qin Yun who had Baal's mark of protection as a faction member, it wouldn't matter.

"Alright, let's begin."

Zero nodded. "Please tell me if it is uncomfortable," he told her professionally and Mii peeled her eyes open, watching over both of them carefully.

"They are beginning now, Isis please standby," Mii communicated silently as Zero got into position.

"Roger," the Egyptian Goddess responded and watched closely at the image from the crystal ball with Freya and Gaia huddled around the small object.