Ball of Nothing

Beelzebub wasn't quite prepared to be tackled by Zero in the kitchen. He was trying to sneak another plate of fruits from the counter while the chef busied away and almost succeeded too!

"Beel!"

The Demon Lord froze when his chef turned around and growled at him, swatting his outreached hand with a spatula. Zero looked blankly at the angry chef until he was thrown out of the kitchen together with Beelzebub.

"Why did you have to do that?" The Lord of Gluttony hiss. Knowing the stingy chef, his portion of dinner was going to be reduced after that failed attempt.

Zero blinked. "But I was hungry too? I thought we could get early dinner together."

Beel gave Zero the deadest eyes. "Does it look like we're going to get dinner now?"

The young doctor grinned and tugged on Beelzebub's arm. His wide smile only made Beelzebub grumpier. His stomach grumbled loudly and now there was a good hour left till dinner was officially served. The one thing Beelzebub hated as a Demon Lord was the thing called etiquette. He could deal with the other nonsense like walking, talking and the duties he had over his domain but Beelzebub hated having to wait for food. Didn't Lucifer promise him that he would never have a shortage of food after he becomes a Demon Lord?

"Come on!" Zero insisted and pulled Beelzebub along. "Let's do something fun. I'm sure dinner can wait..."

Just as he said that Beelzebub heard a loud rumbling noise and Zero reddened in embarrassment. The Demon Lord smiled knowingly. "If you insist," he told the young doctor and didn't question further. Zero might have visited the kitchen with the intention to get something to eat too.

The Demon Lord certainly wasn't expecting Zero to bring him outside into the swamps. In fact, he wasn't expecting them to be walking out of his domain. The Demon Lord started to worry a little when Zero showed no signs of pausing while his stomach's rumbling became louder. Out of the protected zone, Beelzebub knew that predators lay waiting for an easy meal. Zero looked like an easy meal and he couldn't possibly let anything happen to the overpowered teenager no matter how capable Zero really was. Baal would kill him, revive him and do it all over again.

"Zero?" Beelzebub's voice was terse and tense. "I think you're going a little too far for something fun..."

Zero ignored Beelzebub. He knew that there were many hostile creatures in the area closing in on them. The minimap was blinking with red dots after all. At this point, Mii has levelled up enough to help Zero identify their enemies in the vicinity easier with a colour code. Red were enemies, green were friendlies, white were unknowns and the different shades of colour indicated how threatening they were to Zero.

Given that Zero had no real means of combat except for his bag of tricks from the Blessings and his natural ability to warp through the void, the enemies surrounding them were a vibrant shade of crimson. Thankfully, his party member Beelzebub was a Demon Lord capable of blowing them away with a punch so the minimap overlaid the enemy markers with an orange filter. Zero wondered how the enemies would appear on his map if Baal was present. He knew that his best pal would have no issues wiping them from the existence of the plane with a well-timed sneeze and was curious as to how Beelzebub would react knowing that he was the weakest amongst the Demon Lords.

"Zero?" the Demon Lord spotted some lower levelled monsters approaching them and grabbed the young doctor's hand in panic. On their own, these monsters were no match against him. However, they were known to be very cunning species who tricked their prey into underestimating them. Given Lucifer's education in the Academy, Beelzebub was thankful that he had this knowledge crammed into him. Sadly, the same couldn't be said about Zero who smiled and reassured him that they would be fine. His reason?

"Oh, they look friendly. There's nothing to worry about!"

Friendly? Beelzebub wanted to shake Zero by his shoulders and scream at him. How do any of those foul-mouthed monsters dripping with saliva staring at them with hunger in their eyes and emitting killing intent friendly?! If these Ponygators were friendly then Kerberos was just downright cute.

The Demon Lord readied to fight back. They were now surrounded by no less than twenty Ponygators and more were on their way. Beelzebub didn't want to do this but to protect Zero, he would have to take them all out.

The leader of the Ponygators was a greyish-blue beast with a mane of black hair, yellow eyes and a long snout that snapped at the air, showing all of its yellow razor-sharp teeth. The Ponygator leader stomped on the ground with its hoof and neighed loudly, throwing its head into the air. Its spiny tail whipped around, destroying a dead tree nearby and Beelzebub swallowed the lump in his throat. Although these monsters looked ridiculous and had a cowardly nature, they were not to be taken lightly. Ponygators were masters in the swamp and once they set their eyes on a target, the chances of anyone surviving it were less than ten percent.

"Aw, he just wants to talk."

Hearing Zero's comment made Beelzebub stunned. "Zero, I hate to question your sanity but can you understand the situation we are in now? You may be able to reason with demons who have higher intellect but these are just monsters incapable of understanding anything else but their instincts. Right now, those instincts are telling them to hunt us down for food."

Zero's smile never wavered. "What a coincidence. I was thinking the same too!"

The Demon Lord had no chance to react to that bizarre statement as Zero launched into action. He took out a scalpel and dashed towards the nearest Ponygator. Unprepared by the sudden charge, that ponygator didn't make a single sound after Zero skilfully dismembered its head with a clean cut.

"Wha-? When did you learn to kill so efficiently?"

Zero didn't answer and hunted down the next monster who tried to snap its jaws at the teen. Zero leapt into the air and got onto its back before digging his heels into its side. The ponygator neighed in pain and tried to throw Zero off but failed. Knowing that it wasn't an option, the beast took off in a wild gallop. Zero had the time of his life practising some of the newer magic tricks he learnt from Olaf. He could only use the basic elemental magic for now but the Frost Dragon told him under a magician with skilful control, even basic magic could become something powerful.

"Air shot!"

Beelzebub watched the tiny pellet of compressed air zip through the air with astonishing speed after Zero cast it. The air pellet disappeared after it hit a ponygator's forehead and Beelzebub thought that it wasn't effective until brain matter splattered out of that tiny hole and the monster's head exploded. Zero's gleeful giggles didn't make the gory scene any easier to understand. For a doctor, this was a rather gruesome method of dealing with enemies.

"Rock Bullet!"

"Light Beam!"

"Shadow Rope!"

"Cherry Bomb!"

Beelzebub merely stood out of the bloody massacre. After witnessing the overpowering difference in strength, the leader of the ponygators called for a retreat. By then, Zero had already taken out more than ten monsters while the Demon Lord stood there with his jaw to the ground, unable to believe his eyes.

He wasn't able to gather his sanity when Zero sent the captive ponygator off with a slap to its butt. The teenager then proceeded to skin the monsters and cut out chunks of meat.

"Could you help get some wood? I want to have a snack before dinner, especially after this workout. Don't you want to join me? I have some of Cleo's special spice powder here. It's going to be delicious!"

Numbly, Beelzebub headed further into the dry swamp to get the wood Zero requested for. He didn't let Zero out of his sight, unable to understand what he just witnessed. Zero didn't notice the conflicted look on his ex-room mate's face. His excitement of trying out the unknown meat made him work with twice the efficiency.

Somebody in Zero's mindscape noticed the way Beelzebub was acting. Mii felt troubled by Zero's gradual change. Ever since the system stopped her from interfering, Zero's character has been altered heavily by the memories he received. His all-embracing nature made it difficult for him to form an opinion over what was good and evil. Without Truen around to guide him or the neutral Hua Tuo, the teenager learnt a lot from Lucifer, Baal and even Olaf. the value of life in Hell just didn't have the same meaning as it did for the living creatures on Earth. Things only became more muddled with Professor Rhinestone's betrayal. Beelzebub was badly mutilated and even Baal was severely hurt during the battle. Zero's principle of not killing became twisted there and ever since that day, the young doctor made a resolution to not let history repeat itself. To kill one and save many was the road he had decided to walk after coming to terms that the ideal world of peace wasn't possible without some form of sacrifice.

Bobbinskrier was also concerned with some of Zero's darker thoughts as he worked mechanically cleaning the meat and preparing them for roasting. He sprinkled the spices and sneezed when some powder got to his nose. The Eternal Dragon only pondered silently about having the memory of four Divine Entities merged with Zero's. As the saying goes, anything that is next to vermillion turns red and anything next to ink turns black. Zero was like a child who doesn't know anything. All his thoughts, actions and emotions were things influenced by the people around him. Hua Tuo's good nature and pacifistic idealism shaped Zero's dream of wanting to become a doctor. Baal's distaste for troublesome things, Venn's battle frenzied lust and Jevy's lack of self-confidence shaped Zero's behaviour as a teenager. While there was still some of Hua Tuo and the Great Gods' teachings left in Zero, his perspective of life had changed. Right now, Zero was beginning to judge the worth of each soul and life much like King Yama. The ponygators were like the fishes Hua Tuo had him kill in order to teach him resurrection magic. In order for Zero to become stronger, they became the stepping stones he required.

"Did you find the wood?" Zero asked when he heard Beel coming closer. The Demon Lord was usually quiet but Zero sensed that something was off about the silence they shared now.

"Yes, I did. Zero..."

"Hmm?"

Beelzebub hesitated. There was something really disturbing about how clear Zero's eyes remained despite that disturbing massacre that occurred only minutes ago. It was as if the teenager didn't know that he'd committed sins by taking away lives.

"What you just did... I thought you wanted to become a doctor to save lives. Why did you kill them all when you could have run?"

The teenager blinked and tilted his head in confusion. "Run? Why should I run from food? besides, I wasn't the one who started this fight. They tried to eat us first, didn't they? I was kind enough to end it quickly and not prolong their suffering as they died. Unlike those fishes that I failed to revive during my training, these monsters have a better death. It was quick and painless. Once the brain is destroyed, they wouldn't be able to feel anything at all."

Beelzebub watched as Zero made a bonfire and skewered chunks of seasoned meat to roast. It didn't take long for a mouth-watering smell to fill the air. The Demon Lord felt his stomach rumble despite the questions in his head.

"Also, this is my gift to you before I leave. I know that Baal was half-lying. It would be difficult for me to visit Hell again in future. We also wouldn't be able to hang out and have moments like this very frequently in the future. You're going to become a great Demon Lord like all the others busy maintaining the balance of the plane and protecting the demons under your domain. You're a friend of mine and I'm very sorry that I couldn't help you before due to my wussy nature. I let you get captured, tortured and badly hurt because I decided to back out of the crucial moment and not follow the original plan."

Beelzebub wanted to sigh. While it was true that Zero stole his target suspect back then, Beelzebub didn't hold it against him. He always knew that Jeremiah was the only solid lead they had. He was using Zero to clear up the suspicions of the other four suspects because it was tedious and beyond his capabilities to do so. Having Zero to see his tortured form must have made the teenager blame himself deeply for it.

"It's not your fau-"

Zero shook his head and cut Beelzebub off. "I should have been there. We were partners, we were supposed to work together and yet I-"

Unable to stand any more of Zero's self-loathing speech, the Demon Lord got up and smacked Zero really hard with his fist. Zero cradled the top of his head and teared up in pain.

"Listen. I'm only going to say this once. None of what happened was your fault. Nothing is as it seems at surface level, there is more going on undercurrent than you would think. Baal and Lucifer don't want to say it but I'll let you in on their secret. If you didn't do what you did, you could forget about returning to Earth. You might be annoying but your meddling has done Hell some good. You don't know this yet but you will in a few centuries. What you did might be messy and uncalled for but it was the necessary change that everyone needed. I can assure you that everyone is grateful for what you have done for us. Without you, we would be forced to have another war against Heaven. Many demons would have died, the plane may be destroyed by the end of everything but you - one silly little lad, stopped it all because of your kindness. It might be stupid to be so blindly trusting and kind but you did it somehow. Be proud of the path you have chosen."

"What do you- Mmph!"

Tired of hearing Zero's blabber, the Demon Lord shoved a piping hot freshly grilled skewer of meat into the teenager's mouth. He grabbed one for himself, unable to resist the perceptual hunger and chowed down before moaning in bliss. Whoever Cleo was, she knew just how to make everything taste better with her spices.

"Dammit Zero! You need to tell me who Cleo is, I need her spices in my kitchen and have my chef make us roasted ponygator every meal."

The apprentice blinked with a long silence. "Alright. If you're interested in her I could always make a portal at Half Moon Village's entrance that links to Hell. I intend to do it because Sekkin needs to travel and I don't want Mitchnew to be lonely without her husband. Plus, it might be good for Coux to travel to and fro and keep an eye of Schaf. As much as I want to trust that banker, I just don't think it is a good idea to let him do as he pleased. It is meant to be punishment after all..."

Beelzebub snorted in laughter as Zero delved into tales about the villagers and their silliness. Perhaps Earth wasn't that much of a boring planet. Having not travelled out of the abyss before, Beelzebub found himself incredibly curious about some of the things Zero shared with him. If possible, he would like to see them for himself about the sun and the stars that Zero described so vividly., They sounded beautiful, a complete contrast to the never-changing darkness on the horizon and fiery red sky unless it was raining or something.

"How beautiful," Beelzebub thought as he roasted another skewer of meat. "I would love to travel too if I wasn't a Demon Lord..."

Zero smiled. "One day when you retire as a Demon Lord and I've become a successful doctor who has travelled the multiverse, I will show you all the best places to eat and the most beautiful sights!"

"Now that is a promise," Beelzebub smiled even though he knew that it was a promise unlikely to be fulfilled.

The duo finished the rest of the food with gusto and small talk before heading back for dinner. To Zero's delight, Beelzebub had specially asked the chef to prepare a hundred-course cuisine from the Abyss.

"I heard that you once participated in an eating competition and had no worthy opponent. Today, the Lord of Gluttony shall change that. The rules of this competition are simple. We eat till we can no longer eat or when the house is out of food. The one who quits eating first will wear this flower crown of shame for a day."

Zero stared at the flower crown with raised eyebrows. "Are those Poxie flowers?"

Beelzebub grinned. "Yupp, good for digestion."

Zero snorted and the competition began. Needless to say, Baal who was an unwilling participant in the competition ended up wearing the flower crown of shame. Zero smacked his lips and compared notes with the insatiable Demon Lord on what could have been better. Baal let them be and retired early, knowing that they had to depart early the next day to the next Demon Lord.

"Thank you," Zero told Beelzebub when the servants were clearing the last of the dishes.

"What for?" the youngest Demon Lord asked.

Zero smiled and yawned. "For being my friend..." he answered and then snored.

Beelzebub looked at the passed out teenager and smiled. "Yeah, thank you for being my friend too. It's been nice knowing you, Zero. All the best for your adventures."