Ball of Nothing

"Zero," Amon called out, interrupting Zero's practice session. The Demon Lord was visibly conflicted when Zero stared at him with clear, innocent eyes. A part of him knew that this might not be the best idea but the other part of him knew hope when he saw it. As a warrior, the saddest thing was to see a good set of martial arts and not be able to have anyone practise it.

The young doctor stopped what he was doing and trotted over. The Lord of Wrath took one look at the youth he'd already corrupted and decided that a little more filth wouldn't change anything. If the Great Gods wanted to end him, Amon wouldn't complain either. He would probably be able to have the best battle in his life if it should come to that.

"Zero, I have something in my possession that I'm conflicted about giving you..." Amon began honestly and that took Baal by surprise. He'd known Amon to be a very hot-headed Demon Lord who often ignores other people's feelings.

Zero tilted his head to a side and waited for Amon to elaborate. With so many pairs of eyes and even more pairs of ears, Amon decided to bring the conversation indoors. Sekkin led the way and Baal followed. Everyone else remained at the training grounds and resumed their training. The Lord of Wrath dismissed Sekkin after a while much to the spider demon's surprise but he didn't question it. With Lord Baal around, there was nothing to worry about.

Baal knew a thing or two about all Demon Lords. Other than their mandatory throne and castle, every Demon Lord owned an impressive library. It was how the memories of their previous lives were passed down to their future selves. Of course, apart from those kinds of books and journals were the rarer literature collections and somewhat prized possessions of every Demon Lord. Knowledge was power and in the abyss, power was everything. Baal didn't expect for Amon to lead them to his prized collection and pull out a book for Zero.

"This is a martial art manual that I chanced across at an auction. I haven't been able to practice it due to my bulky physical build but it may be suitable for you. Just a word of caution, do not practise the meditation section at the back without a mentor. This is a fighting style for marsupial beastfolks who could incorporate a strange kind of magic into their dance-like routine. Learn it well on top of the emergency combat skills I just taught you. In fact, if you master this, you would never have to use those emergency moves."

Hearing that made Zero happy. He thanked Amon from the bottom of his heart and treated the precious book with care. Amon had an odd feeling going through his chest when Zero cast some protective magic on the manual. The amount of care the teenager gave something Amon considered second-rate trash to him tugged at his conscience. It wasn't as if Amon wanted to give Zero his leftovers, he really thought this strange martial manual would benefit Zero more than him. Still, he felt uncomfortable when Zero flashed a very bright smile at him.

Baal found the way Amon was squirming highly fascinating. The seasoned Demon Lord Warrior was feeling unconfident in front of the least threatening person in all of Hell's existence. An amused snort left him and Amon glared half-heartedly.

"Ahem, in short... we hold a feast tonight. Volcano spit-roast of the Great Scorpion-Lizard Monster King slain today, don't be late!"

Amon made his hasty depart and yelled for Sekkin to show the rest of Wrath's hospitality. Baal mentally noted down Amon's hasty escape to use it as future blackmail. He had a nagging suspicion that Amon was secretly fond of cute and defenceless things. Pity there wasn't many of these in Hell. Those who were cute were often weak and the weak never lived long.

Zero didn't know what a Great Scorpion-Lizard Monster King was but he certainly knew what a spit-roast meant. His stomach rumbled and his mouth watered. Baal heard that and sighed inwardly. Leave it to Zero to be tempted by food of all things. Even if Baal didn't understand what martial arts were, the Demon Lord knew that anything in that library would be a priceless skill capable of granting the right user with the power of taking down nations.

Zero stored the book in his inventory to read later. Mii chose not to take notice of it. She didn't need any more work added to her packed schedule and Bob didn't blame the strawcherry fairy. The Eternal Dragon chose to study it in Zero's mindscape while the teenager occupied himself with the fortress ruins.

"This used to belong to a very strong warrior king before Lord Amon decided to take over it. The King of that warrior race refused to give it up and fought Lord Amon with its full army but Lord Amon was much too powerful. Even as a single demon, he annihilated the entire kingdom full of skilled warriors."

Zero nodded. No wonder the fortress looked so battered. "He didn't fix it after he won it?"

Sekkin shook his head. "Lord Amon isn't very interested in the condition of the castle. He just needed to have a castle and establish his domain when he became a Demon Lord. He was too lazy to build one so he chose to conquer one instead. The fortress has been like this ever since and nobody dared to repair it. Lord Amon doesn't mind, he is more focussed on spending his resources on grooming a worthy opponent to battle with."

Zero nodded. "Ruth is a rather good fighter. Do you think Amon would be able to win him?"

The assassin chuckled. While the vampire was very agile, Zero was forgetting that Amon was a Demon Lord and had the strongest constitution. How could an elite warrior-mage win him? While it would be a good warm-up for Lord Amon, Ruth Roth wouldn't take any effort to subdue. The power difference was simply too great.

"Zero," Baal called out to his friend seeing Sekkin's silence. "There is a huge difference between a vampire and a Demon Lord. Ruth wouldn't even be able to win against me in a fight, much less Amon."

Zero was surprised when Baal claimed to be able to win Ruth easily. If it was Zero, the teenager knew that he didn't stand a chance. Could it be that Baal was secretly very skilful and was lazy just to hide his talent? No, that wasn't right. Baal was too lazy to do anything. Hiding would be too troublesome. Baal wouldn't even work on it because that took effort.

"I don't understand..."

Baal nodded at Sekkin who brought them to their room. He thanked the spider demon before dismissing him. It was about time to explain to Zero the unfairness of how the world was created. With his naive friend's immature mentality, it would rub many people the wrong way.

"Let's carry on this discussion in the room, shall we?"

Zero agreed and entered the room. Baal took care to cast a magic barrier around them in case anyone was eavesdropping. Zero knew that it was going to be a serious discussion of some sort. Baal wouldn't have bothered otherwise. Ever since they started on the journey to sightsee the different domains, Zero had a strange feeling. Baal was hiding something major from him but the teenager didn't know what it was.

"Baal?"

"Zero, sit and listen. For now, don't ask me any questions and simply listen."

The young doctor sat on the bed and nodded. It was rare that Baal became serious about something so Zero respected it.

Seeing that Zero was giving him his full attention, Baal started the long monologue and broke down the complex theory for Zero. he explained to the teen how the abyss came about, why Demon Lords exist and the relationship between the different life forms that exist. Baal delved a little into the theory of soul counts because the abyss was closely linked with the Purgatory and Zero soaked up the new knowledge thirstily.

Baal then sidetracked into a little bit of history about how hierarchies among demons were formed and how they were observed in each domain. Zero had burning questions when he heard about the nobles and aristocrats. While he understood the nature of Demon Lords, he couldn't accept the way these nobles were created. It was worse when Baal told Zero how the weak were treated.

"How can this be?!" Zero exploded, unable to hold back the anger in him. "Why should the weak be thrown into the wilderness as sacrifices to the miasma and monsters? Why should the strong stay within the safety of the domains and have access to so many scarce resources? This doesn't make sense... everyone could be happy if the strong battled the monsters born from the miasma while the weak resided in the domain that protected them."

Baal smiled. This was the exact reaction he thought Zero would give. "Indeed. Everyone could have lived happily ever after if they did that. However, this is not how the world works. Why should the strong choose to live the uncomfortable life for the sake of the weak? What do they gain out of it? Wouldn't it be much easier to coerce the weak to work for them and promise them protection in exchange for their servitude? They would get the same thing either way."

Zero blinked. "But the weak demons shouldn't be forced to perish in the harsh wilderness..."

"Zero, resources are scarce. As Demon Lords we can provide a stable environment in the limits of our domain. However, it's like trying to feed a hundred starving children with only one bottle of milk. We can't feed them all because everyone will die from starvation. We can only choose who to feed and save. Naturally, we would choose the ones who have the highest chance of surviving so as not to let the precious bottle of milk go to waste."

Zero felt his emotions simmer as logic sank in. A strange sense of hopelessness crept into his heart.

"Do you see it now? You may be able to save Schaf, you may be able to save Kerberos. You could save Ruth as well and even all the students in the Academy. However, you can't save the people you can't reach. Some things are simply beyond your control. It's the same with how Ruth can never win against Amon no matter how hard he practises. It's how the cycle of life works to preserve itself. If possible, nobody wants to be unhappy."

The young doctor fell silent. Mii who was working away paused at Baal's speech. Bob didn't say anything either. They knew how much truth rang in Baal's harsh life lesson but somebody had to do it. The Great Gods certainly weren't going to give Zero the lesson he needed about life. They were more content with pulling the wool over Zero's innocent eyes and whispering to his ears about how beautiful the world was. Truen wasn't going to give him the reality check either, the wood elf was more likely to hold Zero's hand and guide him throughout his adventure while paving the path before Zero's arrival with his underground network. In some ways, Bob and Mii were thankful that as Zero's guardians they were spared the trouble of giving Zero the harsh speech. However, both of them couldn't help but worry about Zero's reaction. Even the closest of friendships will be tested after such a painful slap to one's belief.

Zero's lips trembled but he held back the tears in his eyes. Baal was right. He'd been blind all along. Now that he thought about it, Zero regretted meddling with everything that happened. If he didn't insist on paring Schaf and Kerberos, the gate wouldn't have opened and Rhinestone wouldn't have succeeded. If Zero didn't introduce the cafe and mana gathering lotus, Heaven and Hell wouldn't be at constant friction with each other. Demons didn't need to live in fear and tension that the angels were going to attack again.

Sadly, Zero couldn't undo what he'd done.

"However," Baal continued after seeing how his friend was beginning to understand his mistakes. "It would be a different story if there were a hundred bottles of milk available. The abyss doesn't have a hundred bottles of milk right now but with the mana lotuses, we may be able to achieve that. Not just a hundred... maybe two or three hundred in years to come after the terraforming project. By introducing a new source of food to these demons, we need not fight amongst our kin for sustenance. We can start weeding out the demons who insist on selfishly hoarding the resources that should be shared with others and causing harm onto others for personal gains."

Zero was confused. "But I-"

"We might not be able to do it now. However, we could do it in the future. It's not possible at the moment but there will come a day that Hell will be a better place. Zero, I'm not going to say it twice so listen carefully. There is no other existence more powerful than you out there. Just like the abyss, you can choose to make it a better place or completely annihilate it with your actions. If you chose back then absorb Rhinestone's dimension into the void instead of flooding it, the time-space crack would have caused the imbalance to leak and take its toll on the already unstable abyss plane. It would have been the end of Hell. Likewise, if you didn't introduce the mana lotus flowers then we would still be fighting over the scarce resources internally. Lucifer wouldn't have made up with his soul brothers, Heaven and Hell would still be wary of each other and I may have continued to sleep for a few more hundred years while tormenting myself in the void."

Zero didn't know what to think. One moment he was told that he was doing it wrong and the next moment, he was told that he was doing good. He didn't understand it.

"Zero, with power comes a burden called responsibility. You can create happiness as quickly as you can take it away with your actions. Don't ever forget that. That's all I want to say. That book Amon gave you is something that can give you the ability to save a thousand lives or reap them. Now let's get going, I can smell the Scorpion-Lizard. It's almost ready."

Baal's retreating figure was strangely engraved into Zero's most precious memories. He looked both weak and strong at the same time. Zero wondered if he could be the same as well, boldly choosing his own path without fear and shouldering such heavy burdens on his shoulders.

"Are you coming?"

Zero smiled and wiped the tears away. "Wait for me!"