Ball of Nothing

Zero wasn't expecting the long queue and how developed the area around the Tree of Life was. When Shittomi told him that they did some renovation around the Tree of Life to give the spriggan some privacy because he almost suffered a panic attack, Zero didn't think they would take such drastic measures.

"Don't look at me like that," she told Zero. "Mammon had a hand in this. His bank supplied the funds and Amon's faction did the building. Wiser oversaw it and Lucifer helped with the design. It's looking a little like a mix of Heaven and Lilith's domain because the Succubus Queen wanted something more traditional."

Looking at the palace-like structure that surrounded the Tree of Life and the Babylon inspired design of the gardens, Zero had to admit that they did a good job of making this look tasteful. It was hard to imagine both designs coming together without clashing but he could see that Lucifer and Lilith had compromised on the colour scheme and materials to make this gel well. He had no idea what Axel thought about it but Zero personally loved the unique appeal this shrine had.

They skipped the queues to enter the shrine and Zero noticed that some of Qin Yun's clan members were stationed at the shrine's entrance, collecting something. Lilith's girls were also ushering people and collecting something but he couldn't tell what they were.

"What are they collecting?" he asked once they passed the lines.

Shittomi glanced back a little and smirked. "Something that will help with the new devices. We collect mana stones used to process the chaos energy harvested from the void to be converted into miasma. Then, the miasma will be purified into mana that will be released into the environment."

Intrigued, Zero allowed Shitommi to lead him to the back room where the offered mana stones will go. They were greeted politely by the staff managing the Tree of Life's temple and Zero wondered where Axel was. So far, he didn't see Axel and the shrine was larger than it looked from the outside. He had to set up a new portal here to link it back to the Ten-Path Crossway seeing how popular of a tourist attraction it was.

"These are the prototype machines," Shittomi told Zero and lifted the cloth covering them.

The chugging sound of the machines working while mana stones were constantly funnelled into the input made Zero curious. He kept hearing a small metallic sound at the end but couldn't figure out what that was.

"There you are!" someone panted and Zero turned around to see a very tired-looking Wiser.

He cast a speedy heal spell to rejuvenate the tired strategist so that Wiser didn't look like he was going to keel over. Once he was feeling better, Zero asked how the devices worked and what the metallic sound belonged to.

"Oh, that? It's the strange byproduct that Axel said was normal when purifying chaos energy into clean mana. Let me explain how this works from the very beginning. It's a groundbreaking technology only possible from the knowledge of gnomes and the best magician."

Shitommi decided to excuse herself. She lost count of how many times Wiser explained how these machines worked but she didn't want to torture her ears. Zero didn't understand why Shittomi left but he soon found out why when Wiser started talking.

"We start from the local dispensary that collects deposited mana stones from sixty different collection points from all over the shrine. These mana stones have been examined and checked by the shrine maidens who will send it here to the mana factory. Then, the stones will be funnelled into this holding container that will feed this converter via the input on the top and process it in the alchemically designed converting chamber."

The machine was opened and Zero raised a brow at the chaotic interior. From the outside, it looked neat. On the inside, Zero saw layers and layers of magic array and small conveyor belts that would sort and carry different mana stones to different 'converting stops" when a stone was used to counter the sealed chaos energy in what appeared to be a modified version of what he created with Merlin and Lovina.

"I call it the Axel-erator! Thanks to Axel the spriggan, we were finally able to understand how the Tree of Life was able to process the chaos energy and miasma to produce fresh mana."

Zero cringed at the naming sense but didn't comment on it because Wiser looked very proud about their invention. The scholar continued to talk and explain the detailed process of using alchemy and technology to change the energy form into mana and Zero paid close attention to it just in case he needed to do something similar in his fight against Solo who could manipulate chaos energy.

"All energy forms have one common property, " Wiser told Zero. "Over the course of designing the Axel-erator, I discovered that there was always a balanced equation. While the source of it is unknown, the calculations told me that there is only a finite amount of this. You can change it from one form to a different type but the total mass that comes out of an original source is the same. The byproduct is my evidence."

A small compartment was opened and Zero thought that it was a tray full of silver sand but on closer inspection, his eyes widened in shock.

"This is?!"

Wiser nodded. "The true form of chaos energy. In actual fact, chaos energy is mana. However, it behaves very differently because of this impurity. What the Axel-erator does is separate this impurity with a complex process to free the mana and remove this impurity. Nobody, not even Axel, understands what this is. It won't react to anything and has no practical use."

Zero's heart missed a beat. "No, this is exactly what I'm looking for! However this isn't enough, I need more."

Wiser was puzzled. "You want chaos energy fragments?"

Zero nodded. "Yes. I need a lot of this! My mission requires the use of these chaos energy byproducts. It's the only thing I know that will lead me to the person I'm searching for."

Wiser was confused but he agreed to give Zero all the chaos energy fragments and Zero hurriedly condensed them into a broken shard of Solo's Sanity to add to his existing collection. This was the power of creation that Zero sorely lacked in comparison to Solo and if it could be manufactured, Zero wanted to use this as his trump card for the final battle.

Now that the mystery of the machine was resolved, Zero asked if Wiser could lead him to where Axel was. He had questions for the spriggan and Wiser agreed.