Ball of Nothing

"I have no problems birthing a new type of tree," the Tree of Life said and Gaia nodded. Having the Tree of Life act as the mother was still better than trying to grow the new type of tree by manual cross-pollination techniques of the dryads.

The only problem now was to get the Weeping Willow, also known as the Tree of the Future, to part with a flower for that purpose.

"Why can\'t we ask the Tree of Knowledge for help?" Zero asked Gaia and Mother Nature shook her leaves.

"The Tree of Fertility\'s ability leans closer towards the support of Life and Future. Adding the Tree of Knowledge\'s ability isn\'t going to help the tree create children. Just like how I birthed King Yama with Hades and Freya\'s ability, the right combination of abilities from parent trees must be compatible in order for a new type of world tree to be birthed. The cross-breed between the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge might be able to create a new world tree of magic but it\'s unlikely that the new tree is going to be a tree of fertility."

That made sense. Zero sighed. "Is there no way to convince the Tree of the Future to help us? We already have the soul needed and a future spriggan to guard the tree. I even have a good idea where the seed should be planted!"

Gaia felt bad for Enma. If the King of Trials knew that Zero\'s brilliant idea to resolve the situation was to create the Tree of Fertility to host a fractured soul and plant that in his plane to be worshipped, he might throw a fit. Yet, she couldn\'t think of a better way to save a soul without sending it for reincarnation.

Zero was barely able to retain the souls of the last Gemini Star descendants and the soul that he was trying to save is one that Gaia swore should have been wiped out of existence a long time ago. She didn\'t know who Sylvia the Silver Witch was but whatever she was doing made the impossible possible. Her love for this child\'s soul made the soul live pass its existence on the wrong plane. No wonder Zero said that it was too corrupted to fix. Without her alchemic array, that soul would have disintegrated and returned to the void. At this point, not even Gaia knew if fusing the soul\'s uncorrupted fragments into a world tree seed would save it but they could only try.

"I\'ll see what the Tree of the Future demands in exchange for a flower. Prepare to extract the soul\'s uncorrupted fragments for the fusion but don\'t harbour hopes. This is the first and last time we grow world trees to save someone\'s soul. While Gods value souls, we don\'t usually go all the way to rescue one that has been marked by the void."

Zero understood. It was an exception and no matter how he tried to justify the need for a Tree of Fertility, he couldn\'t help but wonder what would happen if he didn\'t come along to help Sylvia. Would she have worked herself into despair and transformed into a demon?

The soul flickered weakly and Zero sighed. While he waited, there was no point in wondering \'what-if\' scenarios. He would cross that bridge when he came to it. For now, there were several things he could do. Half Moon and New Moon Village needed a lot of his attention. He just received a message from Truen not too long ago saying that Misana and the twins were safely settled there. After taking a short rest, Bob and Truen will be hurrying back.

Sylvia was still in the tower and Zero decided to pay Jynx a visit to talk more about the future collaboration with Grey Legion. One way or another, he would find a way to save the soul of Sylvia\'s child. The Great Sylph was already given a task to prepare a large amount of food offerings for the purification ritual. In order for the soul to be fused with the new world tree seed, Zero had to remove the corrupted parts carefully.

"Sylvia," he called out to the Great Sylph who was monitoring the skeleton cooks in the kitchen. "I\'m going to see Jynx for a while. Please take care of your child for a while, I\'ll be back soon once I have the things I need."

The Great Sylph didn\'t protest and was more than glad to have her child back. Zero left quickly after sending a raven over in advance. The Engraver banshee was glad to know that Zero felt confident enough in his success to bring forward collaboration talks. In fact, Jynx was in the middle of making preparations for a major reformation of U.N.U. in the future when she received Zero\'s message.

"Welcome!" the necromancer grinned and Zero nodded.

"We meet again, sooner than expected. Thank you for giving us Misana. My friends have safely escorted them back to Half Moon Village for further treatment. Apart from talking about possible business opportunities, I want to know a little more about Sylvia\'s child. She mentioned that you were also fond of that soul and picked up necromancy when the child died. What\'s going on?"

Jynx\'s smile fell. "You know, I was looking forward to hearing about spider silk underwear production arrangements that you mentioned in your letter. Night Terror Spider Queen Penelope, was it? She sounds beautiful but we can talk about the child. What do you want to know?"

"Who are they? Why are you and Sylvia so enamoured by them? Is there something about their soul that is special?"

Jynx offered Zero a cup of strange tea with floating bits of white stuff. "This is going to be a long story. Please make yourself comfortable. In order to answer your question, we need to go back in time about five or six hundred years."

Zero took a sip and made himself comfortable. "I\'m listening."