Ball of Nothing

#36: First Mission

Hearing Egui's name made Zero's eyes widen. Egui's soul was missing? What happened?

Similarly, the goddesses looked at each other in surprise. They knew the ghost called Egui. Zero healed the ghost from his weakness earlier on. How could Egui's soul be missing?

"Egui was at the Mega Gourmet competition earlier but lost. How could his soul be missing? He walked away fine earlier."

En frowned. "Could you explain everything? I cannot sense Egui's soul. However, traces of his soul ends in this room. Someone must have cancelled his sins and freed it before time. Egui has yet to finish his redemption so the records do not tally. Normally, only an angel can pardon sins and the records will be updated in my Book of Trials. This time, the sins were erased completely and the soul was freed without a proper ritual. If I cannot recover Egui's soul by the end of the day, Egui's soul will disappear into the void and never be able to reincarnate."

Sedna gasped and Gaia looked troubled. For a soul to not be able to reincarnate was troubling indeed. Isis did not look angry any longer. She was frowning and Freya felt conflicted. Zero only meant good but the consequences were more harmful than helpful. How could they rectify this?

None of the goddesses understood how Zero's Mind's Eye worked. For a power to be able to completely erase the existence of sins is unheard of. In this world, regardless of dimension or planet, the law of energy is absolute. Not even Gods can defy it.

Energy cannot be destroyed or created from nothing. Everything is a cycle and Gods maintain that cycle strictly. Sins were a form of negative energy. For a negative energy to be removed, an equal amount of positive energy like blessings or redemptions must be paired to make it neutral again for only neutral souls could be reincarnated. Now that Zero has destroyed the balance, the soul cannot support its existence and can only disappear into what is known as the void. The void is a term for the unknown place that is lacking any kind of energy.

Coincidentally, the void was where the Great One and Zero originated from. Not much is known about the void and this troubled the gods and goddesses. Anything that entered the void will not return. This was the only known fact. The other secret known only to the Great Gods was that the void was home to the Great One. In fact, the only one who could enter and exit the void freely is Zero.

"We understand now. The situation is indeed dire. We will help to search for Egui. He must be still around La Boutique somewhere. As for the soul, a terrible accident has happened back then. We don't know exactly what went wrong but if we can find Egui, there might be a chance to recover his soul."

En looked at Isis and bowed. "I will search for Egui's lingering spirit and bring it back here. If there is any method at all, please recover his soul. We cannot lose another one to the void."

***

"Is he gone now?"

Gaia loosened the vines. "Yes, Zero."

The small brunet reappeared and gave the goddesses a tearful stare. "Is Egui really going to disappear? Is it because of what I did?"

Unable to lie to the young boy, the goddesses looked away. Only Isis looked at the young boy with a pained expression. "Everyone makes mistakes, Zero. You didn't know that this would happen and we know that you meant well. It's sad that Egui will soon disappear if we cannot recover his soul but this is the reality. You must learn from this and not make the same mistake again."

"How do I recover the Egui's soul?"

Isis smiled sadly. "We don't know, Zero. Gods and Goddesses may be powerful but there are still things we cannot do. Egui's soul must be somewhere in the void and that is one place we cannot go. Only the Great One was able to enter the void and retrieve things from it as well as store things in it."

"I can help search for Egui's soul! After all, if my past self was able to do it, I'm sure I can too."

"No! It's too dangerous!" Freya cried. "Great One was never able to leave the void. Everything absorbed and created was thrown into that space. Great One was trapped there for a very long time. You must not do this, Zero."

Hearing this, Zero frowned.

"No," he told the goddesses. "I will find Egui's soul. It is my fault, I should be the one to fix it."

Instead of protesting like what Zero thought they would do, the goddesses resigned to fate. Isis gave Zero her ankh amulet for protection. Gaia created a small flower fairy who will provide Zero with light and directions. Freya gave a rune scroll that will allow him to contact the goddesses in case something happened. Sedna gave Zero a temporary blessing to increase his luck.

"When the luck blessing runs out, please return immediately. The rune scroll can act as a teleportation gate only if we are still in contact. As you venture deeper and longer in the void, Lily's light will fade until it runs out completely. When that happens, we will be unable to reach you. Also, always keep the ankh amulet close. It will protect you from the forces in the void. The power is limited so please do not spend too much time looking for Egui's soul. We do not know much about the void but nothing that entered the void can come back."

Zero looked at Sedna and the goddesses gratefully.

"Don't worry, I will be back."

Unbeknown to the goddesses, Zero wasn't worried about not being able to come back out from the void. It is true that his past self was stuck there. However, that was mainly due to the lack of energy. With Mind's Eye and absorption, Zero now has over 6,000 energy points from the Mega Gourmet competition. This allowed him to move freely in the void. According to Mind's Eye, the void is a place that has the same kind of absorption power Zero has. Everything will be brought to the centre of the space and that space was big enough to fit the multiverse with more room to spare.

[Would you like to start the mission - Tracking Egui's Soul? This will consume energy points.]

Zero accepted it without hesitation.

[Mission received. Tracking Egui's Soul will commence now.]

A blue thread appeared in his vision and with Mind's Eye explanation, Zero smiled. That blue thread was a guide to find Egui's soul. All Zero had to do was follow it. Mind's Eye was also helpful and informed Zero that he could teleport in the void to save energy consumption. The estimated number of teleports required to reach Egui's soul was seventy and each teleport cost five energy points.

After doing the math and deciding that he had enough energy to spare after making this trip, Zero walked into the void confidently. Mind's Eye opened the void portal for him and Zero took Lily with him after waving goodbye to the goddesses. They watched with great worry as Zero disappeared in a blink.

Everyone crowded over Gaia's reflecting orb and observed from Lily's eyes Zero's journey. Worried but unable to do more, the goddesses sat together in silence.