297 Recreation Magic 4 (1/2)
\”Hello, Zero.\”
\”Hello, Steve. Have you had lunch?\” Zero smiled.
The God of Technology grinned and explained that he was practising intermittent fasting. \”It helps to keep the mind sharp,\” he explained and Zero nodded.
That was something the teen would never come to understand. Eating was the joy and privilege of the living. Fasting wasn't something Zero would ever willingly do. The notion itself was almost as crazy as wanting to willingly become the void.
Pushing that thought aside, Zero delved straight into business. \”How's the progress of the chaos energy converter and testing device coming along? Merlin said there was a prototype?\”
Steve smiled. \”You're awfully eager today. Did something good happen?\”
The teen grinned. \”Not yet. Soon. I thought I'd drop by to see what's going on because it's going to be related to my personal assignment.\”
The God of Technology took interest and offered Zero a seat. \”Tell me more,\” he said as he put finishing touches to the program and device. Merlin wasn't in a hurry either and decided to leave them to talk while he read through Steve's latest lab notes.
Zero explained the concept of his recreation magic and Steve found it interesting.
\”Merlin is right,\” Steve told Zero. \”It sounds very similar to science that we know of back in the original Earth. However, we never fully understand creation and how it came about. Despite trying our best to understand how it was formed, we only managed to understand atoms. There was a rather interesting theory about how the world was created too and it was all based on a single atom.\”
Steve's fingers flew over the keyboard quickly in a blinding fashion like they were dancing and Zero found himself getting hypnotised by them. Still, the conversation took an interesting turn and he couldn't help but learn more about the humans back on the original Earth before it was destroyed. The stories that Hua Tuo shared about them are greatly different from the ones Merlin spoke of. When it came to Steve, Zero didn't have the impression that these humans were the same ones who took down Gods and eventually created one of their own. if anything, they seemed like a bunch of scholars who simply wanted to know about the world and the creator. They didn't feel like evil power-hungry beings who wanted to dominate everything.
Zero's eyes widened at the revelation. That newbie God who woke him up had a name. \”Null? Can you tell me more about this God? Whois he? Where is he? What does he do? How do I find him?\”
Steve stopped typing and looked at Zero. \”Why are you so interested in Null? He's a rogue God who is on Heaven's wanted list. The Great Gods and King Yama are currently sending people to search for this God and return him to the void. His existence is what is pushing this world into destruction.\”
Lost, Zero shook his head. \”Why? How can this be?\”
Steve sighed. \”The law of energy conservation states that energy cannot be created nor destroyed. It can be transformed from one form to another. The fact that Null is created from the original Earth's thought fragments of humans means that he isn't an original creation from the Great One. While thoughts and prayers are forms of energy, they should be returned to the void for balance if it cannot be processed by the Gods. That is the rule in order to balance the planes' power. The case becomes more serious when Null uses the power from the extinct humans to create a replica of the old world but add on details that never existed. This goes against the law of this world. Null is like a program bug, an unwanted accidental by-product from a series of commands. It should be gotten rid of.\”
The young doctor let Steve's words sink in. While he still couldn't understand why Null had to be destroyed, he could understand the reason for why he was suddenly awakened from the long slumber. According to prophecy, the Great One will awaken again but as a destroyer. That's exactly what Zero was, a void who consumes everything. It wasn't known how Solo foresaw all these but the trigger was definitely Null who was created by humans. If Zero had to make an intelligible guess, Solo had set aside many fragments of himself after the creation of Gods and Divine Entities to the life on his master planet - Earth.
Following the pattern of this thought, it was easy to understand why thoughts were considered a form of energy. From Mii's research and Lily's analysis of the soul supplement, only thoughts of humans and their kin were convertible to energy. Plants, animals, even Mii and Wii's thoughts did not generate energy. On the new Earth, thoughts of species like beastfolk, elves, pixies and mermaids counted as well. Zero also tried to rob some of Merlin's thoughts and tested them positive for energy. Zero suppose Sage Gods who were once humans could generate energy from thoughts too. Unfortunately, Zero has also confirmed that once a thought had been harvested for energy, the person loses the memory of that thought instantly. Zero couldn't spit the thought out and return it to the owner either.
\”Alright, just give me a moment and we can get this device testing,\” Steve smiled and Zero nodded.
The device beeped when the program had been loaded into it and Merlin checked through the magic array drawn on it. The product of magic and technology had always been complicated. Zero marvelled at how alchemy was the glue that made this fusion possible. Perhaps his recreation magic required something similar. As it was, the operations were very chunky.
\”Zero, wear each gauntlet on each hand. The right is for qi and the left is for mana. For the first test, keep both qi and mana properties neutral. We are going to use it to power the seal stamp in here to observe the reaction they have with chaos energy,\” Steve instructed and Zero nodded.
The programmer adjusted the output after Zero charged both gauntlets with qi and mana. Merlin was on standby to cancel the spell at any time if something went wrong with the experiment.
Zero watched the seal stamp like a hawk as Steve adjusted the output. Initially, he only allowed mana to pass through and as expected, he chaos energy worked to extinguish it, hindered by the seal. When Steve switched the output to only qi, the chaos energy in the seal tried to run from it instead of swallowing it. the interesting behaviour made Zero's eyes sparkle. There might be a better way of trapping chaos energy after all!
Steve then reduced the output amount of qi to observe if there was a change and after reducing it by half, the chaos energy turned to try and devour the qi. The puzzling reaction caused even Merlin to tilt his head in wonder.
\”Zero, can you add more charge the mana gauntlet more?\” Steve asked and increased the output for mana to twice the ordinary amount.