308 Saving Heaven 2 (1/2)
Hua Tuo was breathless and Buddha was exhausted. They looked at the beautiful Tree of Life that grew wonderfully with silver leaves and emitted a golden halo in the middle of the spring with satisfaction. Zero laid unconscious on a group of mana lotuses in the spring as if asleep.
With the fight finally over, everything slowly smoothened out back to normal.
Lovina remained unconscious and Merlin wiped away the sweat on his brows with tears in his eyes. This witch was more than just a promising alchemist. After struggling to remove the curse, he discovered something that was suppressed for a long time. The Tree of Life was indeed this witch's saviour. To think that there would be the taboo curse of a void guardian tied to her soul beneath the curse of the phoenix, Merlin didn't know what to think.
The curse of the plane guardian was still there but looking at it, the wizard no longer thought that it was a bad thing. The Tree of Life must have taken root firmly in the broken plane and the magician was proud of Zero. His student has succeeded in his crazy plan that nobody had any confidence in.
The Demon Lords groaned as the pain subsided, leaving them weak and exhausted. Nobody knew how long the entire process took but there was no doubt about the new plane guardian's existence. Although the miasma was still thick, the burden of supporting the plane no longer felt very heavy. Lucifer felt young again and he wasn't the only one enjoying the change. Mammon decided to take the rest of the day off to recuperate while Amon decided to visit the SPring of Vitality to check in on the young doctor as soon as he was able to move. Sekkin tagged along.
One by one, the great people of importance visited the Spring of Vitality to check on the teen who slept like the dead. Hua Tuo and Buddha had to repeat their stories about what transpired to the newcomers. Eventually, they gave up explaining and repeating themselves, leaving it to the ones who arrived earlier to repeat the tale.
Everyone had mixed reactions after hearing that Zero did to create this miracle. They thanked Hua Tuo and Buddha but cast mixed glances at the sleeping teen. The Demon Lords were thankful to the young doctor for saving the abyss but also angry that Zero acted so recklessly. Nobody could imagine how Zero could continue to force himself even when his body was being broken down and torn apart. Hua Tuo was also no better, stitching Zero back together trying to hold onto the last threads of his vessel just so that Zero could destroy them all over again. Buddha quickly excused himself before anyone could start shooting arrows at him for encouraging that recklessness.
Right now, watching the sleeping prince who put his everything on the line for them, the warrior couldn't help but feel that he wanted to devote everything he had for this individual. Now he truly understood how Baal felt. The boy must have saved Baal before to be able to influence him that much. As a Demon Lord, Amon was strong and never really understood the feeling of gratitude from receiving help when he could manage it by himself somehow. Right now, after experiencing the joys of being shown a light in the dark tunnel, Amon made a solemn vow to become a chess piece that Zero could use as he desired.
Gaia and Isis also visited the Spring of Vitality along with Uriel who wanted to watch the prophecy unfold before his eyes. Zero might have successfully planted the Tree of Life but that was only the beginning. The teen still had to sever the roots from the Tree of Knowledge and seal up the crack at Titan Cliff to separate both planes.
To their surprise, the Tree of Life's roots were tangled messily with the Tree of Knowledge's roots. The growth of these roots terrified the archangel who had never witnessed anything more monstrous. Although Zero was no longer pouring in mana or qi into the array, the Tree of Life continued to draw power from the spring and made its own judgement to grow faster, sinking its roots deeper into the plane and out of it.
In contrast to the thin threads of the Tree of Knowledge, the reborn Tree of Life was brimming with power under Zero's care. The roots were thick and created some sort of bridge that clung onto the bottom of Heaven's plane, connecting with the Tree of Knowledge's roots, supplementing it with energy. The crack at Titan Cliff was plugged up by the massive amount of tree roots. Chaos energy was no longer able to enter the broken planes with the barrier of strong roots. As such, Zero had solved two problems with one move. Nobody knew if this was all according to Zero's calculations and plans but for Isis, it was reassuring to know that Zero was able to find a different solution to the problem.
The Tree of Life proved to be a very fierce guardian. She took on the chaos energy attacking at her roots and completely annihilated them with qi and mana, protecting her weaker sister the Tree of Knowledge will giving additional support to the weakened tree in Garden Eden. The Tree of Knowledge's roots were very widely spread out trying to keep Heaven's plane together so the Tree of Life continued to spread her roots to cover the bottom of Heaven's plane while encasing the bottom of Hell's plane entirely in her roots.
Ouroboros was looking a lot better now that the plane had stabilised. Without the burden of supporting a broken plane falling into the void, he was able to focus on recovering although there was an annoying lady who kept on babying him. The lady had a sister who turned out to be that wimpy wizard's daughter of sorts.
\”What an annoying world,\” he hissed and Cleo turned around to stare at him.
\”How are you feeling now?\” Latitia asked.
Garden Eden was looking better now that the pond was slowly filling up. The first hour they tried to fill the pond, all the water simply got absorbed into the hardened soil. Both gardeners looked worried at the depleted state of the pond and wondered if they were doing something wrong. After the first hour, they noticed the immediate change in the garden's state when the magic barriers started reactivating themselves. The walls and gates repaired themselves and the statues came to life, busying themselves with tending to the barren garden.
Seeds were sown, weeds were pulled and leaves were swept away. Ouroborus remained silent the whole time, bearing the pain of having someone else forcefully take over Hell's plane from his control. Then, he was soothed by the support the new tree gave and eventually regained enough strength after the chaos energy stopped attacking him to focus on recovery.
While everyone celebrated the good news, Zero remained deep in slumber, too exhausted and still fighting the effects of chaos energy that lingered in him when he temporarily forced the crack to seal up before the Tree of Life took over.
Zero was in his mindscape, receiving the greatest lecture of his life from all four ladies. Zoe might not be able to speak but her glare was cutting into Zero's conscience deeply. He knew that he acted recklessly and all his mindscape assistants were screaming at him. They had every right to do so and Zero could only kneel before them on the library floor in repentance.
\”Did you not hear it when I screamed at you to stop? If Mii hadn't overridden the administrative system to overclock conversion of seawater, do you think you'd still be here?\” Lily snapped. It was rare to see the flower fairy angry and in truth, Zero didn't think that she would ever be angry.
Mii pulled Zero's cheek mercilessly causing the teen to cry out in pain. \”Did you think that your vessel was indestructible? Wii was crying when she activated a hundred Parallel Minds but still couldn't keep up with the rate of damage you were causing. She heals one ruptured channel and you destroy five more. You didn't even think to watch your mana reserves and your qi was depleting faster than the Spring of Vitality could replenish it. Were you honestly trying to test the theory of your death?!\”