Chapter 529 - Condensed Sphinx's Breath

Cleo and Olive created the irrigation duct from Half Moon Village's pool to the Purgatory. Hades helped with landscaping and the garden was quickly completed. The Tree of Fertility's seed was planted in the ground and watched over by the faithful gardening team.

In less than two hours after planting Baku, Zero received a report that the Tree of Fertility was fully grown and Baku had something for him.

Curious, Zero drank some coffee to wake himself up so that he could check the gift out.

"I heard that my spriggan needs a body so I decided to make the very first vessel especially for them. Is it going to be Sylvia? I heard the rumours from Hades."

Zero looked at the strange fetus fruit on the tree that resembled Sylvia a lot.

"Yes, it is Sylvia. Did you create that from memory? It looks very similar to her. I believe this would be exactly how she would look if she wasn't a sylph."

Spriggan Sylvia had hair made from leaves and green skin that had a perfect complexion. Her eyes were narrow and sharp like her high nose bridge. Her lips were thin but her cheeks were chubby as the spriggan's fetus wasn't fully grown. That serious but childish appearance made Zero chuckle. He wondered how Sylvia would react to finding herself as a child again.

"She looks wonderful," he told Baku who quivered with happiness at the praise for her first job. The shrine wasn't officially built or open for wors.h.i.+pping so creating one vessel was her current limit as a new world tree.

"I will bring Sylvia's reforged soul here for the transfer procedure. Please get some rest for now and tell the gardening team if you require anything."

Baku decided to go back to sleep and Zero sighed, wis.h.i.+ng he could do the same. Alas, more work awaited him. Jynx sent the word through Truen that Sylvia found out about Baku's successful fusion with her vessel ever since Zero undid the soul prison array. She was eager to complete her part of the deal and hand over the Condensed Sphinx Breath. The Great Sylph already sent over the official doc.u.ments for her school and the decree for Jynx to become U.N.U.'s next queen. The Silver Witch's abdication took many by surprise and Truen commented that Jynx was a very capable ruler, making use of the confusion to reform the laws.

"You're finally back," Truen sighed. The archer looked completely worn out with dark circles around his eyes indicating the lack of sleep. Zero wasn't feeling any better and nodded.

"What's going on?"

Truen didn't answer. He simply shoved a stack of doc.u.ments in Zero's arms and collapsed onto the bed in their room.

Zero didn't go through the details of the contract. He trusted Truen to have gone through the terms before Jynx signed the alliance contract with Half Moon Village. Mitchnew had also reached out to Grey Legion and the slave trade was officially abolished. Duke Zurich's backer was finally out of the picture and the old aristocrat was now crippled. With both dukes suppressed by the powerful influence of Half Moon Village and its allies, Zero could now finally support King Brice with the Humanitarian Guild to improve the lives of people living there in general.

Leaving the important doc.u.ments to Mii, Zero decided to drink more rejuvenation potions before he went to look for Sylvia. She had done everything as promised except for one. She could trust Truen with the doc.u.ments but the Great Sylph took her responsibility for the holder of the Condensed Phinx Breath key very seriously. Fae King Vivian wasn't wrong about the guardians of these keys chosen by Nel. They were loyal and powerful but incredibly stubborn and hard to please.

The trip to Sylvia's tower was a short one. Sylvia quickly invited Zero into her office and slammed the door behind them, activating the privacy barrier so that they could talk in peace. The Great Sylph thanked Zero multiple times and Zero shook his head.

"We had an agreement, remember? Also, it's not an easy price to pay. Your soul has to be torn into pieces in order to be reforged into a spriggan. Thankfully, Baku created your spriggan vessel. You're her first creation and she wanted to let you know that she's very happy to be working with you in the long run."

Sylvia laughed. That sounded very much like Baku.

"Here," the Great Sylph said and summoned something from her body to hand it to Zero. "The Condensed Sphinx's Breath left by Nel. I thought I would give it to you before I had my soul reforged. In case my memories fail me after the reforge, please ask me anything you wish to know now. I will do my best to answer them."

Zero couldn't help but be a little selfish when he heard that. "Could you tell me more about Nel? Have you seen her in person? Did she pa.s.s you this key? How was she like? Did she leave any message before she disappeared?"

Sylvia served some tea and nodded. "Back then I was only a Sylph. I haven't even met Jynx and was still living in the Mystic Meadows with Fae King Vivian and his loving wife Fae Queen Rihanna. Nel's appearance shocked us all because she fell from the sky and made a huge hole in the landscape."

Zero listened to Sylvia's story about meeting Nel. The Divine Ent.i.ty of Hope wasn't any less destructive than the other Divine Ent.i.ties. She made a huge mess of the new Earth while chasing an unknown G.o.d called Null.

According to Nel, Solo destroyed the first Earth after the humans there killed too many of his G.o.ds. Unfortunately, the humans had their last revenge. With the power of defiers and non-believers in faith, a new G.o.d was created called Null. Zero had a feeling this was the unregistered G.o.d that the Great G.o.ds were working hard to track down. It was probably the same G.o.d that woke Zero up from his slumber and pushed the world towards its end based on Raphael's prophecy. Funnily enough, Null was also the creator of the Earth that Zero was currently on.

"I don't know what Nel wants to do but Null isn't on Earth. He fled the moment the Earth was created to recover his powers and build his cult of non-believers. To counter the creation of G.o.d slayers on this planet, some of the old G.o.ds descended and introduced the nine continents as well as their native kind. A good example would be the giants on Magnus Hilda. Hyndla was their G.o.ddess."

Slowly, Zero began to understand the world better. Sadly, most of those G.o.ds who created the nine continents were dead or gone. Needless to say, when Nel discovered that Null wasn't on Earth, she fled to follow his trail. However, she didn't leave this place without a message. Fae King Vivian was entrusted with the responsibility of guarding the portal to her home base in case the reawakened Great One recovered their memory to look for her. The portal could only be activated by the four keys that Fae King Vivian entrusted to different individuals.

As for the kind of person Nel was, Sylvia could only describe her as a cheerful person with a serious side.

"Nel looked like a fairy. She was incredibly fond of those buŧŧerfly wings and rainbow colours. I think she liked to eat ċhėstnuts so Fae Queen Rihanna often caught her stealing ċhėstnut cakes back when she was staying in Mystic Meadows to investigate Null's whereabouts."

As for the parting message, Zero didn't know what to make of it.

"Her parting message for us was to tell the future Great One that she was going to kick him if he found her for payback. Also, she demands compensation in the form of ċhėstnut candies if the future Great One wanted to be forgiven. n.o.body understands why she would say that but I guess that's for you, the chosen one, to figure out. That's everything I know and can remember about Nel."

Zero thanked Sylvia. This was still more than what Queen s.h.i.+ttomi and Hannya House managed to gather for him. Nel sounded like someone Solo had hurt greatly previously. If the Divine Ent.i.ty of Hope had such a chaotic personality, Zero didn't know how he could ask for forgiveness and get her to cooperate so that they could start finding Solo and the other Divine Ent.i.ties.

He sighed. For now, the doctor refused to hurt his remaining brain cells with difficult and impossible problems. There was something to be done and reforging Sylvia's soul was next.

"Are you ready to become a spriggan?" he asked and Sylvia grinned. With the key safely in Zero's possession, Sylvia had no other attachments to her current life. Her mission was over. It was time to reunite with her precious child awaiting her with her new body.