I looked in confusion at Merry, then with worry.
"Hey Merry, can you repeat that, I thought you were saying that Bobby is in trouble."
"You heard it right the first time, we went to fight the Zombie Lord and we lost badly, and Bobby is now a smart zombie under his command."
My blood froze when I heard that a second time, I looked more intensely at Merry and I could see that she was very tired, bearly holding herself up, clearly she didn't sleep for a few days.
But I didn't care about that, Bobby was in danger, and she was supposed to be the hero to save everyone not fail so miserably.
I stopped myself for a moment and took a deep breath, I was too overcome by emotions and if I don't keep them in place I'm going to say something that I'll deeply regret later.
After a few seconds of silence where I tried to calm myself down, and Merry looked more scared as the time passed, I spoke once again.
"Tell me in detail what exactly happened."
My voice had a lot more anger than I intended to show but it's still passed the message.
She started to tell me about the preparation of the fight, of how they made a small group of iron golems to fight against the Zombie Lord.
It was a pretty good idea until it wasn't anymore, Bobby was the one controlling them for whatever reason, the Zombie Lord fought hard but when was about to lose he asked for a power-up from the Void.
And he got one.
He infected the small army as a distraction and then captured Bobby making him into a zombie.
When she arrived at that part of the story, I wanted to hit something to calm my nerves, but it wasn't over yet so I had to hold for a little longer.
Bobby became a smart zombie but a silent one, then he ordered the iron golems to attack the soldiers.
I was shocked when she told me that, I didn't expect to still have authority over them once he transformed.
But now the Zombie Lord was without an army, instead, he had an elite group of tanks that could destroy anything in their path.
The Zombie Lord was more dangerous now than ever, controlling a group of Iron Golems too powerful to be ignored, I don't think he'll even wait to recuperate his army, he can just attack like this since it would be more efficient.
And with Bobby in the lead, they could arrive anytime.
"And we arrived back at the castle not too long ago, I didn't hear everything they said, but I only heard that they plan to abandon this place and flee to the other kingdoms."
That's it, they made Bobby fight and after all he's done instead of saving him they just abandon him with the whole Kingdome?
I'm so angry at them that I want to raze this whole place to the ground, but there's no point in doing that, first I have to save Bobby, and to do that I need to kill the Zombie Lord.
I'll think what to do with the others afterward.
"Merry, do you know where the Royal Volt is?"
"Y-yes?"
"Good, lead me there. I need to prepare for war."
I said everything in a cold voice which seemed to scare Merry.
But I didn't care for that, now it's time for action, not panicking.
She led me through long hallways that reminded me of the Sand Palace, nothing good ever came from those places.
"How long do you think it would take them to arrive if they marched nonstop here?"
"If they don't stop to rest, then in three days. Here's the vault door, how do you plan to get in? Do you want me to call the king?"
Three days?
That should be enough to set down a trap to kill the Zombie Lord, I only need the materials necessary and I didn't plan to waste time gathering them myself.
"No, I have something else for you to do. Go get me some glass, I'll deal with the volt myself."
She seemed to hesitate to leave me alone, but after a hard stare, she just nodded and left.
I got closer to the volt, and two guards with enchanted diamond armor stood in my way.
"Halt, who are you?"
Both of them got closer to me, but before they could reach me I threw two potions at their feet.
I was ready to fight a witch when I got out, so I came prepared for a fight.
The potion took the two guards by surprise and started to vomit while holding their stomachs.
"What did you do to us?"
One of the guards tried to hit me with his sword, but he was off by two blocks.
I just simply pushed him down and he was too overwhelmed to get back up.
I threw two potions at them, that individually were pretty powerful, but combined were a nasty surprise.
Those were the speed potion and nausea potion.
For the first one, I could make it myself, but for the second one, I had to get it from a witch, since it wasn't a potion made by the system.
With those two combined, they couldn't see anything straight, and with the effect of the speed, every action they did had a different result then they expected.
I didn't stay to look at them how they walked like headless chickens, instead, I took out my diamond pickaxes and broke the iron wall.
After the first layer, I could see the Redstone mechanical parts and I felt a little sorry for destroying them.
I knew how hard it was to make something like this.
Inside the volt, I had to stop and admire it for a little before starting to loot.
Luckily everything was labeled so I didn't stay for long there.
I took some obsidian, enchanted diamond armor, and any other items that I saw valuable enough for me to steal.
After a few minutes, I was out of there waiting for Merry to arrive.
After a few minutes of waiting with the guards still suffering from the potion effect behind me, I saw Merry appear after the corner, but she wasn't alone.
"Merry, I'm telling you, we have to leave were not safe here anymore, come with me and I'll promise your safety."
"How many times have I told you, Prince, in not interested now leave me alone!"
Then they saw me, they saw the guards behind me and finally the hole to the volt.
"You actually managed to get in."
"Who are you, how did you get here?"
Merry seemed impressed by my abilities while the Prince was ready for a fight.
"Did you get the glass?"
"Yeah here's two stacks, unfortunately I couldn't find more, is this enough?"
"Merry, you know this guy?!"
The Prince was surprised by the sudden twist but I just ignored him.
"It's more than enough, do you know where's the portal room?"
"No, they haven't told me about it."
"Stop ignoring me! Who are you and how dare you steal from the Royal Family?!"
I look at the second Prince for the first time, he was supposed to be the one that lead the army to fight the Zombie Lord.
It wasn't his fault that the fight ended that way, but that didn't mean I had to play nice with him.
I took my crossbow loaded with a firework and painted it at him.
"You're the second Prince, you should know where the portal room is, lead me to it or I'll shoot you."
"Who do you think you are to order me around like that?"
He took out his shield ready to block my attack, and the fact that he had diamond armor on him must boosted his confidence, but I wasn't playing anymore, I just shot at him, and not too late after an explosion was heard and the prince was blown back.
I didn't get closer to him, instead, I loaded another firework ready to shoot.
"I'm going to do that once more if you don't show me where the portal is."
He slowly got up, still confused about what happened, but the look in his eyes told me enough that he wasn't going to play nice.
I was ready to shoot him one more, but Merry stopped me.
"Wait, there's no need to do that, I can convince him to show you the way."
I raised an eyebrow but let her do the magic.
"Sorry Prince about this. This is my teacher and I keep trying to keep a secret. He was a very good friend with Bobby and now he wants to save him from the Zombie Lord."
"Are you crazy Merry? Didn't you see how strong that monster was, there's no way we can kill it, especially now that he has the iron golems. What can one man do against a monster that defeated an army?"
She slowly got closer to him not making any big movements.
"I know what the monster is capable of, I blocked his attack after all, but if my teacher says that he has a way to kill him, then I trust him."
The Prince looked at me with haterade then switch to my weapon which scared him.
Merry was close enough to him that she could lay her hand on his shoulder.
"Ahab, listen to me. We can defeat the monster, just trust me."
For some reason, the Prince seems to react a lot more to his name being called the the fact that she touched his shoulder.
"Fine, follow me."
Merry made a victory pose while he turned around, and I was impressed by her persuasion skills.
We walked along the hallways until we arrived at a big room, where a lot of guards and other people waited for us.
"Son, what was that explosion, and who is the man with the diamond armor."
The one who spoke had fancy clothes on him and a golden crown on top of his head, this must be the king.
"He is an intruder father."
So he led us into a trap, I didn't wait for him to fish as I grabbed him by the neck with a black potion close to his mouth.
"Nobody moves or I'm going to kill the Prince with this powerful potion. Don't test me, it's powerful enough to kill anyone in one sip."
What I had was an instant-harming potion, and the Prince desperately tried to get out of my grasp.
"Trader is that you? What are you doing here, is the Clan ok?"
A voice that I recognized, unfortunately, spoke up, it was Catharine who was held as 'hostage' until they caught the rogue witch.
What bad timing.
"Nothing is wrong with the Clan Catharine, I just want to save my friend and I'll be out of here in no time."
"Ok, I know this looks bad but listen, this is my teacher, he knows a way to kill the Zombie Lord and save Bobby, he only wants to know where the portal is."
The Prince was struggling more and more under my arm, so I just flexed my muscles to remind him about his situation.
It seems to do the trick as he didn't struggle much more after that.
The one who spoke was Merry once again, she tried to explain the situation to the others, but if they decided to suddenly attack I had to be prepared to tower up.
"How do you know about that, did Bobby betray us?!"
"Get off your high horse old man, I knew about the Nether beforehand, the tribe that you are working with right now is actually under my management. So either you bring me to that dimension, or I'll make one right here and then everyone will know your secret."
Unfortunately, I didn't have Flint and steel, so this was only a bluff.
The air seemed to get more tense, Merry was looking on either side not knowing which side to take until the king was the one to speak first.
"Take him to the portal room."
"But Dad, he could be a spy!"
"If he was, I'm sure he had more silent options to find out our secrets."
The princess didn't seem to be pleased with the answer but still signaled me to follow her.
I let go of the second prince, not forgetting to give him one more kick to show my dissatisfaction with the sudden betrayal.
The first Prince followed us to the portal room and after not knowing what to do, Merry decided to come as well.
We went somewhere behind the big room, a staircase that went deeper into the earth, but everything was beautifully decorated, so it was quite a sight to see.
We passed some guards along the way but with one wave of the hand from the princess they stood in one place.
Soon I was in front of a familiar obsidian frame, but much bigger than what I usually made.
Beyond the dark line, I could see the blocks commonly found in the fortress, I took my armor off and passed the portal.
The others seemed surprised by my actions, but I knew that the heat would kill me in that armor.
I was here for a mission, there's no need to hold back anymore.