I walked along the hallway, guards were everywhere with enchanted iron armor but didn't seem to be bothered by my presence, it was probably because it's hard to sneak up on here or maybe because I had two members of the Royal Family right behind me together with the hero.
For some reason, they decided to join me, but I didn't care about that as I wanted to get to the Undying tribe as soon as possible.
I exited the fortress and went straight for the tribe.
"So you truly know about this place, I thought you were just bluffing. Who are you really?"
The princess seemed to be more curious about me than angry now, but I wasn't in the mood to explain myself.
After a few hours, we arrived at the Tribe, where everyone welcomed me with open arms.
"Elder Trader, welcome back, do you want me to call Chief Undying?"
"No there's no need for that, I'll go and meet her myself, thanks for asking, keep up the good work."
There wasn't any reason to be rude to those people, they weren't connected with this incident in any way, and I managed to cool off a little on my way here, so I didn't snap anymore at every inconvenience.
"Who are you two? I don't recognize your faces!"
While the guard didn't have any problem with me and Merry, it couldn't be said the same for the two siblings.
"We are the one who employed you last week, I don't think there would be a problem if we visited this place for more contracts."
The Princess skilfully made an excuse.
"Sorry, but the only person we make contracts is Elder Bobby."
He raised his crossbow ready to shoot, before Merry was there to descalate the fight.
"They're with us, there's no need to worry."
The guard didn't say anything but instead looked at me, and with a sigh I nodded my head to let them in.
There was no reason to be mad at them now, it's not like they did this intentionally to Bobby, it was more of an accident that nobody wanted to happen.
"When you said that you own this place I didn't expect you to literally mean it, where did you find a portal?"
The Princess tried to speak with me once more.
"I didn't find one, I made them."
"Them? You made more than one?"
I give her a snarky answer and I get into deeper trouble, I should just keep up the silent treatment with her.
Soon I was in front of a blue door, it was Undying house, and I gently knocked.
"Come in!"
A voice yelled from the other side, so with her permission, I opened the door.
Once inside I saw Undying sitting on something similar to a couch all made with hogling skin, it looked distrusting but it was actually pretty comfortable.
"Oh Trader, I didn't expect to see you. How are you doing, anything I can help you with?"
"Hy Undying, sorry for the sudden visit I just need your help with a crafting recipe, after it's done I'll leave you back to your work."
"Ok... I can help you with no problem. Hi Merry how are you and the new guests?"
Undying got up from her seat to say hi to Merry only to see the two unknown guests.
"Don't worry about them, they'll leave with me once I'm done."
"Why would we do that, this is a great experience for us to learn from, it's the first time I've been so far away from the fortress."
First Prince spoke with a calm voice and a hint of curiosity.
"Don't you dare make any trouble here in the Tribe, if I hear anything bad about you two, I'll blow up the portal and I know that none of you know how to open it back."
That seemed to make them more behaved than before, and I knew that I was unreasonable rude with them. But I don't have too many great memories with the Royal Family, so some unresolved issues started to unconsciously appear.
Undying seems to feel the tension in the air so we get directly to business in the other room. I didn't want the others to know the recipe for such an item.
Half an hour later I got everything I wanted and made Undying promise to never spread a recipe to others, which she promised but still confused at what she crafted in the end.
"Let's go, we botherd those nice people enough already."
After Merry gave us one last hug, we left and a few hours later we were back to the fortress where now the guards looked unpleasant at me.
On the other side, the King and the second Prince were waiting for us, and I could see their shoulders losing some tension as they saw the siblings getting back in one piece.
"Did you get everything you wanted?"
"Yes, I only need to prepare the trap and the final fight will start. Do you have any idea where the Zombie Lord will attack from?"
"From what our scouts told us, he will come from the east side of the castle."
"Thank you for telling me that, why are you still here, I thought you wanted to flee this place."
If the King felt any shame, he surely hid it well from his lack of reaction.
"We decided to trust hero Merry and fight back one more time."
That wasn't something that I expected, I thought they would try to get in my way or best case scenario leave me alone.
My surprise must've been pretty obvious since the king kept talking.
"I'm guessing you have a way to kill the Zombie Lord. I have to warn you that we tried a lot of methods and none of them were powerful enough to kill him."
"I do have something powerful enough to kill him, it's powerful enough to kill a person fully equipped with diamond armor in one shoot. I only need to bring him into an enclosed room where he can't escape."
Everyone was shocked by the power of my weapon, maybe even suspicious of my claims, but they didn't have any choice but to trust me.
We only had three days to prepare, so we all got to work.
-----
Three days passed, and Merry was waiting a few hundred blocks away from the castle where the Zombie Lord was supposed to arrive in an hour as the scouts reported.
Only the two of us remained as the others waited on the castle walls, deeming my plan too reckless.
But they were nice enough to help with preparations so I wasn't that mad.
They didn't run off, instead waited on top of the castle walls for the final battle.
"Are you nervous Trader?"
"Not really, I still have a lot of steam to blow and this fight will help me with that."
"At least you are confident. I've fought with the Zombie Lord before and he's very strong so never let your shield down. I don't think your armor is powerful enough to save your life like mine, so be careful."
I nodded my head in understanding, she has more experience with the enemy than me, so her warnings have weight.
Minutes passed and then we could hear heavy stomps getting closer to us, soon the Zombie Lord was out of the woods, followed by Bobby and his iron army plus some extra zombies that they picked along the way.
From their looks, I could tell they were normal zombies, not infected people, which was a good sign.
But why did they come straight here? Why didn't they capture any town they passed?
"Ah Hero! I was looking for you, I'm glad the Void had mercy on me and brought you here alone as an offering. After I'll consume you I'll be full once again."
The Zombie Lord was more talkative than the last time I saw him, did something happen for him to become like this?
Is he weakened because of the last fight?
Merry didn't answer him, instead braced herself for the fight.
"Bobby, can you hear me? Are you still there?"
Bobby looked at me with an empty gaze, like I wasn't even there. He was different from the other smart zombies which worried me.
"Haha! Your friend is no more, he has been blessed by the Void itself, and he can't fight back like the others. Now die and let me consume you."
He jumped towards Merry which surprised me, I thought he would send his army first then attack once everyone died.
He hit Merry's shield with force but she only made one step back, and I didn't wait for him to retreat as I slashed him with my enchanted sword.
A deep cut appeared on his side, and soon it was engulfed in flames which made the huge monster retreat and pat it down to extinguish it.
"He's much weaker than before, his wound should've regenerated by now. And he's making a rushed decision."
Merry told me the good news.
"I was to rush to get my powers back, my army! Kill them for me."
The zombies and the iron golems started to move, but the zombies were faster so they were the ones in the lead.
"The pace changed a little but the plan is the same, shoot first."
Merry and I took out our enchanted crossbows and Merry shot the first firework.
It was much more effective than normal arrows and it can damage more than one enemy.
Not only that, once she pressed the trigger the fireworks through magic split into two, then to three leaving great devastation on their lading.
That's right, the crossbow had Multyshot, and I fired right after the first row of zombies was killed, making the next row die not too far from the first row.
Already half of the zombie army was killed, the Zombie Lord didn't manage to gather a large army like the last time I saw him, he must've gotten only zombies on his way here, which weren't a lot.
I reloaded my Crossbow and Merry did the same before shooting once again, this time eliminating all the zombies which left the iron golems who slowly got closer to us.
Just to be sure, both of us tower up three blocks and continue to shoot at them.
But for some reason, the fireworks didn't seem to have the same effect as with the zombies, and now that I was looking closer I could see that their eyes were black instead of the usual red.
Those weren't normal iron golems.
They arrived at our tower and their reach was farther than we expected, so we had to put one more block under us to be safe from their iron arms.
Some of them tried to climb on top of each other to reach us, but the knockback of our fireworks was strong enough to keep them down.
At this pace we would kill them in a few minutes, and we only needed to use such a simple tactic.
Soon an arrow landed on my shoulder, I almost fell off my tower because of it. I looked to see who shot it, but it was Bobby loading another arrow on his crossbow.
How is that possible, he didn't have it the first time he appeared, where did he get it?
I quickly made a wall to block any upcoming arrows and yelled at Merry to do the same.
Fireworks were still being shot at the golems who now had cracks, but I looked once more at Bobby only to see the Zombie Lord kneeling at him asking for permission to do something.
Bobby nodded his head and reached his arm to the giant head.
Suddenly the Zombie Lord was engulfed in black flames, and his eyes were uncovered once again, he started to laugh loudly then looked directly at Merry.
"Merry, the Zombie Lord got some kind of power up and now wants to attract you. Proceed with the plan, be careful not to die!"
"Shit! I was hoping I didn't have to go in that room, ok good luck with saving Bobby as well."
She placed two more blocks on her wall before it was completely destroyed once the Zombie Lord jumped towards her.
Fortunately, the wall was strong enough to stop his powerful attack and gave enough breathing room for Merry to jump off her tower taking no damage.
"What's the problem big monster, too many arrows in your head from our last fight?"
"Your mockery shall not work ok me Hero, the Void has blessed me with unimaginable power. It won't last forever, but it would be enough for me to consume you."
While the Zombie Lord gave his monologue, Merry drank some potions and started to run in the opposite direction at great speed.
The Zombie Lord only smiled maniacally and jumped after the running Hero.
Surprisingly the golems stopped and then Bobby was getting closer and closer to me, before long I could hear his voice once more.
But his voice was different than what I remembered, it was much deeper, and with each word he spoke, I could feel the power in my bones.
Creature of the Void, why are you here?