POV: Bobby
I was running back with my horse after I realized that the System wasn't working anymore.
The excruciating pain I felt in my soul was something that I wouldn't forget anytime soon, and the only thing that I could think of was the pain my daughter felt!
No child should experience pain like that!
I was also worried about the Stone Kingdom and the world in general.
From what I could tell in the villages I passed, everyone was in the same situation as me, which only brought more worries since I hadn't been teleported back home yet.
Did something happen at the castle?
It's been a week since I felt that pain, and to my shame I still haven't found Trader to solve the portal problem.
Where does that man live?
I had a hunch that he's somehow connected to all of this but I couldn't imagine how it could happen.
Or maybe I was too afraid of the truth.
Suddenly, I felt my guts being pulled, and I wasn't on my horse any longer, but in a familiar-looking office.
"Finally! What took you so long to teleport me?"
I turned around and saw some unexpected guests.
"Daddy!"
My sweet little angel came running into my arms, and I felt happiness and relief rise the more she squeezed me.
"I'm glad to see you well my little princess. I hope you've been well while daddy was away."
"Yes, but I missed daddy very much."
My heart was melting, and I couldn't been happier.
After the hug was done, I turned my eyes towards the remaining 2 people in the room.
I didn't expect to see them in the same room.
My wife Elisabeth and Trader my friend.
"If you 2 are in the same room to teleported me, that means either something bad has happened or you just remembered about me."
Those bastards looked away!
They completely forgot about me the poor man who was drowning in worries.
I'm sure they brought Ariel here to soften the blow, what a devious plan.
It worked, but only because it's Ariel.
"So what happened? How bad is the situation in the Kingdome?"
"Not that bad anymore. With Trader's help, we managed to give the people a new purpose and prepared them for the big war."
Well, a week has passed, so what was worse already passed.
But what was she talking about? A big war? Did the Coral Kingdom finally snap?
Elisabeth took Ariel out of the room, leaving me alone with Trader, who had an amused smile but apologetic eyes.
"Ok, I forgive you for not teleporting me as soon as stuff got bad, but you have to promise me that you'll tell me the whole story without holding back."
His eyes were back at me, but now they were narrowing.
"Are you sure about that?"
Now it was my time to look a little hesitant.
Whenever Trader warned me about something, that meant it was really big, and he didn't want to laugh at my reactions.
Should I stop before it was too late?
No, I'm done with running away. I'm the future king of this country, I have to be prepared for anything.
"Give me the short version, I'll decide if I can take it afterwards."
"Probably a smart decision. So I broke the Bedrock floor of the Nether, which resulted in the death of the Wither, and the release of the Ender Dragon or, more know as the ruler of the Void. Now I have a friend who became the God of the Nether but can only slow down the coming of the Void for 1 year. When I told the System that, it split into 2 people, and now everything is in chaos, and we need to prepare for this final battle."
Yeah, why did I expect anything besides extreme actions from Trader?
I was feeling a growing headache now.
"Ok, I need some good food and more details to the story."
He let out a loud laugh while we got out of the office and walked towards the kitchen.
On the way there, we talked about the kingdom and how it was doing. I also asked if the other kingdoms were holding on well in those hard times.
Luckily, Trader was quick to act and sent the 2 heroes in each Kingdom to help while he got here to help us.
Unfortunately, once he is done here, he will leave for a 'training ark' as he said it, to build himself a new body.
I didn't know what he was talking about, but I just nodded along like I understood.
After I had my fill and the chance to relax my tense muscles.
We got back to my main office which was now filled with mountains of papers and books.
"Ohh boy, this is going to take a while to finish."
"I don't envy your position, my friend."
Neither do I my friend, but I still have to do it.
"So let's get back to the real story."
I planned on working on a few papers while he was in the background, but unfortunately, I couldn't do that since every word he spoke made me stop to look at him and ask with my eyes if he was serious.
After 2 hours, the story was done, and I could only look at the papers with tired eyes.
I don't think I could start anything today after I heard this story.
"You told this to my wife as well?"
"A much weaker version, I didn't tell her about Alexa and how the System split into 2 people who now are walking amongst people."
Those 2 are very important pieces of information but are not needed to tell the urgency of the story.
I could understand why he chose not to tell her this.
"And is this everything that you know?"
"Oh, I know more stuff, but the other party doesn't want to reveal itself so I won't be saying anything. But don't worry, she's just taking care of me and doesn't care what happens to everything else besides her."
At this point, I didn't even want to ask, If it wasn't related to the destruction of this world, then I didn't care.
"Then we'll have to prepare for this battle. I would send a few miners to get iron and diamonds. Gold should be a priority as well, to trade with the Piglings for the alchemy ingredients. Do portals work now, or do we need to use your mace every time?"
"Don't worry, that's what I've been doing with Elizabeth for the past week. After calming everyone down, we distracted them with mining and Crafting trainings, as for the portals, they are now working normally."
That was good to hear.
It's good to have capable people around you to help in those kinds of situations.
"We'll need to expand our reach in the Nether. Our tribe won't be able to keep up with the demand."
"Don't worry, I have a literal God as a friend in that dimension, and I have to talk with the Mad Prince anyway, so we could come to a trading agreement."
Oh yeah, Trader tended to have outrageous solutions to those kinds of problems.
But I wasn't going to complain about them now.
"Then I'll prepare the soldiers, the time is short after all."
"Then I'll get back to work as well. Good luck with your stuff!"
Just like that, he left for the Nether, and I decided to meet with my wife and talk more details about what we should do.
---
A few weeks have passed, and quite a few things has happened.
Trader has managed to get in contact with the Mad Prince and got a deal between us before going on a trading spree, only to suddenly disappear with no way to contact him.
It seems that more Monster Lords have appeared in the World, and now everyone has to deal with them.
Because of them, there aren't a lot of merchants that travel around, and information about the other Kingdoms is very scarce.
The only thing we know is that the Sandstone Kindom is dealing with the Creeper Lord with various degrees of success, and the Coral Kingdom had a big battle with the Shadow Lord a few days ago.
We don't know the results, but we know that a big explosion was heard near the capital and everyone went silent.
That leaves only Lady Phantom from what Alexa and Trader describe to be something similar to a blue bat.
She had an dangerous ability to cross different dimensions, but made the mistake of traveling through the Nether to get here faster. Only to be caught by Alexa and lucked, in that dimension.
Now, we can't make new portals to the Nether, but we can still use the old ones.
And as long as we don't have to deal with the Monster Lady, I was happy with this deal.
Unfortunately, she can't be killed that easily since she can phase through walls and such.
And since Trader disappeared without a trace, there's nobody powerful enough to kill it in one swing.
The Mad Prince would try, but he's too concentrated on other projects against the Ender Dragon.
In conclusion, everyone was busy with something, but nobody knew what everyone else was doing.
Because of that, we were not moving efficiently, we needed to gather in one place, tell what we knew to each other, deal with the Monster Lords, and finally prepare for the final battle.
And we were blessed to be in a position where we didn't have a lot of distractions, the people began to get used to their new life, and the Monster Lady was dealt with.
The nobles took a little longer to understand that their skills were long gone and they were not special anymore, but everything else was sorted.
That's why I talked with my wife and decided to go to each country and talk with their leader to see what we could do as a team in this situation.
She would be staying at home to handle anything that could pop on our side, while I would teleport to the other Kingdoms to find out how they were holding on.
That's right, I wasn't going to use a horse or walk there. Instead, I was going to use the same method Trader used, to travel from place to place.
I have to say, it was very convenient even if it was a little bit expensive.
Trader was also nice enough to leave me the coordinates of a few important places, and with the Alexa's help, I could even teleport to the Sandstone capital.
"Ok honey, I have everything on me, food, perls, lapis, papers, and gifts. See you in 2 days if things go good, or a week of things are not so good."
"I'll be waiting, please take care."
With one final kiss, I placed the Perl in the Enchanted square and activated it.
Suddenly I was in the middle of the desert with the capital in my sight.
Not wanting to waste any time I quickly got to work and passed the guards by showing them my credentials as a diplomat.
Once I got inside I was greeted by Merry with a tierd smile, and even had the chance to see a part of the fallen System.
Alex.
She looked as tierd as the other women in the room.
Not wanting to tire them even more, I told them the reason I was here and a few methods we used to pacify our people.
Unfortunately, the problem weren't the people but the Creeper Lord who was a manace to the desert.
But Cleopatra promised to teleport at the designated place in 2 days if I gave her the coordinates.
Happy that I finished everything so fast, I gave them what they wanted and wished them good luck before teleporting to the Coral Kingdom.
Once the Pearl was broken I wasn't in a desert anymore but a forest with a floating city and a huge hole on my right.
The hole was so large and so deep that I couldn't see its bottom.
I don't remember reports about a new mine besides the capital.
Not wanting to get distracted, I went to the city and asked one of the guards if I could meet with president Sun, while also showing him my papers as a diplomat.
"Oh, you mean President Daniel?"
What happend to this place?