This problem was more than a demon.

Or at least, that was my theory.

When I had returned from the End in my own bed, startling poor little Gandalf, I had immediately gone over to Blue's empire. It was completely empty. I told myself that she was in the mines or something.

I only knew something was off when I flew over the Cod Empire on the way home. Jimmy was also missing.

At this point, I was pretty worried.

So I headed to Lizzy's base to talk to her about her missing ally. She was also gone.

Panicked, I went to the Grimlands to make sure that my closest ally was there. FWhip was, and he agreed to help me see if anyone else had gone missing.

We checked everyone's bases, even Sausage's, who we no longer trusted. We discovered that Pearl, Scott, and Joel were missing as well. That was half of the Emperors. I connected the dots, and realized that all the Third Lifers plus two had disappeared.

Oh, no...

They weren't asleep this time. They were just gone - vanished off the face of the earth. I was almost positive that they were all in a world like the Third Life one Blue had described to me, where they would be imprisoned and influenced by the Watcher until they all died and had to be released.

If this was a loop, if it had and would happen again...

It was probably time to reach out to the Listener.

The Listener was who gave me my wizard powers. They just looked like a muted grey silhouette when it happened, but that was probably in case I didn't accept. They wanted to hide their identity until they knew which side I was on. Since I had accepted the magic, the Listener had visited me in dreams to give advice several times. Although I had never reached out to them, it was probably possible and I had never needed to more than now.

I had bigger priorities for now, though. I would have to contact the Listener at night, when I would be in the Dream Void. But I had plenty to do during the day, too.

After the Ender Dragon fight, I had grabbed the egg from its place atop the portal. I needed it to hatch so that the power of the End would once again become divided between the Dragon and Xornoth.

I built a large platform on top of a mountain, where I could easily see it from anywhere in the Crystal Cliffs. On it, I put a pedestal and several pillars to ring it. Then I carefully placed the egg on the pedestal. I surrounded the pedestal with lava to keep the egg warm and magical crystals to protect it from thieves.

That night, I enchanted another crystal to help me sleep because, well, now that Blue was gone I knew it would be nearly impossible. I also grabbed the crystal I had used to contact Blue, at the beginning when the worst of my worries was that she was in a coma. Those were simpler days.

Then it occurred to me that if Blue was in the Dream Void, I might be able to communicate with her.

The moon was the main source of long-distance communication between people. It powered our communication devices that let us contact each other. And it would let me talk to the Listener.

I was eager to jump in bed and get the information I needed. But I didn't quite get what I was hoping for. Instead of starting out in the Dream Void like I usually did, I was immediately pulled into a dream.

I was up on the highest level of my tower, where I could see all of the Crystal Cliffs and part of the Grimlands. I was writing in my journal all about the Ender Dragon fight and the egg. While writing about it, I glanced down at the pedestal and saw an unwanted intruder.

Xornoth himself was standing outside the ring of pillars and amethyst, staring directly at me. Then he reached straight through the force field toward the egg.

I gasped and flew down, shouting at the demon to get away from the egg even though I knew he wouldn't listen. When I landed, he was gone. The egg was fine.

Then I turned around to go back and Xornoth was right behind me. When I screamed, he laughed, a terrifying sound, and then suddenly I was no longer at the Crystal Cliffs.

I was in a tiny room with no windows that was so corrupted that I could feel it in the very air. Alcoves in the wall contained two zombified piglins. There was one more, with a pressure plate.

I couldn't control my dream self. I stepped on the pressure plate. It seemingly did nothing, until I tried to walk out of the alcove. Then I found my exit blocked by some sort of invisible shield.

"Finally..." the voice of Xornoth boomed through the room. "Another test subject."

"No! Let me out!" I yelled, pounding on the shield.

Manic laughter was the only response.

"No! Help! Is there anyone there? Help!"

The scene faded.

My heart pounded as I ran through black nothingness, my feet pounding against some unknown material found only in the Dream Void. I momentarily forgot about the communication device that had been in my pocket when I fell asleep, and was still there. All I wanted was to escape the demon and the corrupted room.

I only stopped when I ran out of breath. Then I remembered why I wanted to be in the Dream Void.

I pulled out the new device, a large hunk of amethyst, and breathed a spell. Then I whispered, "The Listener."

A single silver word floated in the foggy center of the crystal. Unavailable.

I had specifically made this to contact people in the Dream Void. Why wasn't it working?

Frustrated, I said the name of someone I knew was asleep: "FWhip Tay."

Suddenly I was no longer in the Dream Void. I was back in the room with the alcoves, but I wasn't the one imprisoned. FWhip was.

"What?"

The voice of Xornoth echoed through the room. "How are you here?"

"Gem, get out of here!" FWhip said, his voice muted by the force field.

I had been powerless when I was in the alcove. But now I had my staff. I thrust it through the force field, grabbed a startled FWhip's arm, and said the first name I thought of. "Gandalf!"

My vision flickered. For a second, I saw a guy in a tall grey hat talking to some very small people. They stared at us, then the words error: wrong universe flashed across my view and we were in a very strange catnip meadow.

I was pretty sure that this took me into people's dreams, not just let me contact them. It was more powerful than I had realized.

"So, what just happened?" FWhip said.

"Uhh... I don't know, exactly."

"And why are we in cat paradise?"

"Because... well, it's a long story. The short version is, I made a crystal that lets me enter people's dreams."

"Ooh, let's bug Sausage with it."

"No! This is risky magic that we don't know anything about! We can't abuse it! If we use it at all, it's to find help or to find the missing Emperors."

"Who would we get help from? The people that decided to stay behind at Legacy and X Life? They're probably deleted by now! We're on our own."

Deleted was the term we used for permanently dead. Gone. Would never be seen again in any world, Realm, or Reality.

"I have an idea," I said quietly. "But I can't reach that person for some reason."

"Okay, then that's a failed attempt. What will we do?"

I had another idea, one that might have been riskier than just facing Xornoth alone. "Realm hopping."

"What hopping?"

"Realm hopping. Pearl, Pix, and I used to do it, before everyone went missing again."

"First of all, what is a Realm?"

"It's a group of worlds that are inhabited by the same people, for example we're in a Realm that consists of X Life, and the Empires. And there are others out there, but I've only visited one besides our own."

"You have been Realm hopping... with Pix, mine and Sausage's sworn enemy... and it didn't cross your mind to tell me? And you go after me for building the dungeon in the stronghold!"

"I would have told you except someone I met in that other Realm told me not to tell anyone! We know that Pearl went to Legacy from somewhere else, that's why I invited her. And Pix barged in while we were getting ready to teleport once and threatened to tell if we didn't bring him along. And you can't tell a soul about this, not even Sausage if we manage to cure him. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, I do. But this sounds really risky, so maybe we should try to get the others back before we go to other Realms. Sound cool? Good."

"Okay then... grab on."

He caught hold of my sleeve.

I pulled out the device and said, "Bluemoon Tay."

Unavailable.

It was the middle of the night, how was she not asleep?

I frowned. "Uhh... Lizzy Shadow."

Unavailable.

FWhip's grip relaxed a little.

"Jimmy Solidarity?"

Unavailable.

"Joel Sma-"

Enough, said a voice.

"Uh-oh," FWhip said, letting go of my sleeve.

I control the moon. I control your access to these people, and if I choose not to grant it, then that's too bad for you.

"Who do you think you are? Some kind of goddess?" FWhip yelled at the sky.

No, but close.

"Why won't you let me talk to my sister?" I demanded.

She is otherwise occupied. As you should be.

Then the catnip fields disappeared, FWhip disappeared, and I was alone in my bed.