So... I may have lied-- ... but uh, things are settling, don't worry. 

✧✰✧

'Xiomara, how could you be so utterly insolent?!' A pair of massive hands signed. They had clapped together, the sound echoing all throughout the nothingness that was the Sanctum.

'I-I'm terribly sorry, my Lord!' Signed another pair of hands, so much smaller. Ones that belonged to a trembling winged creature, his snowy white feathers covering his entire arched back. 'I looked just about everywhere! I've been in so many worlds— so many voids— that I've lost count! Xelqua isn't in any of them! But— but I'll keep looking for him!! I'll find him! A-and I'll make him pay!'

'It is our job to give punishments to the unfaithful.' Another pair of giant hands replied. The duo, towering the little Watcher, was of course none other than the Great Watchers, the leaders of the most perfect species. For the softer one of the two to speak so harshly, it was enough to make Xiomara tremble all the more.

'You good for nothing child!' The Great Lord scolded. 'We should have never let you be born, you pathetic excuse for a Watcher! Now get back to work and give us back what we told you to or you will regret it!'

The male scrambled to his feet, though he was trembling so much it was a wonder how he hadn't tipped right over and fallen back down. He quickly smoothed out his appearance with a glowing purple hand before bowing. 'Y-yes my Lord, my Lady... I won't fail you again, I swear it!'

'If that is to be a lie...' the Lady began. But then she shook her hand as though to dismiss the idea. 'Now, do not make any more haste. Return with the traitor this time or we will have your head.' Another dismissive wave of her hand caused the Watcher to bolt out, needing no further warning.

✧✰✧

Around another meeting table. Each and every hand was raised, Xisuma walking around the table to ensure he was catching everyone's vote correctly. "It's unanimous, then." He said, causing everyone to put their hands back down. "With the next update, we will be moving to our seventh season." The decision made caused a round of clapping.

"Next decision: shall our spawn and shopping district be in a mooshroom island? Raise your hands if you agree." Xisuma continued. Joe was first to put his hand up, quickly followed by hermit after hermit, the vote quickly looking to be unanimous as well. Except... not quite. There was one who hugged his sides instead.

"Scar, you don't want to?" X questioned, tilting his head. He didn't like putting people on the spot per se, but if he didn't want any hard feelings if someone was strongly against something for any reason.

"I hate mycelium..." the grown man pouted, trying and failing to slouch in the chair he was strapped into. "It's stinky and an ugly color."

"We can always replace it to grass later." False assured with a small grin.

"Just think of it this way Scar: no more creeper building inspectors!" Grian chuckled, lightly bumping into his friends chair.

"Fine..." Scar mumbled, though he continued to pout. "But I'll have you know, when I was a little boy, nice in innocent, I threw up because the stench reached my nose hairs and pinched me right in the face. Ever since, it's been my second least favorite block." 

Such a dramatic story had many of the Hermits chuckling to themselves. That included X, who had to take a few deep breaths to regain the rightful posture of an admin. "Then it's settled... the shopping district will be in a mooshroom biome. Now, about our third and final proposal... Each ten by ten plot in the shopping district costing one diamond block to prevent a massive expanse of stores, yet not being so limiting to only allow one store each. Please raise your hand once again for yes." And that time, the vote was indeed agreed upon by everyone once more.

✧✰✧

It was perhaps to no one's surprise that the last to arrive was the Great Ones. Not to the host, Enderllion, who waited with her body curled around her eggs. Not to the King of the Listeners, who took the time to greet the Royal Wardens, Elder Guardian, and with reluctance, Vexes. It was only after he had talked with each one for awhile that the last party finally arrived.

"It took you long enough." The Listener sighed as he heard them open up a portal large enough for them to walk through and come into the True End. "Do you not realize that time is of the essence? There is simply no time to be fashionably late." He scolded, turning around to look at them.

"We are always busy leading our people, unlike you, your highness." The Lady replied. Her tone was almost innocent, as though that hadn't been implying that none of the other leaders took care of their own people, especially the Listener.

"We did not come here to sit and watch and listen to you two bicker like children." Enderllion hissed, letting steam billow out her mouth just enough to show the severity of her threat. "In any case, regardless of their reason for being late, there are much more important things at hand."

"Tick! tick! tick!" A Vex that had come to rest on the dragon's head exclaimed. With a shake of her head, it flew away, going to join back in with it's hive.

"Time is counting down!" Another jittered.

"Better hurry! No time to waste!" A third finished.

"The Vexes are right." Came a low growl, one belonging to one of the five Wardens that had come. "With every day that passes, we come closer to The Destruction."

"And that is why I've called you all here once more." The Listener interjected, finding that this was a good time to really call everyone's attention. He walked towards the center of the messy circle the others had made, undoing his bandages enough that he stood a bit taller than the Mother of Dragons. "Using my magic of hearing, I can track roughly where this force is. It is like a cloud that has been spread out a great distance; perhaps a hundredth of the size of the Main Hub. I cannot pin it exactly, but it gives me enough of an idea of where--"

"The number of worlds total over one billion." The Lord of the Watchers cut in, his voice just as flat as ever. He paused, allowing the others to let it sink in. "Not even we know the exact number any longer. We have lost count, but surely it is at least that much if you include those long abandoned. In other words, this detection of yours is near useless."

"It is not!" The King shot back, turning to glare directly at both of the Watchers. "Having any idea about where it is is much better than none at all! And, even more videlicet, it has led me to a rather alarming realization..." He closed his eyes, feeling the temptation to fight with his mortal enemies some more, but forcing himself to calm down.

"What is it?" A little Vex asked somewhere nearby, prompting him to open his eyes. With this size, the tiny creature looked a little bigger than a speck to him.

"Within the last year, seemingly out of nowhere... it doubled in size instantaneously." The creature explained, leaving any speculations he had of this matter out.

"But how could this be?" The Elder Guardian exclaimed from where he was submerged in water.

"Your guess is as good as mine." The King only replied. Such a reply was a pointed one, his gaze following the ones whose minds he had read.

"What do you mean?" One of the Vexes in the cluster he stared at asked.

"What do you meaannnn?"

"We don't know nothin'!"

"Hey, that sounded like Ry--"

"I never said you knew anything." The King asked, raising an eyebrow in suspicion. Checkmate, the Vexes had nearly told on themselves. "But there is something that you do know... Do you want to tell the truth you hid, or should I?"

The Great Lady only sighed, shaking her hand dismissively. "This is why us Watchers are sworn to the truth. It makes things much simpler." She nearly gloated in her righteous ways, causing the Listener to glare at her. He decided to shake it off, though, turning his attention back the ever-moving swarm of blue creatures. He would not get distracted.

"The Convex lives! The Convex lives!" One of the Vexes sang, doing a loop in the air in excitement.

"They were alive the entire time!" Another one followed.

"Ryan and Cub are--"

"We know." Enderllion cut them off before even the Listener could. She let some smoke billow out of her mouth as a warning to not use any distractions to circumvent the truth, as was common for the Vex. "That's all you guys ever talk about."

"As if they weren't the ones to 'kill' their precious Convex to begin with." even one of the Wardens couldn't help but grumble.

"Did not!" The Vexes screeched.

"That was another generation! It's completely different!"

"Yeah!"

"Unfair comparison! Unfair comparison!"

This time, the great Dragon couldn't help but roar, for real this time. She pounded her feet on the end stone as she stood up from her nest, quaking the ground just enough for all those on the ground to feel it. "Answer the question right now or so help me, I will scorch each and every one of you! Do I make myself clear?" And it seemed to put the trouble makers back in line, because she was greeted with silence. It was a few moments before she received a timid reply.

"Our... our magic... Something happened to it."

"It's... like it shifted."

"Different!"

"Strange!"

"Unfamiliar!"

The elder guardian, narrowing his eye., asked, "How do you mean?" 

"Diamonds don't taste as good!"

"They lost their shine!"

"I feel depressed."

"Life has little meaning."

"The diamonds!"

"Ours is weakened as well." The Lord over the Watchers stepped in. Even they would admit this, if only to get the Vexes to stop talking. It worked wonderfully, all the creatures (Vexian and not) stopping whatever they were doing to look at the Watchers. "Watchers are born of our magic, and in death their magic is returned to us in ritual. We never received our Champion's magic, but we can still sense it. If feels... corrupted. It is as though the very edges of our finger tips . Is it similar for you?" To which all the Vexes answered at once, some saying no, but most saying yes.

"Different."

"A bad change!"

"The worst!" A few said.

In all the ruckus, the Ender Dragon lifted her head once more from her nest. "Does that mean..." she began to say, letting herself re-evaluate her thoughts to ensure they made sense. "The Entity first got access to a Watcher's magic, and then the Vexes' somehow... is that how it intends to destroy all of us and the worlds? To corrupt each one of our species slowly, one by one, like a virus?"

"Would it corrupt this... human, you speak of, that can stop it, the same way?" One of the Wardens asked.

"That'd be game over!" The Vexes shrieked.

"It currently resides on the outskirts, where mostly retired worlds are. It has begun to move towards more and more active worlds, however. " The Listener King explained. "I don't know much about this.., plan of its, but it could be a possibility."

"We must protect him!" The Vexes began to chant.

"The Vexes are right." the Ender dragon agreed. She lowered her head once more, adjusting her wing slightly to cocoon her young better. "We need to come together to prevent this instead of relying fully on idiotic ideas like friendship."

"Unfortunately, we do not know where he is. He fled from us and our incompetent subjects have not been able to locate him so far. We would eliminate them, but..." The female Watcher only sighed. Time was of the essence, unfortunately. They could not afford to.

"I haven't heard him, either." The Listener replied, stealing a glance at the Watchers before daring to voice his thoughts. "And how would killing your own yield any better results? If your majesties cannot find him, nor can I, that can only mean the First Sign Of Destruction resides in a Suma void. The only two ways to find him is if the Void itself would tell us, or for us to meticulously search each world in person." A lingering silence remained in the air, even for the all-too-vocal Vexes. The Void did not respond of course, it never did. 

"Punishing slackers teaches our other subjects to perform as they should. We cannot have our people in disarray like yours. The worlds depend on us and our updates." The Watchers explained once it was clear that the Void would not respond just as it never did. 

"Children, both of you." The dragon hissed, not bothering to even move this time like the tired mother it was, with three too many kids. "I did not come here to listen or watch or whatever else you bicker and fight. Consider this your final warning." She blew air through her nostrils, producing steam once more. She waited until her words had the intended effect -- to cause the three troublemakers visibly stopping in their tracks from the insult-- until she wheeled the conversation back. The faster she could be done with them all, the better. "If we knew where he was, I could bestow my blessing onto him, but alas..."

"I do not suppose you could simply bless all the worlds..." The Elder Guardian tried with a frown. He was sure even as he had the thought that it simply would not work, but perhaps proposing it anyway would give birth a more through plan.  

"How many billions of players would that be?" Enderllion asked, her deep purple eyes showing this was indeed a negative. 

"He's in a void!" One of the Vexes reminded. 

"A suma!" Another exclaimed.

"Yeah, that narrows it down, right?" A final one asked. 

"Not to mention, we know that The First is either Watcher-esque in nature if not a Watcher itself. We needn't worry about clusters of worlds that are exclusively for certain types of higher species and their bastards. An 'elven' village would not accept him. He couldn't live underwater. He is far too noisy to live among Wardens and too large to reside even among the bastards that were born from Vexes." The Listener King reasoned, continuing to widdle down the list. 

"Your people would accept even the most villainous of players as family." One of the Watchers shot. The king couldn't even begin to retaliate before the Mother of Dragons beat him to it, standing up fully to giving both of the holy creatures her harshest glare. 

"I thought I told you two there would be no more warnings." She growled. But yet, the mother was perhaps too tired to deal with it. She glanced down at her eggs, small and frail, before wrapping herself around them once more. The sooner she could rid herself of all these rather unwelcome visitors, the better. "But that many... if I could bestow a blessing on each world rather than each player..." A soft hum. "If it were that many, it would take me and my daughters awhile, but it could be done. However, it is not like we can select a random player from each world and magically choose him."

"There are certain ways to lure him out, at least in a way that he would receive the blessing. Having been in his head, I more or less understand a lot of his phycology." The Listener King offered. 

"Could we not use that for his capture, then?" One of the Wardens questioned. That only caused the King to shake his head.

"I am afraid not. Anything that doesn't seem completely harmless he would surely avoid. But a blessing, he would not even need to come out of hiding for. It would be rather simple to set up; even the Vexes could prepare it."

"You want us to?"

"But we aren't Ender Dragons!"

"We cannot bless!"

"We will collect donations, though."

"But at the same time, you are by far the most plentiful of the Higher Species, are you not?" The King asked in turn. "You can be found in nearly every world as well. Surely the task would be best suited for you. The Ender Dragons would take care of the blessings themselves of course, you just need to set the trap. And while you are at it, it would be best if you all started to search for him as well."

"Will we be getting paid?"

"That sounds like a lot of work."

"Why can't you do it?"

"I won't do it until I get diamonds!"

It was the male Watcher who spoke next. Before he opened his mouth, he fluttered his wings to show his annoyance. "You will be getting paid... in that you have a hope that you will not face certain death. If you are dead, your dirty diamonds will not matter, materialistic fools."

"Exactly." The King nodded. "Now, I'll show you all how to set it up..."