The goblin didn’t realize it but he sat in that spot for days staring at the flickering soul, the soul of the woman he loved. No matter what he could do or say, it would amount to nothing. He thought about feeding the soul to empower her but it was already in a dangerous equilibrium, and he feared altering it would just hasten the destruction.

  His fingers clenched so tightly his sharp claws pierced deep into his palm. “I find venting to be the best action for rage and helplessness.” Thoth had been lurking for a while, and Armand didn’t even bother to glare away. The demon snapped his fingers and the dust from around the room collected itself into a pile that slowly morphed into a figure. The fat gelatinous form of the faux king of goblins, Glordon.

  Armand knew that this was just an illusion of the bastard but he couldn’t help himself as he pulled his spear staff from his side and jabbed it into the fat bastard’s gut. He pulled it out and did it again and again; the bits of dust that made it up became pulverized to such a fine state they became invisible to the naked eye as the entire dungeon rumbled.

  “This is messier than i planned…” Thoth got a little worried; he liked reading books here in the main room and the furniture was at risk. The demon snapped his fingers and they ended up down in the massive cavern meant for the coming elves.

  More Glordon’s rose from the dirt, as well as a chair that Thoth immediately took his seat in. Armand continued to pulverize, destroy, and stab to his heart’s content. The demon pulled several skewers from one of his pockets and slowly munched and savored them.

  Unsatisfied with just physical violence, tornadoes began to rise, lightning fell, and flames flooded every corner of the room. Thousands of dirt golems were created and subsequently destroyed in an attempt to quench the goblins' rage.

  No matter how many he slaughtered, it didn’t feel right. It was hollow. He eventually was just sitting there beating one of the Glordon golems with his fists while an infinite army of them stood waiting for their turn.

  Eventually the goblin just stopped; the rage wasn’t gone but it was quelled. “Feel better, my master?” Thoth asked; he had greatly enjoyed the show and enjoyed feeding off the residual anger.

  “Yes and no,” The goblin stretched his sore and aching body. He looked around and the army of goblin kings was still around him. “Get rid of these disgusting bastards.” He had grown sick of even seeing that fat goblin’s face, even if he was beating on it.

  “Very well.” Thoth snapped his fingers as they collapsed back into a pile of earth. “That was fun, Master; you should do it more often.”

  “While it helped manage the accumulated anger, it did nothing productive.” The goblin stretched. “How long has it been since our guests left…”

  “About a month.” Thoth replied, “I had almost run out of snacks; I was becoming worried.

  “They should be home soon and I still haven’t finished my work.” The goblin chided himself; he began to head to the workshop to create a magic object to simulate day and night for the elves but after a few wobbly steps, he fell to his knees.

  “You can’t fight for nearly a month straight and expect to keep going like nothing happened.” Thoth let out a laugh as he approached the collapsed goblin. Armand collapsed backwards and had long lost consciousness before he hit the ground.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “Is he done?” Uriel came out of the darkness; he came as soon as he sensed the vibrations of battle dissipated, but it was still a long hike.

  “Yep,” Thoth replied, “tuckered himself right out.” While holding the goblin in a princess carry.

  “Good, then I will uphold my end of the bargain and not tell him about your ‘snacks.’” The demon had been sneaking souls from the dungeon core on occasion, only those of animals but still troublesome if caught.

  “I can’t believe you blackmailed me; I don’t know if I should be angry or proud.” The fake demon wiped a tear from his face with a third arm that sprouted from his back.

  “When in doubt, go to an expert.” The angel responded with his usual monotone. “And who better to deal with negative emotions than a demon?”

  “I can’t even argue with that logic,” Thoth said as the third hand snapped and he teleported back. Uriel looked at the set of stairs and a silent sigh came from the angelic construct as he started the lengthy walk back upstairs.

  Armand slept for a week after his outburst; it was restless but it was sleep nonetheless. Thoth continued to enjoy snacks from the core; the reason he could survive with so many enemies is that he knew how to only take what he needed.

  Eventually the goblin dragged himself from his bed; he walked stiffly down the hall to his personal bath. He soaked in the hot water, and he finally regained a little of the flexibility in his joints. The goblin then went to the kitchen, where Thoth sat expectantly. Armand sighed but relented as he snapped his fingers and a small mountain of the demon’s favorite skewers appeared before him.

  “Much obliged.” Thoth said as he balanced the overloaded plate on one hand. Armand began to make breakfast. Apparently eggs and porridge were more traditionally associated with breakfast, according to his human friends.

  So he decided to give it a try. Isolde particularly recommended a dollop of the sweet stuff that came from the insect hives, which was called honey. He had been stuck on many recipes since he didn’t know what honey was and he was thrilled at the knowledge.

  I’ll make this for her too as soon as I save her, the goblin said to himself. While it hurt knowing Angelica was in pain, he unknowingly had a glimmer of hope, hope that he could save her and they could have a life together.

  He shook his head; he could save those fantasies for another time. He needed to create that artificial sun for the elves. While he still had time even after they got home, he wanted to show the space off to Theoden ahead of time.

  The sunstones were quite light so he intended to create something similar to the Reader but imbedded with a large number of sunstones. He made his way to the workshop. First the sunstone; he was about to summon it there but then considered how he would get said construct down there.

  He called several sentinels down to the workshop and then he began transporting his tools down to the elven cave. Once down there, he summoned a large sunstone and began carving the appropriate spell circles into it.

  After a couple of hours, the amber stone was covered in lines that were promptly filled with alchemical gold. He took a soul clone and shoved it in. The amber orb began to float up. “Let’s see if this works out.”

  Once it got up out of vision, it began to glow; if it were not for the gray ceiling, it would have been just like being outside. “That can be fixed,” The goblin smiled as he willed the ceiling to take on a blue hue. The sun construct even emitted cloud magic, so if one didn’t look too closely, it was uncannily like being outside.

  “They’re going to love this…” The goblin sighed in satisfaction of his good work. Before he could think much, he suddenly felt a calling, and a huge smile covered his face. They had set up the gate and it was time to have a new dungeon entrance.