Ziplocke exited the Rift Portal onto the barren Abyssal landscape. For as far as the eye could see were rolling hills of red sand dotted with onyx-black rocks and twisted trees made out of dark glass. The sky above was red, and it bathed the area in a perpetual dusk. Ziplocke’s hands glowed with a crackling dark purple energy. He felt great! Finally, he was free from the curse and in his true form. A Goblin Lord and he had additional power. It’s borrowed power, Ziplocke reminded himself, and the Goblin grinned. He was home, and more importantly, he didn’t explode when he consumed the Hold Core, which worked! It was a theory, and, well, he felt great! Ziplocke snickered as he pictured the look on his face if he did explode.


    “Wouldn’t that be funny?!?” He cried. His shrill voice echoed eerily across the barren landscape, and his ears pulled back.


    What if he attracted Bloodlings? Or Howlers? On instinct, he scrambled to hide under a jagged black rock but then remembered. He was no longer cursed to a weaker form! He emerged to stand out in the open.


    “Let them come!” Ziplocke challenged the barren space. “I will show them my might!”


    Intricate Rune chains glowed red along his green body. Not only was he back to his true form, but he also had the additional power from the Hold Core! Well, that he should save. Ziplocke would need it for the Goblin uprising!


    “What’s the plan?” Ziplocke asked himself. His small red eyes darted back and forth.


    Step one, overthrow the Fiends and return the Goblins as the rulers of the Abyssal plane. Step two, use the Rift aspect to return to the Stronghold, and lastly, step three, to reclaim the Stronghold! Ziplocke rubbed his hands together. Delicious soul energy will now belong to him and his brethren! With narrowed red eyes, he scanned his surroundings. For too long, the Fiends stripped this land bare of its resources and left his kind to scavenge.


    Ziplocke scurried through the twisted landscape. The Goblin traveled for many minutes with his small eyes darting back and forth, searching. Ziplocke was patient, but worry began to gnaw at his heart. Was I too late? He wondered. No, time was much slower here in the Abyssal plane. The time Ziplocke was in the material plane would have been a week at the most here. But a lot can happen in a week, Ziplocke reminded himself. Did he portal to the wrong spot? The Goblin began to panic until he saw a familiar copse of glass trees. These glowed with a pale silver light that twirled within like smoke. In the material plane, trees grew fruit. In the Abyssal plane, the Trees of Glass captured and nurtured soul energy. Ziplocke licked his lips. He missed consuming the smokey tendrils within the trees. The spicy paste was delicious! The food in the material plane and observing human misery was something he truly enjoyed! But it was different from absorbing soul energy. Not worst, but different, and Ziplocke missed the feeling. The Goblin Lord’s ears perked up when he heard a familiar sound that instinctively brought dread to his heart.


    “Howlers,” Ziplocke hissed.


    A large pack of the rat-like Demons could be seen in the distance, loping on all fours toward the copse of trees. Ziplocke squinted his eyes and saw amongst the rushing monsters a large two-headed Howler. This was an organized raid. The Fiends have sent their minions!


    “No!” Ziplocke shrieked. The copse of trees is where his brethren lived, and they were under attack!


    “But they did not account for me!” Ziplocke chimed with a mischievous grin. The Runes along his body flared.


    Among the glass trees were the tiny figures of Ziplocke’s tribe. Tendrils of shadows expanded outwards, obscuring the small Goblins as they organized a defense against the rushing horde of Howlers. A hail of flame darts shot out from the shadows and landed in a barrage among the charging Howlers. Some of the rat-like Demons fell to the attacks, but many continued on toward the copse of trees.


    “I have to help them!” Ziplocke cried. The Goblin Lord snickered as some of the Howlers convulsed and twitched as they died. He found it funny despite the dire circumstances his brethren faced.


    From his perch on the hill, Ziplocke joined in by launching darts of flame onto the swarm of Howlers. The Goblin Lord stopped. For so long, he was in a reduced form that he had forgotten that he had more power! An evil grin formed on his lips as Ziplocke tapped into the longer Rune chains that glowed along his green skin. With his sharp, nailed hands, he formed greater patterns. Even though it had been decades since he had last tapped into these spells, they came naturally to him. Like a conversation with an old friend.


    “Die!” Ziplocke screamed into the air.


    His voice was so loud that it caused the Howlers to pause and glance up at him. Even the two-headed monster took notice. Ziplocke launched a giant ball of flame that hissed through the air and landed with an explosion of scorching heat. The Howlers caught in the blast screamed in agony as their bodies were engulfed with horrific flame. The surviving Howlers paused their assault and hesitated. Ziplocke’s second fireball was all that was needed to convince the monsters to flee. Only the two-headed Howler remained. He glowered at Ziplocke with its beady red eyes.


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    “Come see me?” Ziplocke challenged.


    The beast shook its two rat-like heads and joined the other fleeing Howlers. Snickering, cheers, and laughter erupted from the copse of trees. This brought joy to Ziplocke’s small black heart, and he joined his brethren and laughed.


    “Did you see the look on their faces as they burned?” A Goblin shrieked.


    “How they ran away? It was hilarious!” Another chimed in.


    “Is that Ziplocke?” A goblin’s voice asked from the shadows within the trees.


    “Yes, it is! I have returned!” Ziplocke cried as he approached.


    “Who’s he again?” A tiny Goblin asked.


    “The legendary failure!” Another responded.


    This led to a series of snickering and laughter.


    Ziplcoke chuckled nervously and replied, “What? No, I didn’t fail. Well, I was betrayed and cursed, but the important thing was that I didn’t give up, right?”


    “You came back!” A familiar light-sounding voice exclaimed.


    As the Shadows faded away, a Goblin, slightly taller than the others but smaller than Ziplocke, emerged. She had a slim build and piercing blue eyes. A coy smile was on her lips.


    “Leandra!” Ziplocke cried.


    “You came back. Will we see you fail again?” Leandra asked with a snarling grin.


    The other Goblins laughed.


    “No! I have come to finish what I started,” Ziplocke promised. He couldn’t help but laugh a little as he pictured himself failing a second time. Or was this his third?


    “How? You achieved the Lord Form last time and still failed,” another Goblin observed in a deep rumbling voice. This was one of the larger ones with a stocky frame and dark green skin.


    “Graul,” Ziplocke hissed in greetings.


    “Ziplocke the amazing failure!” The stocky Goblin greeted back.


    One of Graul’s pointy ears was missing, and a jagged scar adorned his cheek next to his pointy nose.


    Leandra and several smaller Goblins snickered.


    “Where are the others?” Ziplocke asked.


    “Dead!” A small Goblin shrieked.


    “What? Yani, and Sneeva?” Ziplocke couldn’t believe what he heard.


    Leandra nodded. “They died amazing deaths. Torn apart by an Ogre,” she said and giggled.


    Ziplocke’s eyes went wide, and then he also laughed as he pictured the look on his close friend’s faces as they were killed. They must have been shocked! Ziplocke shook his head.


    “Wait, no! How could this be? Who is left?” He asked.


    “Just Leandra and I and all these lesser Goblins,” Graul answered.


    “We take offense to that term!” One of the tiny goblins shrieked.


    “Shut it!” Graul roared. The tiny goblins giggled and ran to hide among the glass trees.


    “So what’s different? Your last plan involved you turning into a Goblin Lord and that didn’t go well,” Leandra pointed out.


    Graul snickered and added, “That was clever! How you tricked the Fiends and stole enough soul energy to evolve into a Goblin Lord! Only to still get your ass kicked!”


    Ziplcoke fidgeted uncomfortably as the other Goblins joined in the laughter. They pointed tiny fingers at him and chanted, “Ziplocke the great failure!”


    “It was a little more complicated than that,” Ziplocke muttered.


    True, he stole soul energy from the Fiends and evolved into a Goblin Lord. With the new power, he created a Rift to the material plane where he aided the Ones from Before with corrupting the Spire. Then, the Ones from Before cursed him into a lesser Goblin form. Ziplocke chuckled at that memory. He intended to betray them, and take control of the Stronghold and conquer their realm. But who figured that the Humans were capable of greater treachery!?!?


    “Great Failure, please tell us how you failed this time?” A tiny Goblin asked.


    This sparked another round of snickering and laughter. Ziplocke joined them, but his green-skinned face was etched with worry. This was the last of his kind. Hidden amongst this small copse of glass trees. Several hundred or so remained, and they were mostly lesser Goblins. Tiny creatures with minimal magic. Leandra and Graul were the only Greater Goblins that remained. Ziplocke glanced around and saw that there was not enough soul energy to help his kindred evolve. Curse the Fiends! He turned to the others.


    “This time is different! I have consumed a Hold Core, and I have so much power!” Ziplocke raised two green fists up, and the air darkened and shimmered with crackling purple energy.


    “Oooh!” a group of tiny Goblins exclaimed.


    “Awww!” Another group chimed in.


    “Imagine the look on his face when he gets his ass kicked again!” A tiny voice cried.


    This triggered an avalanche of snickering and chuckles.


    “Right!” Leandra and Graul agreed.


    “No! This time will be different,” Ziplocke snapped.


    His anger only caused more laughter. Ziplocke’s lips twitched, and eventually, he joined in with their laughter. He couldn’t help it. It was true. It would be hilarious if he failed a third time. Or would this be his fourth?