Past the double doors the hallway opened up into a large chamber. This room followed the same utilitarian design as the rest of the fortress, except instead of torches, stone sconces held the light crystals that illuminated the hall.

On a raised area on the far side of the hall was a long stone table on which three bodies had been laid out carefully. Thirteen stone chairs, that matched the table, now were positioned in a semicircle on the lower floor facing the entryway. In each was a hobgoblin that seemed surprised by his sudden entrance.

As Phantom came to a stop next to him, Danny looked around for any other threats, only to find female goblins chained to the walls nearest the entryway. These chains were attached from their hands to the walls above their heads. Not wanting to drop out of his earth aspect, he could only guess these females were either being tortured or brought here to be impregnated. There was not a single goblin soldiers to be seen.

A smiling hobgoblin in the center most chair spoke up in strangely fluent elvish while raising his hands gesturing, "Welcome honored guest, to the future of the goblin race. Please, call me Bozhidar."

The hobgoblin who had spoken stood up, his black duster moving fluidly around him. There was nothing overly impressive about this particular hobgoblin, compared to the others in the room.

Danny took a chance and released his earth aspect to inspect them with his mana sight.

Every hobgoblin in the room had a mana lines and stored mana in their bodies just like the human wizards who had been unlocked with one of the ancient keys. Their mana lines bulged irregularly and their mana storage was inconsistent.

Danny remembered back to his unlocking ceremony and an offhand comment by one of the wizards officiating the event. Someone had lost a key and they didn't know where it had gone. Danny had a good idea where it went and now who had stolen it.

Bozhidar's smile fell from his lips as Danny released his aspect, "You really are him, are you not? The one who stole my father's birthright. The one who was born with all the gifts my father carefully crafted. The one my father curses his every waking hour… Creek."

Danny frowned, not because what was just revealed to him, but that this wasn't the one responsible for his fate, "Where is your father? He and I have much to discuss."

Bozhidar looked behind him, "Father was frustrated with our short lifespans and poor position in this world and made plans for his future. His future and those of my two older brothers."

Turning back to Danny, the hobgoblin sighed, "Before my father left, he handed over his kingdom to me and set for me two tasks. Grow strong and kill the thief who stole what was his.

I have to thank you, Creek. I had lost hope when I heard the elves had finally decided to come out of their forest to wipe us out. Father was right when he said they were cowards, only striking in the shadows, rarely risking their precious long lives. Now, before I die at their hands, I can at least grant my father’s wish."

With his mana sight Danny could see all thirteen preparing spells. Bozhidar led six of his hobgoblins in casting some sort of complicated ritualistic spell, while the other six started rapidly fired fireballs and small bolts of entropy aspect at Danny and Phantom.

Danny and Phantom stood perfectly still, as the spells were turned aside from them with air and harmony affinity magic. Danny found he could easily keep up with them and his maxed mana manipulation allowed him to use only the amount needed to divert the spells.

Behind him, Danny ignored the screams of pain and terror a few female goblins made, as they were hit by these rogue spells.

Bozhidar's ritual spell completed and the six goblins assisting fell to the ground, dead. The spell shot forward and struck Danny and Phantom's position, surrounding them in a swirling mass of black energy.

Panting, Bozhidar could only look on in confusion as the black mass of entropy magic began to swirl in a tight ball. The blackness of the spell started to take on other darker colors. Then those colors became lighter until the whole spell looked like a giant soap bubble. Multiple colors undulating and moving across the surface of a sphere.

The whole spell suddenly fell inward to reveal Phantom and an apparition, Danny in his mana aspect.

Danny hadn't wasted his day waiting in the tree by the fortress. He had Phantom use her harmony aura while Danny had tested his mana aspect to block her magic. That was when he discovered he couldn't just block her magic in this form.

Danny absorbed all the mana from the ritual spell into his body then reached out to the seven remaining hobgoblins, who were in the process of pulling elven swords from their robes. Danny easily sealed their connections to the source of mana and all seven fell to the floor unconscious

Danny wasted no time in releasing his mana aspect and walked past the prone bodies of the hobgoblins, "Phantom, please take care of them."

Pausing for a second, Danny looked back and raised Bozhidar's body on a pedestal of stone, "Except that one."

Phantom didn't respond and only licked her lips.

Walking up to the table, Danny found the gruesome and decaying remains of three women. Something had been done to preserve them, some sort of mummification or drying. Ignoring the odor, Danny inspected the bodies closely.

The center body looked human except was short of stature. Danny wanted to bring Dain in here to confirm she was one of the dwarfs he was traveling with, but needed to make sure no one else saw these bodies.

The body to the right was taller than a human and broader as well. While the skin was pale in death, he could tell the green tint was not due to any bacteria or fungus. His guess was this one was an orc.

The body on the far left was a little short for a human. The fur that covered large parts of the body and the dog like ears gave away the fact that this wasn't a human either.

Thought, each body had one thing in common. On their lower abdomen was the same large rune consisting of three interlayered circles. The same rune he had seen as a baby, carved into his mother’s flesh. Except now, Danny could see the completed rune as it was not marred by a jagged "X", marking out the rune.

Danny stood there for a few moments, just staring at the runes.

*Danny, they are making their way through the fortress, albeit cautiously.*

Danny stood back away from the table and took on an aspect he had yet to really try. The temperature of the air around his body rose and his flesh turned a bright red or a deep black.

Squatting down, Danny touched the floor. A bright red glow slowly spread until it completely covered the floor under the table. Then the table started to sink into the ground. Before the top of the table had reached the floor, the bodies on top easily caught fire. The dried and decaying flesh easily combusting. Danny just watched until their body parts were consumed by fire or melted into formless mass that seemed to dissolve into the lava.

Once it was done, Danny looked down to realize the table had been melted down and around his feet. Lifting them he shook them out while walking back towards where only Bozhidar now waited. Danny noted the heat had driven Phantom back to the entrance to the room, where she watch Danny silently. Under his control, the lava easily left his feet and Danny released the aspect after walking a few more steps.

Ignoring the suffocating heat, Danny placed his hands on either side of the still unconscious hobgoblin. Activating nature aspect, Danny's features turned into those of an elves.

Focusing, Danny did what he told himself he wouldn’t, and entered Bozhidar's mind with nature affinity.

There was a token resistance at first, but Danny's mind was an unstoppable force by this point. His high intelligence quickly analyzed any resistance and effectively countered it without effort.

Memories of the hobgoblin's past flooded Danny's mind. Bozhidar grew up in a brutal world where only the strong were kept and the weak thrown away. Growing up under the shadow of his two older brothers had made him strive to prove himself to his seemingly deranged father. Bozhidar only saw his father as one with the greatest strength.

By the time Bozhidar was born, all the female goblins had already been turned over to the baby goblin making machine. Every goblin male had been tested with the key that had been stolen from the humans. Of course the goblin soldiers were not aware of what was to be their fate, once they reached a battle.

Danny had been wrong. The entropy magic didn't create the undead. It corrupted the living. Those completely infected with this magic were driven mad and attacked others, only to spread this magic on to them. It was like this magic was created for use against the highly populated and enclosed human towns and cities. Entropy magic also would allow a goblin to keep fighting even when gravely wounded by deadening pain receptors and causing atrophy to any cut blood vessels.

Moving back to Bozhidars father, Danny learned that he was called Hadrian and insisted he was the true ruler of Diadem. In one drunken evening, Bozhidar heard his father muttering about his birthright and his younger sister stealing the throne from him. Danny also learned that Bozhidar had received a second target, or targets. The current ruler of Diadem and the entire Diadem family.

Connecting the dots, Danny knew if this was true, then it explained why the Diadem family would want to keep this such a national secret. Plus the whole mind or soul, whatever it was, transfer magic. It could not be allowed into the wrong hands.

Danny dug through the rest of Bozhidars mind but didn't find anything else helpful besides learning the few offensive entropy spells Hadrian Diadem had taught the goblins, including the ritual spell that would consume everything in a radius depending on the “souls” it consumed.

Danny was frustrated to find Hadrian had made sure the transfer ritual of his and his son’s into their new bodies had been private. Bozhidar had followed his father’s orders and waited outside the large chamber till an attendant opened the door to report it was finished. Then at his father’s instructions, Bozhidar killed those left in the great hall. Three infants were born shortly after and taken away in the care of a female goblin nursemaid and a pair of trusted hobgoblins. They would make sure the infants made it to their respective species. Even Bozhidar didn't know which child was his fathers, but Danny noted the dwarven infant had been suspiciously given the ancient key to take with it.

Nothing had been written down or saved that hadn't been carved into flesh. Hardrian had made sure that there was little to follow him with. Well except the order he had given Bozhidar to dispose of the women’s bodies. The young hobgoblin had chosen instead to preserve and revere the body’s, planning to hold off on their disposal to a later time.

Looking up from Bozhidar’s face, Danny saw Phantom was no longer alone. Dain and a group of elves, including Commander Barrow, now warily waited on Danny. Without looking back down, Danny aged the cells in Bozhidar’s brain, the hobgoblin dying peacefully in his sleep of old age. Since he was in nature aspect, this had been the quickest option.

Noticing the air wasn't as hot anymore, Danny figured he had been inside Bozhidar’s mind for some time. Wiping of his hands on his robes, Danny silently walked over to the waiting crowd.

Commander Barrow was the first to speak, “What did you find?”

Danny shook his head, “About a week ago, three sets of two hobgoblins, a female goblin, and an infant left here and traveled in different directions. There was a dwarven, orc, and a dog or wolf beastman infant. We need to get these infants back or we will have another issue similar to the goblins here.”

Barrow looked confused, “What did they do to these infants?”

“The one responsible and two of his sons transferred their minds into the infant’s bodies. I am sure they have some end goal that includes the annihilation of the Diadem family. Past that, the ones here didn’t know.”

Barrow turned and started issuing orders and a few elven soldiers quickly moved out

Turning back to Danny, Barrow said, “Let’s head back, you can't keep my daughter waiting forever.”

Confused Danny looked at the man, “I got the impression you didn't want me marrying your daughter?”

Barrow frowned, “I didn't. Then you were honest with us about who you were. Well, still a bit cryptic but closer to the truth than we had before. Then you went and took on goblin infested fortress and forced my people into clearing it out for you. I wasn’t expecting that one. I half expected to deliver your remains to my daughter.”

Barrow continued, “Plus, what made you think my opinion really mattered when my wife and daughter are both dead set on the marriage happening? A good commander picks his battles, and that was one I had already lost.”

With that they all started heading back to the surface. The Elves quickly surrounded Danny protectively.

Dain and Phantom walked over to him, and the dwarf looked him over, “Weren't you just human?”

Danny looked down at his elven aspect and shrugged, too mentally exhausted to care changing, “I’m not really one to be picky about my race.”

The dwarf had no response to this as they walked up to the second floor.

Danny asked Barrow, who was now walking in front of them, “What about all the goblin females?”

“Don’t worry about them, we will take care of them.”

Danny found he didn't care to ask for further clarification.

They made it to the surface and they whole place was devoid of signs that there had been a battle. There were no bodies, arrows, or scorch marks to be found.

*Wow, the walls and floors are now filled with the bodies of the dead. This whole place is a tomb. Danny, let’s not piss these guys off any further.*

*Yeah, you have a good point there.*

Danny climbed on Phantom’s back, “How much trouble am I in with my fiancé?”

Barrow turned to him with a rare smile, “I would come back with some sort of gift, and I don’t think seeds will work this time.”

Danny asked, “So does this mean I get to call you ‘dad’ now?”

The smile fell from Barrow’s face and he turned to start moving his troops out.

*Crap, Cranny! What do I get her as a present? We were never good with the gifts for the ladies.*

*Yeah, and there isn’t a local drugstore with a decent gift card and candy selection nearby... Oh, how about a pet goblin!*

*No.*

*Flowers?*

*We did that already.*

*Gift Card?*

*You’re not even trying. This is your precious princess remember, Cranny?*

*….Lingerie!*