Many had gathered at the throne room's double doors.

 

Prince Arthur and several other knights were slamming their shoulders against the door in unison, but it refused to give way. Every impact only resulted in a flare of red, demonic energy. It covered the entrance thus preventing them from even making direct contact with any part of the throne room’s structure.

 

"Stand Back!" The knights moved out of the way as the chancellor squared his shoulders, clenched both hands into claws and chanted softly to focus his mind. His hair started to dance about as the energy built up inside him. It flew about his head in a nimbus as he unleashed a crystalline projectile directly into the door. A projectile known to put holes in foot thick stone walls, or tear through sheets of iron like it was paper. This attack is what made him ‘the’ premier earth mage of the kingdom and earned him his spot as the King's top advisor.

 

The projectile shattered harmlessly into dust.

 

"Blast!" Arthur cursed as he pounded the ward in frustration. He turned to Pricilla and yelled, "Again!"

The saintess cringed from the prince’s rage, "I..."

The chancellor's son stepped in-between them, "She's already tried! Three. Times! She's just wasting energy! We need to think of a way around this, not exhaust-"

 

He was interrupted by an inhuman, ear piercing screech. Everyone snapped their head to look at the doors as the sound trailed away. Pricilla covered her ears as she doubled over trembling. No one was immune to it’s fear-inducing effects. The Prince staggered back a step and went pale as he gazed at the barrier before him. He spoke in a trembling voice that betrayed his true age, "Father?"

 

There was second screech, this one a tad bit louder. This one did not have the same feeling, but instead carried with it a sense of frustration. The chancellor stepped up to the door to put his ear as close as he dared without triggering the ward. Muddled sounds were coming out of the throne room that were difficult to interpret. He muttered to himself, "That sounds like-"

 

First he heard a muffled yelp, followed by a sound not unlike tossing a dozen trombones down a flight of stairs. Then there was a dull wump, followed by an explosion that shook the building enough to cause dust to fall from the rafters. Someone started yelling in the accursed language of the damned, immediately followed by a roar of purest rage and then something very large and heavy started crashing about. The chancellor pulled his head back in surprise as everyone could clearly hear a doppler of someone running past the other side of the door screaming, "-uckfuckFuckFUCKFuckfuckf-" Followed by something heavy impacting the other side of the door hard enough to create a pulse of air that ruffled the chancellor’s long hair.

 

He whipped his head around to look back at everyone, "It's Reed! He's-" He turned back to the barrier as he continued speaking with a tone of disbelief, "He's still alive?"

Charity wrung her hands, "But for how much longer?"

A guard stuck his head around the corner shouting, "The servant's entrance is blocked as well!" The prince repeated his curse, "BLAST!"

 

Kyle junior slowly looked up, "Has anyone tried the windows behind the throne?"

 

The chancellor perked up and turned to the nearest knights, "Who's the fastest?" A hand shot up in the back, "Run out to the ballista on the wall closest to the throne room's windows and tell them to keep shooting into the window until it cracks!" He spun away and bolted for the exit. The prince fell in behind the chancellor murmuring a spell as they ran. A wind gust caught them both up, propelling them along ever faster, leaving everyone else behind in the dust.

 

As the two crashed out the front doors, the chancellor's only thought was, ~How long can that bastard last?~

 

---

 

"Hey! I didn't even know demons HAD mothers!"

 

The demon was now a bundle of purest rage. He had lost control of his temper quite a while ago. Ryan for all his many faults, and many skills, has one ability that dwarfs all others he possesses.

 

He knows how to piss people off.

 

On the one hand, this kept the demon focused on Ryan.

On the other hand, it kept the demon focused on Ryan.

 

A long, black and red scaly arm with foot long claws shot out and sliced open Ryan's shirt, leaving shallow red lines across his chest. Ryan felt the poison start to kick in immediately. Fortunately he'd been working on his aura control and forced the poison out of his body before it could get in his blood stream. It only caused his chest to go numb, ~That was mana I don't have to spare!~ He tumbled away from the follow up blow that aimed to take off Ryan's head. Instead it hit one of the support pillars. Ryan rolled to his feet and flipped the demon the bird, "Gonna have to do-ohSHIT!"

 

The demon somehow managed to expand itself, growing larger and spreading its arms wide. Since trying to just rip Ryan into shreds wasn't working, it was going to try growing so big it could just fall on Ryan like an avalanche, giving him no place to dodge. It had cornered Ryan and was now rushing at him, arms low, trying to pin him against a wall.

 

Ryan turned and started running at said wall, ~I hope this works!~ He began to create a thin layer of water on his hands.

 

There was a 'Boom' from the impact of the demon hitting the wall. The whole room shook from the force. Dust came raining down from the rafters. The demon backed up a step with a smile. A smile that turned into a frown when he failed to see Ryan. He looked all over himself, wondering if the lad had been turned into jelly from the impact. The demon looked all over the floor, then around the room. Finally, the demon's head turned 180 degrees like an owl to look up the wall just in time to catch a glob of spit right in the eye.

 

Ryan had ramped up the surface tension of the water on his hands and used that to climb up the wall like a spider. He was currently clinging to the underside of a support beam. With a surprised sounding chuckle he commented, "Ouch!" He put his fingers to his lips and made a kissing sound, "So worth it."

 

The demon stood stock still for a second, just staring, before he literally burst into flames with a screech of incoherent rage. Ryan's eyes went wide, "Shit on me." Then the demon gestured and all the heat from its body went arching up into the rafters. Ryan swung around to get on top of the beam and started running away from the rolling flame, "Are you fuckin' kidding-" Just then the demon followed up with a chunk of masonry, destroying the beam out from under Ryan. Both Ryan and chunks of ceiling rained down in a shower of shattered stone and swirling dust. Ryan bounced off a wall and landed hard on his right leg. He felt bone shatter under the force and went down screaming.

 

The demon, on the other hand, was panting. Apparently whatever it just did took a lot of effort and it needed time to recover. It wasn't so tired that he couldn't walk, however. It spotted Ryan over by the wall, "I'm such a fool." It looked over at the king still paralyzed by the throne, "You were just buying time." As a bolt hit the window behind the throne. The ward held, but it didn't flare as brightly as it once did.

 

The demon slowly shook its head, "Well played. Very well played. However, I think I need to stop this game." It pointed at Ryan as it started to walk towards the king, "I haven't had this much fun in a LONG time, so I'm going to let you live with failing to save the king for the rest of your life." It grinned over its shoulder at Ryan, "Just my way of saying thank you for making my visit an enjoyable one!"

 

The demon turned away, walking towards the king. It paused to scrape its claws along the side of a stone support pillar causing sparks as it sharpened its talons, "I was going to draw this out, but-"

 

A splash of water hit the demon in the back of the head.

 

It stood there, pondering this event for a second before slowly turning around, "Are you seriously-"

 

A snowball hit the demon right in the face.

 

---

 

Ryan had laid down in exhaustion and was looking up at the hole in the roof when he saw Prince Arthur. The prince was shouting, but his voice was muffled by the ward. The prince swung his sword against the ward again and again, but all he succeeded in doing was making the ward flare, again and again. The prince's face was bright red as he yelled. He glared at Ryan and started shouting. Ryan peered and it became apparent from the prince's gestures that the words he was shouting was simply, 'GET UP'.

 

Ryan closed his eyes for a second, took a deep breath, let it out slow then gave the prince a thumbs up. Ryan pushed the pain of his broken leg out of his mind. He could have used mana to heal, but he needed to save every last drop for his last ditch plan. Ryan pulled himself up on a chunk of fallen masonry, laid on it like he was holding an assault rifle, took aim at the back of the Demon's head, and in his mind, he 'fired'.

 

A sphere of water impacted the back of the demon for no effect, ~Fuck. I should have practiced water magic more! Okay. Again, but colder.~ The demon turned around to get a snowball in the face. Ryan berated himself, ~Close, but not quite.~

 

The demon wiped the snow off his face and looked quite surprised, "Wait... you are an aura user AND a water conjurer?" Ryan was concentrating. Something was forming in 'the chamber' in Ryan's 'rifle'. The demon looked curious and started walking back towards Ryan, "My my my my my my MY! You are certainly-"

 

Ryan fired a bolt of ice.

 

The demon caught it.

 

The demon looked at the crudely formed icicle in his hand, "-Full Of Surprises!" The demon tossed the ice aside and came closer to Ryan in leaps and bounds, but stopped a few feet in front of him. The demon crouched down so it could talk in a more conversational tone, "And you can control ice as well. Oh you are going to be quite the wizard! Mmm Mmm MMM! I could just eat you up."

 

The demon raised a single claw, "But I won't. Because I'm going to stay right here and let you get off one more shot. Take your time. Give it everything you have. Every last quint of mana you have. Hit me with everything you got." The demon slowly stood up and tapped its chitinous chest, "Because when it doesn't work, I want you to live the rest of your life knowing that you gave it everything you had..." The demon's grin grew wide, his eyes glimmered with glee and hunger, "And you STILL weren't good enough."

 

Ryan's eyes dropped, ~He's right. I can't penetrate his hide with just ice.~ The demon cocked his head to the side, "Seriously? You aren't even going to try? C'mon. No Jokes? No insults? No funny quips? Not even a rude gesture?" The demon spread his hands wide, "Hey! You might get lucky. I know you are under a lot of pressure, but do try and impress me."

 

Ryan's eyes flared open, ~Pressure!~ His eyes darted from side to side, ~Wait... why does it have to be ordinary ice? There are much denser forms of ice that form under high pressure. Mana can make water of many different temperatures, why not ice that forms at different pressures?~

 

The demon watched Ryan's face, "Ooo! There it is! You thought of something! You found that special thing you humans all have. A glimmer of hope! Now then..." The demon drew itself up to its full hight, "Now do your best so I may CRUSH IT!"

Ryan gritted his teeth, "You want my best shot?"

The Demon nodded vigorously with a toothy grin and a glint in its eyes, "Oh Yeah!"

Ryan took 'aim' with his 'rifle', "A'rite... Here it comes."

 

Ryan thought about all the papers he had read about various forms of ice. The one that stood out was ice-7. It's crystalize structure was denser than normal ice and with enough pressure, it was stable at room temperature. With Enough Pressure, being the key phrase here. Ryan created the image in his mind, a single, narrow needle of Ice-7. He realized that once he released the spell, it would explode in his face, so he imitated the 'fire-and-forget' method the demon had used with the paralyzation spell. He'd release the 'pressure' out the bottom propelling it forward.

 

Formed at over thirty thousand atmospheres, it should have quite the kick.

 

At first nothing happened, then the air started to grow colder. The demon first noticed something was up when his breath became visible. The air grew heavy and ice crystals started to form on various surfaces, radiating out from Ryan as he lay on his chest. The demon's eyes started to dart about, not sure what was going on and starting to lose some of his bravado. In the chamber of Ryan's 'Rifle' something was forming. The mana flowing out of Ryan into this projectile was visible as dark blue energy swirling to form the projectile. The air itself started to warp and dimple as massive amounts of pressure were being compacted into a single, needle like shard of ice, barely an inch long.

 

Ryan started to shake as he felt that this process had become self fueling. This projectile... this unnatural THING that had never seen existence on this planet before was hungry for mana and was pulling in every last drop that Ryan had left.

 

The demon, knowing instinctually that this wasn't just another ice shard, was about to attack and disrupt the spell when Ryan finally pulled the 'trigger'. The demon reflexively put up a hand to catch it, but it passed right through as if it was butter. It continued and traveled in an arc to hit the demon square between the eyes. His armored skull was much tougher, and the shard barely managed to penetrate into its skull, coming to a rest just inside the demon's nasal cavity.

 

When you take something that is supposed to only exist at thirty thousand atmospheres of pressure and suddenly introduce that thing into an area with only one atmosphere, sudden and rapid decompression occurs. Under such conditions, even a single sliver of said material has quite a bit of energy trapped in it.

 

In other words, it exploded.

 

The resulting detonation disintegrated the demon's head. Bits of blood, brains, and ichor went flying everywhere. The freshly decapitated corpse staggered for a moment, then fell backwards. Ryan collapsed and slid down the masonry he was lying on so he could sprawl out flat. He laid there, face down, utterly exhausted, ~With any luck, the wards and paralysis will wear off any minute now.~

 

As Ryan rested, he heard a dull 'wump'. It repeated over and over, somewhat franticly. It was coming down from above. Ryan, with a supreme effort, ignored his aching muscles and turned over to look upwards. The ward keeping everyone out of the room was still in effect. True, it was barely there, nearly faded away, but still there. The prince was banging on the ward with his sword. When he saw Ryan look up, he stopped and started franticly pointing at something. Ryan squinted, then turned. He reached up with one hand to the crest of his stoney bed and pulled himself up to peer over it.

 

The Demon's head was reforming as it slowly pulled itself to its feet.

 

Ryan let his head fall to the side, too tired to even curse.

 

As it pulled itself together, its face started to form and it spoke in a slurred fashion, sounding like it was drunk, "Well-l-l-l... th-thatsh sommm-" Behind the demon a sword flashed through the air and sliced into the demon's neck, cleaving straight down, nearly to its navel.

A single word was heard, loud, clear, and commanding.

 

"DIE!"