Note: This chapter and the previous chapter take place at the same time, to avoid any confusion.

X

Awakening

Hans and Nuri arrived at the door of the ice palace, where they slowed to a halt. They glanced at each other wordlessly, then threw their shoulders into the icy door. It splintered open with a resounding crack. They entered the main room, treading carefully as not to step on any sharp shards of ice. Hans gasped suddenly at the sight of it. It was an exact copy of Elsa's old ice palace, complete with fountain. Except this time, everything was all black. And lying in the middle of the floor was the Sorcerer, surrounded in a pool, dead.

Hans walked forwards, but was stopped by Nuri's outstretched arm. "Careful" he said. "This could be a trap." Hans nodded, and proceeded towards the body with extreme caution. Nuri examined the surroundings and looked around the castle. "Amazing..." he muttered. An entire castle made out of ice? Unthinkable. Hans bent down over the Sorcerer's body, and turned him over. His face was frozen in an eternal smile, as if someone had told him some good news right as he had died. There was a large bulge in the folds of his robes. He reached into the robes, and felt something loose. Hans bent down even further, and felt a hand clamp around his. He looked at the Sorcerer's face, and it was alight with malice, red ruby eyes twinkling in their sockets.

Hans, against better judgement, screamed, and then it was gone. The Sorcerer's face returned back to normal, all-knowing smile as Nuri came rushing over from his deep examination of a frozen fresco. Nuri looked down at the dead Sorcerer and felt nothing inside. His father's murderer was dead, but there was no happiness, no joy. He did not know why, but before he could slide any deeper into thought, Hans held up a large book. "I found this in his robes. I think he was going to use it."

"Yes, but the real question is why is dead? Who killed him?" Nuri wondered aloud. After a second, he realized the answer: "The only person with him." Hans looked at him with mouth wide open. "You think the dark Elsa did this. Why, though?" Nuri thought some more, then said: "What's the one defining character trait of Elsa that everybody's noticed?" Hans thought about it for a minute, then said: "Freedom. You think he died because-"

"She was tired of playing the good little maid. Makes sense. But why kill him before the ritual was to be completed?" At this Hans had opened the book, and was flipping through pages of it to a bookmarked section. Suddenly, the floor beneath them began to rumble violently. Cracks appeared in the walls, and bugs of all kind spilled out of them in a flood. Hans once more screamed, and Nuri began to blast at them with large, crowd-clearing fireballs. A few moments later, cracks appeared in the floor, swallowing the Sorcerer's body into a crevasse.

Hans let go of the book and it hit the floor with a dull thud. Nuri looked down and saw that it had opened to a page titled "POSSESSIONS" The text was unreadable, but the diagram was clear enough. It showed a dead man lying in a pool of blood as multi-colored mists swirled around him. Nuri looked up from the book, and saw that the Sorcerer's body had returned. The cracks in the walls had faded and healed. Looking back down at the book, Nuri realized that The Sorcerer's body was in the exact same position was the man in the diagram was.

(A Night on Bald Mountain, Modest Mussorgsky)

"He did finish it. He found an alternate option." As Nuri spoke these words, the Sorcerer's body was lifted off of the ground several feet. It twisted and withered in mid-air, where a spectacle of lights surrounded and smothered his body. Wings grew out of the back, and horns out of the top of his head. The Sorcerer grew ten times in size, and his entire body turned gray, save for his eyes. When he opened them, they were bright yellow. The thing that had been the Sorcerer stared down at the two men cowering below it. It chuckled, a low, fearsome sound that sent chills down the back of Nuri's spine.

"I have become more powerful that you could possibly imagine, King. Prepare to taste the vengeance of my people!" it roared, and the demon waved its hand. Deep cracks appeared once more in the floor, seperating Hans from Nuri. Hans backed away slowly from the deepening edge, and then slipped on the floor. He slid towards the edge, hands groping for purchase before he was scooped up by the demon. The demon regarded Hans slowly as a pit of fire was created beneath up.

"I do not fear death, monster." Hans said, promptly whipping out a pre-loaded crossbow from a holster and shot the demon in the face. It roared as the bolt found its mark in its eye. The demon's other hand clutched its face, trying to work the crossbow bolt from its eye. Hans turned around to Nuri and said "If you get out of this, tell the girls, 'I'm sorry'."

The demon, enraged, dropped Hans from its hand. He fell into the pit of fire without a sound. Nuri cried out, but was silenced by the roars of the demon. Nuri turned around and ran out of the palace's doors as it began to melt from the extreme heat. There was a large splintering sound from behind him. Nuri turned and watched the demon bust out of the roof of the ice palace, which promptly collapsed in on itself. The two locked eyes for a moment, and then the demon roared so loud that Nuri had to cover his ears. The demon then flew to the very peak of the mountain, where it lay in wait, its eyes locked on the rising moon. Soon. Very soon.