Fallen Mage Regressor

The demon stepped forward and let its claws rake against the solid stone floor. "You're free to surrender. It won't actually change your fate—you're too much of a liability. I won't make it any less painful, either."

Mal took a step backward. The window behind the demon was shut, so Mal wouldn't be expecting any help from there.

"You're not exactly giving me a very good reason to surrender," he said.

"What can I say? I'm sort of bad at this whole negotiation thing. I don't usually talk as much to my targets, either. You're a special exception."

Mal had to stay focused. This wasn't the time to be panicky or fearful. He internally reclassified everything that was happening and breathed in slowly. Right now, he was not Malfrasius Patoal. He was an F grade core wizard with a handful of tricks up his sleeve. Philo was a VIP who needed to be protected, but who offered some potential help. And the demon was an enemy to be eliminated.

Mal breathed out.

Windows were shut. They were in a classroom in the center of the department building. If Philo ran, he might be able to get out in 30 seconds. Of course, the demon wouldn't allow that, so Mal would have to buy time.

The question was if he was capable of such a thing. Mal had years of experience fighting creatures of far greater strength than a demon. But Mal was also weaker than he'd ever been before. The only ace up his sleeve was his Bramblevine bracelet. Even that wouldn't be much use, given how little plant material there was for him to draw on.

His eyes shot toward the windows. That wasn't strictly true. Like all of the department buildings, there were ivies growing up the side of the walls.

"When I get the word, run and grab help," Mal said.

Philo started and looked at Mal in shock. "What? And leave you alone?"

"They'll be of more help to me than you."

Philo winced at the statement. "That's exceptionally harsh, but Philo supposes that you're right."

The demon stepped forward. Mal and Philo stepped back. Now or never.

Mal shot out his hand and resonated with the Bramblevine bracelet. Spikes jutted out from the bracelet, and ivies shattered through the window from the outside and raced toward the demon. They wrapped around its neck, its arms, and its legs and pinned it back against the wall.

"Is this supposed to stop me?" the demon asked, a bored look on his face.

"Philo, go!" Mal shouted.

Philo took a step back and turned sharply. He raced for the door—

"I don't think so."

The demon stared at the door and Mal could see mana flow into its body. A split-second later, a ball of white light appeared in front of it. It shot forward at lightning speed and slammed into the door. The door shut right before Philo had reached it. He slammed into the door and fell backward. Philo growled and jumped back up to his feet and tried to open it—only for him to hiss and draw his hand away.

Mal inspected the door closer. There was a sudden chill that was coming from it, and there seemed to be a soft ice-blue glow to the entire wooden frame.

"Do you like that?" the demon said. "It's my signature ability. The combination of Ice and Inferno mana. I warp the very essence of the door so that it's frozen in space itself. I'm afraid that you are not going to budge it no matter what you do."

Mal's brain worked overtime to try to understand what had just happened. Of course, he couldn't understand the full composition of the spell, but he had a pretty good idea based off of what the demon had said. Inferno-type mana warps the essence of something. Ice-type mana freezes things as a general rule of thumb, though of course, there were far more creative things to do.

In this case, what the demon seemed to have done was impart the property of immovability into the essence of the door.

Mal clicked his tongue. A tricky ability. But…

Mal could see the faintest droplets of sweat that had built up on its body. One cast of that spell and it was already exhausted. That made sense—if this particular demon could do such a thing on the regular, it would've advanced up the ranks ages ago. This was an intimidation ploy, nothing more. At the end of the day, a lower-ranked demon relied on its shape-shifting ability to get the better of the wizard, not its magical spellcasting talent.

Mal had a chance. He just had to play things smart.

The demon's body lit up in flames and the ivies were turned to ash. It stepped forward and scoffed. "Any other interesting tricks up your sleeve?"

Mal blinked and the demon had disappeared.

"You're awfully slow, aren't you?"

Mal couldn't even turn his head to the side before he felt something grab his head. It slammed his forehead and threw his body into the floor. The world went bright white and a loud ringing occurred in Mal's ears.

A concussion. Possibly a skull fracture. If Mal didn't receive medical attention soon, he could be in a world of hurt. However, the injury hadn't hurt his brain. If there was bone in his gray matter, it didn't seem to be affecting his ability to process conscious thought.

"Y—you bastard!"

Philo roared and Mal saw the mana in the atmosphere rush into his body. Fire built up in the base of his stomach and exploded out toward the demon. The demon looked at the firebal, then held out his hand. A translucent shield appeared in front of the fireball and it scattered harmlessly against the barrier.

Mal pushed his body off the ground. His arms quivered, but he paid it no mind. The biggest problem was that he and Philo were simply underpowered compared to the demon. Mal's perspective had been completely warped by the fact that he had been beating up a bunch of teenagers for all this time. He hadn't fought against true power and was still in the mindset that he was an Endbringer, scourge of humanity.

He wasn't like that anymore. He was just a teenager with an F grade core and a little bit of potential in witchcraft. Nothing more. All of his practice in mana circulation had amounted to nothing. There was no way he'd be able to keep up with a demon with his current bodily limitations. At this point, their only hope was that someone had heard the window shattering.

The demon stepped forward and Philo rushed at it with his fist raised. The demon caught Philo's fist out of the air and slashed Philo's face. Philo's natural durability was enough that it didn't do anything, but it forced Philo to shut his eyes. The demon took advantage of this to deliver a knee to Philo's stomach. The blow sent Philo careening back, spittle flying from his mouth.

Philo snapped his eyes open and pointed at the demon, palm spread out. An arcane sphere flickered into existence and shot forward. The shield flashed in front of the demon and the arcane sphere bounced off and disintegrated.

"You've never been in a battle between mages, have you?" the demon asked. "Every single one of your moves are painfully easy to read."

Philo held out his palm and fired off two more arcane spheres in quick succession. The demon's shield remained strong and repelled each of the attacks with ease.

"Honestly, have you ever heard the definition of insanity—?"

Philo dashed forward and closed the distance in a second. He threw a punch which shattered the shield like glass. The fist approached the demon closer and closer and closer—

The demon ducked underneath it and delivered a kick to Philo's knee. Philo held back a pained cry, but fell to the ground with a thud.

Mal attempted to push himself up to a standing position, only to feel something crash into him and throw him against the wall. The demon's nails wrapped around Mal's entire body, preventing him from moving.

"This is all that you can muster? Really?" The demon stepped closer, tilting its head. "Aren't you supposed to be a future Endbringer?" he whispered. "Why are you so weak?"

Mal grunted. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Of course you don't, you're just a random child. I have no idea why you were selected for such a task. The Archons have such a sense of humor."

The demon squeezed its nails and Mal felt his bones creak in response. Blood dripped from his forehead like sweat.

"I suppose this is the end for you," the demon said. "Any last words?"

Mal let out a small snicker.

The demon stopped. "What are you doing?"

The snicker grew into a chuckle. The chuckle grew into a laugh. Before long, Mal was cackling like he'd just been told the best joke he'd ever heard.

The demon actually stepped back—though Mal remained in its grasp. "What's so funny? Did I say something amusing?"

"Oh—oh, apologies," Mal said between breaths. "I just… The whole thing is rather amusing, isn't it?"

"This is a rather strange reaction to imminent death."

"I think, most of all," Mal said, "I find you funny."

The demon didn't say anything for a few seconds, its expression unreadable. "What are you talking about?"

"You stride in here, acting all so superior. Like you're in control of my fate." Mal continued to laugh. "When you don't even realize you're just as much of a pawn as I am?"

The demon smirked, but even Mal could tell there was a hint of strain in the expression. "I'm pretty sure that I'm the one in power here, child."

"No, you're not." Mal's laugh stopped and he stared at the creature with a wide smile. "You didn't come here of your own volition. You're not the one in charge. You were told to deal with me, and you accepted because if you did anything else, you'd get killed by your superiors. I know all about how demon hierarchies work."

The demon's nails tightened around Mal even further. The breath was driven out of Mal's lungs from the motion.

"You think you understand what's happening here? Don't make me laugh," the demon said. "At the end of the day, you're the one who's going to die, and I'm the one who's going to live."

The creature squeezed tighter and Mal knew he wouldn't be able to speak any further. He smiled as brightly as he could, wanting to at least take away the joy of murder that the demon would experience. The squeezing continued. Mal felt his ribs grind as they attempted to hold together. The edges of his vision faded to black and he felt his head go light.

A thud.

The grip loosened and Mal took a small breath of air. The demon looked in the direction of the noise and frowned.

Another thud. It was coming from the door?

The demon's eyes shot open. "The spell reached its time limit, I didn't even notice—!"

The door slammed open.

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