Brother Han drew a portal of red and gold in the air. On the other side of it was a fiery landscape. Waves of heat rolled out into the mountainside, melting snow and causing rocks to split. It was warm enough to fry a hotdog – not that either of them knew what a hotdog was.

‘Let’s go,’ Sparrow said, trying to force a grin. Stepping into the demon realm was like stepping from a cold wind into a hot bath – only to find that the bath was a boiling pit of lava.

Sparrow flinched as the portal closed behind them.

‘The portal will be there when we need it,’ Brother Han reassured him. Just say the three words, ‘Open says me.’

Sparrow nodded, his feet crushed on the dry, dusty ground, ‘Okay, let’s get this princess, and get the hell out of here.’

Brother Han wiped a pool of sweat from his face, ‘I appreciate that attitude. Now…’ He pointed toward a tower of flames in the distance, ‘That’s where we’re going.’

Despite it being far in the distance, the walk to the tower only took what seemed like two minutes.

‘In the Demon Realm everything is twisted,’ Brother Han explained, ‘Time, space, they don’t exist in the same way that they do in our dimension.’

In front of them were a hundred stairs. On each star was a giant eyeball, the stairs closest to the two rescuers were staring at them.

‘This is my problem.’ Brother Hans sighed, ‘This is why my lack of patience is one day going to kill me. Each of these stairs will tell the Demon King. I’m arriving. They’ll analyze us. By the time we get to the top. He’ll know how strong we are, where we’ve been recently, who our allies are and what we had for breakfast.’

‘Luckily we didn’t have anything for breakfast,’ Sparrow winked half-heartedly, ‘But aside from that small advantage, you’re saying it’s a suicide mission.’

‘Worse,’ Brother Han smiled, ‘I’d tell you it’s not too late to turn back, but I’d be lying.’

Sparrow started up the steps, ‘High chance of death, small chance of survival. What are we waiting for!?’

Together they squelch their way up the eyeball staircase.

The massive door to the Demon King’s tower was unlocked. Brother Han paused outside to read a strange rune set on the doormat.

‘What does it say?’ Sparrow asked.

‘Welcome.’ Brother Han said.

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‘Oh…’

‘But at the same time it’s complicated because the Welcome runes are upside down.’ Brother Han scratched the side of his head. From the sky behind them huge mountains of burning coals rained down on the landscape around the tower.

‘So we’re not welcome?’

‘Yes… and no…’ Brother Han said, ‘There’s some fine print here… the doorway says it will take us wherever we want to go… we just have to hold the thought in our minds and step through the door.’

“Like this?’ asked Sparrow, holding the idea of Sherry, Brother Han’s love, in his mind and pushing open the door.

‘Wait!’ Brother Han yelled, grabbing at Sparrow’s shirt, but stepping through the door himself.

There was a popping sound and they were sucked inside the castle and landed sprawled out on a tiled floor with the boom of the door shutting behind them.

‘Sparrow,’ Brother Han whispered.

They were in a massive cavern with a gleaming red floor. All around the room blacksmiths toiled, making fine platinum jewellery and armour. Their massive hammers fell as one, creating a beating sound that echoed around the room.

‘Sparrow,’ Brother Han whispered again, ‘This is the Demon King’s throne room, what the hell were you thinking when you entered the door?’

‘Brother Han…’ A slightly high-pitched voice boomed from the towering throne at the centre of the room, ‘What took you so long?’

On the seat sat a figure bathed in a savage red light. Sparrow couldn’t see a single feature of the figure apart from a large molten-hot staff.

‘I… I…’ Brother Han faltered.

‘He’s been training, training really hard and standing in cold rivers,’ Sparrow shouted, ‘We’re here to kick your ass and rescue Sherry.’

‘Sparrow,’ Brother Han hissed, ‘That’s the Demon King…’

‘Oh…’ Sparrow stared up at the figure with an alarmed expression, ‘I thought his voice wouldn’t be so high-pitched.’

‘Kick my what?!’ The figure lept from their throne and landed elegantly on the floor in front of them, the bright red light was still too intense for Sparrow to see what the Demon King looked like. What appeared to be a hand emerged from the light and gestured for them to come closer, ‘Try me.’

The pair settled back into a warrior stance with their fists raised. The Demon King didn’t react.

Brother Han traced a semi-circle in front of him with his leg. He spun, jerking his arms in an intricate pattern, then snapping them out in front of him.

A tornado erupted from between his hands, engulfing their part of the chamber and piercing straight toward the Demon King.

But the Demon King didn’t even flinch as the tornado turned to a swirl of flowers in front of him.

Sparrow rushed the fiery king with twin balls of flames on his palms, he tried to strike, but the king’s light enveloped him and paralysed him so he became a statue with flaming hands, unable to move, only observe.

Brother Han lept twenty metres in the air and called lightning from the heavens. It splintered and zapped, destroying tiles and killing a few of the blacksmiths working away around the hall. The remaining blacksmiths sped up their drumbeat as Brother Han flew toward the Demon King and let loose the most powerful spell he’d done in his life. The lightning surged and snapped like a snake, bearing down on the Demon King…

And then suddenly the lightning was gone, replaced by a line of flowers that withered and died in the heat.

Brother Han fell to his knees exhausted.

‘Sparrow,’ he cried, ‘Sherry… I’m sorry. I have nothing more to give…’

His tears boiled into steam as they hit the floor of the chamber.

‘You failed to rescue the woman,’ the Demon King said, ‘And you led a boy to be slaughtered,’ the blacksmiths’ drumbeats grew faster and faster as the Demon King moved closer to Brother Han. The red light assaulting Brother Han’s eyes was unbearable.

‘You failed to kill me.’ the Demon King said, ‘And now you are going to die.’