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'My visit is unexpected and there is no one to greet me. I approach the pedestal and ring the gong, its sound echoes in the rotten air...'

"There's one at the door, at the gate to Damnation..." an approaching creature declared to me. A slab of walking muscle with grafted appendages. "Is it thief, thug or whore? There's one at the door and there's room for one more till the end of creation. There's one at the door. At the gate to Damnation."

Greetings, Gatekeeper." I say to the Demon."I wish to speak to your Master. Take me to him immediately."

"Oh yes, my Clown. And who might you be?" it asked disrespectfully.

"I have many names, but I am the King of Dreams, of the Nightmare Realms...I seek Lord Lucifer. The Lord of Hell."

"So Where is your Crown?"

"Some Demon has stolen it. I have come to Hell to get it back."

"So where's your Ruby?"

'Enough of this. I reach between the bars and grab the cluster of half-spilling intestines above the navel that serves as the creature's mouth, and assert my authority:'

"I will take no insults from you little demon! Guard your tongue! Lucifer will not be kind to one who insults an honored guest--and I Am a guest in this realm, as I am the monarch of my own...Now open the gate."

"Back to your gate and duty, Squatterbloat!" another approaching Demon said. A yellow, horned one that I recognize. "I'll take the Dreamlord, play his Guardian...For innocents abroad need guides of note--and who notes more than me...? Than Etrigan?"

My guide leads me along a high and narrow cliff face path, beside cramped prison cells built into the rock and supported by bone. The lacerated fingers of each prisoner stretching out between the barbed wire and broken glass that holds them in as we pass.

This goes on for miles.

Never trust a Demon. He has a hundred motives for anything he does...ninety-nine percent, at least, are malevolent.

"Etrigan...Why did you bring me this way?"

"Upon your right are souls, entombed, to pity. An ugly sight..." he began to answer, just as the answer itself begins to speak directly to me from her cell. Her name is Nada but time is short and her story is for another day.

"Kai'ckul! Dreamlord! I hoped one day you would come to me! free me, My Love! ...Please?

Her voice has horaced to the point of ruin. Her spirit has been broken and it has dimmed her soul...though, in spite of all that, she is still as beautiful to me as the day I met her.

"I greet you, Nada. It...it pains me to see you like this."

"Kai'ckul! Free me Lord!" She pleaded desperately up to him from behind the wire. "You ordered me confined here! Your forgiveness can free me! Please, I implore you!...Don't you love me?"

"It has been ten thousand years, Nada. Yes, I still love you...but I have not yet forgiven you."

I turn my back on her and continue on my way with Etrigan.

"...Now! Onward to the City! Hahahaahahaha!!" he cackled.

'We do not talk for the rest of the journey to the city of Dis.'

'Lucifer's palace. It too, has changed. It echoes with loss and pain. The last time I came to this place it was as an honored guest, an envoy from my own kingdom. This time I lack power, I lack my symbols of office...but I am still Dream, and the doors open as we arrive.'

'We travel to the summit, past vastly halls that echo of screams and grunts and sighs and dust. Up stairs that run with blood. At the top of his mansion he waits for us, alone.'

"Greetings to you, Lucifer Morningstar." I say to him upon entry to his presence.

'He turns to face me, looking exactly as I remember him. His wings burned and frayed, but otherwise, flawless as the day he was created.'

he said.

he replied.

Declared a large insectoid demon as he entered the room and proceeded across the ceiling in order to join the two of us on the balcony.

Beelzebub corrected.

Lucifer volunteered.

offered Beelzebub.

Azazel added.

Lucifer queried.