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“You gaze upon Mammon with such fear, tiny human worms Yet there is no cause for trepidation Mammon is only here for a brief discussion Yes A conference, if you will”

“There’s only one thing to discuss,” I said “Look at the sky Those cris”

“Yes,” the demon prince said “Mammon knows”

I gawked at Ma to help stop it? Without a world to corrupt, you deet what you want Your riches will be destroyed There will be nothing left You yourself will cease to exist”

“Well and good,” Mammon said “Then Mammon shall retreat to do what Mammon does best To covet treasures, to keep them safe If the universe is to end, then let it cruold”

“You won’t help us?” I didn’t knohen I’d started screa you care for threatened? Your stupid collections and libraries, your pointless erie”

Mae of the wealthy, thing of shadows, is to watch from ivory tohile the world burns to ashes This has been true for centuries, and so it will remain true as the very coser You rest your belief upon humankind so readily Pray that your confidence has been well placed”

“Then you’re working with theatha Black And with Loki, all this time, all these well laid plans”

Maold, and it shook one finger at me “That is incorrect These are all merely events that have fed into each other, sequences in the pattern of the universe that could have been, that could not have been, had you stopped the the pot, as it were To what end, to what purpose?”

Mason stood too close to Mae, but the de on in amusement

“So you’re saying that you’re content to stand aside as the world ends,” Mason shouted “That’s it? You’re not even going to try and stop it?”

Maeddon, the Eschaton – each is just the apocalypse by a different na, at least A world without mankind would be droll No souls to collect, no lives to corrupt and to tor lasts forever, and time has run out It is not in the nature of the universe to continue in perpetuity The market has crashed”

A horrible keening began to scream from out of the sky It was fear that both restrained me and convinced me to lift my head, to look at the clouds, and when I saw the to earth I looked again to Ma in their eyes, and so the demon prince to help

But the answer, as it ith any of the entities – angels, deods theain as the thirteen terrible stars descended to earth, and my body thrummed with horror and despair

“Fare well, huold at its feet “The end has begun”