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horizon. It truly was immense. When Cassie looked to the left, the city’s face extended farther than she could see, and the same to the right.
    Smoke—more like black mist—rose from the city into the sky, and so did myriad spears of multicolored lights, which she could only equate to spotlights. Birds—or winged things— could be seen sailing away in the distance.
    The sight of it all stole her breath.
    The others had stepped through the threshold and now stood behind her. They seemed to marvel at Cassie’s speechless awe.
    “Pretty cool, huh?” Via bid.
    “Kind of makes Chicago look like a pup tent.”
    “I couldn’t believe it, either, the first time I saw it. Couldn’t believe it’s where I’d be spending eternity.”
    Finally Cassie was able to speak. She glanced again to the left and right. “It ... never ends.”
    “Actually it does,” Xeke explained. “Ever read the Book of Revelation? In Chapter Twenty-One, St. John reveals the actual physical dimensions of Heaven, so Lucifer deliberately used the same dimensions when he produced the original blueprints for Hell. Twelve thousand furlongs square. That’s, like, 1500 miles long and 1500 miles deep—the surface area is over two million square miles. If you took every major city on Earth and put them together... this is still bigger.”
    Cassie couldn’t really even envision these dimensions. “So, since Lucifer fell from God’s grace, he’s been building this city?”
    “That’s right. Or, we should say his minions have. Most entrants into Hell become part of the workforce in some way. And in a sense, the Mephistopolis is just like any other city. It’s got stores and parks and office buildings, transportation systems and police and hospitals, taverns, concert halls, apartment complexes where people live, courthouses where criminals are tried for crimes, government buildings where politicians rule. Just like any city, er, well ... almost.”
    Via explained further. “In the Mephistopolis, people aren’t born—they arrive. And they live forever. And where the social order on Earth is the pursuit of peace and harmony amongst the inhabitants—”
    “The social order in Hell is chaos,” Xeke informed.
    “You have Democracy, we have Demonocracy. You have physics and science, we have black magic. You have charity and good will, we have systematized horror. That’s the difference here. Lucifer’s social design must function to exist in a complete opposite of God’s. Lucifer has built all of this to offend the entity that banished him here.”
    “So ... it’s not underground like in the legends?” Cassie asked. “It’s not on Earth someplace?”
    “It’s on a different Earth that occupies the same space,” Xeke informed her. “It’s just on another plane of existence that God created. So is Heaven.”
    “So,” Cassie began, “when you die—”
    “You either go to Heaven, or you come here. Just like it says in the Holy Bible. Just like it says in most religious systems.” Xeke cocked a brow. “Not really much of a surprise when you think about it.”
    As Cassie continued to stare at the distant cityscape, her mind turned over a thousand questions. How could she ask them all?
    “Let’s just go,” Via said, as if deciphering her thoughts. “Your questions will all be answered.”
    Eventually, they were.
     
    Cassie dreamed of it now—a year later. Not in the confines of a normal bed but on little more than a cot in the precaution ward of a private mental hospital. Indeed, she entered the Mephistopolis with Via, Hush, and Xeke, all for the purpose of finding Lissa. All Cassie wanted in the world was to be able to tell Lissa she was sorry for what happened, and her new-found powers as an Etheress would enable her to do that—or so she thought. Down a hundred different alleys and a hundred different smoking streets, through one district and prefecture after the next, wielding spells, hexes, and the most arcane charms, Cassie