'Tis true we reign while racked with
raging torment, yet, for spirits of our majesty, 'tis better to reign in
hell than serve in heaven. {85a} And what is more, we have well nigh won
another world, a greater than a fifth of earth has been for long beneath
my standard. And although our Omnipotent Enemy sent his own Son to die
for them, I, by my pleasing guile, gain ten for every one He gains
through his crucified Son. Though we cannot aspire to do hurt to Him on
high who hurls His all-conquering thunder, yet revenge by whatsoever
means is sweet. {85b} Let us then bring ruin on the rest of men who
adore our Destroyer. Well do I recollect the time when ye caused them,
their armies and their cities, to be consumed in horrible combustion, yea
and caused nigh all the dwellers on the earth to fall through the
whelming waters into this fire. But now, although your strength and
innate cruelty are no whit less, ye have been somewhat listless; were it
not for this, we would have long ago destroyed the godly few, and brought
the earth one with this our vast domain. But know this, ye grim
ministers of my wrath, if ye henceforth be not up and doing, valiantly
and with all haste, seeing the brevity of our alloted time, I swear by
Hell and by Perdition, and by the vast, eternal gloom, that upon you,
yourselves, my ire first shall fall, with pain the like of which the
oldest amongst you hath never proved.
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