And without further notice, I was transported in some huge puddle under a dark sky. In front of me stood a tall, impressively horned, figure. He was muscular, his skin fading in the night sky, red eyes and white horns the only part that stood out at first sight, all in all an impressive sight. The fact that he was stark naked, and apparently really happy to see me, didn't make it easier on my nerve... I gulped, critically aware that, to protect myself, I had only my towel, still wrapped around my waist, and the baseball I clutched desperately to. I averted my gaze from the naked huge horned thing in front of me. I rose unsteadily to my feet, only now noticing that I the puddle I was in was mostly blood. My face whitened, which no one seemed to notice with how dark it all was.

Looking around me, I noticed the unusual crowd and froze. All kind of things were lurking in the shadows of the moonless night. If I was being honest, I was scared to death... So, I jumped on the first idea to take my mind off things.

"Do I smell liquor?" I asked, focusing on this particular thing. The horned one in front of me bent the knee and talked in a deep brown voice.

"Yes, my lord, you do." 'My lord?' I thought, still puzzled. The creature, apparently misinterpreting my raised eyebrow, detailed. "It's whiskey, Great Evil One, eighteen years of age, pure malt from the Isle of the Blue Dragon."

"Oh, hum, well good... I suppose."

The silence stretched for a while, uncomfortably so, until I heard the God's voice in my head. 'You are their lord, you know, the Demon Lord and all that...' Damn, right, I had forgotten about that... But how was I supposed to behave as a Demon Lord? And how the hell was I supposed to play the part of a dignified ruler in a bloody towel?? Fortunately, the two-and-a-half-meter-high demon came to my rescue. Oh, and before someone sues me, I'm basing my guess of it being a demon, not on the black skin and imposing manhood, but on the two huge horns.

"Bow to our Lord!" Boomed the demon whose red eyes were cast on me. I almost bowed too, bent by the authority that came out of him, but the distraction of maintaining my towel in place allowed my thoughts to catch up and remind me that I was the Lord in question.

Looking around, I watched the creatures of the night bow down to me in unison: changelings, succubae, demons, skeletons, vampires, tax collectors and other... Wait, tax collectors?

"Hum... You there with the big horns..."

"Francis, my Lord, Archdemon of the first level, Pope of the everlasting despair, at your service." He helpfully said and, after what I'd like to call the 'Francis-shock', I couldn't help but notice that these were nice sounding titles!

"Yeah Francis... What's with the humans over there? The ones that look like tax collectors."

"These are indeed tax collectors my Lord, some of the most feared of our agents amongst the lowly humans, they mostly serve as spies, my Lord."

"Oh... That makes sense." I said, surprised that, given how the God had looked, anything made sense at all here.

"Rise now creatures of the night." I said, as loudly as possible. And so it was done. Turning towards the Archdemon, I asked in my best, and unconvincing, attempt at regal. "Pope, introduce me to my generals before we go to my quarters."

"Yes, Demon Lord, right away! Here is The Fae, a changeling that will be your confident and help for any domestic question."

"Does she have no name?" I asked to the small flying figure.

"No, my Lord, I do not. I shall take the name you deem appropriate, if you deem me to be worthy of one, my Lord." She said, and I stared at her, recognizing the sweet voice from the email that had gotten me into this mess. She lowered her head, misinterpreting my silence and surprised look for displeasure, and Francis presented the next VIP in line.

"Here is Vladislav, Count of the Bleeding Night, and his daughter Mihaela, High Vampires. Vladislav is your army's general and his daughter is in training to follow in his footsteps." I smiled at the vampires in response to their bows. They both had some kind of mysterious beauty, their thin figures seemingly hard as steel.

"Here is Giulia, your master spy, she's a dark elf." Said the Archdemon as I looked around.

"Where?"

"Here, my Lord." Whispered, from just behind me, the sexiest voice I'd ever heard.

"Hum, great, great, I'll need your report later." I said, not turning to look at her, as to not tempt fate. Her voice was already making more impression on my lower body than I would have normally trusted a towel to hide. Coming to my rescue, Francis cut it short.

"These are the highest ranking of your people, my Lord. Others are of importance, but we could first see to your comfort and show you your quarters."

"Thank you, Francis, let's do that."

We began to walk towards the castle. My castle... The moon seemed to regain some courage and started rising, lighting the prominent building. It did look like in the email, although not pixelated. The castle was dark, full of thin towers, apparently of gothic architecture. I wasn't an expert in that field, but I'd say it made me think of the castle on the Disney logo, only dark, real dark. Some towers defied the laws of physics, only sustained by bridges linking them to the main structure, but still hanging dozens of meters high. Even from the outside, it looked like a maze. I really was feeling like the count Dracula, and I hoped that no Belmont would come around and kick my ass with a holy chain... I checked my teeth to make sure and sighed, relieved not to have gained fangs and a weakness to sunlight, wood and anything holy.

While going through the grand looking door to the castle, I thought that I could have made some kind of speech to 'my' people... But I had a lot of things to figure out beforehand: how did this world work, what was I do to, what did I wanted to do as a quest or such... how to name The Fae, and whether I could rename Francis, whose name seemed really inappropriate for an Archdemon. And first of all, I had to find something comfortable to get into, a towel being quite bad at showing my newfound status.