Welcome to Hades

Hades was real? Wow. I looked around and noticed that I was standing on a very crowded platform that people and creatures kept appearing on. There were humans, gnomes, high elves, dwarves, Yaun ti (if the texts I read concerning monsters and races were correct), and Lexi, quite a few Lexi as well as other creatures of all shapes and sizes. Most were nude. Some like myself were clothed though. The dais I was on was much larger than I’d first thought.

As I took in the multitude my thoughts were drawn to the conversation I just had with Serena and the nature of souls. This didn’t make sense. Then my mind took all the random bits of information and stuck them together. The rules had been changed so that when people died they were graded somehow, sorted, and put somewhere else as they reformed. They wouldn’t know that of course. Why do that? Because the only way to progress was through Divinity Points, and those trying to earn Divinity Points needed followers. What better way to get points than from slaves? If I was right, and I’m sure I was, there was probably a tithing system where the Neophytes gave a percentage of their XP or DP to their Demi-Gods who gave a percentage of their XP or DP to their God. Which would allow them to do what exactly?

While I was taking it all in and making the mental connections a voice called from somewhere in front of me; “What are all you waiting for an Invitation? Get your asses moving, I have a quota to meet!”

I ignored the voice and started going through my prompts.

Welcome To Hades

All entries and exits into and out of this Layer are made from preset locations.

This Layer is Ruled by the Greater Daemon Anthrax, The Daemon God of Decay.

The voice I heard before drew my attention back from the prompts, “Okay you maggots, listen up. I am now going to read the standard greeting our Supreme Overlord has prepared so listen up and don’t interrupt, I don’t answer questions. Your lives have ended, or you are starting over because you were killed here. For you new arrivals, Welcome. Fresh meat is always welcome. As you earn your place within my home you will come to enjoy its simplicity and promise. What simplicity? The strong prevail. What promise? If you are strong you can do whatever you want here. For those of you that have just reappeared your Divinity and Experience are taxed every time you die.”

“That’s not fair!” a human male declared as a ballista bolt fired from above traveled through his head, into his body, and pinned him to the ground killing him instantly.

“Anyone else want to interrupt? No? Then let me continue. Where was I? Oh yeah, to ensure that everyone loses the same amount I have set the loss to 1% each time you die. A little side note I’m going to refer to the idiot that couldn’t keep his mouth shut as Bob. Bob will be back here in exactly 24 hours having lost 1% of his XP. If he’s stupid again, he will lose another 1% and return 24 hours later. This will go on until he learns his lesson. Does anyone here want to be like Bob?” the voice said. I still couldn’t see him because there were too many people in the way, but I saw a lot of heads shaking to indicate No, they did not want to be like Bob.

The voice started up again, “The next most asked question is this, how do I get out of this place? There are exits to other Layers of Reality, some layers are like this. Other layers are much nicer. The problem is that whenever you die, you will end up where your alignment indicates you need to be. This alignment is determined by your fundamental world view so you will need to make a very hard choice and prove that you are unwavering in that choice when you die. After you die, you will be shunted back here if you weren’t able to prove you belong somewhere else,” the voice said pausing for a moment to look around.

“Finally, for those of you that have traveled here, but have not died yet. Welcome to Hades. To leave you must find another platform like this that allows you to leave if you are permitted to do so. There are a few other requirements but why ruin the surprise? There are two other ways to leave. By Anthrax’s direct intervention or by following the River Styx. So, on behalf of my Master, once again welcome. “

The voice paused for a few moments then continued, “A couple of other things you should know. There are creatures here much more powerful than any of you outside the cities. Out there, you are food and sport for them. Inside the cities, you are prey and sport for any who think they can get away from taking advantage of you. One way to stop this is to pledge yourself to a lesser deity or demon. By doing so you promise to donate a percentage of any experience or divinity you earn. Different demons and deities ask for different percentages but off greater protections and numbers. Those that request less could be a good deal but might not be able to protect you. You’ll have to decide which one you will pledge yourself to. Now make your way down the pledge booths, or not. It’s completely up to you. When your done head to that tunnel over there,” he said pointing to a tunnel in the rock wall.

“Don’t listen to…” a man started to say as another Ballista Bolt was shot from above went right through him and pinned him to the ground, also killing him instantly. I looked up but couldn’t see anything above us for the life of me. I tried to activate True Sight and received my first shock.

WARNING Spells in this Layer must be cast using Divinity Points and Mana. Mana is sufficient. Divinity Points = 0. Your Spell True Sight has failed.

Well, that wasn’t good. I tried to activate my willed movement to lift me off the ground by about a centimeter and became slightly relieved when that worked. It looked like whatever laws had been modified or changed here didn’t affect all my abilities. Spellweaver let me cast spells, but I still had to pay a cost. If that cost value was added to it and I didn’t have the additional currency. Had to give it to Anthrax, that was one way to keep self-centered mages in line. Deities and Demons that used Divinity or Could demons call those points Demon Points, I’m sure they didn’t want to think of themselves as divine even if neophyte, demi-good, and God were the ranks they held.

It looked like getting to Apolyn was going to take a little longer than I thought. Unless things went sideways of course. Who was I kidding, things had already gone sideways, up, down, diagonal, and backward. Shit! I was so smart, and I hadn’t thought someone on one of these layers might find an easy way to neutralize spellcasters.

I was drawn back to my present as someone called “Next!” and I was put in front of a naked demoness, a succubus if I wasn’t mistaken. Bat wings, dainty horns, tale, full breasts, yep a succubus.

“Would you like to serve our mistress Glazya, daughter of Azmon Ruler of Hell,”

“Can I change my mind later?” I asked

“Of course, you can,” the succubus said as she smiled seductively.

“Then no, I think I’ll keep looking around, though you are quite beautiful,” I said

“The succubus sighed, everyone says that,” she said.

“But can everyone that does that do this,” I said as I created a platinum necklace with a ruby that would hang down and rest just above her breasts.

“No,” she said hungrily, “is that for me?” she asked.

“Of course, it is I said holding up. She leaned forward, turned to the side, pulled her hair up, and let me clasp the necklace together. I released the necklace. As she turned back the ruby rested exactly where I’d wanted it to.

“The color of the gem matches your eyes perfectly,” I said with a smile

“May I ask your name stranger?” she asked.

“I’m Adam, nice to meet you.”

“I’m Izzy, what would you like for the necklace?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I said as everything around me went quiet and multiple eyes looked on with interest.

“You are literally in hell for the selfish. Seriously, what do you want?” She asked again.

“Let me guess, there is only one currency that I may ask of you and not doing so would be considered an insult?”

“So, you weren’t born yesterday,” she said smiling. “Understand when we are done you will be brought right back to this line.”

“Understood, do I get privacy, or do I have to embarrass myself for all of these nice people?” I asked.

“For this necklace, we can do privacy,” she said as she rose, grabbed my hand, and walked me behind the booths to a row of doors in the wall. As we walked out of line a lot of the males and even some of the males in line started giving me catcalls.

“I played to the crowd and said, “I guess it’s my duty to please that booty,” which garnered even more catcalls and some snickers from the demons and other succubi in the area. After we were in the room, which had a very nice stone mattress, “Why is there a stone mattress?” I asked as Izzy took off the necklace and put it on a dresser.

“I wouldn’t want the necklace to melt,” she said seductively

“Oh, you’re a creature of hell, let me guess this is the part where I start screaming and you and your friends start laughing because you’re too hot to touch?” I asked smiling.

“Not so slow after all.”

“Sex is still on the table though?”

“Sex is required. I must pay you for the gift which I do want to keep,” Izzy said.

“Can I ask a question first?”

“By all means, she said seductively,” as she lead me to the bed, undressed me, and manacled my unresisting body spread eagle to the bed.

“What Is the time ratio between this Layer and the Mortal Universes”

“Which one? she asked as she locked the last cuff around my left ankle and stood above me on the bed, allowing her tail to stroke up and down my left and right thigh.

“Earth?” I said

“Earth? That’s easy. For every day that passes here, one hour passes there.” She said watching my eyes.

“Second question, how long do I get you for?” I asked.

“As long as you can handle me?” she said with a wicked grin as she wreathed herself in flame and dropped down on me, probably expecting me to melt on contact. Instead, my chaos ended up inside her. It was an easy thing to shape the chaos accordingly. She wiggled her hips trying to grind the fire into me and force a reaction while I just sat there and smiled as my chaos did its work. It might only be chaos, but it could still do what I’d had it doing when I thought of it as chaotic nanites.

The chaos spread throughout her body and mapped her physical structure, nerve endings, and the pleasure centers of her brain. As her hips stopped moving and she realized something wasn’t quite right I reached up from the bed, the manacles dissolving as my wrists passed through them. I easily overpowered her and pulled both her hands up and out as I put her in a spread-eagle position. I lifted her until she was standing over the bed and my chaos formed manacles made of adamantium that attached to her wrist and chains that reached to the wall where I converted some of the walls into embedded adamantium blocks so that she could break free.

As the manacles and chains formed they lifted her up and away from me until she was standing. I let her go and stepped back. She was still generating heat, so I remained nude. I stood in front of her looking into her eyes. Except for the wings, tiny horns, and tail, she looked human for the most part, but she was a demon. She started to say something. I cut her off by having the chaos embedded within her activate all of her please centers at once burying her in sensations of pleasure. Her question turned to moans which eventually grew to cries of joy, then silence as she began to drool. Her brain had become overloaded with pleasure.

With Izzy handled, for now, I tried to figure a way out to use my magic. It was a straight-up no-go. Every time I tried an actual spell it failed. I could use my chaos to make things and I still had plenty of mass to work with, but magic was out. I could not earn Divinity, or Demon Points as a mortal. They could be gifted to me, but I could not convert experience or do anything else to earn them. I had to be at least a Neophyte to get them, and I didn’t want to do that yet

I even tried to connect to Thor to have him open a portal to my location and that didn’t work. Quantum entanglement was blocked here as well. While my copy was having fun, I was growing frustrated.

On the 7th day, I the door lock was tested which caused me to react quickly. Izzy was still standing above the bed, drooling. I had the chaos within her change her face to look as if she was trying to act seductive and beg for more as I conjured a whip and struck her back with it. The chaos within her caused her body to moan though her mind was still just a mass of overloaded neurochemical stimulation. The door opened and a female high elf looked in, saw my naked body wiping the demon who was on fire, nodded, and closed the door. I’d ask Izzy who she was when I was done with her

I keep Izzy like that for the next 17 days, 24 total, before I turned off the stimulation to her pleasure centers, withdrew my chaos, and released her from the manacles. Izzy flopped down on the stone bed panting and looking at me with lust in her eyes, “More?” she begged.

“Perhaps someday, but I’ve already been here for 24 days, I think it’s time I get a move on.

“Give me a minute, What the Fuck are you?” She asked still panting.

“Are you hurt?”

“Yes and no, as you well know”

“I do,” I said slyly

“Why?” she asked

“Why do you think?” I asked back

“There isn’t a succubus that will hear what you’ve done to me in this room that won’t want to try what you did to me. It is so hard for us to reach that state and you kept me in it for 24 days? They are going to want the same!” she declared.

“While I technically didn’t touch you, my lover might forgive what I did to you today because of my circumstance. I very much doubt she will forgive me for forcing orgasms on multiple demonesses. I think she might cut my balls off and put them in a jar.”

“You have a lover that can handle you?”

“She’s a dragon,”

“Well shit balls, you don’t go small do you?”

“Do I?”

“No,” she said as she stood on wobbly legs. “What did you do to my legs?”

“Have you never had an actual orgasm before?”

“Of course, I have, I’m a Demoness of Lust. I’ve had an orgasm, just not such a prolonged one.

“The nerves in your body and legs are a bit fried right now. Your regeneration should have that all sorted in a couple of minutes tops.

“I bet,” she said wryly.

I had my chaos reform my clothes then picked up the necklace and opened it as she turned her back on me. I clasped it around her neck, “Well, Izzy it’s back to the line but before you go I covered my hand in a very light film of chaos which I converted to holy energy and pressed against her right-ass check.

“Owww, what was that for?” she said as she quickly turned to face me.

“Something to remember me by, Also, I want everyone to see that I marked you, a succubus and that I don’t have a mark on me.

“Not a mark,” she asked as claws extended from her hand and she dragged them down my right arm shedding my shirt and drawing blood.

I healed immediately and had my chaos repair my shirt, “Not a mark,” I said agreeing with her.

“What are you?”

“Someone trying to do the right thing.

“Sounds like you’re in the wrong place,” she said.

“No, I’m probably where I would have ended up if I hadn’t changed,” I said.

“Well, it’s been, how long has it been?” she asked.

“It’s been 24 days”

Just before we made it to the door I asked, “Who was the High Elf that looked in on us?”

“If a high elf looked in on us, that would have been one of Glazya’s top lieutenants. She was just checking to make sure I was still here, “Are you sure you won’t declare your loyalty to my mistress?”

“I’m sure. Also, thank you for a lovely time,” I said.

“But you didn’t do a thing. I’m literally and creature created to pursue lust and I have to admit that was one of the most intense experiences of my life as well.

“Don’t forget me?”

“How could I, you marked my ass”

“I know, right?”

“Why isn’t my regeneration fixing it?”

“Just a guess, but I’d bet because that was holy damage,” I said

“Holy damage? I can only heal holy damage normally. It’ll be weeks before that handprint fades.”

“Good to know. If I need to find you I’ll know how to tell it’s you?”

As we stepped out of the room every succubus, and demon started clapping.

I took a flourishing bow as I pointed to Izzy as if presenting her for inspection.

She whispered to me under her breath, “Are you sure you’re not a demon?”

“You would know,” I whispered back and made my way back to my place in line.

“Hey, why does he get to cut me in line?” a belligerent teenage human boy asked.

One of the guards looked at the kid, “Did you hear that sexual moaning and screaming that’s been going on since you got here?” he asked the kid.

“Yeah, so?”

“That has been going on for 24 days straight?”

“So?”

“This guy is the person… Ah, forget it, Izzy!”

“Yeah boss, have one that needs an eye-opener?”

“But I just….” Izzy started to say.

“And exactly how long do you think this will take?”

“Okay boss, she said as she walked over to the teen, took his hand placed it on her breast then led him toward the room?”

“I started laughing.”

“What’s so funny sir?” a guard asked with a hint of respect in his voice.

“He’s not immune to infernal fire is he?”

“No,” he said with a wry grin.

“We looked each other in the eye, then burst out laughing”

A couple of the people in the lines asked one another “What are they laughing about?” which only caused the guard and me to start laughing harder, even though we were trying to stop. After a couple of minutes, we started calming down then the screaming started. It got louder and louder until it ended suddenly which caused us to start laughing again.

When we finally calmed down I asked, “24 hours?”

“Yep, a hell of a lesson on the first day?” the guard said. “Also, they don’t all burst into flame while they’re having sex, most just have sex, but Izzy is a special case, her father was a fire elemental.”

“Damn, I’m impressed!” I said

“24 days, now that is impressive. Now move along you’re holding up the line.”

“Yes sir,” I said as I saluted and then began moving down the pledge line. I saw Izzy a few moments later, still wearing her new necklace. She saw me, smiled, and then sat back down gingerly trying to keep the weight off her right ass cheek. I wasn’t evil, but I had to admit I needed some alone time with Adaline, and soon.

I continued through the different booths, saying no over and over until there were no more booths and I was left in a line with people in front of me who were now talking freely. Most had chosen to pledge themselves but a few of us had not. As we came to the end of the tunnel we stepped into a chain-linked fence that wound back and forth down a hill to a courtyard some 500 feet away. The lines were covered so there was no way to fly out of this line. Interesting

I could see a tunnel on the opposite side of the courtyard. All around the courtyard were various groups of people and demons. There was a loner dressed as a spec ops operator complete with the 50-caliber sniper rifle. Another group was a band of smaller devils that were lazily floating over a corpse they had obviously just finished with, and another group of demons had a wizard. Everyone around the courtyard was scanning the group. I noticed when the wizard’s eyes locked on a young man that had just exited the chained-length fence. He saw the Wizard point and tried to run off to the right. The wizard cast a spell and the kid froze. I heard the demons say, “Fresh meat!” as they launched at and eviscerated the poor sap right there in front of everyone. Some of the people around me gasped but those that had come out of the tunnel early ignored the show.

I watched this same pattern go on for the next half hour and realized that there was indeed a pattern to it. None of the groups jumped at once. The sniper attacked the next person, then the group of only demons, then the group with the wizard.

They were killing anyone that hadn’t pledged themselves. The pledges weren’t even looked at as they were allowed to exit through the tunnel on the other side of the courtyard. The non-pledges were all killed in the courtyard. No wonder no one was allowed to talk when you first arrived. If they kept people ignorant it was free experience and possibly DP that went right to Anthrax. Again, I had to hand it to him. A nice, elegant system to earn experience. That wouldn’t help me now, but honestly, I expected that I wouldn’t need help. My time with Izzy had allowed me to test my capabilities and I was sure anything except a demi-god was in for a surprise, even without the use of magic.

Just before I stepped into the courtyard I pointed at the sniper and said, “Let me step to the side, I wouldn’t want you to accidentally kill a pledge.” The sniper nodded and I stepped out into the corridor, looked at the sniper, and took my best Captain Morgan pose. I really should be taking this more seriously, but I was pretty sure only outrageous behavior was going to achieve the outcome I was looking for.

I felt pressure hit my groin. It didn’t hurt, didn’t penetrate just hit my clothes then bounced off my body, then I heard the gunshot. The asshole tried to shoot my dick off. Well, if outrageously flamboyant wasn’t going to work, I guess there was also outrageously brutal. In a moment I was behind the sniper and kicked him so hard between the legs that his legs flew off in opposite directions as his head launched up and away from the expanding mess of the rest of his body that had turned into pink mist.

You have defeated Master Sniper Jay “Dead Shot” Pierce

, “Who’s Next? I called with the full breadth and might of my attributes.