I walked down the street, taking in the ambiance of the beings around me. Most were human and fairly well dressed while a few looked and acted out of place. The employees of the various business were easy to discern. They were hurrying along in some work uniform or another. The rich were also easily recognized. A few were walking around but most were riding various vehicles that were in the area. Cars, horse-drawn carriages, flying mounts. All were evident. I could also see demons in the area but most wore business suits or dresses and seemed to be blending in. As I looked around I noticed that the only flying demons I could see were either very far away or west or west of 5th avenue and the turnstile. I allowed my chaos to wash over me and transformed my clothing into a nice business suit as I stepped up to the entrance to Audrey’s Steakhouse.

An attendant opened the door for me and I walked into a very nice relaxed ambiance.

“Good evening sir, will you be dining alone or with someone this evening?” a maître d’ asked.

“Alone, thank you”

“How will you be paying this evening? He asked.

I held out my hand as he scanned my bank glyph with a scanner of some kind. He looked at the screen and then looked up with wide eyes, “Very good sir, would you like to dine with the commoners or will you be descending this evening?”

“Descending?”

“Of course, Sir! As a Platinum Glyph holder, you may descend to our dining facility for those with more exquisite tastes.”

“That sounds fine,” I said as I followed the maître d to an elevator.

“This is where I leave you, Sir. Are you new to Hades Sir?”

“Yes, why do you ask?”

“Well Sir, you’re taking in the surroundings as if you’ve never seen them before, it was quite easy to notice.”

“Thank you, I will work on my poker face, was there something else you wished to say?”

“Yes Sir! The ability to pay for services is required everywhere sir. Everyone pays in some way. Let’s say someone comes in here and is unable to pay for their meal in the main dining hall. That person would be escorted to the kitchen to work off the remainder of their bill. Then, if they survived without food until they finished their work they would be escorted off the premises. Those that enter this elevator have proven that they have the means to pay for their tastes. If anyone fails to pay their bills below, they become part of the festivities. I see by the look on your face that you do not understand. It will become quite apparent when you exit the elevator.”

“Thank you again,” I said, as I pulled out $10,000 and handed it to him.

“Sir, that is far too much…

“I insist, and trust me, I will not run out of money. It is karmically impossible for me to do so.”

“If you insist I will accept the tip but karmically impossible, you test Fate sir.”

“I do,” I admitted.

The elevator opened and I stepped into a very nice elevator with only two buttons. The first button, “1*”, was lit up and the button below it had a simple “D” on it. The maître d pushed the D which lit up and stepped back out of the elevator as he said, “We hope you enjoy our hospitality, Sir.”

The doors closed and the elevator started descending. It was a good 5 minutes before the elevator stopped.r until it opened and I stepped onto a floor that looked almost identical to the restaurant above except that the floor was made of glass and below me, I could only see what I could describe as a butchering assembly and kitchen.

“Welcome Sir, are you looking for anything specific tonight?”

“This is my first time, what exactly is on the menu?” I asked.

“In addition to our normal menu, anyone and anything that exists within Hades can be on the menu if they have been caught and processed as a bounty or volunteer.”

“How exactly does that work?” I asked

“Sir, there is a pamphlet at each table that you may read while waiting for your meal. It details the legal steps required for anyone to be put on the menu. You can look over the menu which is magically updated, or you can enter the holding pens and get a firsthand look. Once payment has been received we have areas where the meat can be tenderized by you or some of our chefs before it is prepared. If such cuisine is not to your liking we can of course provide anything on the normal menu as I’ve said. Through the one-way glass floors, you can watch as various meals are prepared during any step of the process you like.”

“As this is my first time, I think I’ll stick to a normal beef for now while I take in the atmosphere.”

“Very good Sir, if you’d follow me, he said as he led me to a door that opened into a booth. As I sat down he asked, “Anything to drink?”

“Your very best red wine would be perfect while I look over the menu,” I said.

The waiter left, allowing the door to close. I picked up the pamphlet and quickly flipped through it. Another system that Anthrax had set up to give him a never-ending influx of XP and DP while ensuring that eventually everyone that allowed this depravity to become a necessity would most likely be in this exact position as part of the menu eventually, Ingenious really.

Curiosity reared its ugly head, and I looked through the floor. It took a moment then I saw a miniature version of the scene where Bae Doona was slaughtered and turned into food from the movie Cloud Atlas with a lot more torment and torture added. As that kind of thing wasn’t my thing, I ignored it. I did notice that anything was on the menu as I saw individuals from every race of humanoid I’d ever heard of represented. There was also the slaughter area that allowed the patrons to watch their cows get prepared from scratch if they liked.

I picked up the menu and then coughed. A beef steak was $1,000,000 to watch a cow be slaughtered for your meal while a female elf was only $5,000 for a full roast. Why such a high-cost disparity? Then I thought about it. I picked up the pamphlet and flipped through it quickly and it all just came together. Steak would be more expensive because they had to grow them and then slaughter them which meant a huge investment. I looked at the menu again and a steak without watching the butchering was only $100 per plate. All costs doubled if someone wanted to participate in the tenderizing process which was just a euphemism for torture. The costs varied depending on creature type and demand.

Just then a naked female human came in with a piercing through her left nipple with a metal tag that read “For Sale.” She carried my glass of wine in and set it down.

“Are you allowed to talk to the customers?” I asked.

“Of course sir, I am here to meet every need you may have.”

“Okay, let me get this straight. If the tag you’re wearing is an indicator, I could ask you to do anything in here and you would?”

“Yes Sir.”

“For any customer?”

“Yes Sir”

“Does that include becoming my meal?”

“Of Course Sir?”

“Why?”

“Excuse me, sir?”

“This entire realm seems to revolve around the idea of self-interest so why would you subject yourself to this? If you’re turned into food, you’ll come back in 24 hours right?”

“Yes Sir”

I turned my glyph over so she could see it, “I’m new to Hades, is there a way for me to transfer funds to you directly as a tip?”

“Yes sir, you just touch your glyph to mine and transfer what you’d like.”

“Hold out your glyph,” I said.

She did so and I touched my Bank Glyph to her and transferred $1,000 to her.

“Thank you, sir, what would you like me to do?”

“That is for answering my questions thus far. I will give you $1,000,000 to answer my question fully and truthfully, why are you allowing yourself to be slaughtered, what do you get out of it?”

“Do you even have a million dollars?” she asked

“I do,” I said as I tapped the menu for a cow to be slaughtered and the Prime Rib cut to be prepared for me, then touched my glyph to the circle that appeared in the table for payment.

“You just spent a million dollars to prove that you could spend a million dollars?” she asked.

“That and I wanted a fresh prime rib.

“Sir, they have spells to reduce the time it takes but it’ll still be an hour before it’s ready.”

“Good to know, but that information will not get you a million dollars.”

“Yes sir. To answer your question anyone can volunteer to work in this restaurant. If you work upstairs you are paid $10 an hour plus tips if you’re a waitress. Upstairs tips are scarce as people are just trying to get some fancy cheap food. Down here you earn $100 for the day working as a servant for 12 hours, plus half whatever they can sell your meat for which is added to your banking glyph right before they slaughter you. That way when you come back in 24 hours you already have the cash. They also have beds down here which they only charge $10 for us to use for the night if we’re going to work until our goose is cooked,” she said giggling.

“How many times have you done this?”

“I’ve lost count but not too many, I only have $250,000 in my account right now.

“Hold out your bank glyph,” I said.

I transferred the million dollars to her and said, thank you for the explanation. Quick question, which I feel should be covered by the funds I just transferred.

“Absolutely sir, in fact if you’d allow me to show my appreciation…”

I cut her off by saying, “That is quite all right for now, my question is this, is there any other way to earn money faster down here?

“Faster no Sir. If I’m slaughtered nightly my price will continue to go up as more and more people request me. They start to bid on me. For instance, Myra Hindley, the woman that killed all those children in England and possibly abused them. Well, here there are a lot of people that remember who she was and make their way in here to buy her off the menu. She sells each day and almost every time the customer buys the rights to tenderize her. My understanding is that she has so many people after her that she keeps coming back to make money to pay off the really depraved ones.

That sounded a lot more like the hell I had expected to find down here. “If I might ask, why are you down here, you don’t seem like an evil sadist or selfish person.”

“Oh, I’m selfish enough, but I realized I’m never going to get ahead if I don’t have money so I’ll be doing this for as long as I can,” she said as a bracelet on her left wrist buzzed and the words on the nipple tag changed from “For Sale” to “Sold.” She looked down at the tag then up at me and said, “Times up for tonight, looks like I’m on the menu. It was nice talking with you…”

“Adam, and you are?”

“I go by Trixie now,”

“Can anyone watch you get processed?” I asked.

“Sure, just say ‘Follow Trixie’ after I leave, and a screen will appear in front of you. You can do that for any livestock in the building,” The wristband buzzed again, and she headed out.

As she did, I said, “Follow Trixie” and sure enough a holographic screen appeared in the air before me. I played with the controls and found that I could change the angle so that I could look over every square inch of her body. That was a pretty invasive camera. I followed her progress as she made her way downstairs and a man in a chef’s outfit said, “Looks like you’re going on the spit tonight Trixie,”

“Alive and twitching or dead and done,” Trixie said

“Alive and twitching. It’s a big party, with some demons, they want to watch their meal suffer.”

“Damn I hate this part,” Trixie said as I turned the monitor off. I didn’t need to see that part. Nothing about the process interested me. I was more concerned that there was no way for people to work their way out of a system where they were being paid to become food. I could even forecast how individuals like Trixie might think they were getting ahead only to find themselves behind and offering even more depraved services.

Anthrax had set up a system where those that wanted to act out their depraved fantasies could do so, for a cost. The more they gave into those urges the quicker they would go broke. When they were out of money they’d become the victim and do anything to earn back the ability to be depraved again. A vicious never-ending destructive cycle based on personal self-interest. They could stop whenever they wanted but wouldn’t. Utterly depraved and utterly brilliant.

I enjoyed my Red Wine until my Prime Rib showed up. It was cooked to perfection and fresh. There was also a baked potato and some green beans. People within feet of me were eating other sentient beings and I was just enjoying a normal steak in Hades. I had to admit this was probably the weirdest place I’d eaten steak. Also, it was weird seeing souls acting as if they had pseudo-normal lives as compared to the mortal world.

I was jostled out of my thoughts when there was a knock at my door. A moment later a different nude female, an elf this time opened the door. Like Trixie, she had a breast tag that read “For Sale” on it, “Excuse me, Sir, there’s a gentleman here to see you?”

“Please show him in,” I said.

“A glass of whatever he’s having, on his bill,” a thin weaselly-looking human man said as he stepped past the female elf and allowed the door to close before sitting opposite me. He sat there and stared intently at me as I continued to eat my Prime Rib while he waited for his drink. Moments later the elf returned and handed him his drink.

I reached out and touched my bank glyph to the table to pay for the drink then looked to the elf, “Your glyph please dear” I said as she reached out. I transferred $1,000 to her and she hurried from the room.

As the door closed he demanded, “You will give me my dagger back now, or I will kill you before you take another bite?”

“Aren’t we in a Safe Space?” I asked.

“That doesn’t matter to me?” he said

“Me either,” I said as I took another bite of my Prime Rib. It was almost agonizing to watch as his eyes gave away his emotions. He went from disbelief to rage and then finally to malevolent delight as he cast a spell and chains shot out to grasp my arms and feet. I continued to eat as if I wasn’t hampered.

Quickly moving the weasel of a man pulled another Dagger of the Undying from somewhere on his body, probably a belt of holding, then lunged forward to stab me in the throat.

I moved, breaking the chains, and tossed my plate, fork, and knife straight up as I pulled my Chaos Blade and performed a called strike to take the hand holding the dagger off at the wrist. Simultaneously I molded my chaos into the form of a dagger in my left hand which I used to pin the severed hand and dagger to the table. I dispelled my chaos blade and casually reached up to touch my plate, knife, and fork, putting them in my personal storage. No need to waste a perfectly cooked Prime Rib. Wasting a perfectly cook Prime Rib would have been criminal.

The man stepped back and looked to be about to shout when I had my chaos wrap him like a mummy and immobilized and gagged him. As I touched the table where the Bank Glyph went and said “I need to see a manager”

A voice entered the room, “Right away Sir”

Momentarily a fully dressed succubus in a business suit entered the room and her eyes went wide, “What is the meaning of this?”

“I was attacked in a Safe Space and defended myself, what are the penalties for attacking and or defending oneself in a Safe Space?” I asked.

“If you were attacked there are no penalties so long as you did not injure or kill anyone that did not participate in the attack. Lesser deities, such as Devan here, are not bound to the rules of safe spaces. Also, the truth of the matter is whatever the victor says it is.”

“Interesting,” I said then looked thoughtful for a moment. “If I were to assume that there are many demons here that might look favorably on bad things happening to this non-demon lesser deity right here, would I be correct?”

She nodded once.

“How many would like to see some form of justice, specifically against this individual?”

She held up 9 fingers.

“Very interesting. As the manager of this establishment, I was warned that entering the elevator meant that I could become part of the festivities. Is that true for all creatures that have entered your establishment?”

“Why yes it is, but any fee that you might want to pay could be counter-paid off by an individual if they are neither a bounty nor volunteer. They would have to beat whatever you were willing to pay. If they do, you are on the menu.”

“Very well, I would like to purchase Evan as the main course for a party of 9 that will be able to toy with and tenderize their meal before he is slaughtered for them to enjoy. I would like him prepared like Trixie was earlier.

“That will be a minimum of 18 million dollars plus whatever, he counter pays with, are you sure you’d like to make this purchase?”

“Absolutely! I said as I released the gag from the man who was trying to laugh”

“I’m going to feast on your bones,” the man said, “You can’t afford to make me into a meal!”

“How much would you like to wager on that?”

“I’ll wager all of my Divinity Points save 1,000 he said?”

“Why 1,000?” I asked.

“Do you accept my wager?”

“How many DP are you wagering otherwise?” I asked.

“I have 10,556 currently. You will receive 9,556 DP if you win this wager. Do we have a wager?”

“Absolutely!,” I said

“You may release him now,” the manager said. “A wager has been made and witnessed. If the lesser deity Devan, doesn’t abide by the wager he forfeits his demon status and is returned to the state of mortality and is treated as such.

Devan looked at me before he said, “I’m not going to cook you and eat you. I’m going to cook you alive, heal you and do it again over and over, then when I’m done making you suffer, which will be for a very long time, I’m going to kill you with my dagger and watch as every level you have is stripped from you each time you enter The Courtyard of Choice.

“Assuming that what you say is true, you’d want to watch me come back day after day for 764,935 years and 78 days. Wow, that would be a really long time?”

“What are you talking about, even if you were level 5,000 I’d only be watching you day after day for just over 13 and a half years,” Devan said.

“Level 5,000 you say?” I asked as I laughed, “I met a man like you once Devan. He was much like you and was the catalyst for why you are going to lose this wager.

“Lose this wager, there is no way I can lose this wager. You haven’t even been here a day; how could you possibly have more money from Hades than I do?”

“Time to put our money where our mouths are, I said as I placed my arm on the banking glyph, thought modify the order to a party of 10, and waited for Devan to do the same. Still smug he placed his banking glyph on the table as well and a message popped into my vision.

Devan has converted 1,000 DP into currency increasing his current funds to $1,000,055,335.

You have spent $1,0020,055,336 to negate Devan’s attempt to turn you into his meal and have created a Party Platter out of Devan the Lesser Deity following preparation directions laid out for Trixie.

Your party will commence shortly.

You have been awarded 9,556 DP

I picked up my dagger quickly, leaving Devan’s hand on the table and putting the second Blade of the Undying into my personal storage.

“That’s my knife!”

“Would you please escort my food to the preparation room?” I said.

“Having none of it, Devan called forth a black magical blade and was about to strike at the manager when I casually severed his arms and legs at the socket and had my chaos cauterize the wounds so he wouldn’t bleed out.

The Black blade flickered out and Devan, fell to the floor in a pile with his arms and legs. With a flick, I added his hand to the pile with my sword. The Manager looked at me and then snapped her fingers twice. Two large demons entered the room through the door, picked up the various pieces of Devan, and departed.

“Will there be anything else Sir?” The manager asked.

“Collect your party, and have your fun with him, I’ll follow on the monitor from here. I modified the order to include myself so when you’re all done playing I’d like to make sure he gets to see his daggers one last time.

“Very good Sir!” she said with a hint of a smile. She turned and quickly walked out of the room.

“Follow Devan,” I said as the screen reappeared and I watched as Devan was taken to a room where another man sat on a throne, “Devan, what am I going to do with you, he said placing a collar around his neck. You should have just lost with some dignity, now if I’m reading this right it’s going to be a while before you’re ready to go back out and work for me again. So be it. Take him to the processing room, and have your fun, it’s been paid for,” the man on the throne said to the manager. The manager actually squealed as her business suit disappeared and eight other Succubi joined her and helped carry Devan off to be tenderized.

I didn’t watch what they did, I pushed the screen off to the side and pulled out my meal to finish it. When I was done I looked up to see that they had finished with him and were now in the Chef’s room. He’d been prepared just like Trixie.

“Adam please follow the green arrows to Devan’s final preparation,” a voice said over the intercom. I took a swig of wine, willed myself not to puke at what I was about to see then followed the green arrow. As I walked into the Chef’s room a burly Pit Fiend was laughing merrily as he threw seasoning that only demons could like onto Devan, who was still very much alive.

My eyes sought out the manager and I motioned for her to join me as I pulled out one of my two Daggers of the Undying. “I have a question for you, will the curse on this dagger work on him as well?” I asked.

“Yes, once marked the curse remains until it is cleansed by holy magic or the afflicted is reduced to level 1.,” she said.

“And it only takes a single point of damage?” I asked.

“That and the intent to lay the curse of course.” She said.

I walked over to Devan who was trussed up and hanging like a chicken ready for a rotisserie. I moved to where I could meet Devan’s eyes then nicked him for exactly 1 point of damage on his cheek under his right eye. He was trying to scream but the Chef had gone all Vlad the Impaler on poor Devan. All any of us could hear were gurgles.

I turned to the manager, “How long before he dies?” I asked.

“It’ll be a while, maybe a couple of days but he’s not going anywhere. Anthrax was so disappointed that one of his lesser deities was beaten both physically and mentally by you that he’s allowing the Regenerator to attend. The Regenerator will keep him alive and regenerate missing body parts so they can be served over and over. When the party finally ends, well then the Regenerator also has an ability that prevents all healing which can be used to force him to die.”

“Very well, I think I’m done down here. I’m going to head upstairs to the hotel and take a much-needed break. You ladies and all of your friends enjoy your meal,” I said.

“Oh, we will, this one is a bit of a sadist, we are going to enjoy him, make sure he knows we enjoyed him, and then taunt him every day that he is reborn and grows weaker. When he is finally level 1 I plan to kill him again just for fun

“I’m not going to receive any backlash for this?” I asked.

“Not at all, Anthrax is happy with you. You followed all his rules after all.”

I stowed the dagger, turned, and left. I made my way back up the elevator to the 1st Floor and noticed three woman waiting to get in the elevator.

“Common Chrissy, it’ll be fun. It’s quick cash and Lizzy swears that it’s a quick way to make a quick buck.”

“Ladies, I said as I stepped out of the elevator and walked out of the restaurant.”

It wasn’t my job to save all these souls. If I could, I would at a later date. For now, I just needed to blend in and survive. Ruthless self-interest it was then. Though, I’d be damned if I became a cannibal willingly.