Read Online The Fall of Hades by Jeffrey Thomas - Free Book Online

the gradually inclining ramp, Vee heard a rhythmic metallic clanging far below them. Some machine still diligently toiling, though perhaps now to no known purpose.
    “The Creator was apparently distraught over the rebellion, seeing the long-standing order of Hades thrown into such chaos. He had a crisis, it is told, and questioned His own views of His disfavored children, the Damned and the Demons, even as they questioned their own positions.
    The Creator’s essence withdrew in contemplation for a time, and then without warning—He immolated.”
    “Immolated?”
    “Apparently, He self-destructed. Committed suicide. I suppose it had been a long time coming, perhaps even before the start of the Great Conflict. Of course, the destruction of Earth and all its life must have understandably contributed a lot to His state of mind. It may even have been the final straw.”
    “My God,” Vee whispered, and then realized what she had said.
    “His essence must have been scattered throughout all of Creation, for you will see particles of His being floating about the Construct even unto this time, dispersed through its ventilation systems.”
    “Are you talking about that white ash stuff?”
    “Yes, so you’ve seen it. Dwellers here call it Essential Matter.”
    “I’ve seen primitive life forms that seem to have spontaneously evolved from it!”
    “Really? That I didn’t know. I hope you can show me this. How intriguing.”
    At the other end of the long ramp, they stepped through a tall arched doorway and found themselves in a gallery of similarly boundless dimensions, its floor and walls of polished marble—black veined with red—its ceiling and either end again disappearing into blackness. Lining the right side of the great hall were more arched doorways like the one they had just passed through. Some were dark, while light bled in through others.
    From one doorway came a whistling icy wind, which blew the tattered remains of what must have once been curtains drawn across it. Lining the left side were tall, narrow windows with arched peaks, but each seemed to have been walled up with cement beyond their thick glass panes.
    “Do you have a blueprint of this Construct?” Vee asked.
    “There are blueprints of sections of it, accessible in the Mesh, but I greatly doubt all of it has even been mapped. Since you have no particular destination in mind, I suppose one direction is as good as another.”
    “But you don’t know where we are now, basically?”
    “The Construct has been expanded upon and reconfigured even since I have been adrift in the Mesh. All I know for sure is that you were imprisoned in the basement. We are now at what once would have been ground level.”
    “Once?” Vee asked. Without consciously choosing, she turned right into the massive hallway. The hard footfalls of her boots made watery, receding echoes.
    “With the Creator’s destruction, the conditions in Hades deteriorated further. The creatures of Hades do not need to eat or breathe to survive, but conditions here imitate those of the mortal realm. Thus, the sensations of creatures in Hades imitate those of mortals. One who does not eat hungers but will never starve, one who is prevented from breathing will gasp for air but never suffocate. So one will naturally seek a comfortable environment. But the decline of Hades steadily threatened those conditions. The air grew increasingly thin, and the ceiling of magma became turbulent and unstable. Soon, frequent rains of lava fell, finally becoming a continuous, unrelenting deluge. Demons could be killed by this, and countless were. The Damned could regenerate if they found shelter, but those who could not reach sufficient shelter were buried under the lava—and that might be the majority of them, for all I know. The lava would cool to volcanic rock, but the continuous downpour kept increasing the level of the rock. Those entombed within it are no doubt still conscious even now, but trapped in