In one corner, there was a mighty four-poster bed, with intricate carvings of wooden dragons defining each post and sheets of transparent silk that hung down from its roof.
And upon it, there were ten women, young and beautiful and scantily dressed. Ermos was finally able to place the scent that he'd be smelling. It was their strong lavender and mint perfume as they rolled about in an eternal ecstasy, their mouths wide open, dripping with saliva and begging for one man's company. "Lord Varus… Oh Lord Varus, please see to us," they whimpered.
"Do you see now? These women were princesses. The most sought-after girls in their kingdoms. Virgins through and through, still untainted to this day, and every single one of them is mine. It is my name they scream. For me, they'll do anything, they know no shame. They will gladly strip the moment I give the word. They throw themselves at me like dogs in heat. Do you think any man could have that if he was not as powerful as me?" The skeleton boasted.
"…But you don't have any flesh, do you? You can't… y'know? You don't have a…" Ermos refrained from saying the word and he instead pointed at his crotch and raised his eyebrows to get his point across. "Isn't it kind of useless then?"
"S-sacrifices had to be made!" The skeleton croaked. "Even without my member, I can still enjoy a woman's company. I can still play with her like a doll and make her mine."
"You sound depressed," Ermos yawned. Then, an idea suddenly dawned on him. "Wait… Did you turn yourself into a skeleton before you ever had a woman? Does that mean you're a thousand-year-old virgin?"
"N-no!" The skeleton denied it. "No… I definitely had sex… Lots of it… With, uhm, different women."
Ermos merely shook his head sadly, placing his hand on his heart as he imagined the skeletons pain. "There were other ways, Skeleton guy."
"What do you know of me!" The skeleton roared. "What do you know of the memories that haunt me? Of what I had to endure? How dare you try to look down on me, the holder of overwhelming power. I'll show you, I will! I'll force you to go through the same humiliation I have! Look, even your woman has the sense to be trembling in fear, like the frightened rabbit she is."
It was true. Bell was quivering from head to toe. With each reverberation that passed through her body, her glasses went further and further down her nose, threatening to fall off at any second. With a finger, Ermos gently slid them back on.
"Nope, she's fine," Ermos denied it. "I think you're seeing things."
"ENOUGH!" The skeleton shouted, his words echoing off the stone walls. "I'LL SHOW YOU MY MIGHT!" He extended a skeletal palm forward and without any resistance at all, Bell began to rise from the floor, clutching at her throat as though she was being choked.
"Okay, enough," Ermos said seriously, "put her down."
"OR WHAT, YOU FOOL? I CAN CRUSH AN ENTIRE CITY IN A MATTER OF SECONDS! KNOW YOUR PLACE!" He flung Bell across the room, straight onto the bed where the other women were rolling around. She landed right between them all and without any hesitation, they began to grab at her, feeling her clothes and her skin with an endless curiosity. Where Bell's tongue could speak no words, her face said it all as she looked to Ermos with a hopeless expression of fear on her face, still begging for help as she knew how hopeless it all was.
"You, I will take my time with," the skeleton said, pointing a long bony white finger at Ermos. "Your insults will be paid for, bone by bone. I'll crush you just enough to immobilize you, then I'll force you to watch as I have my way with your woman."
Ermos drew his sword, "you better not chip my blade, Boney."
The skeleton chortled, seeing him draw his weapon like that. "Very well! I will face you at the fullest of my might! I will show to you just how far above the human species I stand! Witness my magic, mortal and make your peace with your false gods!"
The skeleton raised both his hands above his head and spat spell after spell out of his mouth. "STONESKIN! BATTLE-READY! NORTH STAR! FIRE OF THE DEAD! RAGE OF THE FALLEN! BEAST-BOUND! BLOATED MAN'S ADVANTAGE! WHITE LIGHT! GODSLAYER! GREATER LIFE! ARMOUR OF THE NECROMANCER! SPELL BOOST! NEAR-DEAD…" on and on he went, spell after spell. With each that came from his mouth, his body was shrouded in a different coloured light. Grey for stone skin, red for battle-ready, blue for north star. And after each, there was a noticeable increase in the pressure he exerted throughout the room as his strength grew and grew to infinite heights. It took him five long minutes before he'd finally finished and by then, Ermos was rather bored.
"HAHA! SUCH OVERWHELMING POWER! I AM A GOD! I AM INVINCIBLE! I AM—"
"Dead," Ermos finished, appearing in front of him, and shattering his body with a single sweep of his frost-enchanted sword.
"WHA—" He managed to gasp, before his magic failed him and his consciousness disappeared forever. His shattered bones fell to the floor, bouncing a few times against the stone, before they finally settled, the last sound the self-proclaimed 'Overlord' would ever utter.