"Wow!" exclaimed Elio as he stepped into the underground courtyard, not believing the splendor of the place.
Apparently, Queen Liza had told him that the Blue Monster was locked, but the Greek god had insisted on accompanying Elio just in case the bitch was lying.
The creepy corridor sloped underground, taking them into a normal looking corridor that looked as bright as if it was daylight. When Queen Liza opened a bar gate at its end, Elio was greeted by a huge courtyard with a square-shaped swimming pool, vases of plants and flowers surrounding it.
Instinctively, he shifted his gaze upward where the sunlight was coming from.
'This is brilliant!'
Elio didn't expect these people to have such skills.
They had dug a wide well-like hole that went deep underground, then built a courtyard at its base to receive sunlight from it.
'I feel like I'm both underground and outside at the same time.'
'Oh! The Blue Monster. Where's it?'
Elio wondered his eyes around, curiosity about to burst him.
"There!" said the Greek god who had guessed what he was looking for. He himself was staring at the creature with both awe and shock on his chiseled face.
"What do you feed it?" Elio heard the guy ask Queen Liza.
"It's never eaten anything," she replied.
He was a general and not allowed to burst into laughter in presence of his king, but he couldn't help it.
"What? That's impossible. 3 years without eating anything? Why would they have attacked our kingdom? Why do they take our people and animals if not to eat them?"
"Try and feed it yourself if you don't believe me. Me and Kard gave it anything..."
She paused, seemingly weighing her next words.
"...We even gave it human meat but it didn't eat it. We thought maybe it wanted to kill its prey itself so we bought people and threw them into its cell. It just killed them."
"You gave it people so it could kill them?"
Queen Liza lowered her head, avoiding meeting the guy's shocked eyes. "A few... not more than 30."
"You call 30 people a few?"
When she didn't answer, the guy looked at her with killing intent, but knew he could do nothing without Elio's approval.
The Elio in question was still analyzing the monstrosity himself. He had to admit that with its features, surviving 3 years without eating was possible.
The thing looked like a demon.
It had reacted to their presence and came right to the bars, constantly banging them and screaming like a witch. Elio dared not stand close, but not too far to observe it.
Red eyes and a dark blue skin that Elio could bet was slippery like a lubricated cock, there's no way you could convince him the thing wasn't from the Underworld.
Grotesque and tall, at least 7 feet tall and slim like a bamboo tree with its bony elongated fingers which were dripping with blue mucus made his stomach churn.
"Who else feels like puking?"
"I puked the first time I saw it, the second and third. It was more grotesque back then."
"Was it why you locked Mareen here?"
Elio's question made Queen Liza turn left, fear in her eyes. He followed her gaze and there she was.
Across the courtyard, on the opposite side from where the Blue Monster's cell was, there was another cell with a small bed. Princess Mareen lay on it, as still as a dead body.
'Is she dead?' Elio thought as walked toward the cell.
'No! There would be a foul smell if this was the case.'
Queen Liza opened it and took a step further from Elio, almost as if she feared he would slap her if he found the condition his betrothed was in.
Elio stepped near the bed and shook the girl's shoulders gently. "Hey!"
She opened her eyes but didn't say anything. Clearly, she hadn't been asleep. It had something to do with either hunger or fatigue.
"Do you even feed her?" he asked, lifting the princess to sit on the bed.
"Sometimes!"
"When was the last time?"
"3 days ago."
Elio let out a pained chuckle. He turned to face Queen Liza to see if she even showed remorse.
'Nope! She's like my big brother and Leila. No! Like Elia and Leila. He's no longer my big brother.'
Before Elio could say anything, Queen Liza added, "But it wasn't my fault. She's the one who refused to go to Monol Empire. I was only following her father's orders and..."
"Shut up! I know you enjoyed it. But don't worry. That's exactly what I'm going to do to you. A monster like you doesn't even deserve death. You belong in this cell from now on. And it's not my fault. You're the one who tried to kill me."
With the script flipped against her, the bitch looked like she had swallowed a frog.
Elio gestured for both his knight and the Greek god to come help her carry Princess Mareen out of the cell.
"I think it will be easy if I carry her on my shoulders," suggested the Greek god.
"Sure!"
Just then, they had the bar gate getting slammed. With their attention focused on the princess, Queen Liza had slipped away and...
'She's unlocked the monster. Crap!'
Elio watched in horror as the abomination left its cell, its screams forcing goosebumps to spread across Elio's skin.
'Damn! This bitch!'
Queen Liza had unlocked the monster, then ran into the corridor that had brought them here and locked the bar gate out of it. She now stood behind the gate, waving the key at Elio with a sly smile on her face.
"You wanted to lock me, huh? Hehe! Who's locked now?" Her laughter echoed around the underground courtyard, forcing the monster to get even more angry.
The Greek god struggled to put the princess back on the bed, the other knight unsheathing his sword and stepping out of the cell.
With inhuman speed, the monster jumped 3 meters high, but fell down with eerie screams of agony when the direct sunlight hit it.
It stumbled back, choosing to move near the walls to avoid sun lays.
'It has a weakness!'
He was kinda happy to discover this, but still terrified after seeing it jump. Clearly, it was fast and agile, which meant that the battle was going to be a tough one.
His knight ran to meet midway, but the thing ripped his head off in seconds and threw it toward Elio.
If the Greek god didn't react fast and push him aside, the head would have hit him.
"Run into the sunlight," the guy shouted, unsheathing his sword.
'So, he also knows its weakness? Impressive!'
This gave him some hope, hope which the monster shattered in seconds when it picked a vase with dirt and flowers near it and threw it at them.
"Shit! This thing is intelligent!"
The Greek god pushed him into the water saying, "Of course it is, Your Grace."
Another vase came for them, then another, then another.
'Geez! Just how many vases can this thing throw in a second?'