As naughty thoughts continued roaming Elio's mind, Queen Mareen was having her own.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, walking back toward the pool. "I thought I had cleaned all of them. Come and help me bathe away all of it!"
Elio obeyed with a smile on his face. If only she knew what was about to happen to her if she didn't get away.
"There really isn't much left," he commented as he helped gently scrub the stains off her temples. "Except in your hair, though."
She let out a disgusted grunt. "Urgh! I feel sick already. I really don't want any of that demon's blood on me."
She briefly glanced at Queen Liza's corpse as she said that, and her mood became sour, frightened and traumatized again.
"Will Niemoth punish me for killing her?"
"Of course not! If she remained alive, I would have tortured her. She would have suffered everyday for what she did to you."
Only after his words did Mareen's face brighten again.
"Is my hair still stained?"
Elio nodded his head.
"Maldor, go bring me some soap!"
"Right away, My Queen!"
Elio's lips curled into a smile. 'My Queen? Hmn! I like this guy! He knows when things have changed and how to change with them.'
He turned to General Maldor and said, "And some people to get rid of Liza's corpse. It's stinking already!"
The man bowed to him. "Yes, Your Grace!" Then he left.
Mareen quickly covered her nose, playfully. "I didn't notice! What a stench!"
Elio splashed water in her face. "Liar! It's not that stinky."
They broke into laughter.
"Oh!" he exclaimed, shouting after General Maldor who had already entered the corridor. "Hey! Bring me my thunder too. And tell your people to announce a gathering in the City Square. I have something to show them."
General Maldor came running back as it was a taboo to speak to the King without him able to see you. "As you command, Your Grace!"
Elio turned his attention back to Mareen, only to find her eyebrows furrowed. "Thunder? What's that?"
"You'll see!"
It didn't take long for General Maldor to return. 4 maids and 4 knights were with him. The 2 knights went for Queen Liza's corpse, 2 maids to mop blood off the floor, while the remaining 2 jumped into the pool to bathe Queen Mareen. As for the other 2 knights, they stood with Maldor, as still as statues.
Elio gestured for a towel, and after drying his hands, he walked toward General Maldor who handed him the tasser.
"My love, I wanted you to be the one washing my hair," came Mareen's voice, and Elio could tell her lips were pouted.
He turned to look at her. "That means you don't want to see my thunder, huh?"
"Where's it?"
"Come! I'll show you!"
She reached him in no seconds.
"See?"
"Where? I don't see any thunder. Just a strange artifact."
Elio let out a chuckle, gesturing for a towel. He dried her hands and handed her the taser gun. He already had the cartridge loaded, so what remained was to pull the trigger.
He walked her near the Blue Monster' cell and said, "Hold it like this. Uh-huh! Yeah! Like that! Now, I'm gonna count. Focus on the monster and pull this when I say go, alright?"
She nodded, anticipation all over her face.
His hands were over hers to steady them, and, "One... Two… Three… Go!"
The cartridge hit the Monster right in the chest, and Mareen's mouth fell open in amazement. "My love, it really is thunder! Where did you get it?"
She finished this as the Monster fell to the ground, shaking.
Elio glanced at General Maldor and ordered him and the 2 knights standing with him to go tie the monster, then shifted his focus back to Queen Mareen to answer her question.
"Niemoth gave it to me so I can kill these things and save people from their terror."
"Then why were you asking me for ways to kill them?"
"It's because this can't kill them. It just weakens them."
She burst out laughing. "I knew it! Niemoth never helps fully! He always provides half the solution."
Elio was trying to suppress laughter. Knowing he was lying about Niemoth giving him his thunder, and seeing how Mareen had quickly believed him like how others had done, he could see that they would soon be calling him a prophet of some sort.
Were all prophets like that? Did they have some advantage that other people didn't know of, then pinned everything to imaginary super beings which ended up giving birth to religions?
'No! That's stupid! Some religions feel genuine... but nonetheless still mythical to a certain extent.'
'Let me not try to make a big deal out of this. Besides, what tells me the system wasn't granted to me by some god?'
With this thought, he went on with the narrative.
"Aren't all gods like that?"
"No! Magdolota isn't that way. When she gives women fertility, she grants it fully. If she was like Niemoth, no one or any animal would have ever been able to give birth without embarking on some kind of adventure first."
Elio couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Mareen raised her eyebrows.
"What?"
"For Magdolota's fertility to work, there needs to be sex, don't you know? That's an adventure and without it, no one or any animal can give birth."
Mareen took a while to digest what he had just said, then blushed when it sipped in.
She proceeded to punch him on the chest, playfully. "Why did you just have to ruin it for me? My admiration for Magdolota just dimmed. I feel like I was lied to my whole life."
"Well, that's unfair. She's also the goddess of love. She's the reason you have me. The reason I have you."
"No, thanks! She waited to give you to me after years of Queen Liza's torment. I insist it was half given."
"Well, when you put it like that, then she's also bad."
"Don't get me wrong! I'm still grateful I became yours in the end. We just have to wait for Emperor Gezen Kan's reaction to this. If he doesn't get angry and attack us, Magdolota will remain the best of the gods and goddesses."
Just then, General Maldor's voice echoed around the dungeon. "Your Grace, we're done tying it."
"Very well! Take it into the City Square. We're gonna give people something to gossip about for generations to come."
They started pulling the abomination out of the cell.
Elio turned to Mareen. Staring her in the eyes, he allowed a smile to form on his lips. "My love, go and bathe. Have maids prepare you the best of dresses. After burning that thing, I want you to come so I announce you as my new queen."
Instead of doing as he said, she instead pulled him into the pull with her. "We'll have to bathe together. I can't allow you to burn that thing in my absence."
She didn't wait for him to say anything before removing her clothes to reveal her heavenly body.
"Aren't you supposed to be shy?"
"I would be, if Queen Liza didn't bring men and stripped me naked to humiliate me. If she didn't fuck them in front of me as a way to torture me."
She swam to him as she added, "My love, I want to know how it feels like. I know she's dead but I'll feel I got the full justice I deserve after that."
A devilish smile appeared on Elio's face.