The next day, news of King Pentheus's death spread through the palace.
He had been torn to pieces by several lions in the mountain forest while on his way to the Cithaeron valley, struck down by divine punishment.
Given that the old king was dead and the gods had issued a warning, the orders to arrest and execute the Dionysus cult believers were temporarily shelved.
Everything would be discussed again after the funeral and the new king's ascension.
Upon hearing these two pieces of news, the people of Thebes surprisingly felt no grief over King Pentheus's death.
Instead, they all breathed a sigh of relief because of the latter.
After all, they themselves or their family members had more or less been pursuing the path of joy.
If that stubborn and self-willed king had continued his endless pursuit, the ones to suffer would probably have been the entire city of Thebes.
To say something treasonous, his death was more valuable than his life.
Thus, in Thebes, which was immersed in a false solemnity, the wine meant for celebration sold out completely.
Not many people were willing to offer sincere mourning for the old king Pentheus's death.
The only one who truly cared was probably Agave, who at this moment was kneeling before the coffin and weeping.
As a mother, no matter how stubborn or cruel her son had been, a trace of maternal affection still remained in her heart.
Moreover, her child had died in such a miserable way.
Agave slightly raised her head, her slightly swollen eyes looking at the twisted face inside the coffin and the body molded from mud below.
In the end, she could not hold back her grief, and the tears she had just stopped burst forth once more.
Sensing a mother's sorrow, the candle flames in the palace flickered and jumped violently.
"Look, how miserably your son died..."
In a trance, a faint sigh sounded beside Agave's ear, then slipped into her mind through the ear canal and surged in the depths of her memory.
Her son's screams and wails before death emerged in her mind, turning into sharp blades that stabbed into this mother's heart, leaving wounds that bled endlessly.
"Don't you want to avenge him?"
Then, that eerie question seemed to stir up the anger in Agave's heart.
The mother's eyes gradually filled with bloodshot veins, brewing a hateful crimson.
Her lips and teeth moved mechanically.
"Yes, revenge!"
"That's right, revenge..."
In the darkness, the blood-colored figure curled its lips, revealing a pleased smile.
However, the next moment, the mother, kneeling before the coffin, suddenly turned around.
A hard staff appeared in her hand.
Her face turned ferocious as she raised the tip and stabbed toward the blood-colored figure behind her.
The unexpected result froze the blood shadow's smile.
It subconsciously retreated, but its figure staggered.
"Buzz!"
At some point, green grapevines had broken through the soil.
Accompanied by a dull tremor from the ground, they had already wrapped around the blood shadow's ankles.
Damn it!
The blood shadow's face changed dramatically in the darkness.
It wanted to break free, but it was too late.
"Die, you poisonous woman!"
Agave, charging forward, uttered a hateful curse as she raised the divinely bestowed staff with both hands and forcefully stabbed the tip into the blood shadow's chest.
"Poof!"
The unusually sharp wooden staff pierced through the body, and the divine power within it rippled out.
The blood shadow instantly shattered into pieces, turning into surging red light that shot in all directions.
The first to bear it, Agave, subconsciously closed her eyes.
However, the expected coldness and pain did not come.
The grapevines on the ground grew vertically upward, turning into green high walls that blocked the impact.
"Assassin! Protect the queen! Protect the queen!"
At the same time, the divine-blood guards in the palace who heard the commotion rushed over and forcefully broke open the door.
However, in the messy scene, they only saw the gradually dissipating red light at the door and Agave on the ground who had fainted.
For some reason, the queen mother, who had previously had her face etched with sorrow and pain due to the loss of her son, now had relaxed brows and a pleased expression, as if she had unraveled her pent-up emotions and was sleeping sweetly in a beautiful dream.
The tall and sturdy guard commander stepped out from among the soldiers, entered the hall, glanced at the remaining red traces on the ground, relaxed his tightly furrowed brows, then bent down to pull out the staff stuck in the stone slab.
Then turned around and solemnly announced to the soldiers.
"The gods protect us. The criminal who bewitched His Majesty and attacked the queen mother has been executed. Leave a few to clean the scene. The rest escort the queen mother back to rest!"
"Yes!"
The soldiers thumped their chests in response, then split into two teams and carried out the orders.
The noisy palace returned to calm once more.
~~
Meanwhile, in a dense vineyard outside the city.
Lorne, sitting in the shed, opened his eyes and spoke thoughtfully and slowly.
"Illusory body? No wonder..."
Then, those sharp purple eyes gazed toward Thebes under the night, locking onto a blood-colored figure leaping from the city wall as the young man lazily walked out of the shed and stretched his limbs.
"Caution is caution enough, but no matter how cunning the fox, it can't beat a good hunter. Checkmate!"
The next moment, two Zeus golds were tossed onto the plate in front of the shed, making crisp clinking sounds.
A [Goat] with raised hooves and head, in the surge of ether, turned into a gust of wind and disappeared into the thick night.
Almost at the same time, the blood-colored figure that had just rushed out of Thebes collided head-on with a golden meteor, swift as lightning.
"Boom!"
Accompanied by the roar of two divine powers clashing, the rich blood light shattered, and the blood-colored figure was abruptly halted, revealing its true appearance.
It was a tall and graceful red-haired beauty, surrounded by an ominous blood aura all over her body, draped in mourning black gauze.
Her scarlet eyes seemed to have bloody tears flowing, with countless twisted figures inside cursing, roaring, killing, wailing...
"Little guy, not bad."
The red-haired beauty looked at the blond, green-eyed youth before her, smiled charmingly, her scarlet eyes radiating playfulness and curiosity.
"How did you find me?"
"Pentheus was a fool, but not an idiot."
"Oh? What's the difference?"
"A fool is blindly arrogant and doesn't know to revere the gods, but at least he values his own little life and fears death.
Unfortunately, I gave him many chances and warnings, yet he rushed to his death without looking back."
Lorne sighed helplessly, raised his head and looked quietly at the red-haired beauty whose eyes were filled with curiosity.
"The fool who was shivering in fear the previous night, why, after just one day, became a fool who didn't care about his own life? Or rather, someone made him fearless?"
Actually, from the moment Pentheus dared to ride with him, throw off the divine-blood guards, and go alone to Mount Cithaeron, he had felt something was off.
Especially after leaving the city, his [Madness] surprisingly couldn't fully influence that unlearned young king, preventing this old cousin from retreating.
Clearly, someone had used another power to interfere with Pentheus's mind in advance, leading him down the path of no return.
And precisely because he confirmed that the old cousin was beyond saving, Lorne had unceremoniously sentenced him to death.
Moreover, things went exactly as he had anticipated; until death, the spineless Pentheus didn't utter a few words of begging for mercy.
This old cousin was a bit too brave.
Through the confirmation before and after, the result was obvious.
There really was a third party with ill intentions in Thebes.
Thus, Lorne used memory divinity to alter the bloody scene of the believers surrounding and killing Pentheus, and reached an agreement with the attending guard commander.
Pentheus died in the lions' mouths due to his own stubbornness, unrelated to others.
When the divine-blood guards arrived, the matter was already settled; they could only join the nobles among the heretics to exterminate all the evil lions and complete the revenge for the king.
This way, the divine-blood guards wouldn't be held accountable for dereliction of duty, and those nobles who suffered undeserved disaster could clear their names, return to Thebes, and incidentally provide guarantees for the divine-blood guards.
This was a result beneficial to both sides; the guard commander had no reason to refuse.
In addition, Lorne had also revealed to the grand commander and the queen mother:
Pentheus's death was because someone was manipulating behind the scenes; he would personally root out the culprit!
The queen mother, eager for revenge, and the grand commander, who had vaguely sensed something wrong with the king, immediately agreed and chose to fully cooperate with a certain Wine God apostle.
As expected, the mastermind secretly came to the door on the second night after Pentheus's death, preparing to bewitch the queen mother and continue his game.
However, the prepared Lorne had already set up defensive barriers in the queen mother's mind.
Thus, Agave, bearing the pain of losing her son, personally completed "revenge" with his help.
At least, that's what she thinks now, after all, there was no need to shatter a pitiful mother's beautiful dream.
Moreover, what she hadn't finished, her dutiful great-nephew would take care of.
"Clap clap clap clap!"
At this time, hearing the man before her roughly outline his plan and methods, the red-haired beauty couldn't help but applaud, her scarlet eyes full of admiration.
"You are simply a natural conspirator, a genius at manipulating people's hearts! How about becoming my subordinate god? I will grant you eternal glory!"
Facing the olive branch thrown by the red-haired goddess, Lorne seemed quite interested: "You are?"
The red-haired goddess thrust out her towering assets, proudly answering: "My name is Eris!"
(End of this chapter)