An hour or two later, they resurfaced to catch their breath. With very happy smiles, they went to the kitchen to get something to drink, and then they sat down in the garden on one of the seats in the lounge. Elise seemed to have found her place on his lap, and he was more than happy with that. After they had enjoyed the silence and each other for a while, Elise asked quietly:
"Jon, can we talk?"
He kissed her and said,
"Yes, you're right. Everything has happened so fast that we haven't really had a chance to talk. But now that we're together and have a family with four beautiful girls, the rule that I can't answer every question about Heaven and Hell has been thrown out the window."
She nodded and asked the first question:
"What did Zelo mean by five princesses of Hell?"
He laughed softly for a moment.
"Unfortunately, that comes with the territory when you are me. I am the Crown Prince of Hell. I have claimed you as my wife and the girls as my daughters and placed a marker on you to make your position clear to all Angels and Demons. You are completely untouchable. This claim is not to be taken literally. It can have a very negative connotation for humans. As if you were commandeering, claiming a piece of property. For us celestials, it does not have such a negative meaning; it has to do with love, friendship, and family. It's different in Hell and Heaven than it is here on Earth."
She got a sly smile:
"Otherwise, I found it very pleasant, delicious, and hot just now to be claimed by you."
And again he burst out laughing. Suddenly she became serious again.
"But what exactly does that mean, Jon? It's something like an honorary title without much meaning, right?"
"Not at all. Zelo meant your royal status in Hell and Heaven."
Her head flew up:
"Our what now?"
"Come on, Red, wasn't it you who made me think clearly again? That I could see past my anger and realize that I am also the Crown Prince of Heaven? The hierarchy in Heaven and Hell has changed Elise since we have been together. I'm the crown prince of Heaven and Hell, if I mark someone as being a princess then that means that person is literally a princess in both places. Only dad and grampa could veto that decision and based on Zelo's words this morning that has not happened in Hell. I did not hear a peep from Rae Rae either so grampa must have accepted your positions as well."
"You need to explain this a little more clearly, Jon. How can the hierarchy change in both places? Isn't it static then?"
"No, my dear, it is not carved in granite. The hierarchy in Hell has changed as follows: My father is on the primary throne and I sit on the secondary throne, but you are on the same level as me because I have claimed you as my wife. Then come the girls as our children, the Princesses of Hell, and only then the Elder Demons and the rest of the lower Demons. In Heaven, the hierarchy is now Grandpa and Grandma, then you and me, then the girls, then the Archangels, and then the rest of the Angelic Host. And I bet Michael had a stroke now that there is a second new level between him and God, that he lost his position as second in line. He was actually sure he was first in line because I never showed any interest in the throne. Until you made it clear to me that my temperament prevented me from seeing the forest through the trees and that I didn't see this whole succession thing clearly."
Elise sat looking at him wide-eyed and said quietly:
"Holly smoke... I was so distracted and walking around on pink clouds that I hadn't made that connection yet. I wasn't thinking about the girls or the hierarchy in Heaven and Hell."
Suddenly she put her hand to her mouth and muttered:
"Oh my god, you are literally the Crown Prince of Heaven, the next Deo."
Jon threw some oil on the fire.
"Think, Red, think..."
Now she shot straight up and stared at him in shock, but she couldn't get a word out. So he spoke in her place:
"Indeed, Red, if I become the new God after Grandpa and Grandma step aside, then you become the new Goddess, the new Mother Nature with all the powers Grandma possesses."
She stared at him for a minute or two and then cuddled up to him as if she wanted to "crawl" into him.
"Jon, this... this is so big. I don't know if it wouldn't be better if I crawled under the bed and started crying really hard in a panic."
"Welcome to my world, darling. Elise, if this is all too big for you, please tell me. Then I will quietly distance myself from you and the girls. I will continue to protect you; that is a certainty."
"Love, this is all so huge and coming at me at such an incredible speed that my head is spinning. But if you think I'm going to give up this thing we have—a family with you and our girls—then I suggest you find a good doctor who can prescribe you some very serious heavy medication! I just know; I feel in my heart and soul that with the girls and you, I can do anything!"
There was silence for a few minutes before she asked her next question:
"Jon, you said something last night about climate change that absolutely scares me, for us and for the children."
"As a human being, it is something to be afraid of, Elise. It's just that humanity doesn't seem to see it or doesn't want to see it. The lust for the almighty dollar gets in the way. Mankind will destroy itself by its own greed."
"Can you describe what that's going to look like without scaring the hell out of me?"
He thought for a moment and said softly,
"I don't know if I can do it, my beautiful Red, but I can try. Think of it as a pressure cooker in a kitchen. The fire of the stove is creating more and more pressure inside the cooker. There are a whole bunch of cooks in that kitchen, but they are all fixated on selling smaller dishes very quickly to make as much money as possible. Each of these cooks thinks that one of the other cooks is going to take the cooker off the fire. Of course, that doesn't happen because they're all focused on making money fast. Eventually, it is too late, and the pressure in the cooker has risen so high that nothing can happen but the cooker exploding with all its consequences. In the case of global warming, the point of no return has been in the rearview mirror for some time now. The cooker has no choice but to explode. Unfortunately, it will only get worse from now on. Slowly at first, then faster and faster, the snowball effect. There will be problems with the food supply because there will be less and less land suitable for agriculture. As a result, attention will shift to fishing, but the oceans and seas will be emptied rather quickly because there will be a gigantic need for food. Drinking water will also become increasingly scarce. These shortages will eventually bring the superpowers into conflict with each other. First conventional wars, and when that gets out of control... biological, chemical, and nuclear wars. As a result, at least eighty percent, and more likely ninety percent, of humanity will be wiped out. This will be followed by a nuclear winter, but once that is over, there will be so much extra crap in the atmosphere that further warming will very rapidly take place. What is left will also eventually die because the warming can no longer be stopped. The critical point has been reached; there is no turning back. The earth will be uninhabitable for humanity for at least a few centuries. That nature will recover in a new form is, of course, of no consequence to humanity, because there will be no more humans."
Elise had gone a little white around the nose, but she asked:
"When humanity comes to an end, what will you do?"
"I have never really thought about that, Red. I have deliberately put it off. The idea of humanity disappearing is terrible to me because I am half-human after all."
"I can understand that. But where will you go when the time comes?"
"Nowhere, because I have no choice but to stay here on Earth. I don't want to go to Heaven, and I don't want to go to Hell either; it would be a nightmare for me."
"All alone, no people around you for all eternity. That seems awfully lonely, Jon. But besides that, how would you do it? Could you even survive if the state of the Earth is so terribly fucked up?"
He had to think about this question for a moment, and then a spotlight went on in his brain:
"Ah, come on, you don't fucking mean that."
He shook his head and was wide awake again.
"What's up, love?"
"I'm absolutely sure now who organized the coup!"
"Who then?"
"My very own bloody grandparents, and most likely Uncle J, and where he is, the Magdala is not far away. Also, my nephew David and niece Sarah."
She laughed and said,
"How are they, as a family of course?"
"He is wonderful; he is a walking dad joke. She is elegant, a model of grace, mercy, and love. You could be sisters, now that I think about it. Then again, you are a descendant of hers, so not so strange. David and Sarah, on the other hand, are big question marks. When they arrived in heaven after their death, they became children again. Somehow they refuse to grow up and remain twelve. They are almost two thousand years old, and yet they have the mentality and behavior of twelve-year-olds. They are two wonderful kids. When I was their age, they had their hands full up there with the three of us."
She laughed again at the picture Jon had drawn of the Jesus family.
"But why exactly would these four people be behind a coup to remove God, one of the coup's participants, from the throne? Why would he want to remove himself from the throne?"
"I think I have a very good idea. I can seal off any area on Earth. Think of it as a dome. For example, I put a dome over Louisiana, and outside the dome, anything can happen inside the dome; everything just stays the same. Climate change, nuclear war, whatever, has no effect inside the dome.
"Okay, so far I can follow that. You're in the dome, but that doesn't help God; he's still on the throne, and he can't get off the throne because there's no one to take over the throne. The only one who can take the throne has absolutely no interest in doing so."
"Right his throne."
"What other throne is there? Your father's, but he cannot enter Heaven without being destroyed. So that too is out of the question."
"Elise, I am not talking about an existing throne; I am talking about a completely new throne or better thrones."
She sat up and looked at him with wide eyes.
"A completely new throne? But how can that be?"
"Let's say Grandpa and Grandma leave Heaven for a family dinner with the girls and us. They both pass on their full divinity to me. Once I absorb their powers, I can shut down the current Heaven and Hell. No Angel or Demon can get out. I will create a new Heaven and Hell, and with that, new thrones will appear in that new heaven. With this creation, reality does not cease to exist. Grandpa and Grandma can rest because there is a new God. All souls will continue to go to the old Heaven and Hell for now, until the last person is gone from Earth, except for those I would choose for the new Heaven. The result is that the coup against himself has succeeded."
She snuggled against him again.
"Successful, and if I understand correctly, not only that but successful without you having to take on the role of the literal Antichrist."
"Yes, the sneaky bastards..."
And he laughed. She got a smile of her own now that she saw him smile again when he talked about his family and asked:
"How so?"
"All those idiots upstairs and downstairs are totally fixated on me. Except for the younger Angels like Rae Rae and the younger Demons like Zelo. Those who came into existence after my father's fall. Most of my two small groups don't give a shit about the war both sides want to wage and would rather not share in the pieces. My father looks at those winged idiots and at me. The Angels, led by Michael, look at my father and at me. No one is looking at those who sit on the thrones and seem to have lost all interest in humanity. Therefore, a coup against themselves."
She looked pensive for a moment.
"But what is the purpose then?"
He looked deep into her eyes with those green eyes of his and said in all seriousness:
"Eden."
"The Garden of Eden? But that is long gone."
"Not quite true love."
"Are you telling me the garden still exists?"
"Yes, somewhere in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle with a whole bunch of enchantments on it and around it. No human can go there or even see the island because it exists just outside of time. I do not want to insult your intelligence by not explaining how that works because I have only have some of an idea myself. Every time my Angel of Knowledge, Laia, tried to explain it, I just zoned out after about five minutes. Simply put, it exists in its own dimension. You can imagine that it is as fertile as it can be and completely protected from the outside world because Eden was created by Grandpa and Grandma together."
A sly smile appeared on his face:
"Eden has been in perfect condition, untouched, for thousands of years. Except for Rae Rae and me for a moment."
She looked at him with sparkling eyes:
"Jon, what have you done to Eden?"
"Not much, really. Unless you count recreating the dodos, mammoths, and a whole bunch of extinct fluffy creatures. I thought Grandpa was really going to have a stroke the day he found out. When Rae Rae and I had to explain what we did, I'd never seen him so red."
At this news, Elise burst out laughing. She barely got out in between.
"Jon, you were a real little monster!"
"What good are these powers, Red, if you can't have any fun with them? Grandma actually found it funny, which made Grandpa even redder."
It took her a while to recover and ask the next question.
"So a light came on when you thought about that possibility. But if you are the only one on earth, why a new Heaven and Hell?"
"Because those sneaky bastards expect me not to be alone in Eden. They expect me to save some of humanity and take them to Eden. There, humanity can continue to exist in peace and quiet until Mother Nature restores the climate on Earth."
"Wow, that's great. They might as well have been wrong about you, Jon, and then their whole plan would have fallen apart."
"Maybe, but with those four, you always have to count on them having an ace up their sleeve somewhere, good or bad. I've already said that something is happening, and I don't see the whole picture yet, and I don't really have an idea what the end goal is. This whole coup thing is so at odds with everything that has happened in the last few thousand years, and I am still missing pieces of the puzzle. But whatever it is, they are playing high stakes. They're not just sneaky bastards; they're fucking bastards. I don't know what to make of it. If this scenario is correct, then once again they are presenting me with an impossible choice. If I don't do it, then everything and everyone goes to shit. If I do that, I have to write off not only my mom and dad but also my two little groups. Mom is in Heaven, and if I shut it down, it's permanent. If I shut down Hell, then it's permanent, and I'm banishing my dad to that Hell for all eternity. Damn, I don't know what the hell else they want from me, as if I haven't sacrificed enough already!"
She refilled his coffee and handed him the cup.
"Love, don't explode or shut down, okay? But you have to talk to me about Casiel."
She immediately felt all his muscles tense and the light in his eyes dim, so she knew he was in that bad mental place again. He took a deep breath and said quietly:
"What do you want to know, Red?"
"Everyone in your little group, your siblings, and even your grandparents know. Cas is your daughter. But you can't put it into words because you're afraid something will happen to her in Heaven. We are not in Heaven, love, so talk to me."
He took a few sips of his coffee and said,
"That's what I meant by sacrifice, Elise. I sacrificed everything because I didn't want to destroy humanity. The moment I stood up in that meeting and turned my back on that eternal mess, I knew Michael was going to try something stupid. Raffa confirmed this by saying that he was waiting for me to lose my temper again and storm Heaven. He will see it as a declaration of war, and then everything I have done will have been in vain. He is using my little group, my Cas, as bait to make me crack and do something stupid. I want to pull her right out of Heaven and give Grandpa and Grandma the roast of their existence for not sending her to me on Earth right away. Here, I can protect her from those winged idiots. As long as I am missing puzzle pieces, I cannot do that. I am no longer playing 3D chess with two opposing parties but with a third party as well. Each of these parties wants me to make sacrifices, and when I think I have nothing left to sacrifice, they demand even more. What the hell do they want from me? My little group of Angels, my group of Demons, my Cas, and now my parents. When the hell is it going to be enough?"
Two tears of intense pain rolled down his cheeks. Elise kissed him tenderly on the mouth and said softly:
"Whether you are right or not, but I think you are, we have time, and the first thing I want to do now is try to fuck a hole in this shower wall. Then I want to redecorate this beautiful new house with the girls to make everyone feel at home. So, Antichrist, leave the coffee and follow me upstairs like lightning! The rest can wait."
He scooped her into his arms, stood up, and carried her bridal style into their bedroom, where he playfully tossed her onto the bed. A considerable time later, he was lying with Elise in his arms, catching his breath. He was completely relaxed and subconsciously fired off a prayer. When you are the Antichrist, unlike ordinary people, your prayers actually get through.
"For the love of Grandma, Uncle J, she's going to kill me!"
The next moment, he heard his uncle laughing very loudly in his head. He turned red like a tomato and snapped at him loudly:
"Shut the hell up!"
Elise saw that he had turned completely red and had a very good idea of what had happened. She asked him nonchalantly:
"Who needs to shut up, love?"
He mumbled something unintelligible, hoping that would be the end of the story. But Elise was not finished with him:
"I didn't quite get that, babe."
He sighed deeply, knowing there was no escape, and finally said:
"I unknowingly shot off a prayer to Uncle J."
"And?"
"I must have let it slip that you were so delicious and absolutely wonderful and apparently not easily satiated that you would kill me one day. He found nothing better than to laugh at me very loudly."
Now Elise laughed out loud. He muttered:
"I'm going to get me that donkey-riding dad joke, even if it's the last thing I fucking do."