Be it in figure or stance, the resemblance was astonishing. However, a second after her initial stupor, Eleonora realized that the daemoness before her couldn't possibly be Ashera. Though remarkably gifted, she didn't have the strength, and lacked that autocratic air, that followed Ashera wherever she went. Wielding an obsidian spear, the daemoness stabbed three of her opponents' hearts with lightning fast thrusts and beheaded them in a sweeping cleave.
Usually, such wounds couldn't threaten a daemon's life, but in the spear undulated an immeasurable force that latched on and siphoned every bit of the Fehl Lords' essence—draining them till they vanished from existence.
The siphoned force poured into the daemoness' body, boosting her dra and thaumaturgic abilities.
"The Spear of Mazdan," recognizing that spear at a glance, Eleonora no longer had any doubt on the daemoness' identity. A blood-red whirlwind formed at her right, and from it Ailith, Eleonora's huntmistress, emerged.
"I didn't expect that after Mazdan, Ashera would have another child. I wonder what top-ranking Fehl Prince managed to earn that much favor from her," Ailith said while standing ready for a battle. Unwilling to waste her time with Kilian speaking of other women, Eleonora didn't ask him for details regarding the harem members, and therefore didn't know that the fehl girl Inyoka warned her of was Ashera's daughter.
The two's abrupt arrival didn't go unnoticed. Jezebel cast them a lopsided glance, then returned her focus on the nine remaining Fehl Lords. After leaving Kilian, Jezebel returned to the Fehl Plane, visiting her elder brother's domain to borrow his most prized weapon.
Mazdan's spear was crafted from Ashera's bones and blood, forged to devour the essence of those it struck at the fastest speed possible, and transfer it to Mazdan. With it he slew and devoured countless rivals, accomplishing many meritorious deeds for his mother. In the final years of the Fehl-Throne war, that spear claimed more than one of Hel's subordinates' lives. How could Eleonora forget it?
But perhaps Mazdan himself could never imagine that his most beloved sister would use his spear to ransack their mother's ancient fortress. Those Fehl Lords certainly didn't see it coming. And still couldn't imagine why, while the first person to break into the Fortress after all those years bore their mistress' looks, without a word, she'd aim for their lives.
Before Eleonora's arrival, six of them had already fallen. Solidarity wasn't a fehl virtue, but after spending those millennia trapped together, they developed inalienable bonds. Seeing their partners fall like fleas, those Fehl Lords' daemonic eyes burned with rage! To no avail, of course. Even if ten more assembled before her, Jezebel didn't need more than a minute to behead them all.
And behead she did.
Without spells, relying purely on physical prowess, her form blurred across the dim cavern, closing on and cleaving her foes before their fehl senses could even process her blade's trajectory. The spear didn't even spare their blood, taking everything they held in to empower its wielder.
But as Jezebel's thaumaturgic abilities progressed by leaps and bounds, Eleonora's silky purple hair morphed into dozens of voracious snakes. Outpacing Jezebel, the bulky snakes constricted and pulled the seven surviving Fehl Lords toward their mistress. Their fangs sank in the unprepared Lords' necks, siphoning their essence at an even more alarming speed than Jezebel's spear did.
By the time she turned to face Eleonora, the seven Lord-level snacks were gone. Like the spear previously, the snakes transferred the siphoned essence to Eleonora, greatly boosting the recovery of her lost strength. Annoyed, Jezebel arched an eyebrow, and spear in hand, stepped toward Eleonora.
"I'm curious. It is well known that Ashera heavily dotes on her own. The closer the bond, the more sheltered they become. Unless she changed in the last millennia, as her daughter, you should be one of the most, if not the most treasured individual of her court. Why would you take Mazdan's spear to come slay those loyal to your mom?" Eleonora asked, folding her arms below her chest as she confronted Jezebel.
"None of your damn business. Who the fuck are you?" Jezebel countered, tilting her head to the left while she eyed Eleonora from head to toe. Jezebel may not know all the Fehl Lords spread across her homeworld, but those able to dispatch seven Lords in an instant? She could name them all with no pause.
Yet, Eleonora's appearance triggered nothing in her memories. Worse, from her Jezebel couldn't feel the thaumaturgic level of someone near the Prince rank. It was almost as if Eleonora's strength ebbed and flowed. Or that she could command power far beyond what she should own.
"A man, perhaps?" Ailith, by Eleonora's side, probed, and if only for a second, Jezebel flinched. The change didn't escape Eleonora's scarlet eyes, and her lips curled into a mesmerizing smile.
"Interesting. Like mother, like daughter. To avenge the death of her husband, Ashera rebelled against Fehl, connived with the ruling thrones, and convinced the other Overlords into fixing the seal—thereby preventing the return of the one true Devil.
But likewise, for the sake of a man, her daughter is rebelling against her. Impressive. What a pity…" Eleonora's cryptic words trailed, and an aura of scarlet light shrouded her form.
"...that you are too young. The true depth of your mother's powers is not what you can comprehend. Even if you devoured all the Fehl Lords of the Fortress and took control of the center, you cannot challenge Ashera. At most, you will use the Fortress as a mortal spaceship, and your newly gained powers as the battery to shelter that man in the mortal plane.
To truly deal with your mother, we need ancient ones like me," Eleonora declared, and from her, Jezebel could feel a mysterious aura akin to a fehl, yet entirely different. For a second, Jezebel wondered if a Fehl Overlord hadn't sneaked into the Sura Plane with an avatar.
But again, that mysterious and threatening feeling she got from Eleonora's aura told her otherwise. Close to the Fehl Origin, Jezebel's bloodline stirred, as if that woman's presence and growth endangered the survival of her species.
Instinctively, Jezebel raised her spear and took her fighting stance.
"Let's see about that."
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Note: I initially planned 6 chaps for this week, but instead of writing what I needed to today, I used all the day to write more chapters for my other work, Nine Venoms Sect Founder (which I've just uploaded on Webnovel this morning and am running for a contest) to reach the 15k word quota by tomorrow. That was very selfish and shameless of me. My apologies. More chaps next week. (Or this week, depending on where you live).