108 You’re Far too Young Part 1 (1/2)
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.