Price of the Providence

"That's not possible. Hel is dead. How could you gang up with her?" Urag leaped on a table for a better viewpoint and asked Kilian who sat on the other side. Following their arrival in zone 13, Kilian's group received the guidance of several ladies dressed in white stolas, who led them toward an inn where rooms had already been reserved for them. Tamara and Anke in one, Kilian and Lena in another, and the third for Urag only. But to fill in the imp lord on their attack plan, Kilian brought him into his room.

Puzzled by Eleonora's origins, both Urag and Lena asked Kilian about her, but could never foresee that his reply would be: "Well, she's my legally wedded wife, and most likely the former ruler of the Throne Plane."

More confused than anything, Lena stood motionless, blinking at Kilian while Urag's beady eyes stretched to extreme lengths. Refusing to accept such words, Urag shook his head.

"Although Hel's downfall happened some time before my birth, it doesn't add up. Just like the Fehl Plane must have six sitting Overlords at all times, the Throne Plane must maintain the same number of Seven-Wheeled Thrones, or Baals as they call them. The six Baals maintain the plane's balance, and we know all their names. If anyone of them fell, or if another one rose, the Throne Plane would now be facing crushing calamities, triggering a cosmic domino effect we��d feel all the way here—in one form or another," Urag said.

"Third Circle Spell: Memory Transmission," Turning toward Lena, Kilian gently tapped her forehead, feeding her brain with all relevant information. As she processed them, he lowered her head on his lap and shifted back to Urag.

"Since they planned to overthrow her, Hel's subordinates must have had a successor to her seat ready. So the problem isn't in the Baal count. But what if in her escape, Hel lost her Hierarch-tier powers? Or better, what if her current form transcends the typical throne definition? Can't she become the exception to the rule?" Kilian argued.

"To be honest, Eleonora's every word, knowledge and deeds are silent admissions of her true identity. She's not even trying to hide it, but rather makes me form the answer through the clues she gives bits by bits. That she used to be Hel is an unspoken truth between us. But what is she now?" He mumbled the last words as Urag stroked his beard, lost in thoughts.

"Man, you got bigger balls than I expected. You actually dared wed the herald of massacre and make my girl compete with her? Are you trying to cheat Jezebel out of her life?" Urag closed in on Kilian and asked with an increasingly louder tone. Their foreheads almost brushed, and for the first time since they met, Kilian could sense a genuine mixture of anger, unease and fear lace Urag's voice. Who could believe that the imp lord also had such a side to him?

"Let me be blunt. Although Ashera is known as the most depraved creature of all eras, the crown of savagery undoubtedly goes to Hel. Hel is the first to postulate that if you can neither pacify nor tame order-disturbing worlds, you should outright eradicate them. For God's sake, she invented genocide!

Word is that she was completely nuts, had no care for her life, fought as if every day was her last, and could risk anything to achieve her goals. Even Ashera feared her! Worse, it is well known that thrones have an incomplete emotional spectrum and cannot feel love. After realizing who she was, why didn't you flee?" In frustration, Urag stomped the table he stood on, barking at Kilian.

The boogeyman of all fehls, from Daemon to Prince, there wasn't anyone Hel's name didn't fill with dreads. Hel created many of the species that now exist to balance the rise of other races, such as the chiropterans that prey on humans. She strengthened the cycle of prey and predators, making sure that all species nature forgot to balance would at least have one beast at their back.

However, as he'd learned most of Hel's deeds from Eleonora, Kilian merely shrugged.

"That being the case, what about her final war? Why did she put an end to the Fehl-Throne war and saved the suras from extermination? People change. People evolve. It doesn't matter if you're human, fehl or throne. With the right events, a 180 turn is entirely possible. I don't know Hel, but have full confidence in Eleonora."

Kilian often felt that Eleonora was the most similar to him, a lost child that lived on a programmed script but found her way out after many years of wandering. Turned speechless, Urag softened and stepped back.

"There is much we don't know about the last war. What we're certain of is that King Haldir's sacrifice stirred something in Hel. Since then, her blade lost its sharpness, and she slowly withdrew from her leadership role—giving Ashera the opportunity to plot her downfall. In any case, since you trust her, I have nothing else to add," Urag said and leaped off the table.

"Don't worry, I have a 90% sure theory of how the current Eleonora came to be. She probably just t--" a coughing fit broke Kilian's words, making him spit jets of blood on the table.

"Master!" Alarmed, Lena lifted her head from his lap, pressed her palms against his chest, and injected her dra to map out the damages—however, she couldn't find anything.

"The heck?" Confused by the sudden turn, Urag too checked Kilian's condition, and while he failed to find anything, vapor poured out from Kilian's eyes. Before Urag could crack the mystery, Kilian's pupils turned cloudy white, and he lost his sense of sight.

But as Urag and Lena fell to confusion and fright, a forced smile stretched Kilian's lips.

"Well, I can't say if this is good or bad news but...Urag, your girl is here."

...

Following an unknown time of unconsciousness, Jezebel awoke, but without her sight, a pitch-black world awaited her. Using her other fehl senses, Jezebel realized that she currently stood on someone's shoulder—Eleonora's shoulder.

"Why...did you stop it...why didn't you kill me?" she asked in a barely audible tone.

"Each time I use my Divine Providence, I must first take in all of my foes' experiences. Back when I ruled as Hel, that didn't bother me much. But now things have changed. My heart is not the same, and your life is not important enough that I'd risk a certain someone's grief just to claim it," Eleonora casually replied.