NOVEL NEXT Chapter 300: A Lead
"We could abduct the one Ashmedai has." Lucy suggested.
"I suppose Lilith could convince him to work for us." I mused, while Lilith smirked. "However, we would need to abduct him before we launched our attack. And I am not sure if we have the proper agents for that."
"Any valuable asset will be under heavy guard. Abducting him would be tricky and take a long time. Infiltrating the ranks of a demon lord is not a quick process." Lilith added.
"I think the Inquisition had a portal mage. Of course, they worked with demons and Beira was an archfey. It's hard to say if they had a mage themselves or if they borrowed one. We would need to see their classified records to find out. I have no idea what has survived the war." Iris said.
"Dragons are usually elementally attuned, like fey. I am unaware of a spatial dragon, so I am afraid I can't help you. The ancients might know something, if you were willing to seek one out." Kira added.
"We could ask Izanami." Lucy suggested.
"Asking a fellow archfey is likely a better option than approaching an unknown dragon." I agreed. "I wonder if we could study our portal and create something similar? Tyrell is an excellent smith."
"And how would you power it?" Lilith wondered.
"Slaughter! Mass slaughter!" Shani suggested.
"If we invaded Ashmedai's domain, there would be a lot of deaths." Lily pointed out.
I was not quite comfortable with the idea but it was technically an option, assuming we could build a portal gate.
"We could invite High Queen Maeve to the discussion. I am sure the Dominion has a lot of resources." Iris suggested. Since we mostly discussed our plans in hell we had not invited the Dominion to this discussion. I did not want to drag them into a war inside hell.
"I am not sure." Sandra said. "It might strain our relationship if we start a war while the ink on the new treaty is still wet."
Our planning session was interrupted with a knock on the door.
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"Enter." Lilith said.
"Um, hello." Josef said, as he entered the room. "I… I do have some information that might be relevant."
I had not spent a lot of time with the alchemist recently but he seemed to enjoy being surrounded by so many magical creatures. I heard that he had thrived here.
"Oh? Go ahead." Lilith said.
"I, um, I have spent some time with your servants." He admitted, Lilith just nodded. "And I have made some discoveries. The slave runes Beira used, they seem connected to ancient infernal runes."
"What?" I asked. "But she was an archfey dabbling in necromancy. Sure, she has used demons but we never saw a real alliance with one."
"She did seek power, above all else, I believe." Lilith added. "I think she cared little where it came from. If she found something useful in hell she would have used it."
"I do not know how she acquired that knowledge. Also, the texts I found in hell did not specify how you would modify a soul. However, they might have laid the basis for her research. From studying the runes and their origin, I have concluded that the original soul is not modified. Actually, something is crafted onto the soul. We need a way to, eh, dispel the soul, basically." Josef explained.
"How do you dispel a soul?" Lily asked.
"Is the problem not solved anyway, with Beira's demise?" Meluza asked.
"Not entirely." Minerva said. She lifted her shirt, showing some runes on her belly. "Amaya saved me by ending the spell but it could be reactivated. I will have them forever on my skin, on my soul, unless we find a solution."
"Anyone who finds the right spell could enslave all those people again. And some might still be under the control of her remaining officers. While the Inquisition is no more, there are likely some smaller splinter groups." Iris said.
"And Beira did experiment on other species, like succubi. Someone could continue her work." Josef pointed out.
"Are those runes connected to Ashmedai? Or Mantus?" Lilith asked.
"They are older than those demon lords. I found them with the help of your librarian." Josef replied.
"So we might have another reason to smack a demon lord? Nice! Sadly, it does not help us with the portals." Lucy commented.
"Portals?" Josef asked.
We quickly brought him up to speed on our other discussion.
"Sadly, this is outside of my expertise. However, one of the ancient demon lords might have been involved with Beira in some form. Or she could have stolen the information. Since she had some succubi she might have stolen some information from Lilith." Josef pointed out.
Lilith did not look happy. "Hm. I guess I will have to review my own library. Lily, has Beira ever asked you about such things?"
Lily shook her head. "She did not."
"What Lilith has are not complete works, I should also point out. If I had not seen the finished runes already they would not have been of much use." Josef added. "The chance the information came from here is slim, however since some succubi were traitors they could have stolen something. Or perhaps knew enough for Beira to seek out the complete work from other demon lords."
"I am getting more and more interested in raiding Ashmedai and asking some questions." Lilith said.
"Which does bring us back to the portal mage." I said.
"What about personal teleportation, instead of a portal?" Josef asked, suddenly.
"Personal teleportation? I can teleport but only short distances." I replied.
"There are teleportation items. You can create them through rituals. They would allow you to return to a set point when triggered. They only work for one person and are quite expensive, I believe." Josef explained.
"Uh, didn't Chione's elemental knight use such a thing? When we found him in that inquisition lab." Lucy said.
"You know, I think you are right. That means she would know how to make them. And she did leak our location to Beira. Maybe we should have a chat with her." I said, with a smile.