Celaeno was a woman with long gold hair and gold eyes. Her skin was black like charcoal. She had eagle talons instead of feet, long claws in her hands and a pair of black feathered wings.

She landed in front of them and dusted her red dress that covered only one of her shoulders before looking at them with contempt.

"You bring war to my forest and dare to walk to my nest?" Celaeno asked poking Lenore with one of her claws drawing a drop of blood. "I lost plenty of daughters because of you."

"It’s not my fault. Malphas ordered me..." Lenore tried to defend herself.

"I don’t care whose order you were following. It doesn’t change the fact that my forest is burning." Celaeno shouted at the erinyes.

Lenore stayed silent.

"And what do you want?" Celaeno asked Matthew, Ffyr and Avariel.

"We’re looking for my sister." Avariel answered. "Her name is Nanael. I believe she’s somewhere in the forest."

"Then get rid of Sambur and his legion. And maybe I’ll help you." Celaeno said and turned to Lenore. "You... I’ll punish you for bringing a legion to my lands."

Celaeno grabbed Lenore by the wings who tried to run away as soon as the harpy queen said those words. Then she flew high up Syceus. Matthew could only hear Lenore screaming from whatever Celaeno was doing to her up there.

"Shouldn’t we help her?" Avariel asked, looking up.

"I don’t think so." Ffyr had a hint of a smile on her face.

"If we anger Celaeno, we might not ever find your sister. We should face Sambur and drive him away if we want her favor." Matthew said, looking at all the harpies around them.

"STOP!!!" They could hear Lenore screaming from the top of the tree. Something about her tone didn’t sound like she was in pain at all.

"Yeah. Let’s go." Avariel said, turning around on her feet towards the fire that spread through the forest.

The trio walked towards the fire where imps roamed the forest searching for Lenore.

"There, my lord!" A cambion pointed at them when they left the forest and faced the demon legion. "Those were the ones helping Lenore!"

A cambion riding a huge black wolf came forward toward them.

"So you have my prey." He said when he got close enough.

"You must be Sambur." Matthew said, ignoring what he said.

"I am Sambur, General of the 23rd legion of President Marax, the virile." The cambion said with pride. "And who addresses me?"

"I’m Matthew, the human. That’s Ffyr, 57th daughter of Titania, queen of the Fae. And that’s Avariel, an angel of her lord." Matthew said, imitating Sambur’s pose sarcastically.

Sambur scoffed and spat on the floor.

"Where’s the winged bitch?" He asked.

"Lenore? Celaeno took her." Matthew said.

"The dark one?" Sambur thought to himself. "And why are you here?"

"Celaeno is quite mad about you burning her forest. She has something we need. You understand." Matthew joked.

Sambur’s eyes widened when he realized what Matthew meant. He barely had a chance to draw his own sword when Matthew lounged over him, taking his swords out of his inventory and attacking in a single move.

The sound of metal on metal reverberated on the valley that gave way to the forest from the plains the two legions fought each other.

With most of Sambur’s legion routing the fleeing troops from Lenore’s legion, he had few men with him. Before the cambion could order the soldiers around him to attack, Ffyr and Avariel were already on top of them, killing those who couldn’t defend themselves.

Sambur had no time to worry about his troops. Matthew gave him no opening. Now clad in miasma, Matthew kicked the cambion on the face making him fall from his mount.

The black wolf tried to defend his rider by attempting to bite Matthew’s arm as soon as his legs touched the ground, but its teeth met blue flames that burned its mouth.

Sambut got up and fear took hold of him. His wolf was now whining and running trying to douse the unholy fire burning its mouth, but to no avail. You wouldn’t find a demon in any of the hells who could purify unholy mana to save it.

Trading blows with Matthew he realized that that man was as powerful as a President. Sambur had no chance to win.

Meanwhile, Ffyr’s spells cut the imps around them with uncanny precision.

Avariel’s sword clad in holy fire made short work of the cambions’ Vital Shield, since holy mana weakened demonic mana to the point of making their natural defenses useless against her.

"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Sambur pleaded with Matthew, but found no mercy from him.

Matthew disarmed the cambion with finesse by cutting off his hand, tripped him with a swift kick on the knee, and decapitated him once he hit the floor.

Seeing their commander fall easily to Matthew, the rest of the legion started to run away. Harpies took the opportunity to strike and kill any demon that remained in their domains.

They soon returned to Celaeno’s nest carrying the head of Sambur.

There, they found Lenore kneeling on the floor carrying a boulder over her head with both hands. The erinyes had tears on her eyes and her thighs were bright red with clear marks of being whipped.

The trio ignored Lenore’s sobbing and walked towards the harpy queen.

"There. They’re running away." Matthew said, throwing Sambur’s head by Celaeno’s talons.

"So they are." She said, grabbing the head with her talon and analysing it close to her face while maintaining her balance with only one leg on the ground.

She then threw the head up that was caught in midair by a hell harpy who took it away and poked its eyes out with her beak, eating them.

"Now, help us find Nanael." Avariel ordered the queen.

"Why should I?" Celaeno asked, crossing her arms.

Avariel tried to protest, but Matthew interrupted her.

"We made a deal with Lenore. Her safety for Avariel’s sister. If you’re not giving us Nanael..." He said, taking out his sword and approaching Lenore.

The demoness let the stone fall to the floor and crawled away for him.

"Wait! Wait! Celaeno! Please!" Lenore pleaded.

"Stop." Celaeno said with a sigh. "Alright. I’ll help you find her."

Lenore almost jumped and hugged the harpy queen’s waist thanking her. It was clear those two were close friends and Matthew took advantage of that.

Celaeno patted Lenore’s hair making sure not to hurt her with her claws.

"It will take a while for my daughters to find your soul." She said to Avariel.

"What’s the story between you two?" Ffyr asked, curious at the dynamic of the two.

"Lenore’s legion has been placed near my forest for a long time." Celaeno said, taking Lenore’s chin in her hands. "We had lots of fun together over the years." She added, the sexual connotation was not lost in her tone.

Matthew sat down on a boulder, while Avariel looked at some of the trees around them. Ffyr and Celaeno talked loudly about Lenore clearly having fun belittling the demoness.

It took half a day, but a harpy came back and whispered something in Celaeno’s ear. They found a woman’s soul who had hints of holy mana in her.

They left Lenore with Celaeno and followed the harpy at the tree who contained Nanael’s soul.

Nanael’s tree was slim and tall. Her branches all pointed up. It seemed like a black statue ever pleading to the heavens for mercy. Her face was barely visible under the bark, but Avariel was sure that was her sister.

The angel flew as soon as she recognized her sister’s face. She hugged the trunk with force with tears in her eyes.

"I found you Nana. I’ll take you home now." Avariel said.

After a while, she took a closer look. Dried blood covered many spots on her. There were clear signals of broken branches that healed over time.

With pity on her face, Avariel touched her sister and cast a healing spell.

Upon feeling the warmth of the healing, the comforting light of the angel’s halo, the only good smell in hell coming from Avariel’s hair... Nanael screamed.

"NO! NOOO!"

Avariel touched her sister’s face.

"It’s me, Nana. It’s Ava." She said as gently as she could.

"Get away! No! Don’t!" Nanael kept screaming.

"Nana!" Avariel insisted, but her sister just shouted more.

Ffyr came and gently pulled Avariel away from the Damnata.

Avariel fought just a bit, but soon understood it was better to take a step back for now.

"She’s not ready." Matthew said, looking at the blood tears running from the tree’s face.

"It’s been 70 years." Avariel commented out loud. "I thought she would be waiting for me." The angel shed some tears as well after seeing her sister like that.

Ffyr hugged Avariel when the strength of her legs failed.

"Nana." The angel cried.