The reason Eleanor brought out such a treasured artifact which she was saving to use against the Death God, was because of her fear
Despite how she treats James, it is inevitable that he is the son of a Goddess.
And Eleanor knows the consequences of something happening to James. As such, the moment she realized that Richard was going to take the job of putting down the boy, she used the Aembr suppressing tool.
As she expected, the artifact did the work well by rendering every Aembr-users useless once the waves of the artifact struck them.
The soldiers from the enemy side fell to their knees, and even the strong Generals were having a hard time retaining their composure.
However, the one whom she wanted to stop the most using the artifact was Richard.
"It's working..." She heaved a sigh of relief when she saw his elemental form wavering. The never-ending flames of the redhead, flickering because of the effect