Meera sighed and readied herself. Neserin must have some skill to detect the true soul inside a person. Either that or she was the one who put Lainor inside this daughter's body.

  Neserin furrowed her brow in a half-pitiful, half-amused look. "Oh, they did a number on you, but it was your own fault for making that half-brained plan to reveal our existence to the crones."

  The man beside her stepped forward. "We had given you up for dead, almost disposed of your body, but the Elder wouldn't allow it. He hoped that we would eventually find you." His lips curled up in a smile. "And find you we did. It is good to see you, brother."

  "I-It is good to see you too, Brother Mahon," Lainor replied. He took a tentative step forward, glancing at Meera and Kalrina to ensure they wouldn't attack him.

  "Oh, go on," Kalrina gave him a slight push. "Greet your friends properly. Don't worry, we'll get to sorting your lot momentarily."

  At that, the mood shifted. Meera didn't know whether to praise or berate the witch. They couldn't attack them while they were busy with Lainor. All the cultists were on high alert. Meera Identify'ed them all, and they were between Level 370 – Level 420, with Neserin being the highest. From a level perspective, there was no one to be worried about, but there were twelve of them, thirteen counting Lainor.

  This could be trouble. I'll have to finish this quickly.

  She thought about using Dusk Veil from the start, but the witch would be as useful as a three-legged horse.

  At that, an idea bubbled up in her head, and she had to do everything to stop herself from grinning. One thing was for certain. She couldn't draw out this fight, and her stats barely had time to recover from her fights with the dragonlings.

  Lainor must've seen the look in her eye as he stepped in between Meera and his friends. He raised his arms. Coincidently, his green poisonous arm was facing Meera.

  Not a good sign, Brother Lainor.

  "Listen, we don't have to do this," he said. "Meera and Kalrina had a chance to leave me behind in the cells to be tortured till I was reduced to a mulling babe, but they didn't. We should let them go. Just forget that they were ever here."

  Meera raised an eyebrow and glanced at the witch. This was certainly new and unexpected. Not in a hundred years would she have expected Lainor to request this of his brothers and sisters.

  Neserin laughed, stopped abruptly, and glared at Lainor. "Aksha must've taken your balls along with that arm and leg, even if they weren't hanging between your legs."

  "You know, we cannot let the Champion's sister go," Mahon added. "Elder Sidrian had given orders to infiltrate the dragon keep in the midst of all this fighting and find her." He pointed at Meera. "We deliver her to the dragons, and our part in this war is over. We can go home."

  "No one wants to deliver me to the dragons," Kalrina pouted. "You get all the importance."

  Meera gave her a look that said—really, witch?

  Lainor flicked his eyes between the cultists and Meera. Then he finally stopped at Neserin. "You wouldn't have escaped if not for that horse, and who sent that horse?" His arm snapped to point at Meera while he kept looking at Neserin. "She did. If not for her, Aksha would have snipped off your balls, too, after taking that acidic tongue of yours. You owe her for that."

  Neserin looked to Meera, then drew a deep breath. "I don't owe anyone anything save for the Hierarch, whose word is still absolute for me, unlike you, traitor. And just for this, I'm not sending you back to your body. After we're done with them, we will drag you back to His Eminence in chains."

  Meera coughed. "Now that this is over. We can finally begin. Anyone not wanting to die an excruciating death should run away now."

  No one took her up on her offer.

  "You gave them a chance," Kalrina said.

  Meera shrugged. "Here we go again."

  Tiny bits of mirrors blasted out of her armor to litter the ground. Some cultists jumped back in shock. She used Mirror Step, teleported to a man with only one eye, activated Druvis Might, and gripped him by the neck. It didn't even take an iota of her real strength to break his neck. His legs gave, and he crumpled on the ground. She put him out of his misery by stomping on his head. Her foot crushed his skull completely. Blood and brains flew everywhere, and everyone flinched at the brutality. Well, almost everyone.

  The witch took this opportunity to send a mirror sword flying through a woman's heart and impaled her into a tree. The woman shrieked, gripping at the sword, trying to set herself free, but strength left her with each breath. Her wails slowly died down, and her head dropped.

  "You pair of bitches," cursed another cultist. This one was a younger fellow. He couldn't have been more than twenty years old, with dusty blonde hair.

  "Oh, you really should not have used that word," Kalrina said with a shake of her head. She flourished a hand towards him. "All yours."

  "Thank you."

  Meera took off a regular chakram in each hand as he was at the lowest level of the bunch. She had a growing suspicion that with her high Dexterity, she didn't need to take off her Level 2 chakrams for these low-level guys.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  She chuckled inwardly, even if she seethed outwardly. The cultist raised a hand, and a magnitude of ice pellets formed, which he hurled with a grunt. She formed a big Mirror Tower Shield, and they all pinged off it, not even creating a little crack.

  Then, using Mirror Wing, she flung the shield at him. It was far too easy for him to side-step, and that was the point. She teleported to the mirror and came up on his back.

  "I really hate being called a bitch." Were the last words he heard.

  Meera hacked into his back like a wild animal. He cried out as he fell to his knees. She stomped on his back, paralyzing him and leaving him to bleed out. She let his comrades hear his wails and let her terror sink into their hearts. She had never been this cruel before, but then Veridiana had instilled in her the lesson of defeating her foes in mind before breaking their bodies, especially if she was outnumbered.

  The other wised up and jumped away from the bed of twinkling mirrors. They stood side-by-side with various forms of ice weapons in hand.

  "That is who you want to save," Neserin fumed. "Did you not see how she butchered our comrades, or do you not see them as such anymore?"

  "They look afraid," Kalrina commented.

  "Let's give them something to be really afraid of." Meera raised her arms and activated Mirror Phantom. A dozen or so of her phantoms appeared around her.

  Kalrina did the same, and about half a dozen of her phantoms appeared. She and all her phantoms winked at Meera and spoke at once. "Great minds think alike."

  "There is nothing great about your mind," the dozen Meera shot back. "Enough talking. Let's get back to killing."

  Meera and all her phantoms readied their chakrams and charged. While the phantoms sowed chaos, she went to work. The cultists slashed at them or shot them with their ice skills, only for them to sail harmlessly through the phantoms, to the dismay and fear of the cultists. Meera zipped through their ranks, slashing one while hacking off another's arm or shooting one point-blank with a Mirror Shard Fury. Even she recoiled at how gruesome that was. Her shards drilled a hole through the poor woman's chest and went on to hit the cultist behind her.

  Kalrina did her work beautifully. She used Mirror Step to disappear and reappear, as did her phantoms. That was something Meera didn't know would happen. She decided to try it out soon. While Meera was like a scalpel, Kalrina was like a hammer. She got close to the Cultist line and spammed Mirror Blast on repeat.

  The cultists did put up an ice wall, which put a dampener on her blasts and her maniacal laughter. Then all hell broke loose as it broke into a mostly one-sided brawl. The cultists finally mounted a bit of a counterattack and started destroying the phantoms' cores.

  By the time they did, Meera had downed another two, leaving only half their original numbers behind. They were almost frigid with fear. It was in their eyes as if a wolf had come between the sheep.

  It's time I upped the terror.

  She dispelled her phantoms. Their cores fell to the ground with a soft plink, but as her phantoms disappeared, so did she by activating Shroud of Shadows. She turned invisible and was nowhere to be seen in the dark of night.

  "Where is she?" quivered a cultist. He looked one step away from wetting himself.

  Kalrina shrugged. "Where? Indeed."

  Meera tapped his shoulder. "Here," she whispered in his ear. Then she cut out his throat and let him bleed out.

  The cultists were not a close-knit group, as they didn't even bother checking on him and just let him fall as the blood drained out of him.

  "This is a real nice bunch, Lainor," Meera called. "I daresay, if it were them who had found you in the dungeons, they would've just left you there."

  "No wonder he had no qualms serving us up to the dragons," Kalrina added.

  Lainor, who had been standing quietly off to the side, looking dejected, finally looked up, and in the dark, it was hard to read his expression. If Meera really wanted to, she could've taken his life at any moment, but she was waiting and watching. To see what he would do. So far, he had done nothing and actually stood up for them, but who was to say when his duty to the Cult would come calling.

  After all, I'm their priority target since Neel isn't here.

  The rest of the cultists didn't take long to depart. There was one who screamed when Meera opened a cut along the length of his arm. He fell on his ass, froze his arm in a sheath of ice, and scampered away from the fight—the first deserter. Meera was surprised it took so long; she figured she would have to kill them all.

  Soon, Meera was covered with blood and grime. The witch, however, was not. She saved herself by mostly killing from afar, something that Meera could've done as well, but she wanted to practice some assassinations, and evidently, this group was not one she needed to go all out for. She hadn't even used her level 2 chakrams.

  There was only one cultist left. Only Neserin had survived. Not because Meera was saving her for last but because the woman was good at playing defense.

  "I'm not going down that easy. Two can play that game," Neserin barked. A few ice picks crystalized in her hand, which she flung at her dead comrades, who turned icy blue and then sat up.

  "Aw man, zombies again," Meera groaned.

  Kalrina frowned. "What do you mean again? You've fought undead before?"

  "A whole army's worth, and don't forget the Cave of Wraiths you sent me to."

  "But those were wraiths, so strictly speaking, ghosts, not undead."

  Before she could explain any further, Lainor finally moved.

  "No." He said, stepping forward to face Neserin. "You don't get to desecrate our comrades like that."

  Neserin scoffed. "And how are you going to stop me?"

  He thrust his hands to the ice zombies and a wave of green toxic sludge washed over them. The undead didn't wail or make any sound of pain as they fell, and the poison began to dissolve their bodies. Noxious fumes and vapors rose from them, which made Meera gag. She jumped away to get some fresh air, as did the witch.

  "I see…" Neserin's hands glowed an icy blue. "Did they open up their legs for you? Huh? Is that why you've forsaken all bonds with the Cult, with His Eminence, for these pair of cunts."

  "No, I am still loyal to His Eminence, but I owe them my life, so I cannot let you do this," he replied.

  Meera was sure she could've handled the girl, but maybe she was getting overconfident in her skills. Neserin could have some skill that could overpower her, and the next thing she knew, she was served as dinner to the dragons.

  “Let me,” Neserin seethed. "I will wear your skin—"

  She never got to finish her sentence as Lainor gripped her neck with his poison hand and smashed her head on the ground. Then he thrust his poison hand toward her. The fingers elongated to hold her down by her arms and legs, making the woman scream blood-curdling screams.

  Lainor turned towards Meera. "This is for setting me free."

  Meera glanced at Kalrina before nodding to Lainor. "Next time we meet and you're still with the Cult, we'll be enemies."

  "I understand," he replied. "I take my vows to Lord Aetheron very seriously, but I doubt a lone girl could cause him any harm. Go."

  Meera and Kalrina ran off into the night, and through her advanced hearing, she heard Lainor say.

  "Your pain will stop if you send me back to my body."