"Here it comes!" Meera screamed as the snow-tipped mountains approached. The sun rose between the peaks, casting a golden light on their white tops. The view was stunning, but Meera just couldn't see it that way because of their fast-approaching death.

  As they had planned, the witch formed a great circular mirror shield before them. They both pushed on it, hoping to slow their descent, but instead, the mirror shot forward and crashed into the snow.

  "Well, it was nice knowing you, dearie," Kalrina shouted over the rushing wind.

  Meera wasn't about to give up so quickly. She used Mirror Wing to fly away, only for all the mirrors on her armor to fly off her, leaving her bare. The chill wind bit into her so harshly that she drove Mana into her necklace in droves, and the armor reformed instantly.

  She was sure the witch would've made some snide remark like this wasn't the time to be a nudist if she weren't so preoccupied with their impending doom.

  "Mirror shields," Meera shouted. "They should break our fall."

  "Here's hoping. If not, I'm getting my vengeance on you in the next life."

  They formed ten layers of mirror shield and hoped for the best. The shields were thick enough to withstand a blast of dragon fire.

  But it wasn't enough.

  The shields shattered one after another on impact, but each shield slowed down their fall enough that they didn't die on impact and only merely broke half the bones in their bodies. The sight was gruesome enough that if any passerby saw them, he would put them out of their misery.

  Meera had several bones sticking out of her body. Her feet were absolutely crushed, and her spine had cracked in two. Luckily, they both had fallen feet first, so the impact to their heads had been minimal. She activated Vitalize even before impact, and her body was putting itself back together as she lay groaning.

  Kalrina wasn't doing any better. Her entire right side was mulch, and one of her eyes had popped out of her head and was hanging by her optic nerve. She shivered and groaned as a bottle made of mirrors floated to her lips. She threw the healing potion down her throat, and her healing started.

  For several minutes, all they heard were the gruesome sounds of bones cracking as they put themselves back together. Muscles and sinew regrow to hold them in place, and finally, fresh skin regrew to give them a renewed look.

  Kalrina gasped as she sat up. "I'm never forgiving you for this, dearie."

  "I'm never forgiving myself for this. But hey, at least we survived."

  Kalrina's upper lip twitched, no doubt to say something hateful, and Meera wouldn't begrudge her for it, but she sighed and nodded. "That we did, dearie. By the skin of our teeth." She stood and dusted the snow off her. "You got your wish. We're at the Light Bringer mountains."

  "And how fast do you think the dragons will arrive, that is, if they heard our screams?" Meera asked.

  "If? If they heard our screams." The witch raised an eyebrow. "There is no if, dearie. I would wager that all of Gethys heard our screams."

  She was right. The only reason Meera had stopped screaming was because her throat was so raw that she had started coughing up blood. Then something struck odd to her.

  "Say, where did you get the Health potions from?" She asked.

  "Oh, these; I picked up a whole stash from the washroom in the daughters' washroom. They had a whole cabinet full of them. I even picked up as many Mana potions as I could and found a Hoard Belt to stash them in."

  Meera raised an eyebrow. "Maybe I should've taken some as well."

  The witch ignored her and was back to ranting again.

  "And so much for getting us here like this." Kalrina snapped her fingers. "It took us the entire night."

  Meera nodded. "For a moment up there, I thought I was going to die of frostbite. Well, nothing to it. We always knew there was a risk to this plan."

  "You know, I'm still not on board with this plan," the witch said. "For one, he gave us no time to prepare. I literally only have the clothes on my back. But the good thing is, I will freeze to death before we ever find that archdragon."

  "Oh, you need clothes. I have clothes stored here in my Dragon Hoard Belt." Meera rummaged around and found some warm clothes. The witch was a little taller than her, but they would fit. Hilnoa had given her these when she set out on her quest to find the queen. She pulled out a dark grey woolen coat and handed it to the witch, who immediately put it on.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Kalrina hugged her sides in relief. Seeing that coat made Meera smile at how far she had gotten from the time when she was in over her head about everything. But it also brought back memories of Narikas, and she hoped she lived through this predicament to see him again one day.

  "Better?" Meera asked.

  "Better. Thank you, love. But don't you need any warm clothes?"

  "You know, I'm not cold at all. I'm guessing my armor provides me enough insulation."

  Kalrina raised an eyebrow. "Don't you mean my armor? After all, Edwyn made it for me. If I had known it would be this handy, I would never have let you keep it."

  "Finders keepers."

  Kalrina rolled her eyes. "Now that we have this covered. Let's go find another way to get killed. Who knows, I may yet get my wish fulfilled of getting killed by dragon fire."

  "And I'll be there to witness it."

  The witch scoffed. "It's not funny. Where do you wish to look for the archdragon since you make all the decisions now? How about that pile of snow, or better yet, what about that pile of snow? No, I think higher up the peak, we'll have more luck since, wait for it, it's even more piles of beautiful snow. Because if you haven't noticed, all around us is nothing but fucking snow. Good luck finding a dragon with white scales in all this snow."

  "What crawled up your butt?" Meera grumbled.

  "You! You crawled up my butt." Kalrina's voice echoed as she shuffled forward through knee-high snow. "Did you even listen to what I said? There is no talking to this archdragon. He will eat us at first sight. That is how much he hates humans. In case you have forgotten, dearie. Let me remind you, I told you that! But did you listen—no! You went to that insane Cosmarian who threw us on this mountain without so much a second thought of our survival."

  "At least I did something." Meera shot back. "Your plan was to do nothing and wait for our enemies to surround us until we had no chance of escape."

  "We could have made for Drurith. We might have slipped through the woods in the night. But no, now we're stuck here a thousand miles away from any speck of civilization looking for an archdragon. If you didn't know most sane people run away from archdragons, which you've proven, you're clearly not."

  "I should've left your ungrateful ass in that dungeon with your dear friend Aksha."

  Kalrina breathed heavily. "Watch yourself, girl."

  "Watch myself?" Meera barked a laugh that echoed through the mountains. "Oh, I'm so scared. I'm not the same little girl that you bullied in your hut. If you don't believe it, then come test it."

  The witch gritted her teeth, and a vein pulsed on the side of her head, but she made no move.

  "Just as I thought," snapped Meera. "You're all bark and no bite. No wonder you haven't made a move against Aksha in all this time. If she had done to me what she did to you, it wouldn't have taken me seventy years to get my revenge. Did you even love him, or is that something you've told yourself to fuel your hatred?"

  Kalrina went cold. Meera could see it in her eyes. She lost all emotion and didn't even seem angry anymore. Then, without warning, she unleashed a Mirror Blast. Mirrors and light exploded out of her. Meera had no time to protect herself. She was riddled with mirror shards as she was blown away. The echoes of the blast were heard long after she had been dragged through the snow.

  The emotionless face of Kalrina reminded Meera of the woman she had fought long ago. The real witch of Cliffshield Valley had returned after all. The one who didn't hesitate to use others for her gain, and Meera longed to get even.

  Meera activated Vitalize. The shards were pushed out of her body as she healed herself. She stood and cracked her knuckles. "I've been wanting to do this for a long time."

  But before she could make a move, the mountain started rumbling beneath her feet. The snow shivered, and then, all at once, an avalanche started. Meera shot into the air just in time before the snow descended and engulfed her completely. The witch had a similar idea and was floating on a mirror disc. The snow descended from the peak, but it didn't take long to settle down. But what was revealed underneath left Meera gaping.

  They had been standing on the archdragon they were looking for.

  Just like Akhessai, he was gigantic. It was hard to tell its actual size, but from what Meera could tell, he must've been wrapped around the entire peak. His most striking feature was his white scales that shone golden in the morning sun. Its head must've been the size of a small building, and its fangs were like mountain peaks. Meera would bet money on him being bigger than Akhessai.

  [Archdragon of Frost – Level ????]

  "Hey, witch," Meera whispered. "Doesn't he seem bigger than his wife?"

  "Oh, he most definitely is," the witch whispered. "Do you still wish to wake that monstrosity?"

  Meera had no answer for her. The archdragon had put fear in her like none other. She had seen Akhessai, but she was nothing but a majestic stone statue, but this was a living, breathing dragon. She had never been this afraid. Not even when Veridiana had abducted her and taken her to Akhessai's heart.

  She drew a deep breath and steeled her nerves. There was nothing to it. She had come here to find a solution to the dragons and sorceresses plaguing her every step.

  "Yes," Meera replied confidently, sounding braver than she felt. "We cannot go back empty-handed, and like you said, the dragons are coming. So, we—no, I must do this. I will not force you to do something you don't want to do. I'll give you a few hours to get clear of the mountains."

  Kalrina stared at her for a long moment, then snorted. "How very noble of you, dearie. But I fear I cannot let you do this alone. If you somehow convince this dragon to destroy the sorceresses and I'm not there to witness it, I will regret it till the day I die. After all…" she paused for a long while. "After all, I made a vow to Eston that I would bring down the sorceresses for what they did to him. So, I'm committed in this mad scheme of yours, even if we spend our last moments together being digested in his stomach."

  "Wouldn't that be ironic?" Meera smiled. "Escape from one archdragon's stomach only to end up in another's."

  The witch snorted. "That it would."

  "A-And I'm sorry for what I said earlier. I shouldn't have said that."

  "Sticks and stone, love," she winked.

  "Good," Meera smiled. "Let's wake an archdragon."