Meera backed up a few steps, holding up her arms. "Aksha, wait, listen, you didn't see the condition she was in. Her whole body was broken. She didn't have long and wanted me to do it. Someone tell her."

"Lies!" Aksha punched the air, and a fuming, poisonous blob ejected from her fist and shot off towards Meera.

"In fact, she asked me to," Meera said, side-stepping the blob with ease. Either it was traveling too slow, or all the crazy bumps she had received to her stats had made her super fast. "And not just now, but when we were training too. She said that when her time came, I had to be the one that sent her from this world. Even before she took on Raxor, she repeated the same thing. It can't be she never told you of this."

Duinith came forward. "As much as I hate to admit it, the girl is telling the truth, Aksha. The Sovereign asked her to do it, and when she refused, Veridiana destroyed the Gateway Mirror."

Aksha snapped her head to her friend.

Duinith nodded. "She doomed us all to compel Meera to do the act."

Aksha clenched her fists and roared before turning towards Meera. "Why? What makes you so special?"

She stepped into a poisonous pool, and as Meera had expected, the poison did nothing to her. The purplish poison traveled up her leg. It nested in the massive dragon claw mark, and the blood stopped flowing. Instead, the poison changed color and form. Muscles regrew and were covered by fresh skin, healing the wound completely. Then, the poison traveled upwards and did the same for the rest of her wounds. In a few breaths, Aksha was fully healed, which did not bode well for Meera.

"I asked you a question?" Aksha seethed. She was no longer expressionless. In the raging snowstorm and with the poison dripping off her, she looked like a demon belched from Hell. "What makes you so special that my mother would doom the sisterhood?"

Meera sighed lightly. "She thought I was…" She looked around at all the wounded and defeated sorceresses whose one hope had been shattered by the person they looked up to the most. "The Arbiter from the great prophecy."

There was not a single person present that wasn't shocked. Even Kalrina stared with her mouth agape. Judging by their reactions, Meera guessed it to be a ridiculous claim, and she saw the folly in making it in front of an enraged Aksha.

"You lie, deceiver." Aksha clenched her fists, and a green ooze dripped from them. "What did it take for you to convince my mother of such a lie? I see through you. You used your relationship with Neel to convince my mother that you were the Arbiter and that she should give you her powers. For if she truly believed you were the Arbiter, she would've told me as she shared everything with me. Then why would she hide this."

"How should I know?" Meera snapped. "It's not like we can raise her from the dead and ask her."

Aksha nodded. "That's right. We cannot ask her how you convinced her of this farce. But I will send you from this world and prove to everyone that you're not the Arbiter. It's time you fulfill your only role in the great prophecy. The Champion will lose the one he loves most today."

Aksha lashed her arms and launched two green poisonous waves at Meera. With a swipe of her arm, Meera also launched a wave, but this one was of ice, using her newly acquired skill, Frigid Wave. The two waves collided. Poison spilled outwards, but Meera's wave slowly froze the poison from the inside out with a sound of crackling ice.

The reaction from the sorceresses was priceless. Most didn't know how to react. Maybe no one had ever countered Aksha's wave. But Meera didn't have time to think about all that. She had a lot of new skills to try out and was right in picking the ice skills.

Aksha thrust her hand out and launched small, sharp, poisonous darts that burst through the frozen poisonous wall that had formed between them. Meera activated her armor's ability to launch tiny mirrors everywhere and teleported out of the way.

The darts didn't hit anything save for the trees behind Meera. There was a mighty roar somewhere from beyond the veil of the thick falling snow. The roar seemed to thrum through Meera's whole body, and it could only belong to one being—Zerodra.

Uh oh, looks like he knows Veridiana is dead.

The thud of massive footfalls confirmed that he was drawing closer, which meant they didn't have long before the archdragon showed up. "Who killed that witch? Show yourself!"

The sorceresses stared at Meera as if they knew she had done great mischief and that the teacher was coming to punish her.

Aksha, however, didn't seem to care. A poisonous spike erupted from the poison pool Meera was standing next to. Before Meera could counter it, a trio of Mirror Shields formed in the air, and the spike crashed through the two shields only to be stopped by the third.

Next, Aksha grunted as her back was riddled with mirror shards. Kalrina then teleported to Meera's side using the mirror shield as an anchor.

"My, my, since when did you earn an ice class, dearie," Kalrina purred.

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Meera smirked. "I'm full of surprises. I haven't even shown my biggest one yet. Don't get in my way, and I may reveal it to you."

"If you think I'm letting you do this alone, then you're as mad as those sorceresses who are standing around watching when they should be running for their lives."

That struck home with some of them, and whispers began. Nervous looks passed, and many backed away slowly, hoping they wouldn't be noticed.

"Everyone stays," Duinith commanded. "We're not leaving anyone behind."

"No," Aksha countered. "We may have lost our home, but this sisterhood must prevail. Duinith, lead them all to Drurith and seek shelter on Rhione. I won't let the schemes of these two bitches destroy what we've built over the last four centuries."

"Oh, now, you've done it," Kalrina said. "You really shouldn't have used the B-word."

Meera cracked her knuckles. Let's see what all these new skills and abilities can do.

She took to the air, exploded towards Aksha, and was surprised by her own speed. Aksha's eyes widened, and she had just a moment to react. She had just begun to form a poison wall but Meera crashed through it and punched Aksha in the face with Druvis Might activated.

The snow fell off her as she was blasted away and rag-dolled on the ground, only to be stopped by two of her daughters. Meera stared at her fist in bewilderment and then at Aksha, whose lower jaw had been ripped off.

She had recently put a lot of points in Power and was thinking maybe she shouldn't neglect it so much. But then again, Kalrina had mentioned that Aksha's defense was lacking.

Kalrina laughed. "Looks like your mother was right after all, Aksha. She is the Arbiter."

The daughters threw hateful glances at her as they bent down to inspect their beaten mother. They whispered some chant in a language that Meera didn't understand, but then the daughters melted into poison, slithered to cover Aksha, and she absorbed them. A moment later, she stood whole, with a new jaw.

Meera glared at Kalrina. "You just had to run your mouth, didn't you?"

Meera reached back and pulled off two level 2 chakrams. She was about to hurl them at the poison sorceress, but Aksha thrust her arms upwards, and a deluge of poison came from her, flooding the clearing.

The sorceresses ran for the woods, Meera took to the air, and Kalrina floated on a floating mirror disc. The only people who could remain standing in the poison were Aksha's clones.

Meera thought they were safe in the air, but they weren't safe. Aksha thrust two fingers up, and poison spikes the size of spears launched from the poison pool from under their feet.

Unable to teleport, Meera and Kalrina swerved left and right, but it was only a matter of time before they were speared through, and Aksha's poison was nothing like her daughters'. It was more potent and deadly.

Then, a poison spear crashed through the witch's flying disc, shattering it to pieces.

The poison seared her arm. Kalrina flailed as she fell, but Meera, thanks to her upgraded skills, was on her in a heartbeat. She saved her from falling into the bubbling poison, whose noxious fumes were so toxic that Meera's lungs felt as if they were on fire.

"Whew, thought I was done for," Kalrina said, but Meera couldn't reply as she was too busy dodging the poison spikes.

She realized that Aksha wasn't going to stop until Meera distracted her. Using Mirror Bolt, she launched a chakram and was not prepared for the result. Her chakram was nothing but a streak of light that ripped through the air. Aksha moved but was too slow. Her chakram sliced off her arm.

I have to try flying that fast. I wonder if I can break the sound barrier.

Meera thought the poison must've dissolved the arm or, at the very least, rendered it unusable, but her hopes were dashed when Aksha reached into the poison pool to pull it out, which was in perfect condition. She grunted as she placed the poison-dripping limb on her stump, and the poison sealed the cut, reattaching the arm.

"You have got to be kidding me?" Meera groaned.

"My thoughts exactly, my dear," Kalrina said.

Meera flew off into the treeline, away from the poison, and set Kalrina down. Aksha was looking for them, and thankfully, she didn't have Meera's eyes, which had greatly improved. Even through the snowstorm, she could see the woman easily, and when she tried to zoom in on her, she could easily see the pores on her face, even if they were a hundred meters away.

"What are we doing here, dearie?" the witch asked, ruffling through her bag to get a healing potion out for her poisoned arm.

"Stop." Meera placed a hand on her arm. "I haven't done this before, but let's hope it doesn't take too much of my Mana."

She activated the secondary effect of Greater Vitalize and began healing Kalrina's arm. Her Mana climbed steadily down while the boils on Kalrina's arm reduced to mere pimples and then were gone. The reddish skin changed to a hot pink, and then soon, even that looked normal.

"You have all sorts of new gifts," Kalrina said. "When did this happen?"

"I'll tell you later. For now, we have a sorceress to kill."

"Not you, dearie. Me." Kalrina nodded. "This is my fight. I would never forgive myself if I let you do this as well. You've already destroyed the dragon keep and the sisterhood. I would never forgive myself if I let you complete this vow as well. She needs to die, and it will be me who avenges Eston."

"Are you sure? She's still fully healed and has more than half a dozen daughters who can heal her to full fighting strength."

Kalrina smiled her wicked smile. "Then make sure they cannot heal her."

Meera stared at her for a long moment. The woman was likely going to her death, but in her position, she would've done the same. She would've wanted to avenge the love of her life as well, especially if he had died in such a gruesome way.

"Fine, but I'll jump in if things go wrong. Oh, and one final gift." Meera reached into her Hoard Belt and took out her level 3 chakram. The disc glowed with a white starry light, thrumming with power. "This is a level 3 chakram. My ultimate weapon, and I'm just lending it to you. Emphasis on the word—lending. Lending."

Kalrina's eyes were fixed on the chakram, and Meera could swear the witch was salivating.

"Hey, witch, did you hear me?" Meera asked, shaking her.

"Yes, my dear, I heard you." She took the chakram in her hands with wide eyes. "Ah, the irony of life. Just over a month ago, I took a chakram from you by force, and now you're entrusting your strongest one to me."

"Yes, everything is so ironic. Now, listen carefully, this chakram guzzles Mana like you won't believe, and it won't listen to you, and your Mirror Wing won't work on it either. So, if you throw it, it's gone. You understand?"

"I understand, love."

Meera took out her remaining Mana potions from her Dragon Hoard Belt. "It's best you have these as well. I'm not going anywhere, so don't be a prideful idiot. If you need help, just call."

Kalrina caressed Meera's cheek. "I got it, dearie. It's time I got my revenge."

Meera nodded. "Good. Then go repay that fucking bitch for all that she did to you."

"Oh, I plan to, dearie."

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