Meera deposited them far from the Spire's wall in the forest. They had decided that they would rather not risk catching the attention of the cultists so soon. The plan was to attack them on their terms, and besides, their first goal was to test the strength of the wall. Meera had a personal goal—to see if she could obliterate it.

She had a few skills that could help, and if all else failed, she did have a level 3 chakram that was itching to get out of her Hoard Belt and show off.

The sorceresses jumped off Meera's tower shield, which she dismissed, and it vanished without even making a sound.

"Now, remember girls," Meera said. "The quieter we are, the farther we'll get."

"We know that," snapped Gael. "We're not idiots. Besides, it'll be the cultists who have to hide from us."

Jephena clapped her hands, and a ripple travelled outwards from her hands. It was like a sound bubble. Nothing changed, but the bubble made everything quieter. Even with her Gem of Echoes, she couldn't hear as far as she could before.

"We're in my sound bubble," Jephena said. "As long as you stay close to me, our sounds will be practically muted to anyone outside. Gael, unleash your mists."

The bratty sorceress smirked at Meera and raised a hand. From it, a thick mist started pouring out. First, it only covered them, and then it traveled outwards, how far it was impossible to tell. Even with her eyes, she could hardly see farther than ten feet.

A shiver went up Meera's spine. I really don't like mists.

"Don't tell me you can create Mistblades too," Meera said.

Gael frowned and then realized what Meera was saying. "Mistblades, like those in Azeria." She scoffed and waved a dismissive hand. "They're easy to make."

"But harder to control," said Meryana, one of the other sorceresses. "And you better not, Gael. If something happens to you, they'll attack us too."

"I know, and I won't, unless we absolutely need to." Then she threw a knowing glance towards Meera. "Looks like our Reverent Lady has had some experience with the mist warriors. Are you scared of them?"

They nearly killed me, so yes, they give me the creeps.

But Meera didn't say any of that to the brat. Instead, she turned to Jephena. "Are we ready to move out?"

She nodded. "We are. Gael, you're the only one who can see through this mist, so call out any potential targets."

"Understood."

With that, Gael led them towards the Spire. Contrary to what Meera thought, it wasn't slow-moving at all. They moved at a fast pace, and it wasn't until a long until they encountered their first cultist.

He was hiding up in the trees, clearly as a lookout of sorts, waiting to fall upon an unsuspecting assailant. But thanks to the mist, which Gael must've spread throughout the forest and maybe even beyond, he might as well have been blind.

Gael twirled her hand through the air and grabbed hold of the mists around her, forming a leash. She snapped her hand towards the unsuspecting man. Her leash coiled around the man's ankle, and she dragged him down from the tree. Jephena must've done something because he didn't make a sound as he crashed to the ground.

With a quick tug, Gael pulled the man into their bubble. His eyes widened as he took notice of the six of them. He screamed for his fellows, and they let him. The sorceresses looked at each other and snickered. Before he changed his mind about screaming and started attacking, Meera moved first.

She threw a chakram at his neck, but stopped it just short of delivering the killing blow. He stilled.

"I don't want a single peep from you," Meera said, and waited for him to nod. "Good. Do you know who I am?"

"Y-You're Meera, the Champion's sister," he stammered.

"And you must know why I'm here?"

He quickly shook his head.

"No, well then, let me tell you," she said. "I'm here to kill your Hierarch. He and his little beasts are stopping me from crossing the White Ember. So, he has to go, and you and your brothers and sisters are standing in my way. So, you have to go as well."

He blanched. "No…please have mercy."

Gael stepped forward and smashed her heel into his thigh, making him cry out. "You're asking for mercy after what you did. Your brothers stole our Gateway Mirror, leaving us no other option but to fight those fucking lizards. If I had the time, I would've ripped the skin off your face, but as it turns out, we have more important things to do, like taking down your dear leader. Now, if you will be a dear and—"

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The Frostweaver's hand twitched, and Meera moved at the same time. He had formed an ice lance and hurled it at Gael, but Meera stepped in the way. After all, she could always heal herself, and she couldn't afford to lose one of them before the real fighting even began.

The lance ripped through Meera's side, and the point end was sticking out of her back. She looked down at the lance and, surprisingly, it wasn't as cold as she had expected, and she had Cryoward to thank for that.

The cultist laughed. "There's a gift for you, Reverent Lady. I'm going to die, but it feels good knowing that I took you out."

Meera sighed. She activated Greater Vitalize and yanked out the ice lance with a grunt.

Everyone's eyes widened at the sight. Her armor closed around the wound, while her healing skill worked in overdrive to heal the wound. Getting stabbed had hurt, but she couldn't let any of them see that. How else would they know that she was not to be messed with? And they would take what they had seen today and spread it to their sisters back at camp. Maybe all those glares would finally stop.

"Oh, what do you know? Meera said, examining the bloody lance. "It says, return to sender."

She rammed the lance into the cultist's chest. He gasped, and constricted into himself, and then he was gone with a heavy gasp.

She turned to the sorceresses. "From now on, no more talking. We kill the enemy on sight."

They all gave her slow nods, staring at her with wide eyes, as if she weren't human. Meera recalled her chakram and turned to Gael.

"Are you going to keep on gawking or retake the lead?"

She nodded slowly and started walking. They encountered almost a dozen or so cultists who were hiding in the trees, some up in the branches and some down below in the bushes, but not a single one of them suspected them. They all died quick deaths.

After an hour of trekking and killing, they finally arrived at the end of the forest. Before them lay the clearing, and beyond that was the wall.

Gael's mists stopped at the edge of the forest, which was good as Meera needed to see to formulate a plan of attack. From the looks of things, all seemed well and good. There was nothing that seemed out of the ordinary or would signify that the cultists were on high alert. But looks could be deceiving.

"So, who wants to go out there and test if the coast is truly clear?" Meera asked.

No one took her up on the offer. She shrugged. It was worth a try.

She was about to step out herself or send out one of her Mirror Phantoms, but Jephena motioned to one of her sorceresses, who stepped up to the boundary of the bubble that Jephena had created.

Her name was Faeria. She was one of the only sorceresses that Meera had seen with a scar on her face. It was a burn mark on her right jaw that traveled down to her neck. Meera didn't need to ask where she got it from. Aside from that, she was as pretty as the rest of them, with long golden hair that fell to her waist, which she had tied into a ponytail for this mission.

[Sorceress of Wood – Level 496]

She raised her arms, and the trees began to quiver, but then Meera had an idea. She stepped up and placed a hand on her arm.

"Stop," Meera said.

The sorceress shook her hand off while giving her an irritated look.

"What?" she snarled.

"Give me a moment," Meera said. "I installed spying mirrors up on the Pale Mantle. I can look through them. Let me see what sort of welcome they've prepared for us."

The woman didn't say anything, nor did her expression become less sour. Meera ignored her as she closed her eyes and focused on the three mirrors in her mind's eye. She found them almost instantly. They were like three faint stars in the canopy of black sky.

She called to the one on the right, and immediately her vision traveled to the mirror. It was like she was there, looking through the mirror, and what she saw was not good.

The Cult was out in full force. They had formed levels on the boundary wall that the observer from the outside would not be able to see. There must've been a few dozen of them manning the wall or lounging about around it, just waiting for their enemy. The whole place looked like a military encampment, with cultists training with their magic or running physical drills or sparring with each other.

They're doing all that for dear old me.

She went to the leftmost mirror and saw more of the same. She stayed for a minute longer to get a better idea of their numbers before zipping out of there.

Coming back to her body was surreal. Well, for one thing, she was glad that the sorceresses hadn't decided to axe her head off. There would've been no way for her to stop them. Now, she knew not to do it in the middle of a group of hostile sorceresses.

She opened her eyes and shook her head. "It does not look good." She told them what she had seen in great detail.

"What?" cried Gael. "That many? Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," Meera said. "I counted roughly two hundred. There's most likely more in the buildings."

"But how could they know that we're here?" Faeria asked.

"Rehia believes they have spies in the royal court, who must've informed the Cult of our coming," Meera said. "They just couldn't have anticipated that we would get here so fast. But when they saw me, they must've figured, we're here and well, now this."

"Did you see a Gateway Mirror in there?" Jephena asked, pointing towards the wall.

Meera shook her head. "No, but if I were them, I would've moved it to a secure location. Back in Azeria, when the war started, they moved the Mirror into a cage so that no one came through that they didn't want."

Jephena nodded, contemplating all this.

"I think we should turn back," said Sildah, a rather plump sorceress. She had silver eyes, which were pretty and unsettling at the same time.

Heads nodded at this, and Jephena looked like she wanted to agree, but Meera spoke up before she derailed the whole operation.

"We can't," Meera said. "Our mission was to gauge the strength of the Cult…and the wall." She paused to let that set in before she continued. "We know their strength, yes, but we still don't know what sort of attacks the wall can withstand. The way I see it, we've accomplished one portion of our mission and not the other. I say we test the wall and high-tail it out of here."

Jephena nodded. "She is right. We need to report back, just what the wall can endure and what it cannot. And if they're waiting for us, then we don't have much time. We need to throw our strongest attacks and hope we have enough time to make our escape. Meera, about our escape—"

"Way ahead of you," she said, as she formed five Mirror Tower Shields about two feet in length, and floated them to each of them. "Just hold on tightly to them and I'll get you out of here, but if you drop them, you're on your own."

They nodded. Faerie put her shield on her chest and tied it tightly with her vines, and did the same for the rest of them. It was a neat idea. Meera just hoped that the vines held.

She cracked her knuckles. "Now, don't hold anything back, ladies."

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