Meera's first step wasn't just blasting all her strongest skills at the wall, but instead she closed her eyes and activated Ambush Tactics. The strange skill that somehow worked without using Mana or Stamina took in all the knowledge that was available to her and put it into use to create an attack plan that would be most effective. After all, the plan wasn't to win but to test the capabilities of the Cult.

Meryana stepped forward, arms raised and hands outstretched, ready to let loose. But Meera put a hand on her arm and shook her head, but said nothing. The sorceress frowned, but lowered her hands. The rest paused as well, unsure of what Meera was doing. It took a few more moments before Ambush Tactics provided her with the optimal combination of her skills.

Meera smiled as she opened her eyes. "Let me start things out. Gael, I will blot out the sun, so you can use your Mistblades, because we are going to need them once I make my move. When the cultists start pouring out of the wall, that is when you unleash all hell."

Jephena frowned. "But aren't we here to test the capabilities of the wall?"

"We are," Meera said. "But what's stopping us from reducing our enemy's numbers?"

"I'm sorry, Meera, but I think we should still throw everything we have at the wall," Jephena countered.

Meera thought about it for a moment. Seeing as how she didn't know all their skills, and that they must've been picked for this mission for a reason, she conceded her point.

"Okay," she said. "But still let me go first."

Jephena thought about it and nodded.

Meera stepped and raised a hand to the heavens, activating a skill that she had wanted to for a while now. It started slowly as clouds formed in the sky, then they darkened little by little. Then thunder rumbled through the clouds. It was odd to see the clouds form so close to the glacier. Anyone could tell it was not natural. She poured Mana into it until the afternoon looked like late evening, and then she stopped holding back her skill. Her Heaven's Storm was ready to unleash its might.

It started with a light pattering of hail. But the hail was no ordinary hail. It was electrified. It held a small charge of electricity, and Meera could only wonder what the cultists were thinking about seeing these strange ice pellets. Then the hail got bigger, from being tiny to the size of baseballs, and then the first bolt fell, lighting up the world. Thunder was deafening this close. She heard someone scream beyond the wall.

Then the lightning rain fell.

Bolt after bolt blasted the cultists' home. Screams filled the afternoon air, and she heard the sweet bells of notifications tolling nonstop in her ears. The sorceresses all watched with wide eyes and gaping jaws.

"Well, don't just stand there," Meera said. "Someone is going to try to dissipate those clouds soon enough. So, let's get to it."

Heaven's Storm had taken a big chunk of her Mana, but she still had more than half remaining. More than enough to do what she needed to do, and she still had a healthy stockpile of Mana potions in her Belt.

She stepped forward, drew back her fist, and activated Quaking Fist. She poured a quarter of her Mana into her attack. The air rippled, and the ground cracked as her attack blasted forward towards the wall and smashed against the ice wall...

...and did absolutely nothing.

The walls vibrated a little, but nothing much happened. It was like the ice wall had drunk her skill. Now, it was Meera's turn to be shocked.

"This can't be…"

She tried again, this time putting even more Mana into her attack. She could feel the vibrations of the quakes in her skin. The sorceresses had to hold onto trees to steady themselves. The ground cracked open before them. The world shook, and once again, the result was the same.

"What is in that wall?" Gael exclaimed.

Meera had just thrown what was arguably her strongest skill at the wall twice, and it had shirked them off as if they were nothing. At least, Heaven's Storm was still wreaking havoc behind the wall. A lot of those bolts were hitting the Spire, melting the ice wherever they hit. But someone must've been hard at work, as the holes closed up, nearly as fast as they formed.

Meera gritted her teeth. Her anger was bubbling up as two of her strongest skills were being thrown aside as if they were nothing more than nuisances. She was nearly out of Mana. She quickly drank two Mana potions to refill her Mana. She had to be ready for what was coming next.

"Well, don't just stand there," Meera said. "Try out your luck at the wall."

Jephena was the first. She stepped up and clapped her hands, and Meera's ears burst immediately. A high-pitched sound blast travelled outward from her hands. It had the same effect as her Quaking Fist, perhaps even less so. At least, her attack made the walls vibrate a little. This did nothing at all.

Meera healed her ears quickly. As it turned out, the others weren't so affected by the high-pitched sound as she was. She chucked it up to the Gem of Echoes, magnifying the sound for her.

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Faeria ripped out entire trees from the ground around them. Then Meryana raised her hands again, and heat rippled in the air. Meera was sweating, and the trees looked like they were being barbecued.

Meera quickly used Identify on Meryana.

[Sorceress of Heat – Level 412]

Faerie hurled her heated up trees at the wall. They smashed to splinters against the ice wall but did nothing at all. Meryana thrust her hands out towards the wall and concentrated. No doubt, she was trying to melt the wall. Her brow creased with sweat, and after a long minute she finally stopped, huffing, with hands on her knees.

"It's impossible."

Then Pesepia, the final sorceress, stepped forward to give it a try, but Jephena shook her head lightly.

"There is no point," she said. "That wall is impregnable to any of our attacks."

"It's those blasted runes," Gael snapped.

Then something caught Meera's eye. A door opened up at the top of the Spire, and a man stepped out. He slammed his hand into the Spire, and an ice shield spread out from the top of the Spire and travelled downward towards the wall. The ice shield was so thick that her lightning did nothing. The screams of the cultists slowly stopped as the shield engulfed the entire complex.

Gael started. "Was that the…"

"The Hierarch? Most probably," Meera said. "Get ready. Here they come."

A few moments later, her words proved true.

The wall opened up, and the cultists charged out, roaring and anger blazing in their eyes.

Meera let them come closer. They were still in the mists, so it would be hard for the cultists to find their true location. She was about to tell Gael to cover the entire clearing between the forest and the wall, but the bratty sorceress did it all on her own.

The mists spread out from the forest as if it were a living thing all on its own, that was hungry for man flesh. The cultists' charge slowed, but they didn't stop. Their roars quietened a little, but the ones in the back were pushing the frontline forward, which would be their doom.

Once the mists had engulfed at least half of them, that was when Meera attacked.

"Gael, it's time for some of your Mistblades," Meera said.

"You don't need to tell me anything," she snapped.

Mists solidified all around them, and the familiar horrors took form. Though these were more terrifying than the one she had fought in Azeria. They didn't look like human, for one. They had multiple arms, and each arm held a different weapon. Even their jaws held sharp fangs. They were twice as strong to boot as well.

[Warrior of Whispers – Level 294]

"Go forth, my lovelies," Gael said. "Go, give the cult a warm welcome."

Meera wasn't about to be undone by her. So, she activated Spectral Dominion and called as many as she could, which amounted to fifteen of them. It was a little less than she had hoped, but it would be enough. The sorceresses eyed her suspiciously.

"You have a wide array of skills," Jephena noted.

"It helps to be the Champion's sister," Meera replied. "Gael, you might want to tell your Mistblades to stop."

"Why?"

"Because this." Meera raised a hand and shot the frontline with a Mirror Shard Fury. The Mistblades stopped and jumped out of the way. Then she moved her hand in an arc, spraying the entire frontline with the shards. The shards only hit the first few before the cultists formed ice shields to block her attack, but she wasn't worried.

"What was the point of that?" Gael snapped.

Meera took out another Mana potion and refilled her Mana. She had chugged so many of them that she had an acrid taste in the back of her tongue. It was best that she didn't drink any more of these today.

The cultist waited for a couple of moments, and when no more attacks came, they began charging again. This time, they kept their shields high, waiting for another attack.

"The point of that was this, dear witch," Meera said, looking at her, but her vision was focused on the glinting mirror shards that the cultists were running over. She snapped her fingers and activated Mirror's wrath.

Explosions sounded all around the clearing. It was as if someone had carpet bombed the whole place. People and body parts flew everywhere. The frontline, which was still carrying the shields with the embedded mirror shards, was entirely decimated.

For a second time, the sorceresses were left shocked.

"Now, would be the time to snap your jaw shut and send out your Mistblades," Meera said to Gael.

Gael shook out of it and, surprisingly, didn't glare at her but gave her a fearful look. Everyone, aside from Jephena, stepped away from her as if she were about to do the same to them.

The Mistblades started moving again, and Meera sent her shadow warriors as well. It was the perfect time, really. The frontline was lying in pieces. They could do the most damage now. The best part about the Mistblades and shadow warriors was that they were dispensable.

And did they do their job fantastically. The frostweavers didn't even know what hit them. The first ones that were still licking their wounds died instantly. The Mistblades weaved in and out of the mists, finishing off their foes with extreme prejudice. The cultists cried out and screamed as they died to shadows and mists.

"Our work here is done," Meera said. "Well then, shall we head out, ladies?"

Jephena, who was still staring at the cultist, finally nodded.

Before Meera could lift them, she saw movement in the trees to the right. A group of cultists had come around them to attack them from the rear. They attacked at once.

A massive icy blue wave came for them, freezing everything in sight. Meryana stepped forward and raised what Meera figured was a heat shield to counter it. But the icy wave was too much for the sorceress alone.

Meera realized this a second too late. She raised tall Tower Shields to cover them all. The shields were frozen solid, but they formed horizontal icicles along their edges, one of which stabbed Meryana in the gut and Faeria in the eye. They both screamed and held onto their bleeding injuries.

Jephena quickly gave them Health potions, while Meera jumped to the forefront and leveled the forest with a Quaking Fist.

The earth rumbled as trees were ripped from the ground and thrown to the ground. The cultists were crushed on the spot. Meera didn't have any time to check up on them.

She jumped back and saw that Faeria and especially Meryana were not doing good. She had lost a lot of blood. She didn't have the luxury of time to heal them here.

Without warning, Meera lifted them all in the air with Mirror Bolt, and they shot off towards the camp. Behind them, some cultists shot them with ice javelins and other similar attacks, but Jephena deflected them with her sound attacks.

One thing was for certain—there would be a response to this attack, and they needed to be ready.

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