When Meera came to, the world was upside down. Her head felt heavy as if all the blood had rushed down to it, which wasn’t far from the truth, and she had a massive headache—the kinds of which she had after a night of heavy drinking.

She groaned and checked her head, where she had bonked it when she fell into the trap. As she activated Mirrorstrike Vision, one thing was certain—she wasn’t hungover but hanging over a death trap.

There was a wide gaping hole below them with sharp metal spikes—made of a dark metal oddly reminiscent of shadow steel. But that was not all. A downward force acted on her and held her in place.

“Good morning, dearie,” Kalrina said. She hung a little outside of arm’s reach from Meera and mainly looked okay, considering the bruise on the head.

“Did Aksha just leave us here to hang until the blood gushes out of our eyes and ears?”

Kalrina chucked. “This is not her work. Have you taken a good look around? We’re in the realm of the Saint.”

Meera finally took in her surroundings, and her jaw dropped, which was considerably harder to do than when she was standing upright. It didn’t even feel like she was in a forest, or if this was still the Wiryar forest, then it was the lovely, well-kept part of the forest.

Sunrays filtered through the trees to light the world in a golden hue. It was like an idyllic meadow with neatly trimmed grass, flowering buds, and beautiful, well-maintained trees and shrubbery. It was like the perfect rendition of Demeter’s garden, the goddess of plants from Greek mythology, if she existed.

“Whoa,” was all Meera could utter, given her headache and the blood rushing to her head.

“My thoughts exactly, love.”

Meera pulled off a chakram and tried to reach for the rope around her ankle. She groaned as she bent. But try as she might, she couldn’t get to it. It was as if someone had increased the gravity tenfold. The more she struggled, the harder it became to reach the rope. Finally, she could do nothing but hang there. She couldn’t even move her arms anymore. They hung by her head, as did the witch’s.

Meera glared at her. “If you knew about this gravity trap, why didn’t you tell me?”

“And let you miss all the fun of feeling like your whole body is being pulled apart?” She smiled innocently. “I would never.”

“Oh, I’m going to kill you one day,” Meera grumbled. “Now, what do we do? Besides, waiting for the rope to snap and fall to our imminent deaths.”

“I don’t think you’ll die here, Champion’s sister.” The witch smirked. “How long were you planning on hiding that little tidbit from me?”

Meera huffed. “Forever this time.”

Kalrina squinted her eyes for a moment. Then they popped open. “Meaning you told me before. Aw, we must’ve gotten really close when you returned with the Crystal of Darthin.”

“Don’t push it, witch. You guessed it last time. Maybe those two who took your memory also took your intellect.”

“To be honest, nothing like that. Chalk it up to me having to jump from one hovel to the next. I’d been trying to figure out who you reminded me of all this time.”

“And one of your hovels just happened to be the biggest city in the world, which is right next to your previous employer. They really did take your brains.” Meera shot back.

“Keep your enemies close and all that.”

Meera gave her a hard stare, letting her know precisely what she meant. “Indeed.”

“Oh, you cannot mean me,” she protested. “After all I did for you.”

“Okay, shut up. Let me think,” Meera snapped.

Of course, that only got the witch talking even more. When she figured Meera wasn’t going to reply to her, the idiot witch started shouting, calling to the Saint to show himself. Meera tried to tune her out, but it was like trying to tune out a toddler tantrum, which was next to impossible. Finally, she sighed and pulled up her notifications, hoping she got something useful from Aksha. But her head was pounding like a bell, and she activated Vitalize and would have to check her notifications after she got out of there. It took her a few moments, and she grinned when the solution came to her. It was easier than she had thought.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“If you’re grinning like that, I think you’ve found a way out of here,” Kalrina mused.

“I think I have a way out of here…for me,” Meera clarified.

“How rude.” The witch pouted as if she were a little girl.

Meera rolled her eyes, and then, using Mirror Wing, she pulled a chakram from her arm. Her chakram, which weighed nothing before, now felt like it weighed several kilos.

She launched her chakram at the rope around her ankle. Her chakram cut it easily. She fell like a rock—no, more like a meteor.

She was using Mirror Wing on her armor the whole time, and even then, she was burning Mana to throw herself clear of the deadly spikes.

As soon as she cleared the hole, the immense gravity disappeared. The invisible downward force vanished, and she ended up overshooting and crashed into a golden rose bush.

“Ow!” she exclaimed as she made her way out, the thorns picking at her hands and face. “Ow, ow...” Then, a thorny branch got entangled in her hair, which was not fun. All in all, she didn’t have a good experience with the roses. She ended up stomping on a few inadvertently, which would not go well with the owner of this glade.

Kalrina clapped. “Bravo, my brave adventurer. Bravo!” she squinted and looked behind Meera. “I think you left a few intact. I’m sure the Saint will love what you did with his roses.”

“Well, he shouldn’t have hung me upside down over a death trap.”

“Technically, we’re intruding into his home, but that’s semantics. Anyways, please be a dear and help your poor old sis out of her predicament.”

“Help yourself, and if I had a sister like you, I would’ve given her rat poison,” Meera snapped.

Kalrina made a horrified expression and huffed. “Looks like I have to do everything myself. Last time, I show anyone a way to a secret paradise.”

Meera knew she should’ve explored the place and prepared for the Cosmarian, who would most likely be hostile, but she couldn’t miss the chance to watch the witch fall to a gory death. So, she sat on the ground and crossed her legs.

Given that the witch didn’t wear armor made of mirrors, she had to improvise. She formed a mirror shield over the hole, only for it to crack and shatter immediately, making Meera laugh.

Kalrina muffled something intangible and formed three mirror shields and then three more on top of those until there was a solid six-layer mirror mattress underneath her, floating in the air. The gravity well underneath the mirrors was pulling them down, and the bottom layer had begun to crack already.

Meera could easily hand her a chakram and pull her to safety, but she was the witch of Cliffshield Valley who had caused enough suffering. If Meera brought out Onyx, he would stomp on her shields until they shattered and then pull her down to her death.

Kalrina sliced the rope off with a sharp spinning mirror disc. She fell about the same way Meera had. The four bottom layers shattered and fell when she landed on the mirror shields. But the witch was quick, and she flew away using the top shield and out of the gravity well. She was coming so fast that, for a moment, it looked like she would slice Meera’s head off.

Meera rolled to the side, but Kalrina stopped before she would’ve hit her, laughing lightly.

“Unlike you, dearie, I have far more control over my mirrors,” the witch cooed.

“I’ll show you control over my mirrors when I slice your throat with them,” Meera replied as she stood and dusted herself off.

She was about to ask where to find this Saint, but she stopped. An old man with dirty clothes and a pot sauntered in. He had shoulder-length snow-white hair and a bushy beard that had yellowed around his mouth. His skin had tanned a dark drown and wrinkled from being out in the sun too long. His clothes were dirt-marked and had many holes in them. The worst thing about him was his nails, which were cracked and filthy with dirt and soil. Despite his hermit-like appearance, one thing stood out even more—a nasty scar that ran diagonally across his face. It started just above his left eye and ran down the bridge of his nose to finally end at the right side of his upper lip. It was as if someone had tried to cut his entire face open.

He looked at Meera and Kalrina, then to the trap they had escaped, and shrugged so imperceptibly that Meera almost didn’t even notice it. He gave a much more drastic reaction when he saw the rose bush.

“Ah, my lovelies!” He cried as he rushed to the roses that Meera had destroyed. He had a deep, gruff voice.

“There is no way this man is the Saint,” Meera whispered. “Maybe his gardener.”

“You really should make it a habit to Identify everyone at first sight.”

[The Eternal Force – Level ????]

Meera’s eyes popped open, and she took a slight step back. If he cared that much for the roses, she did not want to be anywhere close when he found out she had destroyed them.

“It’s okay, my roses,” the Saint whispered, patting them gently. “I’ll have you back to normal in no time.” He took a whiff and smelled deeply, which led to a frown and him tilting his head. “Why do you have the smell of my daughter on you?”

Kalrina shared a confused glance with Meera before asking. “Your daughter?”

“Erenyx,” the Saint said.

Meera’s blood ran cold. The sun lost its warmth, and the cool breeze made her tremble. This wasn’t a specter of a Cosmarian. He was the real deal, and Meera had killed his daughter. He slowly turned his head towards her. The look in his eye said he knew what she had done.

I am dead…