Neserin thought about the strangeness of the situation she was in. Riding a talking, ghostly horse through the corpse of a petrified dragon being chased by the Hunters of Akhessai was a first for anyone in the Cult.

The horse who called himself Onyx rode like the wind, but Aksha's copies were quite fast themselves, and they knew the lay of the land.

I swear, I'll freeze Lainor's jewels if I get caught and tortured.

The fool's plan had failed in an epic way, leading to him getting captured and her on the run. But most of all, her skill had failed. She had been unable to extract his soul. That had never happened before. What sort of creature is this, Aksha?

Onyx took a sharp right, and Neserin almost flew off its back. Only by gripping its hair tightly was she able to save herself.

"Hey, watch it, horsey!" Neserin snapped.

"I could have gone through that wall, but I don't think you would have survived that trip," he replied.

Neserin huffed. "What an asshole."

"Lady, I can drop you on your ass and disappear right this instant. Is that what you want?"

Neserin didn't reply. It was more like she couldn't reply as she ducked a poison spear that sailed overhead, making her eyes water. Onyx took that as her answer.

"Thought so. Now, shut up and tell me where to go."

"Once I get out of here, I'm coming back and freezing you in the permafrost on Ealisto," Neserin muttered.

"Ha, good luck with that."

Onyx took a sharp turn, and they were in a narrow corridor, running straight towards what looked like a thick set of stone doors. It wasn't the first time they were running head first towards a closed door. This place had too many doors and corridors.

A daughter of Aksha yelled from behind, unleashing a massive poison wave that encompassed the entire corridor. Even from twenty feet away, its fumes made Neserin's eyes water.

She grunted and unleashed an ice wave that blocked the entire corridor. It wouldn't hold the poison for long. She would've made it stronger if she didn't have to break the stone door down.

She turned her hand around and unleashed Permafrost Wave at the stone doors. It was her strongest ice wave skill. It froze the doors in a matter of seconds. Then she formed an ice lance and hurled it at the door. It shattered the door to bits, and they rode on through with no problem.

They were finally out of the mess of corridors and out in the open. Credit to the horse, he didn't slow down as he took to the stairs. She had told him earlier that the exit was in a downward direction, so down he went, and Neserin held on for dear life.

"How many floors down?" Onyx asked.

Neserin scanned the dragon's innards, trying to remember where they had entered. She was certain it was around the midsection, not far from the stomach. But she wasn't sure which side of the dragon they had entered from, and holding onto Onyx was not doing any favors to her memory.

"You better hurry up. I can only get so far from Meera before I am automatically pulled back to her."

"What?" Neserin cried. "You're telling me this now."

"Do you really have time to argue about this?"

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Neserin clenched her teeth and let out an ice blast. It did nothing to the horse but relieved some of her frustration.

"Just get me as close to the stomach as you can." She pointed it out for the dumb horse.

He dashed down the stairs even faster. Neserin's ass bounced on his back as she held on for dear life. One slip-up meant falling thousands of feet to her death.

Behind her, the army of Aksha's daughters broke through the ice and came for her, hurling poison blobs or spears her way, but thanks to Onyx's speed, they were too far away to get an accurate shot.

They must've been halfway down the stairs when Onyx's form shimmered and blinked.

"Oh no, it looks like I'm reaching my limit," he said. "You might have—"

He disappeared. Neserin fell, rolled on the stairs, and went over the edge. "Fuck you, Meera, and your dumbing fucking horse!" She screamed as she fell towards her death.

She zipped past the massive glowing crystals that lit up the corpse of the Archdragon, narrowly avoiding one. She had resigned herself to her fate when something wet hit her back. It immediately burned through her clothes, and a scream escaped her throat. One of the Aksha's laughed overhead.

Fuck dying.

She extended an arm towards the closest wall, which seemed to be the wall of Akhessai's body, and shot a Permafrost Wave. She put a shitload of Mana into the attack. The Wave hit the wall, and her descent slowed. Two seconds later, she came to an abrupt stop. Hanging by the straight ice beam connecting her hand to the stone wall. She pulled herself up and heard the daughter's distress. They threw some attacks, but Neserin dashed towards the wall, hoping they weren't as solid as they looked.

She reached the wall, wincing from the poison eating at her back. She formed a covering of ice over her entire back to stop the acid. Then, she placed both hands on the wall and activated her Ice Age skill.

Ice colder than an ice dragon's balls seeped out of her hands and froze the wall. She knew from experience that every part of the stone was being frozen to the core. Poison spears landed on all sides, and she winced and cried out when one pierced her shoulder, but she didn't stop her skill.

The ice traveled outwards from her hands until it covered a circumference large enough for Neserin to walk through or smash through. She formed a mace made of ice and began smashing it. Each hit sent a jolt of pain through her, but she persevered. The daughters started landing on her ice beam and carefully balanced themselves as they approached her. But Neserin kept pounding on the frozen wall. The wall finally gave after what seemed an eternity, and a crack formed in the ice. Then another, followed by another.

The daughters shouted at her to stop or face an excruciating death as if that would make her stop.

A few good swings later, the cracks finally gave way, and sunlight filtered in. Neserin grinned, even as an acid blob washed over her back, splashing over new areas and pain blossoming anew, but she mustered her strength, and one final hit smashed through the wall, creating a hole in their precious corpse.

Behind her, one of the Aksha's gasped. "What you done…"

She flipped off the duplicates and jumped through the hole. She was at Akhessai's midsection. It was like falling from a small hill. It felt like her stomach was in her throat. More poison attacks rained on her, but thankfully, none hit her. When she got to the dragon's knees, she shot Permafrost Waves at the archdragon in bursts to slow down. The first one almost took her arm off, but after that, they weren't so bad. Her speed slowed as she reached the grassy ground. With a final role, she touched the ground.

She burst forth and ran for the woods, as she was sure the Daughters were coming after her. The trees provided some shade, and she hoped it would be enough to cover her tracks, but she didn't care about that right now. If she could make it back to Elder Sidrian, the daughters wouldn't matter, no matter their number.

Fucking Lainor and his plans.

She kept dashing through the trees, and reaching their rendezvous point didn't take long, which was not too far from the Cosmarian's glade. That was another thing she hadn't expected to find on this world. Dragons, sorceresses, and a fucking Cosmarian of all things, and apparently an archdragon was also supposed to be around here.

Throw a hidden god, and we'll have the entire set. Neserin shook her head. What is wrong with this world?

As soon as she entered the clearing, she was encased in a block of ice. It would've felt cold if not for her class. She shattered the ice block and readied herself for the retaliation, but it never came.

"Neserin?" Sidrian frowned. "What are you doing here? Where's Lainor?"

She fell on her ass, drew a deep breath, and explained the giant mess of a plan that sprang from Lainor's beautiful brain. A brain that she had half a mind to stab with an ice pike. The Elder listened but didn't set up a perimeter for the Daughters.

Elder Sidrian rubbed his chin, paced for a full minute, and finally nodded. "Pack up, we're moving out."

"Moving out?" Neserin asked. She wasn't the only one perplexed by this order.

He nodded. "Aye. It's time we stop fighting the dragon's battle for them. It's time they took revenge for their mother."