*ding!*

[Congratulation. Mirror Enchantress has reached Level 402. You have been awarded 2 stat points]

*ding!*

[Congratulation. Mystic Amplifier has reached Level 401. You have been awarded 2 stat points]

Kalrina was a little disappointed that her classes hadn't evolved, but still, a slight hint of a smile played on her lips. For the past week, ever since they had dropped her back in this cloud-covered cell, she had been training. She had only reached this level so fast, thanks to all the Daughters of Aksha she had killed in the forest, and of course, being back in this nest of evil crones helped. Her watchman knew what she was doing.

She trained from the early morning to late at night. She trained while she ate. She trained while she relieved herself. She even trained when her mortal enemy tortured the Cultist. For there was no greater motivator than to watch Aksha and imagine all the ways she would decimate her body.

She barely slept three hours a night, for she didn't know how much time she had. She didn't know when the queen bitch would tire of Meera. The girl would be foolish to trust any word from that hag's mouth. Veridiana had never done anything to or against Kalrina, but she also hadn't intervened when her cunt of a daughter hacked Eston to pieces.

But I must thank her for letting the Accord stand.

She had no idea that the Sovereign would take her side in all this. Something told her she only did it to get Meera to soften up to her. Regardless, Kalrina just had to wait for an opportune moment to make her move. But I must wait for Meera.

Despite the girl's acidic tongue, Kalrina had grown fond of her. She couldn't fault the girl, for Kalrina had treated her poorly, and not just her alone. She had left almost a genocidal number of bodies on her path to revenge.

There were times, in the quiet of night, when she regretted her choices. She knew hell awaited her in the end. Numheia wasn't kind to the likes of her, but it had to be done.

It had to be done…

She didn't know if Eston's soul got any rest because he never got a proper funeral, even if she did give him the benediction. His soul was probably still haunting this dragon's corpse, unable to move on, all because Kalrina chose to listen to her heart. Her child was stripped from her, unable to take its first breath. Unable to cry out for milk when hungry. Unable to play with his father. Unable to call Kalrina…mother.

Tears welled up in her eyes, and her anger exploded in the form of a Mirror Blast.

Mirrors blasted out of her and crashed against the clouds which enveloped the steel bars that held her captive in this cell. Shockwaves ripped in the clouds as they almost dissipated.

The jailor Aksha slammed her spear against the steel bars. "Calm yourself. Unless you want Mother to visit you first."

Your mother's time will come, as will yours, you fucking bitch. Kalrina seethed on the inside, but outwardly, she smiled. "Sorry, dearie. Just practicing. There's nothing better to do in this cage. Unless you want to come in here, and we can have some fun."

The Jailor huffed and snapped her head away in disgust. Kalrina had a theory about these Daughters of Aksha that they all possessed a leading trait of their bitch mother. Something that Aksha wanted removed from her system.

Unless I'm wrong, which I don't think I am. This one's major trait is compassion.

More than once, Kalrina had seen her squirm when Aksha came in to torture the Cultist fool. How badly she tried to hide her flinching whenever he screamed. The pain behind those eyes was unmistakable. At one point, Kalrina was certain that the Jailor would start crying.

Aksha would put her on the chopping block if she saw such weakness. She laughed inwardly. I wonder if I can use her in some way.

As she came up with ways to use her, one thing became increasingly apparent—a daughter of Aksha would never betray her mother, no matter how much they cared for someone's plight.

Kalrina herself didn't care about Lainor's plight. He deserved all he was getting for offering them up to the dragons.

"What is the Cult of Aetheron doing working with the dragons?" She couldn't resist asking. No response came from the cell previously occupied by Meera. "Hey, Cultist dear, are you still of this world?"

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He groaned and winced as he sat up and dragged his butchered self to the wall. He was a sorry sight indeed. Aksha had hacked off his left arm below the elbow and melted his right leg by dipping it in a vat of acid. How he survived this horrendous torture was beyond Kalrina.

Aksha wasn't nearly as bad to Kalrina because she was a sister for one, and she had to be presented whole before the sisterhood.

"Why…" Lainor huffed. "Why do you care…to know?"

"Because I'll be dead soon, love," she replied. "Didn't I tell you? Hmm, Mother always said to get to know my cellmates. I'll fix that soon. Anyway, they gave me the death sentence. I'm going to die by dragon fire."

That took him aback.

"Don't be surprised, I chose it myself. Thinking back, the death you had planned for me and Meera was eerily similar. Why is that? I didn't know the Cult was so aroused by dragons that they started working with them so closely that they burned an entire city with them."

"We had nothing to do with that matter," Lainor shot back.

"Oh…so Ignis just decided to take his brethren one day and burn the greatest city ever to rise out of the muck." He had no answer to that. He simply looked away. "Come on, Baby Aksha, hasn't this ever crossed your great mother's mind? What is the Cult doing here? That too at the same time as when the Champion and his sister are here. That can be excused, given that the former is supposed to axe their lord. But the timing of it all, dragons destroying Drurith, then he offered Meera to Tigris, saying she was the culprit of all the dragon slaying…so many oddities. Curious, is it not?"

"It is," replied Aksha, stepping out of the shadows and coming into the light of the floating light crystals.

Kalrina shot off three Mirror Blasts in quick succession. She heard a notification, most likely signifying a level-up for the skill.

"Welcome back, dear mommy." Kalrina stood and spread her arms wide as if asking for a hug. "Oh, don't be mad, Aksha dear. I was celebrating your return with a bit of a light show. Sorry, this establishment doesn't allow fireworks in here."

Aksha's eyes lingered on her for a long moment before she moved for Lainor's cell.

But Kalrina was not done with the bitch. "Wait, if you're just finding this curious now, you're even less bright than I thought. It's no surprise you were never able to catch me. This makes me wonder if you would've ever caught me if I hadn't returned home."

Aksha looked at her daughter and grunted as she walked through the clouds and into Lainor's cell.

The daughter banged her spear on the bars of Kalrina's cell. "Shut your mouth, and you better be quiet today or else."

Kalrina pinched her lips shut but let loose another Mirror Blast. "Oops, sorry, dearie. They get away from me sometimes."

She had no intention of being quiet. She was going to let off all the loudest skills she had. The ones she had been saving for when Aksha came to visit.

"Besides, that almost sounded like a threat," Kalrina purred. "Didn't your grandmother order you not to harm me?"

Eat my shit, you bitch.

Kalrina didn't wait for the dense duplicate's reply. She moved her hand in a circular motion and formed a mirror shield. She blew the Daughter a kiss, aimed the mirror shield toward her mother, and let loose a hail of sharp mirror shards. The clouds converged on the impact spot, but it was plain to see that the mirrors were damaging the clouds greatly.

There was a loud pop, as if a great bubble had just burst, and the cloud cover around her cell dissipated. The Jailor's eyes widened, and she jumped aside. But she was not Kalrina's target. Her mother was.

Kalrina's mirrors crashed against the steel bars, and at first, nothing happened. She roared with laughter as she poured Mana into her skill. The stream and intensity of her mirrors rose to such an extent that they bent the steel bars outwards, bending them till they looked like a swollen melon. The melon finally burst, and her gatling mirrors raced towards the worst person to ever walk these worlds.

Her mirrors once again crashed against the steel bars, where they bent inwards, but not so much as the clouds encasing the inner part of the cell held them for some time. But not for long. The bars smashed open and rained hell on the clouds meant to hold them.

She laughed as they converged to stop Kalrina's vengeance. She used her Arcane Amplifier skill to increase the intensity of her skill yet further. The beam of deadly mirror shards became a thing of beauty. The beam was as thick as a tree trunk and faster than a rain of arrows as they destroyed the clouds to blast towards Kalrina's hateful foe.

Aksha raised a hand and created an aegis of purple-flowing poison. Her mirror shards smashed against it, only to be dissolved to nothing. But Aksha's hand was pushed back a little. She grunted, thrust her hand forward, and sent her aegis flying toward Kalrina. It ate up her shards as if they were nothing. The aegis grew in size as it flew through the air. The small hole her mirror shards had taken so long to make was widened as the aegis passed through like it was nothing.

Kalrina tried her best to hold it off, but Aksha's skill was too powerful. In the end, she shut off her attack and leaped to the side just in time. The aegis crashed against the stone wall, where it sizzled as the acidic poison dripped to the floor.

She laughed. "Looks like there is a problem in my cell."

The usually expressionless Aksha was fuming. Her eyebrows were set in a scowl, her nostrils were clenched, and she gritted her teeth like an angry wolf, snarling at its prey.

I may have pushed it too far. But Kalrina couldn't help herself. Just the sight of the woman had driven her mad with thoughts of vengeance.

Aksha snapped open Lainor's cell door with such vigor that it fell off its hinges and came for Kalrina. She was ready for her and hoped Veridiana's orders not to harm her would protect her, but it was unlikely.

Poison seeped from Aksha's hand as it gripped the door handle of Kalrina's cell, but before she could open it, frantic footsteps could be heard coming down the dark hall.

"Mother!" A voice like Aksha yelled. "Mother! You must come."

Aksha snapped her head to another copy of her, who came to a stop before her mother and huffed with her hands on her knees.

"What is it? Speak!" Aksha barked.

"They've come. All of them. They are here!" The fear in the daughter's eyes made her seem like a child who had seen a monster outside her window.

Aksha gripped her daughter's throat with her poisoned hand, making her cry out and squirm. "Who is here?" Aksha asked through gritted teeth.

"Dragons…"