Liv stayed in the cave for a little while longer, making sure the noble hadn't followed her. Reassured after a silent stretch, she cautiously came out, looking around. No one appeared, ready to kill her, so Liv assumed she was alone.

  She started off again, resolving to be more careful this time, to avoid aggravating people like the one who had almost killed her. Randomly walking around in the mountains, Liv soon discovered another bandit camp, the bandits milling around, waiting for a target to walk into range. Liv decided to give them one.

  She walked into the open, almost seeing all the crossbows train on her. While surveying the area, Liv had made sure that there were no elites in the area before starting.

  As the bandits, confident in their success, came out the gates with their weapons, Liv simply smiled, stepping forward and creating a sea of blood.

  Whispering had almost become second nature now; Liv did it all the time, almost breathing her words to the spirits. Striding further into the camp, Liv left a few bandits alive for later interrogation, finishing off the rest. She walked over to the final few, still smiling and unmarked by blood. Liv leaned into one of their faces. making them flinch back in fear.

  She started asking her questions, the first bandit proving to be more than amenable in answering them. The bandit did't know of where the altar was located, but they knew that an evil aura that created smoke was located at the eastern side of the mountains. Liv nodded, thinking to go investigate it. She interrogated the rest of the prisoners, getting no useful information, and killing them all in the end.

  Liv left the killing ground behind, making her way to the location of the aura. It took almost until evening, but there was still time to get back if she used the wind.

  Grey smoke billowed out from the ground in front of her, glowing cracks in the darkness probably showing some of the heat below. The 'evil aura' really was a forbidding place, though it didn't seem evil, just a natural disaster of some sort. Examining the smoke, Liv started to walk forward when she heard a noise. Whirling around, Liv saw the noble standing directly behind her, his sword held up in the air. Liv jumped back, and was encompassed by smoke.

  She fell on the ground, the sword cutting through the air right in front of her. Scrambling to her feet, Liv ran once more, and the noble did not follow.

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  She dashed through the smoke as it got into her lungs, making her unable to get oxygen except through the help of the wind spirits on the way. Smoke clouded everything, and for whatever reason, Liv did not see any smoke spirits. Suddenly, Liv truly felt an evil aura. The aura felt like something a demon would have, oppressive and dangerous. Liv looked around once more, but seeing nothing, started running again.

  The world twisted around her, and Liv was suddenly running towards the aura. Turning away, she started running again, but the same thing happened. "So I have to run towards it, then?," Liv asked herself while checking for Dream and Illusion around her, of which there was none.

  Slowly stepping towards the source of the aura, Liv prepared herself with a collection of weapons made out of solidified air.

  Soon, Liv reached it.

  A hulking smoke monster stood, its entire being made out of smoke and creating more all the time. It immediately turned towards her and growled.

  A monster with over seven times your height growling sounded as if the world was groaning to a halt. It lunged at her, only for chains of what Liv could only describe as Hellfire to flare around its limbs, carrying it back to its previous spot. Liv looked around for an idea of what to do. A path of smoke darker than the rest caught her eye, and Liv focused on it.

  The altar was there, hidden in the patch. Liv started towards it, then stopped. If she wanted to get to the altar, she would have to go through the beast's territory.

  Moving to the closest point she could, Liv sighed, wiping her sweaty palms on her clothes. She gathered all the wind she could(other than the amount she breathed) and converted it to speed.

  She zipped across the ground, the monster immediately behind her, threatening to catch up. Liv barely made it to the altar, hunkering behind it as a death ray struck, obliterating the ground around it. Liv stood up grabbing the altar with both hands and praying that the monster didn't kill her.

  It raised its paw, ready to strike, but the altar activated before it could. The monster hesitated, just for a brief moment, but it was enough. The altar sucked in all the smoke around the area, finally sucking in the smoke monster as well. It howled as it scrambled to stay out of the vacuum of death, but it's attempts were proven to be futile as the vacuum did not stop.

  It gained no size from doing all this, staying the same. Then it pulsed.

  The sky turned dark, night approaching almost instantly as the altar used its power over the surrounding area to change the time to night. Stars emerged as Liv watched, a few appearing at first, then a sudden influx of them covering the sky.

  Liv raised a hand, star spirits crowding around it, white balls of light orbiting her arm.

  The sky stayed quiet as Liv reached for it, trying to grab a star as she used to when a child.

  Then Liv realized that what the altar had done was not a good thing. No one who was out in the Gates of Shadow at night ever returned. The altar had changed the time, making it forcibly night, but that just irritated the beasts, who had to get up sooner.

  The howls started, chilling Liv to the bone.