Liv exited the town which she had extricated from Mutatiara's grasp. She pulled out a map, laying it on the ground. The path here branched to two places she suspected had altars, both about an equal distance away. The Twin Cities of fire and lightning had multiple trade routes between them, so Liv could get to the other easily. However, they also warned each other quickly if trouble was arising. A messenger would be sent quickly to alert the other city and put them on guard. So, Liv had to decide which city to infiltrate first. Fire or Lightning?

  Liv looked at her skillset. Currently, her abilities seemed better to fight the speed of lightning rather than fire. Getting up, Liv continued to the city of fire, prepared for something and everything to go wrong.

  Liv entered the city through the front gates, a hood covering her face. Amazingly, no one tried stopping her as she stepped past the guards at the entrance. As soon as she did so, Liv pulled Dream around her, attempting to create what she dubbed a 'distractor', which let others see her, but stopped them from looking too closely by making their eyes slide off of her and blurring their memories. It would be much harder to go invisible, but even a distractor would cost a lot of power. Even if she gave the spirits all of it, it wouldn't last for very long. She had to find somewhere to hide, and quickly. Liv powered down the roads, stepping quickly with her head down. She entered a tavern and immediately sensed a strong aura, making a split second decision to leave. Liv climbed onto a rooftop before her energy drained all the way, releasing the spell and flopping down on the hard stone.

   Turning over so as to face up at the sky, Liv rested, regaining her energy to prepare for the upcoming dash as far as she could go, once again.

  After an hour or so, Liv's energy regenerated, and she jumped up, grabbing Dream once more. She jumped between rooftops, judging it far faster and better than running through the streets. Soon, she got the hang of dropping Dream and pulling it up again each time she jumped, saving energy so she could run farther.

  A sudden, fiery spot highlighted itself at the edge of her senses, directly right of her position. Liv turned, sitting to rest. She hadn't been caught yet, so it was better to regain her power before continuing. After resting for a solid half hour, Liv got up, jumping across a few final rooftops to get to the altar's location.

  This one was placed in heavy lockdown inside a building, no doubt after they'd gotten word of the other ones bursting with power after a small girl had approached them. Liv looked down from the roof, where the guards were focused on watching outwards and not inwards, seeing lazy men standing around and paying little attention to their surroundings. Liv clambered down the side of the building, careful not to alert the tired man on the roof staring outwards, as she dropped silently, undetected, behind the ring of guards. Liv snuck into the building, swiftly finding the entrance to the place where the altar was held.

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  Liv stared at the massive steel door between her and the altar. Really?

  She pleaded to the spirits within the door, asking them to move, but they haughtily ignored her. Liv poked her nose right up to the disobedient door and almost spoke out loud, before she remembered where she was.

  Liv turned away, asking the air if it knew how the door was usually opened. It said that the men usually knocked on the door in a certain pattern, and simulated it on the same door for Liv. No sound was made, air being air after all, and the door opened, being unable to disobey the runes carved on it without any energy. Liv stepped into the room, looking at the glorious figure of the altar, laid out in front of her. Flame markings were carved out on it, power basically emanating from it as Liv looked on. She stepped forward, and touched it.

  Fire suddenly started to swirl, startling Vivian as the connection between them was reforged, a side effect of the flame pouring through Liv's body. Quickly, Vivian grasped onto the connection from her end, and it massively strengthened as the flame melted it down and remade it anew. It didn't do nearly as much to Liv's body, simply making her resonate with flame of all kinds, fire becoming more receptive to her as she did to it.

  As another side effect, illusory flames and a small wave of heat burst from the altar, covering the entire area and notifying everyone that something was happening, probably involving the altar that everyone knew had flame markings on it. As the fire finished changing everything and Liv was once again left to her own devices, she quickly grabbed Dream again, sneaking out of the room before stopping short as a battalion of soldiers, all armed with swords, stared directly at her. Their armor had some definitive upgrades from the usual, specialized runes that gave Liv a sense of sight on them.

  Liv sighed, dropping Dream. She called over a few heat spirits. Hellfire would have been preferred, but there were none here. She would love to be able to Call... Heat gathered in front of Liv, a few oil lamps built outside to light the streets suddenly setting on fire and starting. She gathered some of the newly born flame spirits, staring down the soldiers with a steadily burning body.

  They looked at her, and the flames burning down her arms and legs, and decided she was not worth it. The soldiers ran for their lives as Liv looked at them, letting the flames recede and bringing up Dream once again. There was no time to waste on soldiers. She had to get to the City of Lightning as fast as possible

  In foresight, she should have done Lightning first, looking at its speed...