Liv pulled herself up another building, thinking about her encounter with the group she'd converted out of binding spirits. It hadn't been very hard, actually. She watched the spirits swirl around a group of soldiers and changed her course to avoid the large group of Binders. She would have to wait in this town for a while longer before being able to leave. Liv soon came upon the Lord's mansion, her destination.

  Time to find out what went on inside!

  Liv found a window, a simple hole in the wall, and swung through. She'd recently Whispered to a Lightning spirit, so Liv decided to try another new spirit and called a spirit lurking in Shadow over. Whispering a quick set of instructions to it, Liv had herself a new cloak of Shadow, concealing her in the dark corners within the building. The brighter areas weren't enough to nullify the cloak either, so it was still useful though it was weakened. Liv started checking every room, nothing of note in any of them. Just incredible numbers of bedrooms, all of them empty, and some of them filled with dust.

  Soon, one of the doors Liv opened turned out to be an office, a man sitting at a desk with papers on it. Liv almost smacked herself. Why wouldn't there be someone in one of these rooms? The man shouted, guards below the room stirring as Liv grabbed stacks of paper, shoving them into her rucksack and running. Boots sounded ahead, so Liv scrunched into a corner and hoped they would pass her by

  The soldiers completely ignored her, running directly past her, even though she was in plain sight. Liv quickly found another window, jumping directly out of it, and straight in front of the soldiers guarding the mansion. Some of them yelled, seeing her now that she was in broad daylight, and the chase started.

  Liv ran, climbing atop buildings and avoiding soldiers as best possible. However, it wasn't that easy to avoid Binders. They jumped after her, some enhacing their own bodies, while others manipulated their metal armor to punch spikes into the walls, which they pulled themselves up with.

  It was soon obvious that Liv would not be able to escape. Quickly, she found a place where she could make a stand-the end of an alleyway. This had gone from a fun journey into a life-threatening situation quickly.

  Liv raised her hands, prepared for anything. Then the flood came.

  Liv killed them easily. There were just so many of them! Liv slaughtered her way through the flood of summons being sent at her, whether they were demonic or angelic. Then she reached the front liines, which parted in front of her like water. Humans weren't as fearless as the bound summons were. They started to break and run as Liv reached the back lines, her wind blades and sword claiming many lives. Quickly, the lines shattered completely, the men running as Liv heaved, letting them go. She smiled. She'd gotten to fight for the first time in a while. However, this would mean that the timer would be reset, essentially. It would take even longer to get out of the city.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

  Liv changed her destination from 'aimless walking' to the wall. There was no other choice. She had to climb the cliff.

  The wall loomed in front of Liv, sticking straight up like... a wall. Rolling her eyes at her own sense of humor, Liv started on the task. Generating a cannon, Liv pointed it at the top of the wall. There was no way she would be able to climb the whole thing normally. The cannon would still be dangerous though. A Wind spirit flashed what Liv now recognized as 'concern', but she just smiled at it. "Don't be concerned for my mental state. It's completely normal for humans to do idiotic things like this."

  Finishing the cannon, Liv climbed in, preparing herself to call to a Stone spirit at the top of her launch. Her experiments had proven that she could call to any spirit, even if she didn't have any previous experience with it. Soon, all her preparations were ready. Liv strengthened her body and let the cannon shoot her.

  Liv flew at incredible speeds straight up the wall. The cannon had been calibrated well enough that she didn't overshoot it by too much, or undershoot it. Quickly, a crag of stone jutted out of the wall, a friendly Stone spirit giving her a place to land. Liv clambered onto the top of the wall and looked around. No one there. Then she looked down the other side and sighed. This would suck.

  Liv decided to do away with the pleasantries and jumped. Flying down to the bottom of the wall, Liv leveraged the wind, and the construct bottoming her out, hit a giant wind pillow, slowing her down enough to not die. Cultivating immediately made you many times stronger than a human, but people at the higher ranks could do dumb things, as the stories showed. Liv looked back at Maanterin, the Gate of Storms, and waved a final goodbye. It was time to move on. Liv looked at the road, once again with a new destination in mind. The last gate had reacted to her, so Liv wanted to find another one. The next one on her list was Crystialen, the Gate of Ice.

  Liv started her walk down the path to the next city in her journey, as people in other worlds started their own. Vivian, wielding the force of a storm, entered the Silence. Mark, with a holy blade of flames, struck out towards the Kingdom of Fey. Finally, Cyrus stood in an arena and shouted his defiance to the world. All the heroes were coming closer together, yet still far away. Their individual paths were not yet at an end.

  Liv stared at the moon, now coming out, and decided to keep walking. There was moonlight, and besides, the spirits were beautiful.

  The moon spirits flew through the light, as the full moon shone down on Liv, walking down the road to the next city.