The bloody gate

Moments after Maximus left, Aliana began to examine the surrounding. As it is known, the Red Forest contains several well-known landmarks that let you know which area you are in now. For Aliana, who lived near this forest and wandered around it a lot, she recognized her approximate location.

'I have to head south from here to get closer to the lake in the middle of the forest.'

After a short thought, she headed south cautiously for any potential dangers, moving her head in all directions looking for traces of spirits to complete her short mission...

Her research continued for quite some time until she found some clues she was looking for. Among the trees, a tree had protrusions and branches in places where it was supposed not to be. It is like a forced growth, not a natural one, and the guilty is most likely the spirits.

'It's the work of the wood spirits, since the traces have not yet disappeared, less than half an hour has passed since the spirit left this spot.'

Having glimpsed this effect, she searched more intently to find if lucky more traces...

After ten minutes of research and tracking abnormal growth forms, she found the point where several souls had gathered. There were three wood spirits and here it was a surprise for her.

"I won a grand prize from the start!! Several spirits at once."

Now all that remains is to get closer to these spirits. It is not that simple, success has rules she must follow, especially in the first times when creating an elemental contract with it, because then the souls of the same element will automatically be attracted to you. Aliana’s thoughts accelerated to remember the rules:

- - The soul of a person must be pure and do not like to harm to others.

- - You must do something that the spirit in question loves.

- - You must let the soul approach you first, do not take the initiative.

- - You should look like you do not know about her hiding near you or following you.

For Aliana, all conditions are easy except for the second one, which is a problem.

"Wood spirits, wood spirits, remembered!"

After being relaxed in her mind for a few seconds, her facial expression changed as she showed signs of success.

"Wood spirits love plants; I have to pretend picking herbs and fruits while being inattentive."

She took out a cloth bag from her small bag and scanned the surroundings searching for camouflage/bait (fruits and herbs). She started acting and showed signs of surprise after seeing the herb growing near the roots of the tree.

'Oh my God, it's the herb I've been looking for soooo long and couldn't find it. Was it here all the time?'

Aliana said this with signs of surprise on her face. The Spirits of the Wood heard her speak loudly, which sparked their curiosity, the spirits gradually approached Aliana while hiding among the leaves in a way that would be difficult to distinguish if you had not known this about them. After picking a few more herbs, Aliana sat resting under a beautiful maple tree.

She then laid down and pretended that she was sleeping. After two minutes of motionlessness, the spirits approached her after they confirmed that she was sleeping and began touching her clothes and face. The play lasted for several minutes until she woke up pretending to be tired and surprised by the spirits in front of her.

"The plan worked. Now I have to gain their favor."

The play is not over, the real show has just begun and she must avoid making mistakes.

'Spirits? Wow!!'

Aliana's face was filled with expressions of astonishment, as if it were the first time she had seen spirits.

'You're cute, little ones. Do you want to come with me?'

The spirits stared at each other for a few seconds and then nodded in agreement. Aliana looked at her fingers looking for the ring with the green jewel.

'You can come in here, little ones, and you will come with me like this.'

She pointed to the ring assigned to them and moments later the spirits approached the ring and smoothly entered.

'My first success! That's how only four types remain to complete the mission.'

As soon as she finished speaking, the ring glowed with a somewhat faint light, and then one soul came out, larger than the spirits in the ring. Aliana could not understand what had happened until the Spirit spoke to her:

'Do you hear me now? I think you can understand me.'

"The spirit speaks, so it is of a lower intermediate rank. But how did it get here?"

An expression mixed between wonder and confusion rose on her face and then the spirit continued the conversation:

'I or rather we who were few moments ago with you. After entering the ring, our souls merged and we became one. we do not know how or what? But it just happened.'

'Happy to chat with you, do you have a name to call you?'

'My name is Torupi. It is a collection of our names previously. To, Ru, Pi. For your information, low-level spirits all have such simple names if we were lucky enough to have one.'

'Nice to meet you, then... Can you help me search for the spirits of the other elements?'

'It's okay; I can guide you where they are. Please follow me.'

An expression of overwhelming happiness after hearing the words of the wooden spirit, hard work is always crowned with rewarding success. Torupi interrupted her thoughts:

'I can guide you to them but I can't convince them or ask for their help for you. Is that enough for you?'

'That's definitely enough; you relieved me from the hard part.' sigh.

It has already been four hours since entering the forest and here it is on its way to finish its mission smoothly. The forest was vast and the walk took a long time, passing through pine trees and then a large willow tree, which seems to have exceeded two hundred years.

'What a wonderful tree!!'

It was an exotic cherry tree among the trees, characterized by blue flowers as opposed to cherries, which are known for their pink color.

'This tree is called the Blue Night. When the night is clear, the roses glow in a faint blue color, and on the night of the full moon, the roses fly covering the area and making the sky glowing with a blue glow. There are only a few in the forest so you rarely see it even for the inhabitants of this forest.'

'More wonderful than I imagined. I'll have a flower if you don't mind.'

After Aliana took a flower and enjoyed its fragrance, they both continued to walk towards their destination and the first spirits they were looking for were the spirits of the earth. A few minutes later, Torupi pronounced:

'There isn't much left until we arrive.'

He did not even finish talking and Aliana fell into a hole, or rather a trap set by hunters. For her quick wit, she held on to the rope that held the trap but her hands were not strong enough to bear her weight, the wood spirit quickly formed several wooden roots under Aliana’s feet and lifted her out of the hole.

'Damn that trap!!'

From the horror of the event, she did not focus on what was deep in the crater, after she came out with her heart racing and noticed several sharp metal stakes deep inside. Here her expression blackened momentarily, if her reaction speed had not been fast enough, she would have bled to death in this hole.

In the midst of this noise, a sub-mid-ranking earth spirit presented himself. The soul noticed Aliana who was lying on the ground with her heart beating hard and had not yet calmed down with a hole next to her containing metal stakes.

'These damned hunters never stop spoiling our forest and hunting its unique creatures.'

After the spirit of the earth said what it said, it blocked the hole by moving the soil inside to fill it.

'Thank you for finding this trap and saving the life of an innocent animal from falling into this trap. How can I help you, miss?'

Aliana’s hard-soothing heart quickened again after hearing these few words. An excellent opportunity shone from the situation that almost took her life a while ago

'Would you accept to accompany me? This is my demand.'

'Where are you going?'

'Currently training with my comrades, and soon I will travel around the world. Do you accept this or does it not satisfy you?'

'Of course I accept. All spirits dream of seeing the vast world but we cannot leave the forest on our own. What a great opportunity I got!'

The spirit of the earth got excited after hearing the proposal, flew around quickly with enthusiasm, and then returned towards Aliana.

'How are you going to get me out of the woods? Do you have a way?'

'I already have one so can you come into this ring and you'll always stay by my side, you can go out whenever you ask me but you cannot go too far away from me, for consideration.'

Here the spirit of the earth is burning with enthusiasm, Aliana pointed to the yellow ring and the spirit entered it as smoothly as the previous one.

'There are only three left, I just have to be more careful and I will succeed without major problems.'

'I hope there is no catastrophe like what happened a little while ago. Sigh'

The soul sighed, terrified by what it had just seen, and then continued walking without prolonged thought.

'I never asked you before, but how do you know where spirits are like that?'

'Ah, that. It's simply that we spirits feel each other's presence, nothing more or less.'

The soul answered her without paying attention to her, as it was in the midst of searching for the nearest spirit of the next element.

'So it's that simple, I’m stupid.'

.........

After some brief talk that continued quietly for the next two hours, Aliana had succeeded in attracting the spirits of fire and water. The spirits of the water swirled near a small stream passing through the trees, but the spirits of the fire attracted them by lighting a campfire that Torupi helped to form.

There are only wind spirits left and they were somewhat a problematic. They are fast and difficult to get their attention. In our common terminology, we can say they have ADHD syndrome. Aliana thought of a way to attract it by summoning the spirits of the four elements together and moving with them. Usually, the spirits of the different elements gather together only within the village where they coexist, which attracted the fast spirit of wind, which generally does not care about its surroundings, wanting to know why the spirits gather. She approached quickly and directly, unlike the rest of the spirits, she was direct in her words and asked the spirits: 'What brought you together and what are you doing with a human company?'

'She's a good girl and she agreed to take us out of the forest with her. It's an irreplaceable opportunity, accompany us.'

'Is it really like this? Isn't it some sort of jokes?'

The spirit of the wind seemed to have expressions of astonishment and skepticism. It is her first time that she has been exposed to a situation of this kind, which made her reluctant to make up her mind.

"Did she deceive others or did they believe her? Is she telling the truth or lying to us?"

The rest of the spirits interrupted its inner talk, saying with one voice:

'We are serious about our conversation and we guarantee you the sincerity of our words. Come on, comrade. Don't miss such a precious opportunity!!'

After hearing this, the last spirit agreed and Aliana rejoiced, who had successfully completed her mission, but this joy was interrupted by the question of the spirit of fire Bayrou:

'I didn't notice before, but how did you get along with all of us? As far as I know, human beings cannot get along with spirits of several elements except in special cases, and that does not exceed two or three elements. But you made it easy for all of us.'

Here, Aliana’s fugue face became as clear as daylight and she began to speak to herself audibly.

'He's right, I've never thought about this thing before... Is it because of these rings or something else that the teacher did not tell me about? I'll ask him tomorrow whenever I met him.'

'Interesting, I want to hear the answer tomorrow. Do you have any other tasks or not?'

Each soul returned to its own ring and Alyana made sure of its items. Only a few ordinary ones were lost when she fell into the trap. She took a deep breath. It was a bit of a difficult adventure but the results were unexpected.

'Having a spirit of sub-intermediate rank for all five basic elements is something I didn't expect.'

She then took out the green jewel that teacher has given to her, broke it, and returned it in front of the gate of the training room. She then returned to dormitory and spent the rest of her day between light training and rest after such strenuous effort...