"Guess what a little birdie told me?" came a sudden voice from within the fog.
John turned his head as quickly as he could but he didn't find the origin within all the fog surrounding us.
"I heard that no spirit would be able to stop the Autumn King. What do you guys think?" came the voice from behind us. It didn't feel like he was talking to us.....
My body, tormented by the seal blocking my domain, disfigured by the process, shuddered as the body-less voice echoed around us, bouncing off the trees, making it feel like several people were talking.
Fear and awareness crawled up my spine. Suddenly I realized the situation we were in. Somehow, without noticing, John and I had left the city behind. That and the pure pressure behind the voice made me question if I would leave this fog alive....
"Oh come on, come out of your hiding spot. I already know that there is not King of Autumn. And you Spirits tend to be weaker than the other seasonal ones. Consider your choice wisely and I might not give you away to have your domain sealed..." said John. Thoroughly unaware of the pure malice seeping through the fog.
Suddenly John was behaving erratically. "What's that! NO! GET IT OFF!" he screamed before he was somehow dragged into the fog. Only then did I realize how even the floor was covered in fog, making it impossible to see what I was actually standing on.
Then came the voice again. It was deep, echoing with power and inevitability. Its rhythm was deadly and precise.
"The leaves fall, temperatures drop,Summer sleeps and Autumn wakes.This barrier fades, weakens, dies—Nothing halts my timeless tides."
It sounded like nothing I ever heard. Magic, Nature or Spirit-based, was not nor had it ever been used like that. This magic was powered by will and might, carried by sound. It opposed everything us spirits ever learned about magic, even our own. But its result was undeniable. The barrier surrounding the city, the one that had taken us and other spirits weeks without rest to carve and reinforce, cracked like a thin ice surface on a small pond. Yet its destruction was not violent, like it was supposed to be. Only a slight breeze passed.
"So, why are spirits of Autumn erecting barriers to stop Autumn from entering this city?" came the sudden, noticably young voice from behind a tree. The fog had lifted by now so I could make out the surrounding forest.
I desperately explained, how we had been kidnapped, our domains sealed and then threatened with execution via iron blade, one of the few things that could actually hurt a spirit. Unfortunately my desperate action didn't work as I had anticipated for I was suddenly greeted by several clearly undead creatures sneaking closer and closer while the person just continued humming a song.
Let's be frank here, I chose the cowards way out. As soon as one particularly threatening hound came to close for comfort, I passed out.
POV: Back to Percy
Well, that means problems. This heatwave organization might become a problem in the near future. And let's not forget about that sealing thing they can do. That might be a problem too...
But for now, I had stuff to do. The city was already liberated from summer's claws.Only the entire globe left. And that too without the system....should be possible.
Of course, while I was thinking about what to do, I was already on my feet, twisting, dancing and running between the forests of the world.
Wherever my feet touched the ground, fallen leaves followed, earth grew cold and damp and the summer heat was driven further and further away until it was contained only in the tropical regions of earth. My power itself fluctuated. During the day, wind, rain and storm were the most active, not to mention the cold. At night? At night the horrors, shadows and candles grew. Children playing in the forest began to hear creaking noises, saw long spindly creatures and misshapen shadows. At night the shadows clung to the forests and the streets. Slowly but surely the world grew quieter than before. The animals, those that stayed in the cold, they knew me and hid inside my shadow, reaching into the Home-Dimension, Bears and their cubs found their ways to me, asking for caves without humans. I told them to follow the animals, deep into the autumn shadows, where leaves shifted and trees became monsters, the wardens of frightend children. They found holes under the trees roots. Suspiciously and deceptively small but more than enough for the bears. The cities strays, those unseen by anyone, they were given hospitality where they desired. So they joined the wild animals within the dimension....Okay, I might have a soft spot for abandoned and wild animals, can you blame me? Endresult of me clearing out the strays of the city? Most of them got adopted into the chimera and demon families that had developed.
However, during my travels, I came across several more cities with barriers. These I couldn't take down though. The barriers had existed for longer than I had. I simply wasn't strong enough yet to tear them down. That didn't mean I couldn't do anything. Barriers like these didn't extend through the earth. They stopped at ground level and only worked directly on spirits themselves. A spirit within said barrier will lose their power if it doesn't align with the element of the barrier. So instead of going out of my way, trying to destroy those barriers, I planted some trees instead. These trees essentially functioned like conduits for me and they were also "infected" Their roots would borrow down far into the earth and slowly reach into the root systems of other trees. When they came into contact with another "uninfected" root system, these trees would then be assimilated to the "corrupted/infected" system. From there on out, these trees will begin to radiate my power, aka the power of Autumn, and saturate the area with it while slowly corrupting the barrier. Of course that power would stop once fall was over. I had to create those trees using three different magic systems. An added benefit using the ritual I did had, was that these trees wouldn't be restricted to Autumn itself but would work for winter too. Seven days passed quickly and I soon returned to my home in New York, where my mom was already waiting.
What happend to the spirits from the first city, you ask? Well of course I still have them. All but John. He somehow pissed of the shadows. John's dead now. They ate him and might I just add, he tasted good.....