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123 AC, Lands of Always Winter
However, at its end was a blade that made Cregan shiver with its sight alone. It was akin to seeing a fragment of the night's sky while surrounded by something crimson, which unsettled everything around it. The creatures glared at Harry hatefully, "THEN WHAT COMES NEXT IS YOUR DOING!"
Leaf stared at the battling form of the Stranger and the King of the Old Ones, wishing with all of her heart that the former would emerge victorious. Both looked akin to gods staring down at one another, the Cold One holding a blade that radiated Night and Death. She had often asked herself why the gods had remained so silent, why they played games with Fate and Destiny instead of not smiting the Cold Ones in their very homes.
After all, she had seen servants of the Fiery One, who often proclaimed loudly of their God's hatred of the 'Great Other' and that they were to battle the Night. And yet, through their Weirwood, she could not even perceive any other god attempting to slay the Cold Ones.
It had been a childish notion, of course, before she had learned of the limitations that gods had, and the fragile balance in the world, but now, she could not wonder if they had not been afraid, for the King seemed to hold Death in the palm of his hand, one that she did not doubt would slay gods as well. She could understand why people would call him the Night King, for his existence was far more terrible than the rest of the Cold Ones. His song was strange, more akin to a living calamity than a living creature, and even then, it was strange, incomplete, as if most of it was missing, or perhaps it was she that was not able to hear it.
The Other and the Stranger had not yet crossed blades, not truly, but she could not fathom how the latter could even fight against such power. Yet, she held hope. The Stranger had proven again and again that her expectations were only the surface he chose to show.
Even then, there was no doubt that so far, the Cold Ones had suffered a very heavy blow to their cause. Too many of them had perished, much of their armies gone with the trees' golden light. The Heart of Winter, their so-called fortress, lay in ruin, yet Leaf could still sense its echo within the King of the Cold Ones.
She had learned much in the strange world that the sorcerer had sent her into alongside his mate, for Leaf was now able to see fragments of what had once been unseen, the traces of the world, truths that affected reality much more than one would ever think possible.
It was how Leaf knew that the Heart of Winter could be built anew, but that even in defeat, they had weakened them enough that the possibility of a second Long Night would not occur for millennia.
She could feel it as he raised his sword and released a primal roar, making the very sky change to his whims, bringing the very night into being. The night advanced quickly, but was quickly repelled by a golden dawn, pure order that would not bend, just as the Great Wall would not. Leaf now understood why the Stranger's mate had wished to use the Wall to create their forest, for she could hear the familiar song, one that stood vigil for thousands of years, unbending in the face of darkness and winter.
Given the stalemate, the Night King raised his hand, and from the Night he conjured, hundreds of stars started towards the ground as if ready to swallow them, which the Stranger countered by sending them into echo realms, dispelling the attack, and rendering most of them into ravens made of shadows that dove towards the Night King.
That seemed to break the rest of the world from its stupor, for everyone to remember that they were in a battle, one that would decide the fate of the living. She could see her kindred continue attacking the Cold Ones, who created shields of ice to protect themselves.
Nevertheless, Leaf did not watch the rest of the battle, though the stakes were beyond those of any other conflict in the world. Instead, she stumbled as she saw the Wise One do something very similar to her. Leaf remembered their last conversation just hours prior, one with hurtful words that she did not truly mean to utter.
And yet, when Leaf was pressed, as she asked for aid, the Wise One answered. She had used the power of something far older than she expected, something that she had seen only in her dreams, when she was curious about the pact brokered between her kin and men. Her kin had given the First Men a horn to call on their aid, and the First Men, in return, had offered their oaths, sworn in blood, to not cut down the Weirwood.
She had recognised the horn on Cregan's belt and used its strength to reach her people in a desperate bid for aid. Their forest grew, and her kin answered, with power that she did not think they held. No, it was power that they did not have, a power that came with a price.
Leaf's eyes widened as she saw the Wise One being attacked by three Cold Ones. She should have emerged victorious long ago, and yet, her movement was slow, almost sluggish. The young Earthsinger's eyes widened in realisation, and she sang.
The earth answered and moved beneath her and sent her flying towards the Wise One's attackers. She took one by surprise by stabbing them with her dagger, with a high-pitched scream, a burst of wind unsettled another, which the Wise One killed with a spear of black flame, and Leaf barely had the time to move the earth to shield herself from spears of ice.
She threw one of her daggers at the Cold One, only for it to be parried away by the creature's sword. Leaf prepared to move the earth, only to freeze as she realised that she couldn't. And so, she was not able to react when the Cold One grabbed her, and she felt a burning cold start to envelop her. It was agonising, as if all of the songs of the world had turned bitter and dead. For one impossible second, Leaf thought that she might perish, until the feeling disappeared, as the creature was shattered into shards of ice.
Leaf staggered up and looked around, only to see the Wise One steadying herself onto her staff, while giving her a concerned look, "What… What was that?"
"The curse of the Cold Ones," she answered, "They could corrupt and rot the very laws of nature. Their king is their worst, a bringer of night, cold, and death."
She followed the elder's gaze and froze as she saw the battle between the Stranger and the Night King, with the Cold One sending a wave of pure night that the sorcerer seemed to negate with a dove of light that radiated comfort and hope.
The dove exploded in a burst of light, allowing Potter to bridge the distance between them and cut the creature's hand with his strange scythe, followed by impaling him in the heart with Bran the Builder's sword.
To her surprise, the Night King did not die. Instead, he released a howl that distorted the world around them, sending everyone flying away, ally and enemy alike. He stared in the middle and held his hand upward, which regrew into an oily black substance. He slowly grabbed the sword impaled in his chest, the one that had scarred him aeons ago, and threw it to the side, the clang breaking the silence of his miraculous recovery.
He then raised his impossible weapon and released a gigantic wave of crimson light, Death itself. It was only Harry's reaction that saved them, who spun his scythe at impossible speeds, somehow deflecting the attack upwards into the sky.
The Night King prepared to follow the attack, only for the newly grown forest to release a wall of golden light, making him halt and release a growl of frustration.
Even with the power of the Stranger and his wife, even with the death of the Cold Ones' army, even with the destruction of their home, the defeat of the Night King did not seem as assured as it should have been.
She couldn't help but mutter to herself, "Can we win?"
"We won't," the Wise One answered beside her, "Our kin will not recover from this, but I believe that perhaps it was for the best. We were always going to lose, but it is perhaps a more fitting death, fighting against our sworn enemy, than to wither away in our dreams and fade away into our trees. The question remains if the living would come victorious, and that, my dear, remains in the hands of the gods."
Leaf stared at the corpses of her kindred, who had fallen to the Cold Ones, and couldn't help but release a small song of sorrow. She had called them here, to this place, to fight against the Cold Ones, and sent them to their deaths.
The Wise One gently put her finger on Leaf's cheek and wiped away her growing tears, "None of that now. Our age has long since ended, with this remnant of our history, my history, being all that kept us tethered. This ends today, for better or for worse. You have called us for aid, and we chose to answer, little one."
Leaf looked up to the Wise One's eyes, and whatever reply she held was stifled by her gasp of surprise. The Wise One's skin looked rougher than it once was, almost more akin to bark than skin. With that realisation, Leaf recognised the tiredness that seemed to seep through the elder, the almost wooden movement.
It all came to a very simple conclusion: "You are dying."
"My fate was sealed the moment I answered the horn," the elder whispered. "The pact demanded strength I did not have to spare. But it gave us this one chance. One last stand."
Leaf's eyes stung at the sight and the Wise One continued, "I am old, Leaf. So very old. I have long ached to rejoin my brethren in our forest, and this is where my road ends," the old Earthsinger had a faraway look in her eyes, "I have seen countless seasons, countless failings, and countless hopes rise and die. I have guided children born long after their songs should have ended. I have lingered beyond my time, afraid to leave while our enemy still walks the world. But now? Now, I have hope. The Cold Ones were always a threat that only man and singer could defeat together, and we have come closer than I ever thought possible. I am happy to have spoken to you one last time, little one. And perhaps, you will enjoy my last gift to you."
The Wise One then finally touched the golden bark of a tree, and was slowly swallowed by it, until all that remained was her face, almost as if it was carved into the very forest. The wooden face's eyes suddenly widened, and a golden pillar of light fell from the sky and enveloped the Night King.
The impact shook the world around her, enough that the very battlefield had frozen in its tracks. The golden light struck the Night King with such force that the ice beneath him cracked outward in a perfect ring. His form was swallowed entirely for a heartbeat, only for when the light had faded, the creature remained standing. The Night King's form was covered in the same black, withered skin as his arm, but the Wise One's last attack had not even phased him.
That could not be said for the rest of the Cold Ones. Whatever this attack was, it seemed to have affected them negatively, even indirectly. They did not perish, but the surprise allowed her kin to gain a sizeable advantage, slaying many of them in the Wise One's last act of defiance against their enemy.
"NO!!!!"
The sound resonated across the battlefield, the sheer might of it sending them flying back out. Leaf, herself, was barely able to stand up and looked in horror as the Night King's form started to warp. The world around him seemed to swell up, almost as if it had gotten sickly.
Even the Stranger, who had been readying another attack, was taken by surprise, and used his scythe to remain upright, as if it was the only thing stopping him from being overwhelmed either.
It was unlike anything that she had ever experienced before, like a living disease that seemed to spread and swallow away all possible songs. It seemed to eat up the very space and time around them, bringing nought but stillness, ice and death. Even the golden light was not spared, being pushed back by the sheer alienness of it.
Leaf watched in horror as it approached the Stranger's form, and to her surprise, instead of panicking, the sorcerer had closed his eyes as if he was completely at peace. Then he opened his mouth and started to sing.
She had heard beautiful songs in her life, mostly in her dreams, as her kind ran in their forest, grew with nature. Her very kind was so intertwined with nature and understanding its true melody that she couldn't help but feel mesmerised by what she heard.
It was a strange song, one of a dream, of a desire for something beautiful, of striving towards something impossibly beautiful, a hope of a world with no evil.
It started with a few golden petals appearing near him, floating around him in circles, but surely, the very world around the Stranger changed, all from a light that came from within him, a manifestation of a dream that had overtaken reality itself. The very ground it touched melted the ice, revealing an impossible greenery beneath. It spread against the wound in the world, as if completely unaffected by it, and steadily advanced against the Night King, undoing every drop of his influence in what was once the very heart of winter.
As for the creature, its eyes were widened, and for the first time, Leaf could swear seeing something more than rage and hate in its eyes, a faint flicker of panic that disappeared moments later.
Then the rage returned, and he pointed his weapon at The Stranger, and from it, a gigantic beam of sickly crimson light appeared, being surrounded by a fragment of the Night itself.
The attack approached the stranger, only to be stopped by an invisible shield around him, one which was made up of his golden petals, the barrier to the world that he had sung into being. And so, Harry Potter's voice became louder, and his song expanded even further, remaining completely still in the face of death itself.
However, while the Stranger was not affected, the sickly crimson light of the Night King's weapon seemed to leak towards them.
Leaf was barely able to react before a gigantic barrier of golden light appeared, protecting them. She could feel Daphne's influence over it, continuing to borrow the Great Wall's strength to protect them from the Night King's reach.
Leaf did not know what came over her, only that it did. She opened her mouth and followed the Stranger's song. As she did so, she could feel warmth course through her, something that was staving off the very cold of the Others.
Her kin stared in shock at what she had done, but quickly followed suit.
Soon enough, all of the remaining Earthsingers in the world joined. They sang of the world that the Stranger had created, of a world without the cold, without the corruption, a world strong enough to withstand the Night King's might.
The golden petals circling the Stranger's form multiplied, spinning with a speed that made them almost unable to be recognised. The light around him pulsed once, then again, each wave pushing the Night King's corruption back step by step.
The Other's eyes widened as he saw what happened, before he released a loud scream. It was an unnatural thing, one filled with nought but rage and hatred, and his form warped and grew. She could not see what he became for the very air around him tore apart, the Night gathering to him like a dying world's last breath. The crimson beam swelled, thickened, and split into jagged veins of darkness that lashed out at the Stranger's realm, seeking to devour it whole.
As both forces met, they collided in a wound of pure white, and the world held its breath as all was swallowed by silence and light.
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AN: I'll be honest, I'm not sure about this chapter. For some reason, my mind just completely froze up when writing this. Given that it was a Leaf POV, I guess I tried something a bit different and sort of made the Night King a bit of a devil-like figure to her, which I don't know if I pulled off.
It was also a bit tricky writing a battle with this version of the Night King, and I suppose I was having a hard time doing it justice. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
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If you want to support me, check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions on them, so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.