Percy Jackson and the Art of Gacha

Children. Someone was kidnapping children in my domain.

I have very few moral codes but one of them has been, even in my past live, to never intentionally hurt kids and that those doing so deserve no mercy.

And they will get none.

These spirits and their lives are now in my hand. Even if I have yet to find them.

I was sitting on a roof far from the school and Grover would be asleep until the sun would rise tomorrow.

It had been three weeks since I got the missions. During that time I had not only completed Level 4 of my Autumn Domain, but I had also been working on my skills. The Hounds of Horror were now level 10 which allowed for a pack of 10 of these nightmarish wolves, big enough to reach the first floor of a building and fast and nimble enough to move around the city of Manhattan at 50 Kilometers per hour which roughly equaled 31 miles per hour. Doesn't sound fast but that was just the speed they could maintain at a constant pace. This speed was their equivalent to our jogging.

The skill Illusion had reached a ten meter spherical radius with as much realism as I wanted it, making sounds, smell and even giving of warmth. I hadn't reached the level where it would allow for touch yet. The skill had reached level 25 since I had been applying it constantly.

I had finally started to use the grimoires as they were intended to be used.

I had created a three step ritual around the entire city.

It took me two weeks to set it up and one to figure out what I needed to know and do to make it work.

Step 1 would mark any none physical entity inside or active within the entirety of New York, which were further defined as spirits so that none physical monsters and the ghosts of the deceased wouldn't be affected as it would leed to a feedback during step 2.

Step 2 used both my affinities and domain magics connected to death and necromancy to incorporate the Dead in looking for the missing children by utilizing the familial connections with their descendants. (Basically I was summoning the children's wrathful grand- and great grand parents.) Step 1 would highlight the spirits to the deceased and they would be aware which spirits were involved in kidnapping the children.

Step 3 will allow for one thing and only one thing. It would initiate one particular event.

I can hear you wondering what event it could possibly be? But let's make one thing clear first. The only spirits left after step 3 will be those willing to help find and protect the children.

The event is the thing the ritual was named after. What is the rituals name?

It's called "The Crimson Feast". The Spirits marked and tagged as the kidnappers, will be absolutely slaughtered by the deceased, the Hounds of Horror(which I somehow had also connected to the ritual) and me in my Nightmare Froms.

There will be no mercy for them. And there was a nice little side effect of the ritual. Once the spirits have been killed, permanently thanks to the death affinity, I will be able to pick up all of the children's scents. Even if they were just humans and not demigods as I suspected some to be.

The ritual started at midnight, exactly three weeks after the missions were given and I would be damned if I didn't complete it as fast as possible. It wasn't just my instincts telling me this, but also my morals not allowing me to waste time.

When the clocks in all of New York hit midnight the night grew silent.

Then four things happened.

First the darkness seemed to converge at the graveyards of the city before silhouettes flooded out of them and into the streets.

Second the howls of wolves echoed through the night.

Thirdly:

[Mission: The Autumn King is now active]

And last but not least:

The hunt was on.

I grew in hight and my entire body changed. Where there was once just a head, three different ones took its place.

My fur grew out and became as black as the night sky and my senses activated at the same time.

The Forms skills activated immediately. Bloodsport kicked in and suddenly I could see the spirits in the entirety of New York glow blood red even through obstacles.

The waters in the pipes and the rivers around the city moved and turned black and I knew no spirit could cross the waters or hide inside them without falling straight into my waiting hands.

The the skill War Master clicked into place but I knew I had enough equipment for now.

[Yes Host, the gained materials will be sent to the workshop.]

The hooves of my feet clicked against the roof as I jumped down into the street.

My body had reached the hight of 9 meters simply because of the domain of Autumn. It would turn back to the 5 meters it was before once December came around.

With the combined force of my body and the Domain of Fall behind my back I ran through the streets. Smaller spirits were violently woken up by malevolent specters and then suddenly the heads of everyone, the Specters, the Hounds and myself, snapped into one direction. The smell of human blood came in waves. The smell of children's blood. It riled up my bloodlust and I wasn't the only one. Every being connected to the ritual moved as one.

The dead reached it first, banging and hammering against the walls of the home the spirit had been hiding, sleeping inside of. Then the hounds came and they circled the house, like sharks waiting for you to fall into the waters, sharks that had smelled your blood. They howled and scratched at the walls, leaving deep gashes behind.

Now the spirit was awake, how could it not considering the literal horror show outside.

And then, just as the spirit had thought it was save inside, as no specter or hound had managed to get in, I arrived.

Unluckily for it, I followed different rules. While they could not enter living quarters without being invited, the only thing that could keep me out, was the warmth of a home, only if I had come with the intention of harm, or wards protecting the space specifically from me.

But since nobody knew that a bunch of mistletoe, sage and lavender had to be hung on the door to keep me out, there was nothing stopping me from entering and inviting the rest inside.