Ice Age

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.

August, x784.

After a quick strategy meeting, Gray, Ultear, and Lucy were once again facing off against Juvia and Sol of Phantom Lord's Element 4.

"Alright, let's go." Ultear said as she dashed towards the enemy wizards once again.

This time, even Gray dashed forward with her. However, Lucy hung back, unsummoning Sagittarius as she took another key out of her waist pouch.

"[Open! Gate of the Water Bearer, Aquarius]." Lucy chanted as she channeled her magic power into the Golden Celestial Gate Key.

A moment later, a mermaid with a blue color scheme appeared floating next to Lucy. The mermaid, Aquarius, had a long blue fish tail with three piercings, long, light blue hair, a large bust, and pupilless blue eyes. On her forehead she wore a gold and silver circlet with a tear drop-shaped blue crystal hanging from its center. On each ear, she wore a crystal-shaped earring while on each arm, she wore a golden armlet and bracelet. As for her clothing, the only thing she wore was a rather revealing blue bikini top. Also, she carried an Urn that served as the source of the water she used to attack.

"Tch!" Aquarius clicked her tongue as soon as she was summoned. "You better have a damn good reason for summoning me, Lucy. I was about to leave for my date with my sexy Scorpio."

"I summoned you to help me fight, not to give me lip." Lucy replied in an annoyed tone.

"What was that?" Aquarius asked in a threatening tone while narrowing her eyes.

"Those two are here to kidnap me and take me back to my dad." Lucy said, her tone improving immensely, as she pointed at Juvia and Sol. "Please, Aquarius, I need your help."

Looking in the direction Lucy pointed, Aquarius narrowed her eyes even further. Despite always giving Lucy a hard time whenever she was summoned, Aquarius genuinely cared for Lucy, as she is the daughter of her previous contractor, Layla Heartfilia, who she loved and respected.

"Well, we can't have that." Aquarius said as she lifted her urn.

Hearing that, Lucy smiled happily. However, Aquarius next words caused that smile to stiffen almost immediately.

"I'm the only one who gets to bully Lucy and make her suffer." Aquarius continued as she pointed the mouth of the urn at the Phantom Lord Wizards.

With that, the water from the nearby canal and the rain was drawn into the mouth of the urn. Then, after a second, Aquarius raised it above her head and swung it in the enemies' direction.

"[Torrent]." Aquarius chanted as all the collected water was ejected from her urn.

In the next instant, the entire street was flooded with the excess water flowing towards the canal. The force behind the flood was so great that the exterior walls of the nearest building was pretty severely damaged with a particular part of the building being completely destroyed.

"Ahh~~~~~!" My apartment!" Lucy shouted in despair.

"Oh, stop yelling like that." Aquarius said in an annoyed tone. "I saved all your pitiful belongings. Besides, it's not like you don't have anywhere else to go."

"And who do you think is going to have to pay for this?" Lucy asked, turning towards Aquarius with a heavy glare.

"That's not my problem." Aquarius replied uncaringly. "Now, I've got a date with my man. Don't bother me for a while."

With that, Aquarius unsummoned herself, leaving a distraught Lucy behind. However, just as she said before she left, All of Lucy's belongings that were in her destroyed apartment floated towards Lucy in protective water bubbles.

Meanwhile, As the torrent of water flowed past them, both Gray and Ultear used their magic to encase themselves in a sphere of ice. At the same time, Sol used his earth magic to raise a platform beneath himself so that he was standing above the water. Juvia, on the other hand, simply let the water wash over her. As a practitioner of [Water Magic] she was right at home in the water.

A few moments later, the two ice sphere's floated to the surface of the water. Luckily, when Ultear felt the intensity of Aquarius in coming attack, she created levies that kept the property damage on the street to a minimum. Lucy was also standing on one of those levies instead of having to tread water. Unfortunately, she was too slow to protect Lucy's apartment.

Once the spheres were floating on the water's surface, both opened like the petals of a blooming flower, creating footholds for Gray and Ultear. After regaining their firm footing, Gray and Ultear surveyed the battlefield.

"Geez, that mermaid really doesn't know how to hold back." Gray said as he gazed upon the flooded street.

"As members of Fairy Tail, we really don't have any room to comment on that." Ultear replied with a wry smile. "Still, it would have been nice if she toned it down a little."

"[Roche Concerto]." Sol Chanted from his platform as Gray and Ultear assessed the damage Aquarius attack inflicted on the nearby area.

With that, several large stones materialized in front of Sol. Then, with just a thought, they flew towards Gray and Ultear at high-speed.

"[Ice-Make: Wall]." Gray chanted, forming a wall of ice between himself, Ultear, and the incoming stones.

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

A moment later, the sounds of impact echoed through the street. Although the stones were strong enough to crack the wall in several places, almost shattering it on occasion, Gray was able to repair it fast enough by pumping his magic power into it to keep both himself and Ultear safe.

At the same time, a pair of flexible water whips extended from the water's surface, trying to entangle the two ice wizards. Reacting quickly, Ultear, with her [Ice Claws] still equipped, was able to defend herself and Gray, who was occupied with defending against Sol's projectiles.

Looking toward the source of the water whips, Ultear saw Juvia darting through the water while waving her arms. Like before, Juvia's arms had liquified and the whips seemed to be growing from her wrists in the pace of her hands.

"This girl's powers are weird." Ultear muttered as she continued to move and strike down the water whips, freezing the area's she slashed on contact.

Unfortunately, every time the water whips froze, the frozen parts would simply break off and then new whips would extend and take their place.

Eventually, Sol's spell ended. As soon as it did, Gray gestured to use his magic once again. Then, he slammed his hands into the ice wall in front of him.

"[Ice-Make: Arrows]." Gray chanted.

As soon as Gray's hands came in contact with the ice wall, it cracked all over. Then, it shattered into hundreds of pieces that all modeled themselves into ice arrows and flew in Sol's direction.

"Oh my, that is quite dangerous." Sol said with a smile as his body began to twist around the incoming projectiles.

"Gray, the water level is lowering faster than I thought." Ultear said as she continued to fend off Juvia's attacks. "We need to do it now."

"Got it." Gray replied as he approached Ultear.

When the two were close enough, they placed their palms together. Then, they both flared their magic power, causing it to resonate with each other.

Meanwhile, Juvia, feeling that things would get bad if she let Gray and Ultear complete whatever it was they were trying to do, flared her own magic power and cast a strong spell of her own.

"[Water Magic: Cyclone]." Juvia chanted.

In the next instant, the water around the ice platform began to spin violently. As time went by, it created a water spout around the ice platform. As the seconds ticked, the space in the middle of the water spout was slowly shrinking. In the end, it would engulf the two wizards standing on it.

Luckily, Gray and Ultear had been training together under Ur's guidance long enough that they were able to complete their spell before things truly got dangerous.

"[Unison Raid: Ice Age]." Gray and Ultear chanted in unison.

In the next instant, the canal, the water flooding the street, and even the rain and the clouds it was falling from froze over. As a result, Juvia, who was still submerged in the water found herself unable to move as she too was frozen due to her water body constitution.

Sol, like Juvia, was also frozen in place. Although he wasn't submerged in water, he had been standing in the rain long enough that there were no dry areas on his body or clothing.

Unfortunately, Lucy met the same fate. Though both Gray and Ultear had exceptional control of their magic, excluding just one person in such a large scale spell was near impossible.

"Damn… You think we over did it?" Gray asked while scratching his head as he looked around. Then, he pointed his finger in a certain direction as he continued. "And what's up with that red patch of ice over there."

"oh, we definitely overdid it." Ultear replied. As she too looked around.

When she heard Gray's question, Ultear looked in the direction he was pointing. And what she saw was Juvia frozen in the ice and looking up at the sky. The red patch of ice Gray was talking about could be credited to the blood that flowed from her nostrils and froze thanks to the [Ice Age] spell.

After seeing Juvia's bloody nose, Ultear shook her head. Without even looking where Juvia's eyes were pointed, she could already guess what happened.

"Gray, you should put your clothes back on." Ultear said with exasperation. "How did you even manage to take your clothes off while we were syncing our magic power?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Gray asked as he looked down at his clothes.

When he did, Gray saw that the only thing he was wearing was a pair of boxers, the rest of his clothes scattered over the ice.

"damn, how did that happen?" Gray asked in a panic as he ran around picking up his discarded clothing.

"*Sigh* I don't understand, why is Gray the only one of us who takes his clothes off at random?" Ultear muttered. "The last time we saw Lyon, he didn't do that. I really hope he hasn't picked up that habit in the last three years."

Three years ago, Ur, Gray, and Ultear took a quest together that brought them near Margaret Town, the town that housed Lamia Scale's guild hall. After completing their quest, they decided to visit Lamia scale and pay their respects to Ooba Basama, the master of their allied guild.

Afte arriving at the guild hall, and meeting with Ooba, they ran into someone they did not expect to see. Just as they were leaving, the trio bumped into a group of five wizards who had just returned from a quest led by the Wizard Saint candidate, Jura Neekis. Among the other four wizards was Ur's first disciple, Lyon Vastia.

After running into Lyon, the trio from Fairy Tail decided to stay the night and catch up with Lyon before heading back to Magnolia the next morning.

"If Lyon somehow managed to pick up Gray's bad habit, I can see Mom trying, and failing, to beat it out of him." Ultear muttered with a smile.

With that, Ultear started to move and check on the state their opponents were in. First, she approached Juvia, who had fainted after being over stimulated by seeing Gray more than half naked. After that, she went over to check on Sol, who had also lost consciousness as he was frozen in a strange, contorted position. Ultear figured that because of the cold and the position he was in, Sol's blood flow slowed down too suddenly, resulting in him fainting as well.

After making sure that both Phantom Lord wizards were incapacitated, Ultear looked up at the sky. The rain clouds had turned into snow clouds. However, they were quickly dispersing, allowing the sun to shine down on parts of Magnolia. Even so, there were still a few clouds that were releasing snow.

"I've never seen sunlight shining on falling snow." Ultear muttered with a look of awe on her face. "It's really beautiful. I wish Alfonzo was here to see this with me."

As soon as she muttered her thoughts aloud, Ultear blushed in embarrassment. Still, the smile on her face did not fade in the slightest.

Meanwhile, Lucy, who was also frozen with the Phantom Lord wizards, constantly moved her eyes between Gray and Ultear.

'Are they gonna unfreeze me?' Lucy wondered. 'I'm really cold. I feel like I have to sneeze, but I can't move. Wait… They didn't forget about me, did they?'

A few moments later, after getting her fill of the beautiful sight, Ultear approached Lucy and dispersed the ice on Lucy. Like Lucy suspected, Ultear had really forgotten about her for a short time. Though Ultear would never admit that,  not even under the worst torture.