Green With Genuine Brightness

by LucyMabely

Lucy & the rest of Team Natsu get beaten by a thief named Kotomi. The dark mage also uses a powerful spell to swap bodies with Lucy, and she steals her keys while fooling the team about her identity. The real Lucy is found by Sting, but Natsu's team believes Kotomi instead. Can Sting comfort Lucy & help her get her life back? Will their friendship lead to something more? StiCy.

46. Chapter 46

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

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Chapter 45: The Search for the Sixth Ring! The Heroic Mage & The Icy Rival! Kusabue's Sweet Treats & The Hostile Encounter! Samui & Aoiumi Appear!

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After Sting and the other uninvited mages from Sabertooth chose to hide in between some of the building's windows for the purpose of just observing the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour, Lucy sat down at one of the tables in Cerulean Frost's guildhall with Risa. The two girls gave their menus to the maids after placing their orders, Lucy choosing to order the blue mint chocolate chip slices of cake while she would also receive some blue mint bubble tea, and Risa decided to get the blueberry cheesecake with a cup of white chocolate mocha coffee.

Risa's coffee quickly arrived at the table, along with the blueberry cheesecake, but Lucy's order would take a few more minutes for it to fully be ready. She decided to use those minutes of time to merely scope out the area, looking at all of the different mages who came to this event, and Lucy wondered if she would have to fight any of them. Hiyasu did say that the mages would have time to fight later, which probably meant that some battles would occur, and Lucy hoped that she would be ready to take on any of the mages from other guilds in a fight.

Fighting against people from other guilds caused Lucy to think about she had gotten her Wind Magic and Plant Magic up to good levels of skill, possibly making her other spells be as strong as Kaze's Feather Dance for her to be able to use them in strategic ways that would bring out their maximum amounts of power for Lucy to effectively win fights quite easily. She wondered about who would be her first opponent, looking around at the different females and males who showed up to this event, but Lucy hoped that she would get to decide that for herself instead of dealing with a random match-up.

She turned her attention to Risa, who ate her food while narrowing her eyes at the thought of fighting Lyon if she got to choose who would be the first mage for her very first battle in this event, and the girl who still had her hair in the magenta color was intent on making Lyon deal with the consequences for speaking about Sara in a disrespectful way. Risa would gladly fight him with some of the most powerful spells in her arsenal, but remembering stories that Sara told her in the past about Ur caused Risa to wonder if Lyon would use Ice Magic. He seemed to be known by Juvia, who only knew Lucy as Kotomi Takeuchi, but recalling Lucy's reaction to hearing about Gray's disappearance made Risa wonder if that connection could give her a bit of information.

"Lucy, what can you tell me about that guy who defended that girl who addressed herself as Juvia?" Risa quietly asked with a slight frown on her face, thinking about how she would show him to have some respect for her former master.

That prompted Lucy to softly reply with a kind facial expression, after looking over at Lyon and Sherria for a moment to see them also eating cakes, "Well, the guy who talked bad about Sara is named Lyon Vastia. Lyon's a mage of Lamia Scale, and he's also a rival to my former teammate. Gray can use Ice-Make Magic like Lyon, but Gray makes weapons out of ice while Lyon can create animals. Their differences in Ice-Make Magic are kind of like how you and Miru use different spells of Psychic Magic."

"Well, that's very good info to keep in mind. Thanks, Lucy. By the way, I wonder if anyone's viewing you as a rival yet." Risa responded nice with the expression on her face starting to be calmer.

Lucy kindly told Risa, as she wanted to really focus on the ultimate goal from attending this event, "Whoever my rival or rivals are, Risa, I just hope that I can beat the one who has the sixth legendary ring."

Her thoughts about the ring caused Lucy to look at some mages who were at different tables, noticing their various guild marks while they either had Caster Magic or strange stones that were being shown off right now. Some other mages were showing off their rings, but none of them looked like they could be the ring that Lucy desperately had to find for her to be a step closer towards getting back in her own body. If the ring wasn't here right now, then it would be better to keep waiting until the doors to the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour were officially closed to not let anyone else in.

If the wearer of the sixth ring would arrive soon, then Lucy could challenge them to a battle. That would be the best way to get the ring, and Lucy would fight very hard to win against whoever was wielding the ring's magic. She didn't even care if her opponent would be a dragon slayer like Sting or a god slayer like Sherria, since Lucy felt like she would be glad to battle any type of mage who had that ring. Even if that mage was a researcher from a rural town or a new princess who seemed powerful, Lucy would fight them.

She did have the small thought of possibly not getting to fight someone for the chance of getting the sixth ring, though. Lucy would probably not get the sixth ring if the person who had it wasn't going to show up here, and they could also end up being someone who acted similar to the woman who had that fearful slave. If Lucy was going to have to fight one of the elite mages of Seigan Town, then going to find them and any of their slaves before getting found like a target by a different mage would be a better idea. She smiled at the thought of finding her enemies before they found her, and Lucy seemed to have a good plan while looking at Risa.

"Listen, Risa. After we finish eating, we should give ourselves a tour of Seigan Town. This place may not only be where the sixth ring is located, but I'm still interested in finding out more info on why that woman wore an icy collar in a seemingly happy town like Seigan." Lucy quietly explained to Risa with a nice smile on her face, thinking that they needed to observe some specific people in the town.

Risa replied to Lucy with a delighted facial expression, glad that her friend finally addressed that issue, "Yeah, we should totally go around Seigan Town to find out why slavery seems to be going on in this town. If the hostesses and other seemingly wealthy people have money, then they must be disgusting to keep people below them like they deserve to be literal slaves. Seriously, the sight of that woman becoming an ice sculpture was kind of scary."

"If the ice is dangerous, then maybe some of this town's icy and fun attractions might help us see if one of them has the ring. This happy town has a few cracks in its image, Risa, and we'll have to look through those cracks soon." Lucy replied to her friend with a confident smile on her face, thinking that her assumption could be right.

Lucy planned on searching for the ring through the shadier elements of Seigan Town, but her plan was surprisingly interrupted by the sight of one of the maids approaching her table to place a light blue cup with a mint blue drink in it on the table. The drink was accompanied by a cobalt blue plate of mint chocolate chip cake slices, the sweet-smelling desserts being in a blue color, and Lucy nicely smiled at the maid. The maid smiled back right before leaving, prompting Lucy to waste no time with drinking her mint blue tea.

The tea tasted very delicious, almost as delicious as the cake slices that Lucy began to eat, and Lucy was eating at a fast pace. She ate quickly to get herself moving towards the goal of finding the sixth ring, briefly having moments where she expressed enjoyment for the food that had been prepared, and Lucy started to wonder about where her search would start after finishing her drink. As she began to drink more of the tea, Lucy thought about how the streets with very enjoyable attractions were most likely where many mages would go, so those attractions would be the first places to check.

After checking those tourist attractions, Lucy could go with Risa to search for the ring in other parts of the town. That seemed like a good plan, and Lucy felt like it had to occur as soon as possible. She wasted no time with finishing her cup of tea, prompting Risa to quickly drink her coffee and her cake. She could tell that Lucy was intent on finding the next legendary ring, so Risa hurriedly finished her food. After she was done eating, Risa ran out of the guildhall with Lucy running right beside her. When the girls went out of the event's building that was the moment for Sting to run after them with the rest of the team. Not only would he be very happy to help Lucy and Risa cover more ground, but everybody else could hopefully also have a bit of fun in this winter town.

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Twenty minutes later, in Seigan Town...

After Lucy and Risa got back to the other side of the lake with their friends, they went down a street that was to the right of the museum. The street had several attractions that could be found in a theme park, and one of those attractions featured a house with a light blue roof that featured the activity of throwing icicles at different-sized targets to win different prizes. Risa tried to check out that one first for information, only to end up winning a cute stuffed light blue polar bear as her prize for striking several targets with the icicle projectiles. Although, Lucy did notice Risa faintly using Psychic Magic to slightly change the trajectory of any icicles when they even went slightly off-course from hitting their targets.

Lucy thought that she found a good person to be targeted for a fight at the street's northern side path leading to a ski mountain, only to have herself end up going down on dark blue skis while she ended up on a trail with several curves, and the female mage with messy blue hair had pushed her off the mountain for mistaking her wedding ring as an item that had to be taken away. Lucy did apologize for that little blunder, especially since the circular ring with sapphires covering it had definitely looked like a legendary ring.

That wasn't the only type of ring in the theme park, though. Lucy and Risa discovered another ring that had been like an arena, only it was a small and rotating area with the light blue gates repeatedly opening or closing every minute. Risa and Lucy walked straight down the adjacent path on the northern side, which was between two houses that had plain blue roofs, and they approached a large cyan doorway that had large cyan doors open. Those opened doors allowed the girls to have a much closer look at how the street in different shades of blue was leading to a light blue tiled floor that led to the rotating area. The circular and rotating part of this particular theme park attraction had light blue square tiles that were small, as well as having the pattern of four sets of dark blue horizontal lines bordering the rectangular paths stemming from a dark blue circle that was connected to those lines on the rotating platform.

The paths to the rotating platform all featured light blue railings that looked quite elegant, especially with light blue flames being in the center of the railings while they gave off cyan blue frost that seemed to have a high amount of coldness. The chilly frost made Lucy shiver a bit when she walked up to its flame, but Risa shivered more. She felt colder than Lucy to the point where she walked into the rotating area, before Lucy got into it, and looking over the platform's railings allowed Risa to see a canal of cold water below this place while sapphire blue water beautifully flowed from the left end to the right end. As that route had flowing water, Risa looked up to notice something strange on the western path.

"Lucy, what are those people doing?" Risa quietly asked her friend with a puzzled facial expression, as she saw people be in front of the western doorway with blue water surrounding their feet.

That caused Lucy to turn around, before responding in a kind manner at the sight of people happily cheering about what was happening in a certain room "It looks like those customers are seeing something wonderful happen in that room. Someone's probably performing well for a crowd, or maybe they're very skilled at one of the winter games in this town."

Upon faintly seeing the inside of the room where tiles and parts of water canal were getting rearranged to the point of the alleged puzzle now being completed, "Well, that game looks like it could be very interesting.

The girls exited the rotating area to be on the tiled floor again, and they ran past the single-file line to get into the room. When Risa entered the room with Lucy and stood against the wall that was on the right side of the room, they saw Hiyasu finish her task of rearranging the pieces of a water canal that were on a light blue podium standing near the middle of the room. The podium's nine pieces corresponded with nine larger tiles in the room, and ceasing with sliding the smaller pieces around caused the larger pieces to have a sapphire blue aura engulf them. They quickly began to slide around, rearranging their formation, and the nine tiles soon had the starting point of a canal being in front of what appeared to be the statue of a goddess. Starting from the statue, the canal perfectly curved and turned while also ending with a straight line that led straight to a small waterwheel that was in a light blue color.

The waterwheel soon had sapphire blue water rushing towards it from the canal's path, the water gushing out from the mouth of the goddess statue that had her hair in a bob style, and the light blue parts of the tiles that seemed like walkways around the canals were instantly brightened up by azure blue beams of light coming from the water. That water was infused with Water Magic, almost like this attraction was just a fancy way to solve a puzzle pertaining to history, but Hiyasu seemed to be the first individual who solved that puzzle. She smiled softly at her work, watching the powerful stream of water making the waterwheel rapidly turn, and Hiyasu turned around to merely look at the crowd.

People started to cheer her name, prompting the blue-haired hostess to politely bow, and she proceeded to just look at everyone. That included looking at Risa and Lucy, who both just smiled at her for solving a puzzle, but the sight of the five legendary rings on Lucy's hands made Hiyasu gasp in shock. She created an average-sized azure blue bubble of water in her left hand, almost like she was going to attack Lucy in front of everybody, and that prompted Lucy to make her hands form the shape of a fanged mouth for her to use the Wind Altitude Aerial Burst spell. Lucy charged up a high amount of power for the spell, only to encounter icy winds suddenly appearing in the room like another mage was sensing her power. The icy winds soon faded away, revealing Emiria to be standing in between the opposing groups of people.

"Hiyasu, did you seriously find a strong ally to help us out? Is that why I'm sensing so much magical power right now, even when I was in the room that was on the other side with that stupid puzzle?" Emiria asked her younger sister in a curious tone while smiling, before turning her attention to Lucy.

Upon seeing Lucy's Emerald Green Ring look like it was polished quite well while the green color seemed very beautiful, Emiria told her with an impressed smile on her face, "Whoa, I like that green ring! That's an awesome discovery for you, mage! Although, I'd be happy to take it off your hand with a trade!"

Lucy responded with a shocked and stern look on her face, fierceness in her eyes, "Forget it! I don't mean to be rude, but I'm not interested!"

Lucy's response made Emiria wonder if Lucy was a complete newbie with her magic, causing her to turn around to nod at Hiyasu with a smile that showed she was giving her younger sibling permission to engage in a scuffle with Lucy, and Emiria watched Hiyasu fire the spell called Azure Bubble Bomb. It propelled off of Hiyasu's hand, heading straight for Lucy, and that made the green-haired mage retaliate by swinging the mouth towards the bubble. Hiyasu's bubble was being pushed back by a high amount of air that Lucy had absorbed into her hands, and the emerald green winds ended up exploding at the same time as the bubble.

The azure blue bubble created an azure blue blast, which was occurring alongside an emerald green blast, but the collision created winds that sent Lucy and Hiyasu sliding backwards. Both women looked at the billowing clouds of smoke to see that the collision from two weak spells was surprisingly putting them both at a high level of power, which meant that Lucy and Hiyasu had both been training quite hard with their different items of Holder Magic to not have their spells ever be weak. Still, the equal level of strength in those spells made Emiria wonder if Lucy could potentially be an ally for her plan.

She would want to go up against Lucy's magic with her own spells, but Emiria found herself continuing to smirk in a very impressed manner. She had seen spells of Wind Magic from some mages before, deeming them to be lame because of how those people who wielded that magic were to weak to where trading with them would just be a waste of Emiria's time, but the sight of five rings of Holder Magic on Lucy's hands made Emiria assume that Lucy was also quite a collector who liked beautiful items. Even though Lucy only had five rings of magic, Emiria felt like she could have a small bit of respect for her.

"Wow, that Wind Magic's not in the hands of a low-class mage." Emiria stated aloud, as she smiled at Lucy.

Lucy responded to her with a serious look on her face, "Of course it's in the hands of someone like me, since I've had to work quite hard to get these five legendary rings!"

"Chill out, green mage. I'll offer up one of my most powerful Ice Stones and a Frost Flute for your green ring, and that sounds like a good deal." Emiria responded with a kind facial expression, trying to make a good trade with a seemingly strong mage.

Lucy replied while looking somewhat irritated, clenching her fists, "I wouldn't care if you're the best trader in the world with those items! Emiria, I refuse your offer!"

Risa started to look puzzled as to why Emiria had her eyes fixated on just one of Lucy's rings, and Emiria proceeded to just show Lucy three different icicles in her right hand. Even though they were all created to be in different sizes, they had still been created from strong Ice Magic. The bystanders could even sense a high level of Ice Magic coming from the smallest icicle in the trio, which just showed how Emiria was a skilled mage. She even showed off her other skill of hustling by pulling out two recently-received mint green stones from the left pocket of her skirt, one being small while the other one was large, and Lucy's fifth ring seemed to be in a size that was between those two.

Those two mint green stones and the prospect of having Lucy's ring made Emiria be the type of trader who wanted items that were all seemingly at their full power, but not being able to get a middle-sized mint green Wind Stone through trading made her feel like she had to somehow complete that set of green items for her display by finding something that could have just as much flair. The green ring looked quite beautiful, even still having sparkles back from when Lucy first got it, and its power probably gave the wielder more strength to where Emiria's icy winds would be strengthened to instantly freeze anyone who got on her nerves.

She actually thought Lucy was starting to get on her nerves now, due to the fact that Lucy was acting like she could get a better of Ice Magic or improve her Wind Magic to where she would never trade that ring for anything else. Emiria started to see Lucy going into a combat stance, almost like she was really ready for a battle after that little fight against Hiyasu, but Emiria started to look at her with a very rude smirk on her face. She wondered if Lucy really was wanting to fight her, prompting Emiria to feel like she had to make a bold deal.

"If you want to fight, then just know that ring is going to be mine to own if I win." Emiria told Lucy with her smirk becoming more arrogant, as she put her stones back in their pocket and dispelled the icicles.

Lucy fiercely responded, narrowing her eyes, "I already told you, Emiria! No deal!"

"You're speaking to me like I'm a dark mage who scams people, but Hiyasu and all my townspeople will gladly say I'm trying to give you a good deal. However, maybe you're refusing the trade conditions because you can't beat me! If you got accepted to our event, then we invited a wimp! Trash like you just gives actual strong mages a bad name, you know! I'll teach you the icy and fine art of busting your chops, punk!" Emiria refuted Lucy's words in a calm tone, smirking like she was subtly provoking her into a fight.

Lucy told Emiria with her fierce facial expression being maintained, "You're going to get beaten down! Although, you may also want to not involve innocent people in this! Maybe an icy part of this town will be good for our fight!"

Lucy's suggestion for where they could battle only made Emiria smile at Lucy like she was laughably pathetic for easily getting provoked into a fight because of a trade offer pertaining to her green ring, and Emiria merely nodded her head in an approving. She agreed to not involve innocent people by looking at Lucy and mouthing some words for one hour, only giving Lucy one hour to prepare for their fight, and Lucy watched Emiria also silently tell her some words about an icy field behind the frosty theme park. That would be the perfect place for their battle, since they wouldn't be interrupted by anyone.

Hiyasu and Risa merely frowned at each other in a stern manner, feeling like they would also have to be there for different reasons. Risa would be there to heal Lucy after the fight, and Hiyasu would watch the fight to just observe if Lucy and her friend had potential to be their first new allies for their goal. Emiria and Hiyasu would keep looking for more allies, though, so this fight was only one battle to see if they could expand their group of wizards to be consisting of an army of strong mages who would help them unseal the statue in the cavern from its ice.

By having a strong team to do that, Emiria and Hiyasu could get more power while also enjoying the added benefit of seeing the skills of their allies before anyone decided to turn against them. They would have to actually have allies first, though, and Emiria would gladly test Lucy's skills to see if she was worthy of keeping that ring as an ally or giving it away to someone who could possibly get themselves a step closer to their own goal. Either way, Emiria felt like she could now walk out of the room with Hiyasu while laughing at the thought of easily defeating her opponent. Lucy would gladly put up a fight, but she also exited the room with Risa while feeling like they needed to inform their friends about what had happened in this part of the icy theme park.

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Fifteen minutes later, outside of a café...

Sting and Rogue had been sitting at a cyan blue patio table with Kūkiatsu, who merely drank some mint blue coffee from the icy theme park's café while Yukino accompanied Kusabue to the theme park's perfume boutique shop, and the three males got to see Lucy approach them with Risa beside her. Both of the girls looked like they were feeling troubled, prompting Sting to calmly look at Lucy for her to explain what had happened at one of the theme park's icy attractions, and Lucy really hoped that this upcoming fight would get her a step closer towards finding the sixth ring without losing her fifth ring.

Lucy couldn't afford to lose any of her rings, especially her most recent one. She didn't value it just because of how it allowed her to wield spells of Wind Magic and Plant Magic, though. Lucy really liked having that ring on one of her fingers because of how it represented the day where she and Sting fought quite hard as a great team to get that ring while they were also a very good couple, and Lucy felt like she couldn't afford to lose such a great symbol of their love. Lucy may not have been in her actual body where she didn't usually have green hair, but the fifth ring was green with genuine brightness.

It truly shined with a green radiance to represent Lucy's calmness from really believing that she could definitely improve her own skills and beat Kotomi, as well as representing Sting's determination to help her. Sting hadn't surrendered in that fight against those researchers, only believing in Lucy to finish it when she seemed to have an idea, and the light dragon slayer would always try his best to help his girlfriend succeed in situations where the odds seemed stacked against her. Sting could hopefully give Lucy a good pep talk now, since she'd soon be fighting someone who seemed to be above her skill level.

Lucy would be going up against Emiria, who had the shared rank of guild master in Cerulean Frost, and that mage also riled Lucy up by assuming that she was a weakling who couldn't even beat her in a fight with an impactful condition for both sides. Lucy wouldn't want to lose her ring to anyone, and she even narrowed her eyes in a stern manner at how she could never hand it over to a creep like Emiria. That mage had been unpleasant to Lucy, publicly refusing to accept her refusals, and Lucy felt like this problem could be solved with a battle. Although, a somewhat doubtful look in her eyes made Sting gently clear his throat to get her attention.

"Did you find out anything on where that ring could be located, Lucy?" Sting asked his girlfriend with a nice smile on her face, as he calmly wondered if she had seen it or heard about it possibly being guarded.

Lucy responded to him with a frustrated look on her face, still needing to relax a bit before the fight, "No, Sting. I did find the guild masters, though, and the older one named Emiria wants to battle me for my green ring as the wagered prize! She made it be wagered, but that was only because I wouldn't trade it away for any of her stupid items!"

"Emiria Hidenka is her name, right? Do you think she's the one who authorized the use of those ice collars on Seigan's slaves?" Kūkiatsu asked with a worried look on his face, as he saw men and women being ridden by other individuals who sat down on their backs.

Lucy replied calmly, seeming doubtful about that, "I'm not sure, Kūkiatsu, but it would be a wise idea to keep watch on everything that she does."

Lucy started to look stern again from realizing that her own advice also applied to the upcoming fight, since the path to victory would involve keeping a very close eye on Emiria's moves for counterstrategies to be created against any of her icy attacks. This would be Lucy's first day where she would be going up against an ice-wielding mage while being in Kotomi's body, causing her to wonder how Kotomi's body would react to being on the ice after several months had passed since the day where Kotomi first met Gray, and Lucy just hoped that everything would be okay.

She personally wondered if Kaze's Feather Dance would be a useful spell on an icy field with hardly any people around, since she would probably be able to have much more control over her direction in this upcoming fight, and Lucy felt like she would be an ice skater who would have to learn how to glide on the ice without any actual skates to assist her with that task. The idea was risky, but Lucy felt like this risk had to be taken again. If it could work out with getting her and Risa to the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour, then the spell could be very useful in a tough fight.

The thought of being able to confound Emiria with an extremely high amount of speed made Lucy start to smile with more courage, believing that a master of ice would really be no match for a faster opponent who could use that speed to increase the striking power in her follow-up spell. Lucy would be backing up Kaze's Feather Dance with some powerful spells that she perceived to be strong enough to break ice into several tiny pieces, and she started to feel more optimistic. Her newfound positive energy was similar to her Wind Magic, coming in like a breeze of wind that just shifted away from the path of constantly worrying.

"I'm feeling a bit better now. You know, I'll just have to keep an eye on Emiria's attacks during that fight, and seeing how they work will allow me to beat her down!" Lucy told her friends with a nice smile forming on her face, feeling like she could win by being strategic.

Sting told Lucy with a slight frown on his face, not wanting her to get careless, "Just make sure that you don't get reckless during the fight, Lucy. Think of smart ideas, but don't overcomplicate them because that will just give the enemy time to analyze your attacks. Also, be sure to watch yourself in this fight. Based on the past several battles that our team has been in, remember that you're not dealing with a pushover."

"Lucy, you should also think about how she provoked you into fighting her. Emiria may be good at pushing your buttons, but don't let her bait you into walking into any traps." Risa told her friend with a concerned facial expression, remembering the conversation before her own fight where Kyoko had riled Risa up to make her be very reactive instead of thinking clearly.

Lucy chose to give her friend a confident look, having more of a belief in her abilities to succeed in this fight, and she could feel determination growing in her heart. Lucy could sense her own emotions building up inside of her heart and mind at a very fast pace, as she felt very psyched to battle against Emiria, and Lucy would be more than happy to show that guild master why she wouldn't need to give away her Emerald Green Ring. Not only would that item help Lucy use some powerful winds to attack Emiria, but the usage of Plant Magic could also be beneficial.

If there were any plants in that area, then Lucy hoped that they would help her plant-based attacks be useful against Ice Magic. Those icy attacks would logically make grassy plants end up being frozen, but explosive energy from Plant Magic could shatter ice. Both types of magic that Lucy wielded against Emiria's magic would both be like taking very massive gambles, since they could either allow her to win or make her end up being the loser in that fight, but even being optimistic about these gambles wouldn't prevent the logic of how Lucy would have to see what would happen when the fight actually occurred.

The fight would occur in 40 minutes, giving Lucy some time to think about which type of magic she'd mainly want to start off with using against her opponent, and starting off with Wind Magic could assist Lucy with later surprising Emiria by unleashing spells of Plant Magic. There were several different strategies that all really stemmed from having to balance two types of magic, making Lucy wonder about if she could balance being a long-term strategist with the role of being an improvisational-thinking tactician in the upcoming fight, but she would have to decide on when to think ahead or ironically think in the heat of the moment during the chilly fight.

---

Later, at the icy field...

After looking around Seigan Town and seeing the icy field would be anywhere near the museum, Lucy and Risa headed back to the path leading to the museum. They decided to take a path that branched out to the right, which effectively led them to a tundra-like field that had very few trees around in the area where two large icicles served as a doorway for this path. This icy tundra field was known as the Seigan's Sadistic Frost Field, due to how this place was full of blizzards that tended to pass through the area, and it had been a very arduous way to get to the other side of the lake. Emiria had no issues with getting through the frosty weather with Hiyasu, who could see Lucy and Risa through the white blizzards, and Emiria proceeded to gently step on to the icy rectangular battlefield that was mostly concealed by the snow.

Lucy also walked on to the battlefield, noticing how the trees in this part of the town were all in a light blue color like they had been covered in ice while snow continued to fall on to them, and she sternly glared at Emiria. That only prompted Emiria to smirk at her, wondering how proficient Lucy actually was with using her Wind Magic, but she surprisingly didn't pull out her items of Holder Magic. Instead, she made a light blue aura engulf her body by immediately building up magical power. The sight of the aura made Lucy build up magical power in her feet, allowing an emerald green aura to engulf her feet, and she wasted no time with activating the Kaze's Feather Dance spell.

The two large mint green wings fell down from in front of Lucy's waist, making her body feel much lighter, and she would now be able to run much faster. She readied herself to run straight at Emiria for the chance to attack her while Emiria was preparing to unleash her first powerful spell of Ice Magic, and both girls felt the winds of the blizzards start to settle down. They merely stared at each other, ready to fight, and the small sound of a white snowflake lightly hitting the ice prompted Lucy to charge at her opponent. Lucy attempted to run on the ice, only to have to slide forward without falling down on this ice that was thicker than the previous times she encountered ice, but her tendency to swerve from left to the right in an effort to maintain her balance was perfect for Emiria.

Emiria proceeded to activate the spell known as Graceful Glacia, and it caused Emiria to fire a spiraling light blue beam of energy from her hand. It created an average-sized explosion with light blue clouds of smoke appearing in front of Lucy, before creating several large shards of ice that appeared to form a crown, but the difference between this attack's current state and using it months ago involved how the crown had its shards come from underneath the ground. The light blue shards of ice were in the middle of the battlefield, but they still hadn't hurt Lucy. She felt like this gave her the opportunity to hurt Emiria, though.

"First spell of Wind Magic, I call upon thee! Wind Altitude Aerial Burst!" Lucy shouted fiercely, as she made her hands form the shape of a fanged mouth that would absorb the winds.

Upon seeing Lucy swing the attack forward from a distance for emerald green winds to head towards Emiria, the antagonist with sky blue hair merely replied while putting her palms next to each other, "Enjoy my fusion spell of Frost Orb with Ice Goddess' Bellow to create Ice Goddess' Winter Bellow!"

Lucy asked aloud with a shocked facial expression, surprised at the second spell's name in the fusion, "That girl is a God Slayer?!"

Risa also asked while looking stunned, "What's a God Slayer? Is their magic similar to what Dragon Slayers can do?"

Risa would soon see that god slayers did have similar magic to dragon slayers, but Emiria fired a light blue orb from her mouth right before she shot out a pale blue beam of Ice Magic from her mouth, and the beam quickly surrounded the orb. When the orb was engulfed in the cold ice, it started to have small icicles protruding from it like more strength was being added to the orb. The fusion spell ended up striking Lucy directly, engulfing her in a light blue blast that was quickly followed by a pale blue blast that slightly turned black, and the mage from Sabertooth screamed in pain.

The smoke quickly cleared up to reveal that Lucy was bruised and bloodied from that attack, panting heavily from feeling the impacts of the blasts, and she hadn't expected her enemy to strike her with a fusion spell from the very start of the battle. Lucy decided that she would have to unleash her second spell of Wind Magic, which was known as Zephyr Punch, and she made an emerald green aura surround her right fist while simultaneously reactivating Kaze's Feather Dance. She ran towards her enemy at very high speeds, nearly slipping while she saw Emiria charge towards her with a pale blue aura starting to engulf her fist fist, and Lucy hoped she could strike her opponent.

She managed to strike Emiria in the chest while allowing her fist to absorb the air for the punch to become much more powerful, along with exhaling a high amount of air down on her fist right before striking Emiria, and Lucy managed to hit her enemy with an intense burst of Wind Magic that was focused into he center of her fist. That didn't stop Emiria from aggressively hitting the underside of Lucy's arm with her fist that had its power naturally growing stronger from all of the icy air in the area, but that wouldn't stop Lucy in this close-combat situation. The harsh punch made Emiria cough up blood right before an emerald green blast occurred to make both girls be sent sliding away from each other, but the winds heading outward in Emiria's direction made her end up being hit by a barrage of emerald green blasts! Upon hearing her enemy scream in pain, Lucy started to grin confidently while ignoring her left arm for a moment. Even though she ignored it, Risa's loud gasp at her arm got Lucy's attention.

"Kotomi, you have to look down at your arm! That punch wasn't infused with regular ice, you know!" Risa told her in a concerned tone, seeing Lucy's arm start to be covered in light blue ice and a thin amount of frost.

Lucy asked aloud while the smoke cleared, seeing ice start to form on her skin, "What?! What's happening?!"

"How do you like Ice Goddess' Blizzard Punch? It doesn't explode, but don't you think it creates quite a chilling effect for anyone who touches me when I'm surrounded by my magic?" Emiria asked Lucy in a ridiculing tone, before having a very smug smile on her face.

Since Lucy couldn't strike Emiria in a close-range fight, she decided to use her third spell of Wind Magic. Lucy activated the spell known as Tempest Tornado Bounce, which required Lucy to fire five emerald green tornadoes from her left hand. The tornadoes quickly came from her hand to circle around her enemy, gaining much more wind before they sprang up high into the air, and the large tornadoes quickly came down to gain more wind right before they detonated around Emiria! She was surrounded by the emerald green blasts, causing her to scream in pain from feeling their power harm her body, and she was sent flying high into the air.

That only made her retaliate against Lucy with a fusion spell called Ice Goddess' Frigid Winds, and she combined the spell called Blizzard's Icy Winds with a spell known as Frigid Hail. Emiria aimed her left hand up at some grey clouds, before shooting out a massive light blue beam at them, and she fired pale blue spheres of hail from her right hand. The icy energy and the hail all came down in the form of a large vortex that was manipulated downward by Emiria thrusting her hands down towards Lucy, but Emiria's vortex kept growing from its average size while the winter air gave it more power.

Lucy wondered if there was Ice Magic in the clouds for the winter weather to be more immense than normal, and she tried to activate another spell of Wind Magic. The spell was known as Emerald Falling Birds, and it required Lucy to shoot out a large tornado from her mouth. She aimed it up at the sky, and the tornado quickly exploded to create several emerald green pigeons that were made out of wind. They all went up towards Emiria's attack, crashing into it for the purpose of creating several emerald green blasts that grew more powerful from taking in more heavy winds, but the winds from Lucy's attack were also flung towards the ground by the vortex! Some of them crashed down on to the battlefield, as well as the trees, and even some icy rocks got destroyed! That was nothing compared to the destructive power of Emiria's vortex crashing down into the ground, though, and the massive pale blue blast that became black for a few seconds gave off a high amount of energy.

"Did you really think that your Wind Magic could withstand a spell where the environment gives me a complete advantage in this fight?" Emiria asked Lucy with a smug smile on her face, after hearing her scream in pain right before the vortex's aftereffect would show itself.

Lucy replied in a pained manner, struggling to stand up while blood dripped from some parts of her body that felt somewhat numb because of the frosty Ice Magic, "I can... win. This fight... is going to help me get stronger to where I can get that sixth ring, and... you won't stop me."

"I guess I can simply admire your tenacity, if you're willing to keep fighting. Although, let's just see how you'll battle on a much more icy field." Emiria told Lucy with a smug look on her face, before mockingly skating around in a perfect circle as if the ice was nothing for her to worry about.

Lucy responded to Emiria with a determined facial expression, before harshly falling down on her chest for a moment, "This pain... is nothing to me! I can win, no matter what you do!"

Lucy glanced at the area around her to see that large icicles in a pale blue color were now on this icy battlefield, the ice shards from the crown being smashed because of the explosion, and seeing some ice shards be scattered to the point of being in the snow caused Lucy to suddenly have an idea. She slid on her stomach towards some ice at high speeds, quickly picking up several chunks of Emiria's ice, and Lucy hastily started to put them in her mouth. She made Wind Magic surround her hands while holding the ice, trying to avoid getting frost on her hands like Risa, and Lucy swallowed the ice that still had a pale blue aura surrounding it.

Lucy quickly activated her fifth attack, which was known as Windy Sky Tower, and she made two rings of emerald green wind appear right above her palms. Lucy tightly grabbed those rings, before zooming off at high speeds with Kaze's Feather Dance also being activated, and Lucy soon felt pain in her pain while the rings doubled in size. They grew in size right before changing to be in a turquoise green color, strangely mixing with the pale blue Ice Magic, and Lucy threw both of the rings in front of Emiria! They quickly ended up bursting in front of Emiria to create a large tower of spiraling turquoise green winds, which pulled her into the attack, and the turquoise green blast that occurred seemed to be quite powerful!

The massive blast created winds that even carried Lucy high into the air, almost like she was permitted by the goddess of ice to be elevated quite high in the cold weather, and she heard Emiria let out another pained scream in this fight. Emiria was being heavily damaged by the spell that had been enhanced with her type of magic, and Emiria also couldn't consume ice that she created with her own magic. Consuming the magic of an Ice Goddess Slayer was something that Lucy couldn't do, either, and she began to tightly clutch her stomach from feeling an immense amount of pain.

"Is Emiria's magic giving me pain as the harsh price for absorbing it? Can I really not eat certain magic without drawbacks if I don't have the ring for it?" Lucy thought to herself with a very pained facial expression, feeling her body start to get very cold from within.

Emiria thought to herself after walking out of the blast with some harsh bruises on her body, smiling from faintly seeing Lucy wince in pain from the turquoise green aura that was pertaining to her magic, "As strong as you are, it looks like you shouldn't be bold enough to think you can use any magic that you see without thinking of the consequences."

Lucy stated aloud in a pained manner, as she panted heavily, "That attack... consumed a high amount of magical power, and... I'm still conserving what's left of Kaze's Feather Dance, and I'd have to use in conjunction with... another strong spell."

Upon seeing Lucy start to fall down to the ground while she was trying to build up magical power for her attack, Emiria proceeded to use her sixth icy spell. The attack was simply called Frosty Shield, which made a light blue dome of ice surround Emiria while several chunks of ice were pulled towards the dome by Emiria making a light blue aura surround her hands to where placing one hand on the ground would attract the ice to her location, and the chunks of ice attached themselves to the shield. They were soon engulfed in a light blue aura, before being repelled off the shield to all head straight for Lucy, and the Frost Shield had a dangerous effect.

When the chunks of ice made contact with Lucy, they instantly created massive explosions! Lucy screamed in immense pain from the ice strike her body, disliking how the ice had an intense amount of power in it, and she could feel her body starting to be covered in ice. The ice started to burn her body like Emiria had made dry ice strike her body, the heat quickly coming from light blue flames that were appearing in midair, and the cold flames heating up from explosive energy while maintaining their icy properties really showed how Emiria had absolutely mastery over her magic to be controlling the flow of this fight.

Lucy couldn't handle Emiria's very fast barrage of icy attacks, not being given even the slightest moment to counter, and all that Lucy could do in midair was try to endure the icy projectiles. They soon ceased, giving her the opening to fall down on to the battlefield, but falling down on to the ice also made her body experience more pain while the ice from Emiria's spell started to crack from Lucy's hard fall. The sounds of the cracking ice made Lucy slowly stand up, her body being covered in harsh wounds that were quite bloody while she also felt an intense amount of pain from the ice burns with frost slightly still staying on them, and she felt like she had to end this fight with a close-range attack that would involve both types of her magic.

"Sixth spell of Wind Magic, I call upon thee! Drilling Wind Typhoon! Sixth spell of Plant Magic, I call upon thee! Verdant Flower Slam!" Lucy shouted quite fiercely with a stern facial expression, as a emerald green aura appeared in her right hand during the same moment where a matcha green aura appeared in her left hand.

Emiria asked Lucy with a disapproving frown on her face, ready to finish this fight while the aura in her right hand became pale blue, "You're kinda pathetic, aren't you? Shouldn't you be screaming for mercy by now or begging to let me take that ring off your hand, weakling?"

"You'll never get my ring, Emiria Hidenka! In fact, I'm going to knock you out and prevent you from even having the chance to get it!" Lucy fiercely stated to her opponent, narrowing her eyes as immense determination started to majorly be in them.

Emiria told Lucy in response, calmly smiling while closing her eyes in a relaxed manner. "If you're going to be heated up enough to make such a stern statement, then I'll finally have to show my skills when my personality is at its absolute coldest level."

Emiria watched Lucy's right hand have an emerald green drill start to surround it, only for her to inhale a high amount of air for the lone drill to have four longer spinning drills to appear on top of it while the spell would have more power, but Lucy also placed her left palm down on some snowy grass. She was absorbing plant-based energy from the grass that was covered in frost, causing her left hand to have all the petals of a large matcha green rose appearing on it, and Lucy kept her hand on the grass to purposely absorb some more power.

During the moments where Lucy was now getting her hands ready for her last attacks, Emiria dispelled her icy dome and unleashed a powerful gust of icy winds to send the remaining chunks of ice towards Lucy. That wouldn't work, since Lucy used Kaze's Feather Dance as a way to evade those chunks of ice while moving at very fast speeds. The speed of Lucy's movement increased from how she was moving in the direction of the winds that were created from the explosions, prompting her to purposely dodge two more ice chunks and use their immediate blasts to her advantage. Lucy simply used their winds to become much faster, nearly confounding Emiria.

Emiria managed to keep herself calm, however, and she began to glide towards Lucy after inhaling the icy winds. Emiria continuously inhaled the cold winds, increasing her speed to a very high level that made her nearly be twice as fast as Lucy, and Emiria was moving fast like a chunk of ice that was always quickly sliding across an icy surface that had no traction. She slid towards Lucy with her sliding being strong enough to generate a high amount of wind, but Emiria decided to be smart as the last second by unleashing another powerful gust of icy winds at her foe. The gust of wind pushed Lucy back long enough for Emiria to shatter the nearest icicle with a single palm strike, making it break into smaller pieces of ice that would be perfect as projectiles, and she picked one up to crush it in her right hand. That made the icy and pale blue aura grow larger while Emiria picked up a larger ice chunk to just firmly hold in her other hand, which was engulfed in a light blue aura to give the ice chunk more magical power. She placed that hand near her stomach while seeing Lucy aim her wind drills at that particular area, before slamming her rose against Emiria's stomach, and Lucy released all of her remaining magical power into this fusion spell for the blasts to make their power destroy the battlefield from being unleashed in large bursts.

"I'm... I'm not going to lose!" Lucy shouted fiercely, as her attacks started to create an emerald green blast and a matcha green blast.

Emiria replied to her with a calm look on her face, acting as if she was feeling lesser pain that what Lucy would feel, "Very well. Your determination is good, and these plans of yours were quite smart. However, they weren't smart enough to give you enough intelligence for this battle."

"You're not going to make me lose this battle!" Lucy stated with a brave look on her face, watching the blasts become quite large while ignoring the feeling of something firm lightly touching her cold chest for a small moment.

Emiria thought to herself with a rude smirk appearing on her face, seeming to endure Lucy's attacks as part of a good plan, "I wouldn't be so sure about that."

Emiria was quickly engulfed in the emerald green blast and the pale green blast with Lucy, the guild mistress letting out screams of pain from how she could feel the intense amount of energy from the magic affecting her, and Emiria wa sent sliding backwards at the same time as Lucy. The harsh impact sent Emiria sliding back on the ice to where she lightly landed against an icicle while still firmly clutching the chunk of ice, but Lucy felt herself roughly crash into an icicle that had been behind her. She winced in pain while trying her best to stand up straight on the slippery ice, and Lucy watched the green clouds of smoke stay on the battlefield.

The moment that the smoke began to disappear was perfect for Emiria to throw her chunk of ice at Lucy, pulling her arm back to increase the power of her throw, and she watched the projectile head straight at her opponent. Lucy gasped in shock while her eyes showed disbelief at Emiria still being alive, and she panted heavily. Lucy was too exhausted to move out of the way, and she simply closed her eyes to avoid seeing the blast. Lucy ended up being surrounded by a light blue blast that was quite powerful, and she screamed in excruciating pain from feeling the Ice God Slayer Magic be focused on mainly striking her body. The large blast left Lucy with several bloody wounds, as well as pale blue bruises that had cold frost numbing her skin, and the bright blast worked in combination with all the damage Lucy had taken to where she was now struggling to keep her eyes open.

She could barely see Emiria skating towards her on the ice, watching the blast's light fade away, and the moment that the blast faded away was where Emiria built up magical power in her right hand. She charged up enough power to unleash her final spell in this fight, and the spell was known as Ice Goddess' Frigid Wolf. Emiria activated the spell to make the top half of her palm have large pale blue icicles protruding from it while the bottom half of her palm also had large icicles coming out of it, and the icicles were in the shape of a wolf's fangs. Even though Emiria would use this spell, the effect of her previous spell hadn't fully worn off. She picked up another chunk of ice with her hand was still engulfed in a light blue aura before gently placing it in the center of her other hand, and Emiria slammed the fusion spell against Lucy.

"Ice Goddess' Frosty Wolf of Frozen Blizzards!" Emiria shouted in a cold tone, before slamming the attack against Lucy's chest.

Risa shouted with a concerned facial expression, her eyes widening in an alarmed manner, "Kotomi, do something!"

"I... I can't move. I don't have the... strength to... block this." Lucy thought to herself in a pained manner, her legs trembling as she couldn't block this attack.

Emiria ended up striking Lucy in the chest with this attack, which created a light blue blast that was massive while a pale blue blast occurred shortly after it, and Lucy couldn't stop herself from screaming in an intense amount of pain. She felt pain from the blasts, as well as the sharp icicles exploding, but Lucy was soon pushed back by an icy twister that came from Emiria's right hand. That was the aftereffect of using Ice Goddess' Frigid Wolf, and Lucy was sent crashing through an icicle to end up harshly landing against a tree. She coughed up some more blood, before falling to her knees, and Lucy seemed like she would soon lose consciousness.

The last thing that she could see was Emiria's stomach, her body not being as damaged as it should've been from getting hit by Lucy's two spells, but the frost on Emiria's body informed Lucy that her opponent coated herself in some Ice Magic to reduce the damage that would be dealt to her body, and it seemed like Emiria only endured Lucy's attacks as a way to rudely mock her. She could even hear Emiria start to coldly scoff at the situation, causing Lucy to try standing up again because of how she didn't want to get ridiculed in a fight, but Lucy could only stay on her knees while putting her shaky hands on the ice.

Her hands had all of the rings still shining on her fingers, but their shines was soon literally overshadowed by the shadow of Emiria approaching her. Lucy looked up at her while looking frustrated, frowning as she hoped that this fight could somehow end without any horrible consequences. Emiria simply slid on the ice in a slow manner, rudely drenching Lucy with some of the icy field's frost, and Emiria watched Lucy begin to look saddened at how she was utterly outclassed by a guild master who had a high amount of expertise with her Ice Goddess Slayer Magic. Still, that wouldn't keep Emiria from bragging about her victory and trying to get something else out of it while she started to recognize her opponent from recalling the sight of a recent newspaper.

"You're Kotomi Takeuchi, the girl who defeated those researchers to save that town and you got that ring! Well, the ring would've been in better hands if it was with a strong mage such as myself! You're too damn weak, Kotomi Takeuchi! Although, I guess you never realized it because of your fame. Taking down Akai Hinotama, beating Shinichi Keikoku, eliminating Kanata Luster... That was all still before you fought Miru Itsuki and Shizue Momoiro, but you think you're famous after adding Fūsoku and Ayane to your list of defeated enemies. Wow, you're an idiot if you really think you should be confident after fighting all those nobodies! Now, hand that ring over to an actual strong opponent!" Emiria told Lucy in a very belittling and condescending manner, before snickering at how she felt like a trade was acceptable in this situation

Lucy responded to her with a stern look on her face, still trying to remain conscious, "I... said no! You can't have it, but... next time I'll.."

"Forget about next time, weakling! If this is the best that a normal mage can do in a fight against a great god slayer, then come back in twenty years for you to have a slight chance of beating me! You have a bit of potential to be an ally and subordinate for me, but your skills are weak when compared to mine! See you later, Kotomi! By the way, that speed spell of yours could really use some work if you have to use it so much just to balance on the ice! You know, come back for a fight when you're not pathetic!" Emiria replied to Lucy with a very amused facial expression, trying to suppress immense laughter at her words.

Upon seeing Lucy fall forward while Emiria turned around to walk away, Risa exclaimed with a worried look on her face, "Kotomi! Oh, no!"

Risa wasted no time with sliding on to the ice for the purpose of shooting out a beam of Psychic Magic from her mouth to heal her friend's injuries, trying to heal the most serious injuries first, but she watched Lucy also shiver from the cold while her clothes had been damaged. Her new jacket was definitely torn, exposing Lucy's body to the very cold air while she was already in tremendous pain, and Risa quickly activated Stellar Psi to make the shadows of some icicles rise up from the ground. She quickly grabbed the shadows that were in midair, before making them go down into her hands that were getting surrounded in a pink aura, and Lucy made her hands be engulfed in the magenta shade of Psychic Magic. She created a magenta-colored flame in her left hand, holding it over Lucy's body to give her a high amount of warmth while she was getting healed, and Risa didn't even care that some other mages had been watching this fight from afar.

Lyon and Sherria had been watching from behind some trees, only finding Lucy because of the high amount of magical power in the area when they were touring the icy theme park, and Lyon watched Risa heal her teammate with as much magic as possible like this was emergency treatment. Risa even discarded her hot flame to create a magenta sphere in her left hand, throwing it at an icicle to create a massive magenta blast while not caring how the level of power caught the attention of Emiria and Hiyasu. The women and the eavesdropping mages watched six shadows emerge from the blasts, before those shadows had silhouettes coming up from them, and Risa's six clones appeared. They quickly slid across the ice to hit Lucy with healing beams from their mouths, giving her more strength to where her wounds healed, and the clones also created flames in their hands for Lucy's body to get warmer.

As she could see the frost and ice starting to melt away from her friend's skin, Risa's face showed a smile of relief. However, her smile soon changed to a stern glare from seeing Emiria and Hiyasu look at her in a stern manner. Both of the women seemed interested in fighting Risa, intrigued by the color of her Psychic Magic, but Risa's magenta aura starting to surround her body while she stood up with some rage building in her body only made Emiria put up her hands in a defensive manner. She even made the auras fade from around her hands, not even having an aura engulf her body, and Emiria felt like she wouldn't need to exhaust herself with battling a second opponent.

"Relax, pink-haired mage. I'm not going to battle you after dealing with Kotomi. You're better off fighting against Hiyasu, who would be happy to see if you have any potential of helping us out with something very important. Two battles per hour is the best that the guild masters can offer you, so I wonder if that sounds like a good battle to you." Emiria told Risa in a calm tone, smiling with confidence in herself while Hiyasu simply walked on to the ice for a possible battle.

Lyon interrupted with a stern frown on his face, coming out from behind the tree with Sherria behind him while wiping some snow off of his dark green tunic that matched his plain green plants, "Actually, Hiyasu Hidenka could go up against me. You people in Cerulean Frost can find a better challenge from the great Lyon Vastia, the best mage in Lamia Scale, instead of letting Sabertooth's mages waste your time."

Upon seeing Lyon create ice eagles in his hands for preparation while letting her eyes compare that to Risa's magic, Hiyasu told him with a disapproving frown before walking away with her sister, "Sorry, but a fight with you isn't really suiting my mood today. Maybe I'll test your strength tomorrow, or maybe days later."

As Emiria and Hiyasu respectively applied Ice Magic and Water Magic to their feet to run away very quickly, Risa asked Lyon in a curious manner, "Did you see the entire fight, Lyon?"

"Yeah, and it wasn't a very pretty sight to see. Well, I think Kotomi could've done better if she let herself get accustomed to dealing with ice and not falling for the trap of generating winds that can just power up icy winds. If she put more focus into her power, that would've probably given her a fighting chance." Lyon replied with the frown on his face becoming calmer, thinking that he made a decent analysis of things.

Sherria glanced down at her light green jacket that she wore over her normal clothes, wearing some mint green winter pants over her plain green snow boots that had matcha green fur on them, and she noticed something while Risa's clones were healing their teammate's legs. The green-haired wizard wasn't wearing the right type of shoes for Seigan Town's weather, along with them also not being good for any icy fight or keeping her feet warm, so Sherria felt like it would be good for the Sabertooth mage's teammates to get snow boots while they were here.

She soon heard the footsteps of people coming to this part of the town, and Sherria turned around to see Sting approach the situation with Rogue and Kūkiatsu by his side. Kūkiatsu gasped in shock from seeing Lucy be on the ground while she just passed out from exhaustion, surprised that Lucy ended up getting defeated by her first opponent in Seigan Town, and that only made him start to wonder about how strong the enemy must've been. He had been sensing the winds on both sides to be quite heavy, but Emiria's icy winds were at a more dangerous level.

As Kūkiatsu frowned at the sight of his friend being hurt and watched Sting start to pivk her up in a bridal-style manner, the green-haired male noticed that there was something else that gave him a feeling of unease. He turned around from hearing the icy shackles of a female slave be dragged across the ground while a blue-haired female sat down on her back, and the strange sight of Seigan Town having quite a chilling culture with many of its elite citizens seeming to be ruthless made Kūkiatsu start to wonder if Kusabue could go around Seigan Town without disrespecting the frosty ways of the locals.

---

Meanwhile, outside of the fashion store...

After getting the snow boots that she would need for playing in a small field of snow with other young kids who were going to have a snowball fight in the snowier part of the icy theme park, Kusabue put on her boots and left the store with Yukino. The two females decided that they would go to a nearby concession stand that was selling ice cream in the cold weather, approaching the mint blue concession stand where a woman with short mint blue hair going down to her shoulders was selling ice cream to three customers, and Kusabue watched those people quickly pay for their ice cream cones.

That prompted Kusabue to go purchase an ice cream cone while Yukino was behind her, and she pulled out one-thousand jewels from the left pocket of her jacket. She went up to the concession stand, only to discover that she was too short to reach up to the counter, and Kusabue made the shamrock green aura of Sound Magic be built up in her mouth. She yelled up at the sky, causing her sound waves to create a large shamrock green explosion in the air, and Kusabue watched the winds come down on Seigan Town. They didn't bother any people who were walking by, but the explosion and the winds did surprise the ice cream vendor.

She quickly walked away from the concession stand to see Kusabue wanting to buy an ice cream, glad that the invisible waves of sound weren't from a long-range attack that failed to strike her shop, and the ice cream vendor gently took the jewels from Kusabue. In exchange for receiving those jewels, she gave the young girl a pale blue ice cream cone that had two scoops of mint blue ice cream on it. Kusabue happily accepted the ice cream, politely bowing her head to show her appreciation, and she started to joyfully run off while holding the ice cream with both of her hands.

Yukino quickly ran after Kusabue while zipping up the jacket to conceal her pale green T-shirt and long dark green skirt that matched her forest green snow boots, but she watched Kusabue giggle enough to where she unintentionally applied the Sound Magic to her feet for them to be engulfed in a shamrock green aura. That increased Kusabue's running speed, and she felt happy to wait for Yukino at the path leading to the very snowy field where the kids were playing. Kusabue wanted to play with some new friends by throwing snowballs while Yukino would observe her like a good babysitter, but Yukino would soon have to be like a mom from how she and Kusabue heard the ice cream loudly make a splatting sound against the clothes of a woman who just got off of her slave in front of a nearby shop.

"You got ice cream on my dress, you filthy little brat! If you're going to eat, then have some respect for the nobles like everyone else!" A woman with curled pale blue hair sternly told Kusabue, glaring down at the young girl who wasn't staying off to the sides of the street like how other people in this specific area were doing right now.

Kusabue replied to her in an offended manner, talking back with sternness in her eyes from misinterpreting the woman's description of her, "If you're really calling me filthy because of my dark green hair, then I'm sure that you wouldn't like me saying that pale blue is a filthy color that doesn't match your ocean blue eyes!"

"Do you really want to assume that I won't strike children, you worthless little kid who doesn't know her place?!" The woman who wore a dark blue and ivory corset dress asked Risa in a stern tone, charging up some magic that made an ocean blue aura surround her hands.

Yukino exclaimed in a worried manner, running as fast as she could to the situation while looking very alarmed at how she probably couldn't summon a Celestial Spirit fast enough to save her friend, "Wait, don't do it! Don't hurt Kusabue-san!"

Kusabue looked up at the woman who wore her curled hair down with two bangs framing her face, the bangs being curled up at the ends, and the woman also wore a plain blue headband with a dark blue rose on the left side of it. The dark blue rose matched the top part of her dress, which had puffy sleeves and two light blue swirly bracelets that went up her forearms, and she also wore some cyan blue high-heeled snow boots. The boots didn't stop her legs from being exposed, allowing Kusabue to see that the back of the interior part of the woman's dress was dark blue, but Kusabue didn't look intimidated at all.

She merely stared up at the woman who glared down at her, and Kusabue made her hands start to absorb the sound waves of some terrified onlookers who wondered if a child was really going to be harmed right now. Even the impoverished-looking and enslaved woman with long light blue hair seemed to frown in a worried manner for Kusabue's safety during this situation that was happening during the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour, and she really hoped that her angered mistress wouldn't call for Emiria or Hiyasu to solve this problem with their own destructive magic.

The woman who owned a slave was about to purposely strike Kusabue with her magic to inform the town's leaders that a fight had to be resolved by them, regardless of Yukino's pleas, but the moment that she created an ocean blue orb of Water Magic to slam against Kusabue's body was the moment where a certain person walking out of the nearby fashion store noticed the scene happening. They wasted no time with applying the light blue aura of Ice Magic to their feet, and they managed to reach Kusabue just in time to make her see the ocean blue orb in front of her face become frozen solid.

"Suzuna, what are you doing?!" The woman asked the S-Class mage in a stern tone, seeing her sternly glaring at her while she merely glared back in an annoyed manner.

Suzuna sternly responded to the woman with a very irritated facial expression, "What are you doing, Kaisui Kawagishi?! Do you really want to really want to hurt someone during the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour when this festival is meant for only the strongest females, as well as the people who have rivals?! Are you really going to break a rule in front of me?!"

"I'll show mercy just this once, but you better hope we don't meet again or you'll lose more than just some ice cream!" Kaisui told Kusabue with a very miffed look on her face, before touching the chain on her slave's collar to start walking away with the woman who she viewed as a dog.

Upon turning her attention to Kusabue, Suzuna told her in a much calmer demeanor while leaning over to gently pat her head, "Sorry that you had to deal with Kaisui, kid. She didn't get invited to the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour, which is Seigan Town's little festival for strong female mages and rivaling wizards, but it looks like her dress attracts ice cream. Once she's off this street, go buy yourself six scoops of the ice cream."

Suzuna proceeded to take out three-thousand jewels from the left pocket of her skirt, which looked like a meager amount of jewels compared to the several rolled-up stacks of jewels that she had in her pocket, and Suzuna handed the money to Kusabue. The young girl gladly accepted the money from the older woman, smiling happily as Suzuna got her hand off of her head, and she was glad that one of the mages from the guild helped her out before a fight could ensue. Although, Kusabue thought that her skills and title as a new mage of Sabertooth could help her win that fight.

Kusabue watched Suzuna start to turn and leave, ignoring how she noticed the Sound Magic that was lightly on Kusabue's tongue. Suzuna seemed a bit intrigued by the shamrock green aura, as she hadn't seen that shade of green before, but she soon looked at Yukino. The girl who had light blue hair simply bowed her head in a thankful manner, very glad that Suzuna stepped in when she did, and she could hear Kaisui shattering the icy orb with her own magic. That didn't even faze Suzuna, who recalled how strong Water Magic was also seen from a certain participant who represented Fairy Tail in the Grand Magic Games, and the conversations at the Cerulean Frost guild today made Suzuna feel glad that Kaisui wasn't there.

She would've likely tried to show off her newest slave, who hopefully wouldn't fall victim to the icy collar's frosty effect, and Kaisui would've probably tried touching the collar on purpose to set an example for anyone who thought she couldn't freeze them after possibly slamming them down with her Water Magic. Suzuna wouldn't have let Kaisui show off like that, though, and she personally thought that her Water Magic couldn't be trouble for anyone. However, the fact that the mages from Sabertooth were seeming to be tourists made Suzuna feel like they had to be informed of the town's culture.

"Kaisui is one of the Frigid Nobles, as we tend to say. The Frigid Nobles are the wealthy civilians and mages who are able to own slaves or have enough money to buy whatever else they want, but it's never a wise idea to disrespect any of us. If you won't bow or if you feel compelled to break a slave's collar, then just expect to either get harmed by us or one of the guild masters. This is your only warning, so listen to me." Suzuna explained to Yukino in a stern tone, narrowing her eyes at Yukino while thinking about how something seemed to have happened elsewhere in the town.

Kusabue told Suzuna with a sudden look of worry on her face, hearing her brother in the distance, "Excuse me, nice lady, but Yukino-san and I should go find our friends soon. It sounds like a fight probably happened, since my brother must've heard the explosions be louder than what I heard from inside the store."

Yukino asked the young girl in a concerned tone, looking very concerned, "Kusabue, can you sense any magic?"

"Kotomi-san's magic is very faint, Yukino-san! We should go see what's wrong, after getting the ice cream! I'll be quick with it, since Kotomi-san might've been in a fight!" Kusabue replied to her with an equally concerned frown, thinking that Risa could've also been having some trouble.

Kusabue politely bowed her head to Suzuna, before running back to the concession stand, and Yukino ran after her. The two girls proceeded to purchase ice cream, leaving Suzuna to look at Kaisui going on a different street, and she wondered if the icy mages in this town would really end up forming rivalries with the tourists. If they did, then the winners of some battles could have the potential to help Emiria and Hiyasu with their plan. Suzuna wondered if Kotomi could truly be an ally of theirs, as she specifically sensed the magic from Kaze's Feather Dance earlier, but sensing it faintly didn't seem like a good sign.

Suzuna felt like she couldn't let those two guild masters pass up a chance to have some Wind Magic helping them out, as there didn't seem to be any girls or guys who had Wind Magic as proficient as Kotomi's magic, and Suzuna felt like it would be a bad look for Seigan Town to have an event that had a possible main attraction fall short of happening because of one person's magic not being able to help the town's top mages with something important. Suzuna thought that unsealing the statue from that ice was crucial, but she also hoped that Emiria or Hiyasu didn't beat Kotomi so badly to where she felt any negative emotions about partaking in that eventual part of the festival.

If Kotomi chose to leave, then Suzuna felt like she would have to leave that part of the festival in the hands of two guild masters who didn't get all of their necessary helpers. That incompetence would reflect badly on Seigan Town, as guild masters did have to have the image of being people who didn't shoddily have ideas for making their guilds or towns be very successful to get notoriety. In fact, Suzuna began to smile at a nearby light blue newspaper on the ground that began to remind her of how the guild masters of Cerulean Frost only made two of its lower-ranked mages have some notoriety. Although, they weren't all known for completing several jobs.

---

Concurrently, in a large building near Seigan Town's border...

Two of Cerulean Frost's mages who had notoriety in Seigan Town were currently in a dressing room that had royal blue walls with a light blue tiled floor to match while one of them sat down in front of vanity that had a dark blue round mirror above the dark blue desk. The person who sat down in front of the vanity was named Samui Shimoyake, a female wizard who had plain blue hair in a bob style while her eyes were in the color of periwinkle blue, and she wore a light blue plaid skirt with a periwinkle blue shirt under a cobalt blue off-shoulder shirt layered on top it. She made that shirt match with her azure blue leggings, which were under the skirt that had a cyan blue belt with cyan blue chains on both sides, and she wore sapphire blue high heels. The shoes went well with her bracelets, which were light blue.

Samui's light blue bracelets were the same color as her friend's hair, which reached down to her knees while two bangs framed her face, and that light blue hair complimented her lapis blue eyes. The girl who had lapis blue eyes was named Aoiumi Sansui, and she wore a dress that had frills at the bottom while it was in the regular shade of blue. The top of the dress featured a cyan blue color with the pale shade of blue in the inner parts of the collar, the pale blue shade designed to look like waves of light blue snow from a frigid avalanche, and the middle of the collar featured a cyan brooch that was shaped like a winter snowflake. The brooch and collar were in front of the upper part of the dress, which was neon blue. That particular color went well with Aoiumi's neon blue headband that she lightly adjusted, and she frowned at Samui.

Samui was refusing to let the fashion show commence, not wanting the requested event in the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour to occur because of how she and Aoiumi had an important issue on their minds, and Samui had a stressed look on her face. She was thinking about how her and Aoiumi were constantly being chased by a mage who had been hunting them down, and that particular mage was a criminal who wanted revenge on both of the females for defeating them in the Fiore Fashion Games. The Fiore Fashion Games had been Fiore's fashion world counterpart to the Grand Magic Games, a festival spanning over several days, but participants were selected as pairs from different light or dark guilds.

The fact that Cerulean Frost was seen as a dark guild mainly by the Magic Council had made all of the mages be aware that they had to win the tournament for the grand prize of fifty-million jewels, and Samui ended up winning the tag-team battle with Aoiumi as her partner for them to receive that money. They managed to make Emiria proud of the guild, delighted enough to where she combined that money with her own cash from S-Class jobs to improve the quality of life for the wealthiest mages in Seigan Town, and she was glad that Samui was a helpful ally. However, Samui wasn't getting much help for the issue that brought so much trouble to her and Aoiumi.

"Aoiumi, I'm sorry. The fashion show has to be cancelled, and we'll just have to tell Emiria about why we're canceling it." Samui told her younger friend with a regretful look on her face, feeling like the fashion show commencing during the festival would be too dangerous.

Aoiumi sternly replied with a frustrated facial expression, "Stop saying things like that, Samui! We won't cancel the fashion show, especially when I've already told you that the mage who's after us will have to spend all their time dealing with me if they show up here!"

"That's good advice when you're speaking in theory, but what if things get really bad when I'm on stage while you're back here?" Samui asked Aoiumi in a worried manner, her face showing the feeling of uncertainty.

The girl with light blue hair explained to her friend while looking very confident, "Nothing bad will happen, Samui! In fact, I'll even try to lead that mage far away from here and their plan will be ruined!"

Even though Aoiumi's plan seemed good, Samui still had her doubts about her friend's chances of surviving. Aoiumi's magic was quite great for defensive purposes while her attack spells weren't as strong, and Samui had strong attacks. Even though her defensive spells weren't very great, Samui felt like her powerful attacks were also a good reason for how they had been surviving up until this point. Surviving even required using powerful spells on purpose to create smokescreens, which were perfect for escaping, and Samui seemed scared at the fact of how they couldn't keep doing that forever.

They would likely be in the eventual situation where they couldn't escape without someone else getting hurt, and neither Aoiumi or Samui wanted that to happen. Samui felt like she didn't need to deal with other people suffering because of how she couldn't make a strong enemy leave her alone, and Aoiumi also wanted to protect innocent people. Doing that on their own would be a tough task, however, and Samui felt like she was in the worst situation with her friend. They weren't strong enough to defeat a vengeful mage, making Samui feel like she should've had more allies in her local guild.

Even though Emiria and Hiyasu were too self-interested with their own goals, Samui started to have a look of realization in her eyes from remembering how Aoiumi once informed her that she had been part of a different dark guild in the year X791. There was apparently a certain mage in the guild who believed that Aoiumi should've been trying harder to get much stronger instead of supposedly being such a loser, and that mage had viewed Aoiumi's magic to be very pathetic. Even though Samui had seen that Aoiumi was a competent mage, she sighed calmly at how their situation could've been better if their pursuer was only known for name-calling.

"Aoiumi, I was just thinking. Maybe our lives would've been better if we were chased by that spoiled and mouthy wizard you had told me about. You know, the one named Kotomi Takeuchi." Samui told her friend with a soft smile on her face, as she started to have a nicer thought.

After blinking her eyes in a surprised manner, Aoiumi told Samui with a pleased facial expression, "Yeah, she would've spent more time scheming about how to hurt us instead of chasing us with no real plan."

"Aoiumi, that's not what I meant. What I mean to say is that Kotomi could possibly be our friend, and she could even up being an ally who we can rely on." Samui clarified to her friend with a very kind facial expression, feeling like they needed allies.

Samui got to hear Aoiumi tell her with an intense glare of anger on her face, bitterness and rage in her eyes, "Don't be ridiculous, Samui! Aside from us working together, dark mages have no real allies! People who are working together will eventually betray each other, and they would take people's lives with no remorse! We're alone in a world of only enemies around us, you fool! That includes Kotomi, who just schemes and can only defeat mages who are weaker than her! She's of no use to anyone, and Kotomi probably died already."

Aoiumi would've been proven wrong by a newspaper article that was slightly sticking out of Samui's dresser, but Samui decided to not show it to her. She watched her friend angrily scowl at the idea of working with other mages, since Aoiumi had been viciously attacked by the person who was chasing after her and Samui. Aoiumi still felt emotional pain from getting attacked because of the fact that the attack came from a person who she perceived to be a good friend, and the betrayal felt worse than being slammed with dense water.

Aoiumi personally experienced getting slammed with dense water, which made her feel even more angry about how a water-wielding mage brutally attacked her, and she wished that her skills with water could've been sufficient enough to take down her enemy. However, being forced to deal with a horrible foe constantly targeting her caused Aoiumi to always feel rage. She attempted to infuse those feelings of rage into her magic, which merely made the defensive spells of her magic become greatly strengthened, but its slight boost to the power of her attacks didn't exactly help her situation.

Samui's attacks may have been powerful, but Aoiumi couldn't defeat enemies if her partner ended up getting severely injured. She would have to create defensive spells to protect herself and Samui, not being able to rely on anyone other than Samui to help her out in a battle, and Aoiumi was definitely putting herself in a dangerous position. She thought that it would be more dangerous to have someone like Kotomi around, too, and she just perceived Kotomi as a liability instead of being an ally. As Aoiumi folded her arms and closed her eyes, she was simply cooling down at the thought of Kotomi supposedly also having no allies around to where she continued her behavior of being alone like how she had been back when Aoiumi was a mage of the Moon Rainbow guild.

---

How was Chapter 45? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Lucy had a fight against Emiria, but she lost to such an unpleasant mage! They will end up having a rematch later, though. After all, Lucy likes to redeem herself after experiencing a loss. Secondly, the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour's purpose will be explained further to the characters and the readers as the arc progresses. At this point, the readers only know that Emiria and Hiyasu are trying to recruit allies who can unfreeze a treasure that can seemingly grant power to the two sisters. However, the consequences of unfreezing the treasure will be seen later in the arc. Speaking of consequences, Kusabue's encounter with Kaisui is definitely quite interesting. After all, the youngest mage in the group of Sabertooth wizards seems to have a rivalry with a grown woman. That rivalry may be as interesting as Aoiumi's and Samui's task of having to constantly run from a dangerous rival, too. The only person who seems to not have any rivals is Suzuna, which is interesting. Also, this is the second part of the Azure Ice Arc! I'll update soon. :)

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