10. Ice-Make: Choice

"Once I freeze this thing there's no way of melting it." He muttered, bringing his hands together to cast the spell. "I don't even know if this is the right choice. If not, well then it's too late now."

"Who am I?" The man repeated as he stuck out his hand towards the stone laying on the floor. A blast of ice shot forth, tearing up the frozen floor underneath it and catapulting the stone in his direction, effortlessly grabbing it as it flew towards him. "I'm Alvaro of the Konungaris Legion and I believe this stone belongs to me."

Before any of them could react Alvaro began to run away with the stone, blasts of ice shooting from his free hand and flying towards them, destroying the ground around them as they landed. They were too busy dodging the attacks that they couldn't even think about chasing after him. It was only after Alvaro finally made it out of the vicinity that they were able to start thinking clearly and come up with a plan.

"I think we found the one responsible for all this." Erza said as she surveyed the destruction the room had been subject to. "So this is Ice Destruction Magic, Gray?"

Gray nodded. "Yeah, anything his ice touches it destroys."

Well that explains a lot. Erza thought, tightening the grip on her sword. They'd have to go after him and he couldn't have gone far. "Alright, let's go find him."

The team split up with Natsu, Lucy, and Happy going in one direction and Gray and Erza going in the other. The museum wasn't that big and with all the damage it was hard to stay hidden. Erza was pretty confident they'd find him and she had many questions for him too. She had never heard of the Konungaris Legion and she was curious as to what was so special about that supposedly indestructible red stone. Erza sneaked a glance at Gray as they walked down an icy hallway. He seemed to know a few things she didn't, making her wonder how much more he really knew.

"I wonder what's so important about that stone." Erza wondered aloud.

Gray shrugged. "I don't know, but there must be something to it if it could withstand an attack like that."

"And who did he say he was affiliated with? The Konungaris Legion?"

"It sounds familiar." Gray said, pausing as he tried to recall his memory of it. "I think it's a guild in Isvan, but it doesn't make much sense."

"Why not?"

"Last time I checked, they weren't a dark guild." He said, coming to a stop at an exit leading out to the back of the museum. "Do you hear that?"

Erza stood still and listened. It was silent for the first ten seconds, but then she heard it. A faint blast sounded outside the exit and without even discussing it, the two hurried outside. Sure enough, the mage they were after was standing there amidst his own acts of needless destruction. Erza could see the stone clearly in his hand, its bright red color making it impossible to miss.

"Stop!" She shouted, raising her sword. She could see Gray getting into his Ice-Make stance beside her. "What exactly is your goal here and what do you want with that stone?"

Alvaro smiled, though she could tell it was no friendly grin. "Why don't you try to catch me first? I'm not really into the whole surrendering business."

"Requip!"

"Ice-make Arrows!"

Alvaro began to run as they initiated their attacks. He used one hand to secure the stone and used the other to continue blasting ice towards them. With almost perfect accuracy, his ice hit Erza's sword and Gray's arrows, thus destroying them before they could have any effect on him.

Erza stopped and looked down at her empty hand, astonished at the sight of her sword shattering to pieces and falling to the ground amidst an abundance of broken ice, just like what they had seen in the museum. Looking over at Gray, she could see his ice had wound up in a similar situation, though it was hard to distinguished his shattered arrows from Alvaro's ice.

"Never thought I'd see that." Gray said as he inspected his destroyed creation. "Ice destroying ice."

"We should still go after him." Erza said, another sword appearing in her hand. "He obviously wants us to follow him."

"That usually implies it's a trap, Erza."

She was having the same thought, but they didn't seem to have many other options. "We'll just have to be careful."

"Fine, let's go."

It didn't take long for them to catch up with Alvaro. He was just around the corner standing there as if he were waiting for them. Once he saw them coming, however, he hurried off again through a side door into some old building. Erza and Gray followed right after him, all the while trying to land a hit on him with their magic only to have each attempt destroyed with his ice.

"What do you think his plan is?" Gray asked as they lost sight of Alvaro after he turned a corner.

"No idea." Erza replied. "Maybe he's leading us somewhere."

Gray shot her a look of concern. "That doesn't sound like a good thing."

As they turned the corner, Erza caught sight of Alvaro at what appeared to be a dead end. "Well, I guess we'll find out."

They had cornered him into a small room with only one exit, which they were blocking. Erza tried to convince herself that they had actually cornered him there, but something kept telling her it was some sort of trap and that Alvaro had purposely led them there.

"I think this counts as catching you." Gray said, preparing his Ice-Make though he probably knew it was pointless. Alvaro would just destroy anything he created. "So why don't you just give up and tell us what your deal is?"

Alvaro smiled, making Erza wonder if there was any reason for his incessant grinning or if it was just his normal expression. "Fair enough, you two win."

"What?" Gray said, dropping his Ice-Make stance. "Just like that?"

Erza watched skeptically as Alvaro set the red stone down on the ground, his smile never fading.

"You asked me what was so special about this stone, didn't you?" He asked, his gaze directed at Erza. His piercing blue eyes bore into him and she had to reassure herself that the chill she was feeling was just due to the sudden draft in the room and not his intense gaze. "This stone is called the Koppa Stone and what makes it so powerful is that it can be made into an explosive weapon."

She could feel the air getting colder and wrapped her arms around herself as she began to shiver. "What are you saying?"

Without any warning, the exit behind them began to freeze rapidly, the ice creating a wall blocking their only way out. Alvaro then shot a blast of ice at the wall behind him, forming a hole just big enough for him to fit through.

"What are you doing?" Gray asked. His shirt had come off at some point, but the sudden drop in temperature didn't seem to bother him. The same couldn't be said for Erza, however, as she tightened her arms around herself and tried to bury herself deeper into her coat.

"Making my escape, obviously." Alvaro said as he began to climb out. "While we were playing our little game of cat and mouse, I took the liberty of activating the Koppa Stone. It will self destruct in just a few minutes, taking the both of you and this whole building with it."

"This is ridiculous." Gray said, resuming his attack stance. "Ice-make Lance!"

Erza tried to raise the sword in her hand, but found her arms unwilling to move from their position around her shivering body. She could feel her body starting to go numb from the cold and her limbs felt so stiff and heavy as if they were frozen in place. She watched helplessly as Alvaro shot another blast of ice at Gray's incoming attack, destroying it before it could even come near him.

"The only way to stop the Koppa Stone is to freeze it in permanent ice." Alvaro said, his grin widening as he turned to Erza. "What you're feeling right now is Korpus's Hypothermia Magic. It will slowly freeze your internal organs until your body goes numb and shuts down. Good luck surviving it. I'll let Korpus know the spell is working."

She wanted to say something, but her mouth refused to open as Alvaro slipped through his self-made hole. She couldn't feel her legs anymore, her freezing limbs collapsing from under her and bringing the rest of her body crashing to the floor. The armour under her coat had shielded her from most of the impact, but Erza barely even felt herself falling. All she could feel was the cold like a sheet of ice was slowly wrapping itself around the inside of her body, leaving her motionless and unable to move a muscle.

"Erza!"

She could hear Gray shout her name as he dropped down next to her. Her body was almost completely numb at this point, but she could faintly feel Gray's hand on her shoulder.

"Erza, the only way to save you is to get you somewhere warm." He said, though she could barely make out the words. It was strange, but she was beginning to feel quite comfortable despite the freezing sensation she had felt mere seconds ago.

"I'm alright, Gray." She said, slightly closing her eyes. She could faintly see the look of fear on Gray's face, making her wonder what he was so afraid of. "I don't feel so cold anymore, in fact I kind of feel warm, so warm I could probably just fall asleep right now."

"No! Don't fall asleep, Erza!"

The thought of sleep was so tempting, but she found it hard to keep her eyes closed as Gray shook her furiously. Why was he so adamant on depriving her of sleep anyway? Didn't he feel the warmth she was feeling right now?

"Erza! I'm getting you out of here, okay?"

She could feel Gray begin to lift her up when her eyes fell on the Koppa Stone laying on the ground. What did Alvaro say before? Sometime about it exploding? Maybe that's why it was glowing like that.

"Oh, crap! That stupid stone!" Erza felt herself drop slightly in Gray's arms as he too caught sight of the Koppa Stone's glowing.

"Didn't he say only permanent ice could stop it?" She muttered as she closed her eyes. She could hear a low rumbling coming from the direction of the glowing stone, but all she could think about was how comfortable she was feeling and how tempting it was to doze off for a bit.

"We can't let it explode." She could hear Gray say something as he slowly lowered her back onto the floor. "This will just take a second. I'm warning you Erza, you need to stay awake."

She wondered why he had put her down after he had been so stubborn about getting her out. She opened her eyes slightly, fighting their desire to stay closed as she watched Gray head towards the Koppa Stone.

"Once I freeze this thing there's no way of melting it." He muttered, bringing his hands together to cast the spell. "I don't even know if this is the right choice. If not, well then it's too late now."

She couldn't keep her eyes open any longer as she finally surrendered herself to the constant calling of slumber. She closed her eyes as she felt Gray lift her up again, a smile forming on her face as she dozed off into the warmth engulfing her body.

"I'm going to get you out of here, Erza and you're going to be fine. I'll make sure of that."

"Natsu, I think we lost him." Lucy said as she sat down on a bench, watching the dragonslayer with a bored expression as he looked behind a garbage can. "Let's just go find Erza and Gray. Maybe they found him."

"But I had his scent." Natsu said in defense as he opened the garbage lid and peered inside. "Okay, so it wasn't exactly his scent, but there was someone else in that building, I swear!"

"Well, whoever he was, he got away." Happy said, supporting Lucy's suggestion. "I think we should just go find Erza and Gray, Natsu."

Natsu groaned as he placed the lid back on the can. "Fine, but I'm only giving up because it's too cold to keep searching out here."

"Yeah, whatever." Lucy said, getting up from the bench. She was just glad she could persuade Natsu to quit their wild search for a guy they had no real proof even existed, that is if you didn't count Natsu's claim of being able to smell him. Though, she was beginning to feel cold so maybe he had a good reason after all. "Come on, let's head back to the museum."

Lucy stuffed her hands in her pockets as they began to walk back. It had only been a few days since the snowstorm had began, but it had already turned into a raging blizzard way above the intensity of every other snowstorm to have ever hit Magnolia. She couldn't even remember a time where the temperature had been this low or where the piles of snow had been so high. Her boots couldn't even handle it as she trudged in them through the snow, her socks soaking from the amount of snow that had already found its way inside. She felt as if her ears were going to freeze off and she regretted not bringing her hat.

"Hey, excuse me, but have you seen anyone around here carrying a red stone by any chance?"

"Natsu!" Lucy said as she looked up to see the pink haired wizard talking to an old lady walking past them. "What are you doing?"

"Just asking if she saw Alvaro."

Lucy glared at him. "We don't need to get innocent civilians involved in this."

"Relax, it's just a question." Natsu said, turning back to the old lady. "We're looking for a guy who stole something from the museum here. I don't know if you've been there, maybe you know what I'm talking about. It's really red and about this big."

Lucy groaned and grabbed Natsu's hand, trying to pull him away. "Sorry, ma'am. We didn't mean to bother you, so we'll just-"

"Wait a minute," The old lady said suddenly with a panicked look in her eyes. "you don't mean the Koppa Stone, do you?"

Lucy looked over at Natsu. "Koppa Stone?"

Natsu shrugged and turned to the old lady. "Is it red and indestructible?"

The old lady nodded frantically. "Yes, that's it! I knew that's what they were after this whole time. Oh, this is horrible!"

"Hey, it's going to be okay." Lucy said gently as she placed on her hand on the trembling woman's shoulder. "We're Fairy Tail wizards and we're here to help. Can you tell us about this Koppa Stone?"

The old lady breathed heavily as Lucy led her over to a bench and sat down beside her with Natsu and Happy standing nearby.

"The Koppa Stone was created long ago to stop anyone who tried to cast the Eliftis spell." The old woman began. "Have you ever heard of it?"

Lucy nodded. "Yeah, someone is trying to cast it now, aren't they?"

"Yes. You see, after the Eliftis spell became forbidden, a group of wizards decided to create the Koppa Stone to counteract the spell if anyone ever tried to cast it. The Koppa Stone was designed to be able to sense the Eliftis spell a few days after it was cast, and once it senses its presence it's made to fire magic energy that counteracts the spell and prevents the process towards completion. The stone was made to be indestructible so that the Eliftis spell could never be carried out."

"So why does it matter that it was stolen if it can't be destroyed?" Natsu asked. "If what you're saying is true then this whole winter business will go away soon and everything will go back to normal."

"It's true that the Koppa Stone can't be destroyed," the old lady continued. "but there is one way to prevent it from firing; the Koppa Stone will not work if an ice mage other than the spell's caster encases it with permanent ice."

"An ice mage?" Lucy repeated, glancing at Natsu.

"An ice mage other than the caster." Natsu said, turning to Happy.

"With permanent ice..."

The three of them then looked at each other, their eyes widening at their unanimous realization. "Gray!"

We made it to Chapter 10! That's like multichapter milestone or something, lol. And a cliffhanger! Why? Because I love them!

I think I'm just not going to comment on anything that just happened, I'll leave you guys to ponder this yourselves. However, I did read somewhere that hypothermia is one of the more peaceful ways to die...

A big thanks to all of you who have stuck with me so far and I hope this chapter was enjoyable for you. Leave a review if you can, and I'll see you all again next week!

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