Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 54: The Final Day of The Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour! Gems In Shades of Blue! Goddess Yukishimou, Unsealed! Suzuna's Scheme Revealed!
Lucy and Risa went back to the Cerulean Frost guild, going to the guild around sunrise. They were accompanied by the other members of Sabertooth being a few feet behind them, and the two women were feeling just as anxious as everybody else to find out what would happen on this final day of the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour. The evening of the previous day was where the group of wizards decided to discuss their different findings related to the mystery involved with the sixth ring's location, and putting all of the pieces together had proven to be difficult.
From what Lucy and Sting had gathered, Emiria seemed to be the person who held the key to solving the entire mystery. She wanted a large gemstone to be retrieved by Suzuna, who made two mages complete the task for her, and Emiria would likely want to use that gemstone to access an item as valuable as the sixth legendary ring. That was the best possible theory that Lucy and her friends currently had, since Lucy still had the essay on the rings in her possession. She pulled it out of the sapphire blue winter coat that she now wore, and Lucy would gladly confront Emiria about making several shady deals and hiding shady secrets during this festival.
She proceeded to walk up to the entrance of the Cerulean Frost guild, noticing that it was open, and Lucy proceeded to go into the guildhall. Risa walked beside her while looking curious about why the guildhall had none of the maids already being here to provide their services to all of the welcomed guests, and the pink-haired mage gently walked up to the counter that had a door to a back room behind it. She stood in front of the counter, loudly tapping her foot in hopes for someone to appear, and Risa hoped that Emiria wasn't planning to make a grand entrance into the guildhall as a way of starting the awards ceremony.
The ice-wielding woman's theatrics weren't amusing to Risa or Lucy, and Risa's cherry red eyes caught sight of light blue frost coming out from underneath the back room. That made her examine the door that was dark blue, seeing that it had a dark blue color, and the keyhole was oddly in a sapphire shade of blue. That color corresponded to something slightly revealing itself on the bottom of the back counter's shelf, and Risa quietly jumped over the counter to see what the object would be. She pulled out a sapphire blue key that had a diamond-shaped end, ignoring the dark blue aura moderately surrounding it, and Risa wasted no time with putting it in the keyhole. After turning the key and the lock, the door opened to reveal a surprising sight.
"What did Emiria do to this room?" Risa asked aloud with a surprised facial expression, as she noticed that it was entirely frozen in ice to resemble a cold storage area.
As Lucy noticed that the cobalt blue barrels were upright on shelves, she replied with a startled look on her face, "It's really cold in here, but Emiria even froze the barrels that probably have alcohol in them."
"Wait, Lucy. The source of the frost is right over there." Risa told her in a calm tone, as she saw a sapphire blue barrel standing upright near the cellar's staircase that was frozen in ice.
Lucy activated the spell called Kaze's Feather Dance, which made two mint green wings of Wind Magic fall down to her feet, and she began to move at rapid speeds. She quickly slid across the ice, before reaching the cerulean blue flute that was on the barrel. Lucy slightly tilted the flute back and forth, wondering what kind of flute would be needed to freeze an entire room, and she was slightly startled at the sight of an icy key falling out of the instrument. The light blue key that was made of ice had a large amount of frost coming from it, which surprised Lucy.
She turned around to face Risa, who looked just as surprised at the weird sight of a key being in a flute. As Lucy heard the key fall on to the barrel without shattering, she gently placed the frost-emitting flute next to it. She started walking back to her friend at a rapid pace, only to see that the gust of wind shook an azure blue barrel enough to make it fall over, and the barrel contained Aquatic Blue Stones and Glacial Blue Stones. According to Kūkiatsu, these stones were rare enough to be in a museum and Yukino had seen Kusabue receive one of those stones from Suzuna.
In the pile of stones, Lucy noticed that a periwinkle blue piece of paper was concealed by some of them. She pushed the stones away in different directions, before picking up the paper. When Lucy picked up the paper, she could only widen her eyes in shock at how it was a list of transactions that occurred in Seigan Town. Primarily, it involved how these stones that allegedly amplified or nullified Water Magic or Ice Magic would break after being hit by spells that weren't belonging to those kinds of magic. In that sense, they were items of Holder Magic that would end up being worthless to mages outside of Seigan's icy climate. This paper also contained info on light blue gemstones that could fuse together to create larger gems, and Lucy had a disgusted look in her eyes from silently reading that the gemstones were gathered in order to make Seigan Town's slave auctions generate more profits. She even got to see the paper mention that the gems were always found in the icy caverns, but it seemed like they were stashed elsewhere. Before Lucy could find them, she and Risa heard the sound of Emiria shockingly gasping from the second floor.
"What's going on down there?! Did one of my idiotic mages suddenly overdo it with how much Ice Magic they're supposed to use in a spell?!" Emiria asked aloud in an annoyed tone while looking miffed, sensing a high amount of Ice Magic coming from the storeroom.
After seeing Emiria quickly come down the stairs with Hiyasu walking behind her, Lucy asked her with a confrontational facial expression, "Emiria, why are you trying to act surprised? Even though it's the final day of the festival, did you really think that no one would find out that you've been investigating the legendary rings and putting the losers of the event down in your icy prison?"
"What are you talking about? Just because I wanted to trade for the ring that you have, I didn't make any efforts to find any others! Also, you must be dumb enough to suddenly say that I'm putting losers in prison, since you've fought me twice to see how I handle this event!" Emiria asked with a defensive frown appearing on her face, before speaking much more defensively in a slightly more aggressive tone.
Risa asked Emiria in a stern tone, thinking about yesterday's official and unofficial missions, "If you're completely true to that, then why don't you just pay Kusabue a hefty sum of jewels now for her part in handling the giant gem that you asked Suzuna to find? Although, is it possible that you wouldn't pay her since she helped me free Dr. Gardenia Nanahashi and Sorano Aguria?"
Upon hearing Risa's questions that seemed weird and emerging from nowhere, Emiria felt like she could only look confused at this entire situation. Emiria turned to Lucy, who saw Emiria simply give her a clueless look that implied she never sent Suzuna out on that job during the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour, and Emiria faced the guildhall's opened doors to see that Suzuna hadn't arrived at Cerulean Frost yet. Emiria and Hiyasu gave Suzuna the task of being a greeter girl, as well as getting frozen competitors off of Seigan Town's streets. However, Hiyasu turned around to face the other Sabertooth mages and seemed a bit surprised from seeing the young girl again.
Kusabue simply smiled at Hiyasu, before noticing that some Frost Blue Roses were placed in standing bouquets that were in dark blue vases. Kusabue noticed that one table at the back of the guildhall had Frost Blue Roses pulsating in a dark blue color, almost like they were being affected by magic, but she couldn't exactly correlate small drips of water from that small portion of the roof as being part of a spell. Despite those flowers looking a bit suspicious, the young mage who was a tourist did feel it was necessary for the hostesses to have decorated the guildhall today.
Emiria sighed in a somewhat calmer manner as she watched the mages move aside for some of the maids to walk into the guildhall, and she began to lightly smile at how her hustling and grifting would ultimately have a great end result. This was the day where all of her hard work in finding the best recruits was going to culminate in them helping her achieve a goal that would allow herself and Hiyasu to thrive as female wizards who would be very powerful, but Emiria's shred of happiness was replaced by a stern facial expression. She motioned with her left hand for a mage with long blue hair to keep the tourists out of the guildhall, and Emiria herself closed the back room's door after letting Lucy and Risa walk back over to their friends. As everyone saw her close the door and lock it with the sapphire blue key, they also saw her pull out a cerulean blue flute from the right pocket of her jacket.
"This isn't a prize, but you'll get some music during the ceremony." Emiria told Lucy and Risa with a calm look on her face, before seemingly going back up to the second floor and practicing the tune that would be played.
Sting asked Emiria with a curious look on his face, wondering about the event, "Why do I feel like you're excluding tourists from watching the festivities?"
"Sorry, but only the winners are good enough to participate in the final festivities today." Emiria responded to him in a somewhat cold tone, thinking about her goal getting closer to be attained with each passing minute.
Since he wasn't going to be allowed in whatever Emiria was planning, Sting slightly smiled in a confident manner from thinking that his group of friends could celebrate the fact that they would soon be out of this cold town. If the ceremony involved the goddess and the ring, then everything that Sting heard from Kūkiatsu about the worshiped statue and the paintings meant that it would probably be somewhere for Lucy to find. Sting hoped that she would be able to retrieve the ring if it was inside a treasure chest being guarded by the goddess, since Lucy deserved that reward. Since she obtained another clue in the case that the group was trying to solve, Sting felt that Lucy earned the chance of visiting the theme park for fun this time around.
20 minutes later, at Seigan Town's theme park...
Lucy decided to take Sting over to some light blue stairs that were near the eastern railing, ignoring the rotating platform that was above the water in the canal. As Sting glanced down at the water for a moment, he noticed that it was dark blue. That color was different from Risa seeing sapphire blue water in the canal on the first day of this event, and the fact that the rest of the theme park wasn't dirtied in any way simply meant that the water was affected by Water Magic instead of being abandoned by the theme park's workers.
They also hadn't abandoned a doorway on the eastern side, and this specific doorway led to a room with cobalt blue walls that complimented the tiled floor that had been cyan. There was also a cyan podium in this room, standing in front of a puzzle that involved six gems in different shades of blue surrounding the gemstone that Suzuna needed to give Emiria. The gemstone was in the center of a hexagonal platform made from light blue ice, which was surrounded by a dark abyss instead of walkways. This puzzle differed from the one that was solved by Hiyasu, as she had to rearrange the pieces to make water flow from the goddess statue for it to be on the perfect path to make a waterwheel turn. In contrast, this puzzle had the goddess statue sitting in the top-left corner of the room with an air vent nearby.
However, activating that statue would require the puzzle to be solved. Lucy gently touched the six tiles that were arranged in a hexagonal formation on the podium, pressing on them in a random order. That led to nothing happening, which made Lucy look confused. She touched the top-left tile that corresponded to the sapphire blue gemstone, causing the sapphire blue gemstone to shine in accord. Although, the shining ceased during the moment where Lucy touched the tile corresponding to the cerulean blue gemstone.
This puzzle made Lucy groan in frustration, feeling like she was getting nowhere. Sting began to have a look of realization enter his eyes from noticing the lighter gems on the left half of the hexagonal platform, and he saw the other three gems residing on the right side of the platform. Sting decided to get in front of the podium, before touching the tile that corresponded to the sapphire blue gem. After that, he touched the middle tile that was on the left side of the podium to make the neon blue gem shine brightly with beams of that color emanating from it.
"If Risa was the person solving this puzzle, she'd use her good fashion sense to arrange the clothes from the lightest to the darkest hues of blue." Sting told Lucy in a confident manner, winking proudly as he gave her a good example and a good hint about what to do.
Upon hearing Sting give her that important information and provide a clearer visual image to solving the puzzle, Lucy responded with a happy smile appearing on her face, "Thank you, Sting! This puzzle just became easier to solve, especially when you've been in Seigan's clothing store.
The memory of cerulean blue jackets from the clothing store prompted Lucy to touch the bottom-left tile, and she watched the cerulean blue gemstone begin to brightly glisten. That prompted Lucy to move on to the top-right tile of the hexagon, pressing it when she saw that a cobalt blue gemstone was situated there. Afterwards, she touched the middle tile that was on the right side of the podium. It pertained to the lapis blue gemstone, which shined with lapis blue beams emerging from it. That only left Lucy with the task of touching the bottom-right tile, which caused the azure blue gem to shine in its dark shade of blue. The only gem that didn't shine was the dark blue one in the middle, but Lucy and Sting ignored it. Their attention was shifted to the gemstones sending their auras outward, their magic creating dense ice in different shades of blue, and the ice was formed over all six areas of the abyss to make walkways exist.
The high amount of Ice Magic and Water Magic emerging from the gemstones had reached the statue, as small amounts of each gem's aura went into it. The mouth of the goddess statue shot out streams of Ice Magic and Water Magic in the form of blizzards that displayed the colors in their sequential order, and the temperature became frigid enough to where the six layers of ice that coated the walls were cold enough to rust the metal of the air vent. It quickly broke apart into pieces, before they were coated in ice that would later shatter.
The destroyed air vent made Lucy and Sting both raise their eyebrows, wondering if this puzzle was intended to conceal something from the people who couldn't easily solve it. When the goddess statue ceased with unleashing its ice breath, Lucy and Sting quickly slid on the ice to reach the air vent. Lucy went into it while Sting's enhanced hearing would allow him to clearly pick up on any sound waves coming from the other end of the air duct. Lucy quietly crawled to the end of the air duct, which was sealed by another air vent to impede her sight, but the sound from the other room was very clear.
"The fact that the weak mages in this event escaped was only a minor setback in the grand scheme of things, if I'm being honest. It just means my plans have to be altered for the same result in the end. Now that I've attained so many profits from Dr. Nahanashi's work, I have the money and the fame of making tourism for Seigan be to my liking. Despite those idiots neutralizing the perfume formula, I'm still in an advantageous position." Suzuna rudely stated aloud, before seeming to rest her hands on a desk.
Lucy thought to herself, looking alarmed, "That sounds like Suzuna! She imprisoned whoever lost in the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour, and the only perfume I had a hand in nullifying... was the perfume pandemic!"
"Since everyone has their eyes on Emiria for supposedly keeping her treasures near the prison, she'll certainly look suspicious for being the one who manipulated everyone for their help. Although, I can't shake the feeling that Kusabue and Hiyasu are catching on to my scheme. It doesn't matter, though. They wouldn't dare to think that I'm a villain, since the hostesses fell for my trap of making me just be the greeter girl in the background. Regardless, those chess pieces will soon be off the board after the goddess is unfrozen." Suzuna continued stating aloud in an extremely arrogant manner, before speaking in a tone that was much more cold and calculating.
Lucy thought to herself with a shocked look on her face, "She used Emiria as a pawn the entire time?! We thought that Emiria was the main enemy, but it looks like there's a twist to this mystery!"
"Since I'm thinking aloud right now, powerful wizards could be the most lethal pawns in a game. Emiria lost to Kotomi, and Hiyasu lost to Risa. They only obtained a few victories that produced the most useful recruits, so I think it's in my best interest to deep-freeze all of them at some point. They'll all be at the ceremony later, so I'll just leave this in the desk drawer and go to the last day of the grift. The hustlers didn't even figure out my acronym in naming the event." Suzuna stated aloud with a disgusted look appearing on her face, before viciously smirking about her seemingly inept opponents as she shut a desk drawer.
Sting and Lucy continued to respectively listen in from the other room and the air duct, their faces expressing disbelief and shock at how this whole event was just a massive grift on Suzuna's behalf. She didn't just swindle high amount of jewels from all the plants that were created, but she was stealing research and fooling everyone into thinking that Emiria was the person pulling the strings of this whole event. However, these new revelations clashed with the fact that Suzuna had just been a sarcastic and seemingly nice mage during the past days.
That must've just been a facade, similar to the ice mirrors in the caverns that seemed like dead ends. She had been hiding the fact that the ceremony would also be a moment where power would be seized by someone, and that prompted Lucy to think back to the fact that Emiria wanted to release some seals. If those seals fit with Kūkiatsu's discovery in the art gallery, Emiria and Hiyasu were planning to unseal a powerful and cold goddess from her slumber. Lucy wondered if she should form a plan for stopping the hostesses, but making Suzuna suspicious would probably result in her unsealing the goddess on her own. As Suzuna made the sounds of opening the door and going out of the theme park manager's room, Lucy waited until she locked the door and began walking away. She could hear Suzuna's footsteps go in the opposite direction of the puzzle, which was beneficial to Lucy, and the green-haired girl waited a few more minutes before sending Wind Magic into her hands and pushing the air vent outward to gain access to Suzuna's office.
After jumping down into Suzuna's office, Lucy's eyes glanced around the place. The door was dark blue with a sapphire blue diamond in the center of it, and the carpet in this room was in a cerulean shade of blue with lapis blue walls to compliment it. The desk was in an azure hue of blue while being in the shape of a hexagon, and there were two sky blue diamond-shaped tables in the back corners of the room. The table in the upper-left corner had dark blue roses in a sky blue vase, and the table in the upper-right corner had neon blue roses in a mint blue vase.
There were also neon blue roses on the small handles of the desk drawers, which got Lucy's attention. She went over to the drawer on the right, before gently pulling the handle forward, and the drawer opened to reveal that there were several envelopes. They contained messages that were written on pieces of paper that looked very familiar, and Lucy pulled out one envelope from the drawer. She took out the letter to see that it had been addressed to Kotomi Takeuchi, but the familiarity of this letter was that Lucy recognized it as the invitation that she received from Suzuna.
Suzuna Hiyayakana had been the one who invited mages to the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour, and Lucy felt like she needed to take a moment to simply process all of the new information. Based on what she just found and Suzuna's claim of purposely being a greeter girl, Lucy pieced together that Suzuna gave herself a background role throughout this festival as an easy way to make everyone think that Emiria and Hiyasu were the people who were truly in charge of this festival. That was certainly a clever way of keeping people from questioning her intentions if anything became too dangerous in this event, since she could just blame Emiria.
These circumstances made Lucy slightly begin to frown, feeling some pity for a guild master who was being tricked by one of her own mages into unsealing an ice goddess. That made her remember Emiria's words about Juvia being useful for breaking one of the seals that kept the goddess from being released, and that memory made her also recall Ayane's warning about the Leaf Radar sensing something that gave off the presence of a mage without it seeming possible, and Lucy theorized that breaking one or more seals must've made it possible for small portions of the godly power to be sensed by some faraway mages.
"If that power doesn't get released, there's no guarantee that Suzuna doesn't have powerful spells to do it herself. On the other hand, releasing that power will awaken someone who's probably more dangerous than Deliora." Lucy stated aloud in a worried manner as Sting came in through the air vent, allowing him to understand that Suzuna was trying to put everyone else in a situation where they would surely be defeated.
Sting responded in a confident tone, as a clever smirk began to appear on his face, "You know, the best part about unsealing that goddess would be the fact that Suzuna may end up revealing her true personality. I'd love to see that cunning mage take on several people at once.""
"Well, the worst part about Emiria even trying to unseal the goddess is that she'd be dumb to rely on godly power. In both of our battles, she was strong without it." Lucy replied to Sting with an expression displaying disappointment at this situation, wondering how this would all end.
The thought of unsealing that goddess caused Lucy to look in the desk drawer below the one she initially opened, and Lucy opened it to discover that there was a neon blue piece of paper among other pieces of paper that were in varying shades of blue. The neon blue piece of paper contained a photo of an underground cavern with an ice statue that was entirely frozen, and the photo simply informed Lucy and Sting that it was taken before any part of the unsealing process ever occurred. Suzuna had been thinking about the plan at the time, but never made an attempt herself to unseal the goddess.
Lucy glanced down at an ocean blue piece of paper that contained a photo of the statue that was below the hidden passages of the ice caverns, and Lucy noticed that the flute was held in one of the goddess' hands. In addition, the ocean blue paper contained a short essay of research explaining that this item was a Frost Flute. The effect of a Frost Flute could vary, depending on the song that was played in front of the goddess to musically communicate what the flutist wanted to obtain. There was a small sentence about an ice key, and Lucy felt shocked to discover that it was kept down in the underground cavern as a way of protecting Seigan Town's people from the wrath of the goddess.
Even though Lucy was surprised by that information, these papers didn't seem like the specific one that she needed to see. She looked at Sting, whose enhanced hearing had made him think that Suzuna shut the desk drawer on the left side before exiting this room. He opened the top drawer on that side, and Sting found a sky blue piece of paper that appeared to have been slid underneath some Ice Stones. He quietly moved the stones to the back of the drawer, before taking out the paper, and the side-by-side images of Suzuna's normal appearance next to her seemingly more beautiful appearance in a trench coat were surprising. Upon seeing that Suzuna had a map on this paper detailing the icy cavern being below the Cerulean Frost guild while also having schematics related to the ring and prisoners having Ice Magic go upward to the photo on the right, Sting and Lucy looked extremely disturbed and unsettled.
"These schematics aren't exactly for technology, but I think Suzuna is a god slayer who was trying to absorb Ice Magic and Water Magic that affected the prisoners! Lucy, she absorbs their energy to make herself look more beautiful." Sting told his girlfriend in an alarmed tone, before looking unsettled.
That prompted Lucy to reply with a shocked facial expression, thinking about Suzuna's magic, "This really explains her usual appearance, Sting. If she constantly has her magical power at an increased level, then Emiria and Hiyasu would sense that they aren't dealing with an ordinary mage. By being so low-key with her spells instead of constantly draining energy from people, no one has suspected anything."
Lucy added nicely, as an optimistic thought entered her mind, "Even if Suzuna wants to have beauty and power, at least we figured out that the sixth ring is in that icy cavern."
She proceeded to put the paper back in the desk drawer, before placing the Ice Stones on it in the way they were previously arranged, and Lucy also put the other papers back in their respective sections of the desk drawer. Sting helped her out with making sure that everything was organized in the way that Suzuna previously had it, not wanting to arouse suspicions that anyone had infiltrated the office. Sting picked up Lucy to let her stand on his shoulders, allowing her to jump up to the air vent.
Sting grabbed the air vent that had been kicked, before jumping up high to put himself in the air duct, and the blonde-haired dragon slayer placed the square-shaped air vent back in its hinges. He gently knocked on it to make sure that it had been secured, noticing that it didn't budge whatsoever, and Sting turned around to see Lucy crawl out of the air duct. He followed her back into the room with the puzzle, seeing that the giant gem and the surrounding stones were now being admired by some female models who had been part of Seigan's winter fashion show.
As Lucy walked past them, she also thought about how there had been fashion shows and other tourist attractions throughout this event. If Suzuna hoped that a fashion show would keep several tourists from exploring the underground caverns, then she was quite clever. Setting up legitimate events as distractions from the main area of interest may have been a smart tactic, but Sting started smirking at how Suzuna's high profits blatantly painted her as the only mage who could afford to organize the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour. Since Emiria hustled without wanting monetary gain, Sting smiled at Lucy while being interested in the appearance of Cerulean Frost's guildhall for the official ceremony.
Three hours later, in the Cerulean Frost guild...
After Lucy and Sting finished informing Risa and the other Sabertooth mages about what had been found in Suzuna's office, Lucy and Risa went to the Cerulean Frost guild. When they reached the doorway, the girls saw that the maids were putting up banners in various shades of blue above the counter while boxes of fresh blueberry-flavored cookies were placed on each table. They were meant to be the little gifts for the contestants who were still remaining to represent their guilds, even if their battles against Emiria or Hiyasu resulted in stalemates or losses.
Risa noticed Lyon and Sherria sitting at one of the tables while Lyon himself looked frustrated at how Emiria's final attack clashed with his Ice-Make: Eagles at the last minute, and the fact that Emiria blocked his attack as a refusal to lose is what made that battle end in a draw. The same result occurred when Sherria battled Hiyasu, who ran out of magical power at the same time that Sherria became tired, and both women had been pushed to use at least ten powerful spells each against their foes.
That was different from the result of receiving a loss, which was what happened to Kagura. Despite keeping her sword sheathed, Kagura's Strong Form and Slashing Form weren't able to crush Emiria's Ice Goddess Slayer Magic. In that fight, Emiria used tricks such as combining her attacks in an interesting way that involved the first attack from one hand immediately detonating before the next attack was fired. She used some smokescreens and frost clouds to her advantage, adapting her battling style to somewhat resemble the ways that Lucy fought her, and Emiria even let the Strong Form of Kagura's sword shatter the ice in the theme park's battlefield. That provided Emiria with more ice to eat, resulting in her using powerful attacks in blizzards to heavily damage Kagura's legs.
When Lucy averted her eyes away from Kagura's bandaged legs that were almost covered by neon blue snow boots, she looked over at another table to see Jenny Realight wearing a sapphire blue party dress. She glanced down at the magic in her hand with a disappointed facial expression, wishing that she had been able to defeat Hiyasu in the theme park, and Jenny's Transformation Magic that was synthesized with her Ice Magic put herself and Hiyasu in a battle of endurance to see if cold ice or hot water would prevail. Despite Hiyasu winning, the brief sight of Minerva Orland vanishing in a nearby energy wave made her realize that she wouldn't let any mages win by using opportunistic attacks when she was weakened. As Minerva herself sat down at a table, she soon saw the hostesses make a flashy entrance.
Emiria stated in a confident tone, after jumping down from the upstairs balcony with Hiyasu and spinning on one foot like an ice skater, "Well, look at this! Those of you who are remaining in the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour will be able to help me retrieve the grand prize. Whatever the other good prizes will be, you may have them."
Emiria's phrasing caused Lyon to comment in a stern tone, his eyes starting to show a feeling of distrust, "You want us to help you get a grand prize, but I thought we were all eligible for getting it if you said we were capable of helping you break seals."
"Even if you help me unseal the prize, neither myself or Hiyasu have the desire to start attacking you afterwards. After you help us break the seals, we'll let you go. Besides, defeating you with a major difference in power levels wouldn't be fun." Emiria responded in a cold tone of voice, as she firmly kept her hands together and looked at Lyon with honesty in her eyes.
Those words made Lyon continue to frown, along with Sherria and Risa. Juvia also sat down at a table near Minerva, looking miffed at how this whole event seemed like an utter waste of time. Although, people such as Lucy and Kagura were very interested to see exactly what awaited them in the ceremony. Kagura began to close her eyes, frowning calmly as she quietly displayed confidence in being able to take down Emiria if she was planning on becoming arrogant from a mere boost in power. Kagura looked at Emiria with intensity in her eyes, only for the ice-wielding woman to ignore her.
Emiria gently snapped her fingers at one of the maids, signaling for them to go outside for the purpose of retrieving something, and the maid who healed Risa's hands went out of the guildhall to quietly utter a small question to Suzuna about an envelope. Suzuna handed it to the maid without much debate on its contents, and the envelope that the maid got from Suzuna allegedly had all the names of the winners listed on it. Hiyasu started to smile in a happy manner from seeing the maid hurriedly give Emiria a dark blue envelope, and Emiria let her eyes glance around the room for a few moments.
Since she remembered that at least four seals needed to be broken, Emiria felt that the four names on the list would correspond to the strongest mages who would help herself and Hiyasu with obtaining the highest levels of power from Seigan's ice goddess. However, looking at the ocean blue letter in the envelope caused Emiria to have a surprised look on her face. Hiyasu glanced at the envelope, before looking astounded at the number of names on the list, and some names appearing above others didn't exactly reflect how Emiria and Hiyasu subjectively viewed the levels of magical power associated with the following wizards.
"The mages who have proven themselves to be strong mages in the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour are announced in random order! First, Jenny Realight from the Blue Pegasus guild!" Emiria announced in a somewhat calmer tone, trying to not look annoyed.
The announcement prompted Jenny to stand up with a happy smile on her face, before slightly smirking at Lucy and activating Ice Magic in one hand, "Congratulations to me! Although, it's only natural that the hostesses in Seigan Town would announce a wielder of Ice Magic as the very first choice!"
Hiyasu kindly spoke for Emiria, her eyes showing delight at her job as co-hostess, "Next, we have Lyon Vastia from the Lamia Scale guild!"
After Lyon stood up to give Risa an arrogant smirk for being announced as the second worthy mage, Hiyasu added in a calm manner, "Thirdly, there's the woman who can counter water with fire. Stand up, Risa Ryusei of the Sabertooth guild."
Emiria announced nicely, smirking a bit at the next name, "Speaking of water, Hiyasu, someone with Water Magic certainly displayed resilience in a fight right before that one with Risa began. Juvia Lockser, you fought with just enough skill to make the list."
Emiria stated with a facial expression that showed more annoyance, as she kept her tone of voice very neutral for the last person to be announced, "Finally, the last mage who shall help Hiyasu and I with this task shall be... Kotomi Takeuchi. The green-haired girl who fought hard to defeat me in a high-stakes battle. Kindly give her a round of applause."
Sherria, Kagura, and Minerva joined Emiria and Hiyasu with lightly clapping for Lucy, who simply remained as calm as Risa when she stood up. Lucy briefly looked at Minerva, who simply rolled her eyes in a rude manner from seeing that two of Sabertooth's mages were selected. Risa and Lucy joined the other mages in going to the front counter in the guildhall of Cerulean Frost, standing together behind Emiria and Hiyasu. They watched the sisters apply Ice Goddess Slayer Magic and Water Magic to their hands, before holding hands and using their magic to create a twister of icy winds that were in light blue and azure shades of blue.
Aside from Sherria inhaling the winds that were stirring up in the guildhall, everyone else covered their eyes to prevent blue clouds of diamond dust from getting in their eyes. That was the perfect opportunity for a dark blue bubble to strangely be fired into the guildhall, It oddly ended up bursting with frost surrounding it to only create a dark blue light while cold air filled the guildhall, and the moment that Emiria and Hiyasu built up enough speed was the moment that a certain woman's hand emerged from a small drop of water to lightly grab Hiyasu's ponytail.
Hiyasu and Emiria ran out of the guild at the same moment where the dark blue light faded, and the two women ran fast enough while running in a curved path to the icy cavern. Their trails of footprints in the snow provided a path for the mages to follow them, and all of the wizards in the guildhall opened their eyes. However, Minerva and Kagura watched all of the winners walk out of the guildhall with varying looks on their faces. Lucy and Risa anxiously followed the footprints outside while mages such as Lyon and Jenny were eager to see what the grand prize would be, and Minerva simply glanced at an interesting trail of footprints that were alongside the path that the hostesses had created. In fact, Minerva examined the footprints closely and scoffed slightly from how the shoe's imprint in the snow was an exact match to the footprints in the Seigan Town museum.
10 minutes later, in the icy cavern...
After all of the chosen mages followed the snowy path leading to the icy cavern, they went down into the cave to see the grand prize. They watched Emiria and Hiyasu move to the left and right sides of the cavern, allowing everyone to see the mint blue statue of the goddess being partially unfrozen while it resided on a pedestal. The statue had four icicles above it that weren't emitting any beams of light, which indicated that there were four seals remaining on the statue. Emiria began to smirk in a cocky manner, creating a light blue aura in her right hand to visually demonstrate that the winners needed to attack the statue with their spells.
That prompted Jenny to step forward, and she stretched out her hands while activating a spell called Blizzard Aura, and Jenny created a light blue sphere of ice between her palms. It slowly spun counterclockwise with frost emerging from it, and the sphere rotated faster when Jenny poured more magic into it. The attack glowed brighter, before Jenny thrusted her hands forward. The attack was propelled towards the statue, before bursting in a light blue explosion that resulted in gusts of cold blizzards going through the air. Jenny didn't mind that the high amount of white frost in the air had gotten in her hair, almost acting like silver hair dye, and she smiled in an arrogant manner from hearing the ice break.
Hiyasu watched another icicle on the wall glow in a light blue color with beams coming out of it, and another seal had been broken. Hiyasu and Emiria saw Jenny step back for the purpose of letting Juvia step forward, and Juvia aimed her left hand up at a dripping stalactite that was close to Emiria. Juvia sent her power into that droplet of water, before activating the Water Cyclone spell. She stretched out her arms to fire a spiraling vortex of water at the statue, and Juvia blinked her eyes with curiosity from seeing the spell suddenly become dark blue.
The vortex crashed into the statue, creating a blue blast of energy that was quite large, and the large blast was soon followed by an even larger blast in a dark blue color. Juvia was astounded by the level of strength in that spell, as well as the color, and even Hiyasu was surprised enough to look at Juvia with a slight frown of disapproval from thinking that Juvia must have been restraining her level of power on the fourth day of the event. To everyone's surprise, the clouds of smoke faded away to reveal that Juvia's spell wasn't powerful enough to break the fourth seal on its own and the attack's power spread outward to create large cracks in the walls around the statue. Furthermore, Juvia's attack even made some puddles of water be on the ground in places such as being behind Emiria and Hiyasu.
"What in the world was that?! Did you not stabilize your magic or focus the attack's power on the statue?!" Emiria asked Juvia with a miffed facial expression, feeling upset that another seal wasn't broken.
Juvia defensively replied to Emiria, as she stared at the statue in a confused manner, "Juvia didn't misguide the attack's power on purpose! Juvia thinks that a second kind of must've tampered with her own spell and made it gain too much force!"
After seeing Emiria glance at everyone behind her to see that no one else was there, Lyon stepped forward to say in a confident manner, "Allow me to assist Juvia."
Lyon used his Ice-Make Magic to activate the spell called Ice-Make: Snow Dragon, and he made a light green dragon emerge from his right hand. The dragon was made out of ice, and Lyon aimed it at the statue. The snow dragon aggressively charged at the statue, before ramming into it at high speeds, and a light green explosion occurred! The explosion was powerful enough to make the ice around the statue loudly crack again, resulting in the fourth seal being broken. That corresponded with the fourth icicle on the wall shining in a light blue color, which made Lyon proudly smile.
He turned around to arrogantly smirk at Risa, who felt disrespected enough to display her high amount of power. She briefly looked at Lucy for permission in going along with the others, and Lucy approvingly nodded while also giving the thumbs-up gesture that Sting would've done in this situation. Risa walked up to the statue, sensing the strange sensation of the ice goddess' statue tempting her to use magic. She unleashed the spell known as Magenta Psychic Ascent, and Risa fired four jagged and crescent-shaped magenta blades in midair. They merged together to form a ring that flew up to the highest point of the cavern, and Risa watched a magenta vortex emerge from the ring. It descended down to the statue at the same moment where Risa quickly created an Esper Ball in her right hand, and she quickly threw that spell at the statue.
The magenta pink blast that occurred was slightly larger than the plain pink blast, and the Psychic Magic was strong enough to make another area of the statue's ice shatter into pieces. Risa broke the fifth seal off of the statue, which caused another icicle to glow brightly. She only used Esper Ball as a power boost if it was needed, but making both spells strike the statue at the same time allowed the statue to feel Risa's immense level of power. She kindly smiled at Lucy, who was the person left with the task of breaking the final seal.
"Sixth spell of Wind Magic, I call upon thee! Drilling Wind Typhoon!" Lucy fiercely shouted while stepping forward, narrowing her eyes at the statue.
Juvia thought to herself while looking at Lucy, noticing Kotomi Takeuchi's way of speaking, "It... it can't be her! Juvia has heard Lucy be the one talking like that, but Kotomi cannot have that same form of phrasing!"
Lucy's hand was surrounded by an emerald green drill, before she inhaled a high amount of air to make five more emerald green drills be on top of it. Lucy ran towards the statue while sending Wind Magic down into her feet for a burst of speed, and Lucy attacked the remaining portion of ice that surrounded the ice goddess! When all six of the drills smashed through the ice to create an emerald green blast that was powerful enough to send Lucy flying backwards towards Risa, the sixth and final icicle began to shine brightly in a light blue color.
Emiria smiled in a gleeful and arrogant manner at the light blue icicles starting to form a large ring of light blue energy, watching it become mint blue like the statue, and even the statue itself started to glow in accord. The statue began to have the mint blue ring of light be above it, before the light went down to surround the statue, and the statue started to be engulfed in a mint blue aura. The ring went down to the ground, creating a ring of mint blue lights that surrounded the statue. As the mint blue aura started pulsating from within the pedestal, the lights became brighter.
That prompted Emiria to pull out the cerulean blue Frost Flute from the right pocket of her jacket, and she slowly brought the flute up to her mouth. Emiria made the light blue aura of Ice God Slayer Magic engulf her body, and she essentially sent her magical power into the flute. She played a calm and somewhat joyful melody that people would expect to hear during this town in the wintertime, and Emiria made sure that all of her musical notes were precise. She wanted to show respect to the goddess, wanting that respect to be traded for power, and everyone smiled at how Emiria ended the tune with a high note that sounded quite peaceful.
"What's going on?!" Emiria asked in a somewhat shocked manner, as she only heard the layers of the ice wall behind the statue start to break apart from within.
Lucy told Emiria in a calm tone, having a serious look on her face from observing the statue and the lights not changing in any way, "Emiria, you should probably let me get the ring off of the goddess. It sounds like your song made the statue release treasure that's been embedded in the wall, so we should just dig out all the riches and leave the cavern."
"I'm the hostess, along with Hiyasu! Don't tell me how to run this ceremony, Kotomi Takeuchi!" Emiria retorted in a somewhat irritated manner, as she looked at Lucy with the feeling of annoyance in her eyes.
Emiria shifted her attention to the statue, before loudly and confidently saying to it in a manner resembling a sacred chant, "Ice Goddess Yukishimou, beloved creator of Ice Magic and Water Magic! It is I, Emiria Hidenka, who first broke your seal with Hiyasu Hidenka by my side!"
Upon hearing someone quietly get up from one knee after a drop of water casually fell into a nearby puddle, Hiyasu thought to herself in a somewhat frightened manner, feeling the air in the cavern become much colder as the atmosphere, "What in the world is this chilling feeling?! Why is it so strong, yet familiar?!"
Emiria ignored the increase in coldness to loudly state in a confident manner, smiling as she built up more Ice Goddess Slayer Magic in her aura right before someone else created a slight amount of magic in their palm, "Listen to me, frigid and exalted ice goddess! Ice Goddess Yukishimou, my melody and magic have commanded that you bestow your power to-"
"Me." Suzuna interrupted in a cold tone of voice, smirking evilly as she simultaneously stabbed Emiria in the back and out through the stomach with a dark blue trident made from Water God Slayer Magic.
As Emiria was shocked that Suzuna had been behind her and surprisingly attacked her, Hiyasu was stunned to see that Suzuna had quietly applied Water God Slayer Magic to her feet in a split second before stabbing Emiria. That level of blinding speed was above Emiria's, but it had gone undetected due to Emiria's own magical power being much stronger in that moment. Hiyasu slightly backed away, only for Suzuna to aggressively knock her away with a single punch to the face, and Hiyasu landed against one of the ice walls.
She began to slide down the wall, feeling like she had been punched by an aggressive tidal wave, and Suzuna had a dark blue aura spiraling around her right hand. She closed her left hand into a fist, dispelling the lance that impaled Emiria, and seeing Hiyasu start to get up and walk over to her wounded sister only made Suzuna frown in a manner that expressed displeasure. Everyone else stepped back, thinking that Hiyasu was going to fight for Emiria's sake, but seeing Hiyasu use the Aqua Azure Restoration spell on Emiria's wounds only made most of their attention go to Suzuna.
Suzuna reached into the left pocket of her Tiffany blue skirt and pulled out the Frost Flute that had been in the storeroom, before taking out the ice key from the other pocket. She inserted the ice key into the flute that had been more hollow than Emiria's, and Suzuna made a dark blue aura engulf her body. She viciously smirked down at the flute that had light blue frost coming off of it, and Suzuna brought the flute up to her lips. Before Lucy could rush to stop Suzuna from playing the song that would put Seigan Town in danger, the precise melody for Blizzards Song of Cold Winters began to be played by Suzuna.
"That flute... It's chilling how the sound is normal with that key inside of it." Jenny stated aloud, looking just as worried as everyone else from hearing some ominous-sounding notes be played.
Risa responded in a concerned manner, hearing the high and low notes blend well together moments before the notes descended into being lower in the melody, "Well, we're about to find out how it sounds with the key outside of it."
Lucy stated aloud with a panicked look in her eyes, her face looking grim as she saw the key emerge from the flute with the dark blue aura coating it, "Suzuna, don't awaken that ice goddess!"
However, Lucy's words came too late. The ice key went towards the keyhole, going into it as a perfect fit, and the key itself became dark blue while the aura filled the keyhole. The dark blue aura began to change the color of the light surrounding the statue, making them go from being mint blue to being dark blue, and Suzuna's song soon reached its final note. That resulted in the lights around the pedestal ominously glowing brighter, their dark hues of blue seeming beautiful to Suzuna, and she joined everyone else in seeing the goddess statue immediately open its eyes.
The statue had plain blue eyes, along with lips that were pale blue, but both of the eyes began to become dark blue. The dark blue lights started to rise up from the ground, before floating around the goddess in a rapid manner to where the darkly light in its blue shade filled the icy cavern. The light even got the attention of the Sting, who entered the cavern with the other Sabertooth mages to just quietly see what had happened. As Sting tried to take a few steps forward the light ended up bursting outward to create gusts of wind that were extremely cold.
Sting and the others were being pushed back by the winds, only for Emiria to get up and angrily consume the icy wind. She had a furious look on her face, glaring at Suzuna for getting in her way in such a manner that seemed opportunistic, and Emiria even picked up a frozen puddle to eat the ice. She felt like it would be necessary to fight Suzuna over who was going to receive power from Yukishimou, but turning around for a moment to see Jenny trying to process everything that had recently happened only made Emiria feel that she needed to demand answers from the S-Class mage.
"Suzuna, why is someone like you appearing at this stage of things in the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour?!" Emiria angrily asked her, as she was readying herself to use powerful spells of Ice God Slayer Magic.
Suzuna explained herself in a calm manner, smiling at Emiria in a way that mocked her, "I'm not just appearing at this stage of things, Emiria. I thought you'd recall that Hiyasu noticed my presence at the very beginning of all this, and it was right here in this cavern. When it comes to judging how idiotic you are, I can only laugh."
"What about all these mages from different guilds? Was it part of your plan to make them come here?" Emiria asked in a stern manner, after taking a moment to look back at Lucy and the others.
Suzuna replied calmly while putting the flute in her pocket, before folding her arms and smirking more arrogantly, "Was that a mistake on my part, Emiria? If that's what you think, I'll gladly disagree. If I didn't tempt them all into coming here, you wouldn't have had enough power to break the seals and revive Yukishimou. Not only did I organize everything, but I've been watching over this event as much as I can. Don't overlook even the smallest drop of water."
"Thanks to you, the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour had situations where Hiyasu and I had to either raise the stakes or make nobles run from the area if they weren't interested in seeing whoever we fought against! Each fight was like a grift on our part, but several of the mages you brought to this town only wasted our time!" Emiria told Suzuna in an accusatory manner, blaming her for the event not producing four or five useful mages on the first day.
That prompted Suzuna to respond in an icy tone of voice, glaring at Emiria before glancing over at Lucy to give her the same cold glare, "They may have wasted your time, but these pawns helped me see each and every spell in yours and Hiyasu's arsenals. Although, I don't recall moving some pawns to a point to where they ran wild of their own accord underground."
Suzuna's remark caused Lucy to comment in an appalled manner, narrowing her eyes at what she viewed as disgusting behavior, "Hey, don't refer to us as your pawns! It's underhanded that you wanted Emiria and Hiyasu to use us as pawns, even though you manipulated Emiria and Hiyasu like pawns into having this whole event! The worst part is that you seem so calm and calculated about all this, Suzuna."
Suzuna responded to Lucy in a somewhat polite manner, before being rather disappointed, "Well, I have every right to act that way. Allowing people to have distaste for Emiria allowed me to pull the strings from the background, and having events such as fashion shows kept everyone's eyes off of me while I gained more profits. Of course, I can't say that I appreciate you snooping around in that back room to discover that I was selling gemstones that will be worthless to people outside of Seigan."
That prompted Risa to counter Suzuna's words with a look of disapproval appearing on her face, before looking confident at how Suzuna was becoming cornered in this argument, "That's nothing compared to how I don't appreciate you making Kusabue and Sherria retrieve that gemstone, since it was a red herring that you placed down in the icy caverns to make Emiria be framed! You overplayed your hand, if you thought Kusabue wouldn't tell the rest of her friends for us to investigate."
Risa continued in a calm and confident manner, as this information surprised Emiria and Hiyasu, "Not only is that where you screwed up, but having an ice block in the theme park's art gallery to hide research on the legendary rings was shady. Also, you took the losers of this event down into the icy prison because you wanted to drain their magical power each day for the purpose of making yourself look good! By the way, your red herring of a gemstone didn't stop Kotomi from solving the actual puzzle and finding out that this was your clever plan. If everything I'm saying is a pack of lies, Suzuna, then kindly let us see each of your desk drawers."
To Risa's surprise, Suzuna folded her arms and smiled in an eerily calm manner as she closed her eyes. It seemed like she didn't even mind being confronted about all of the evidence, not even choosing to deny that she did shady things whilst also taunting people with false clues such as red herrings to keep suspicions off of herself. In fact, Suzuna started to chuckle in a devious manner as if Risa's true accusations didn't even have any significance to her reputation. Since it seemed like Lucy and Risa had done a thorough investigation alongside their friends like detectives solving a mystery, Suzuna Hiyayakana sighed in a monotone manner as she was the culprit.
"Risa Ryusei and Kotomi Takeuchi, I must say that it slightly surprises me that you had the audacity to be digging deep into my motives. You've seen too much, and everyone else has heard too much. Therefore, it's a high priority that you'll have to die now after the goddess gives me more power." Suzuna stated with a menacing frown on her face, before seeing the light from earlier fade away to finally reveal the goddess in her new form.
Yukishimou Konatsumetai now had long and sweeping navy blue hair that reached down to her hips, along with having her left eye be pale blue while her right eye was in a cerulean hue of blue. Yukishimou also had short sky blue eyebrows that looked elegant as if she had been a princess, and she had pale skin that was a mixture of the colors grey and white. Yukishimou wore a sapphire blue shade of lipstick, and her fingernails were ocean blue on her left hand while being cobalt blue on her right hand. The goddess also wore a low-collared kimono worn by princesses and goddess, the kimono being azure blue, and there were six light blue snowflakes descending down the middle of the kimono. At the very bottom of the kimono, there was a light blue pattern of curving tidal waves.
The goddess had a menacing look on her face, frowning at all of the people in the icy cavern, and she watched Suzuna walk towards her. Suzuna took the flute out of her pocket again, symbolizing that she had been the one who resurrected Yukishimou from the ice that had sealed her away for centuries. That prompted the icy goddess to coldly look at Suzuna, before aiming her right hand down at the S-Class mage. That hand had the ring on it, which caused Lucy to widen her eyes in shock, and the goddess let her magic start to cycle through seven different shades of blue. After making the six blue auras engulf Suzuna's body, Yukishimou allowed herself to be coated in the auras while menacingly making her magical power surge up to high levels. She wasted no time with using the Ice Goddess Magic to slide towards Suzuna from behind, before wrapping her arms around the woman and letting a twister of Ice Magic and Water Magic in cycling shades of blue surround them.
It quickly faded away while creating frigid gusts of wind to reveal that Suzuna now had Tiffany blue hair that fell to her hips, along with her eyes being in that same shade of blue before everyone saw them become pupil-less, and Suzuna's midriff that had ruffles at the bottom was now Tiffany blue. The skirt and shoes also shared this color, only for the color to suddenly shift to being cerulean blue like the aura that dynamically changed while it was engulfing her body. She slowly rose her head up to face everyone, before stretching out her hands in an ominous manner.
Emiria shouted with an extremely furious look on her face, focusing all of her magical power into this fusion attack, "Ice Goddess' Homing Blizzard!"
Hiyasu fiercely yelled, wanting to strike Suzuna for her disobedience, "Aqua Azure Ring, rise up to combine with Azure Hydro and form the Aqua Ocean Blue Hydro Ring!"
Suzuna stated with an aggressive facial expression, sounding much colder than before, "Water God's Bubble Suppression."
Despite incorporating some their strongest spells into these fusion spells, Emiria and Hiyasu watched Suzuna fire six dark blue bubbles from her right hand. The bubbles quickly became neon blue with neon blue vortexes of ice swirling around in them, and Suzuna watched the attacks strike her projectiles. Emiria and Hiyasu both smirked arrogantly from seeing the massive blasts that were light blue and azure in color, only to see a two-layered massive blue blast spin outward towards them! It froze everything in its path, even freezing over the remnants of Emiria's spell.
She and Hiyasu became frozen in blocks of ice from simply being grazed by the icy winds, only to become unfrozen when Suzuna used the spell called Water God's Poseidon Sword. Suzuna created a long blade in her left hand, the handle of the sword being glacial blue with light blue frost coming off of it, and she slashed the frigid air in front of the hostesses to make a dark blue wave of water come from the cold and dark blue blade. The icy air made the wave of water grow larger in size, before it became lapis blue at the very last second, and the massive explosions in those alternating shades of blue caused Emiria and Hiyasu to scream in pain.
The aftereffect of that spell left several dark blue bubbles behind, and they shined with dark blue light emanating from them. Suzuna aimed her left hand down at Emiria, who felt some of the bubbles attach themselves to her body, and she closed her fist to make the bubbles detonate in large blasts! As Hiyasu heard Emiria scream in pain and cough up blood, she started to look fearful from seeing Suzuna make the bubbles become periwinkle blue. They became stuck to her body, before bursting to create powerful explosions, and Hiyasu was as badly wounded as her sister to where they struggled to stand up. Upon seeing Suzuna's level of power surge upward again while her lips formed a sadistic grin, Emiria and Hiyasu nearly gasped in a frightened manner as this seemed like their final day of existing.
Lucy shouted at Suzuna with fierceness in her eyes, her facial expression looking stern as she moved to shield Emiria from harm, "Suzuna, stop attacking them! As far as we're concerned, the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour is over."
Suzuna coldly responded to Lucy, speaking with Yukishimou's voice as she looked disgusted by her presence, "Shut your mouth, you green-haired piece of garbage. When I exit this cavern, all of Seigan will freeze under my power. Freeze, and then drown. Perhaps they'll even boil in scalding hot water whilst being impaled by new ice that I create with my power."
Lucy calmly responded while making an emerald green aura engulf her body, glancing at the ice in a stoic manner, "If you think you could ever freeze me with your level of Ice Magic, then that's an interesting joke."
"You insolent little girl! You dare to challenge Yukishimou Konatsumetai, the winter-creating goddess of water and ice?!" Suzuna asked her in an angered tone, the voice of the goddess sounding more enraged with some iciness in her words.
That prompted Lucy to reply with a serious facial expression, ignoring the amount of power that the goddess was creating as her eyes were focused on the sixth ring, "That's right. I hereby challenge you, and I'll pull that ring off of your finger. If you're so strong, then see if you can beat the woman who defeated Emiria."
Lucy activated the spell called Zephyr Punch, and she made an emerald green aura surround her right fist. She ran towards Suzuna, who unleashed a spell called Water God's Raining Wrath. Suzuna aimed her left hand up at the cavern's ceiling, and she shot out a giant bubble of navy blue water from her left hand. The bubble immediately ended up bursting for six navy blue vortexes of water to come down from the sky, but this prompted Lucy to apply Wind Magic to her left fist. She was able to use Zephyr Punch from both fists, and Lucy hastily punched the air at high speeds. She continued to punch the air, until Suzuna's vortexes got close enough to her.
The moment that the vortexes were about to hit Lucy was the moment where she activated Kaze's Feather Dance, and she applied Wind Magic to her feet for a burst of speed that would occur when she slid backwards. Lucy watched her opponent's attacks crash into the ground, creating six navy blue blasts that were enormous, but Lucy didn't expect the side effect of the spell to involve a large puddle of bubbling navy blue water to be left on the ground. She watched Suzuna rush forward to place her right hand in it, before activating a spell called Cerulean Geyser Whirlpool.
Suzuna made a towering whirlpool rise up from the navy blue water, watching it rapidly spin in the clockwise direction, and she watched the mages start getting sucked towards it. Risa narrowed her eyes while feeling angry enough to activate her dark magenta magic, and the dark magenta aura surrounded her body as she unleashed the spell called Magenta's Glittering Psychic Dark Flares. Risa unleashed a ring of dark magenta flames from her mouth, watching them go forward to strike the geyser, and she followed up that attack by firing an Esper Ball down at the water. It had been coated in the dark magenta aura, giving the spell much more power to where the dark magenta blast was able to levitate the twister in midair. The blast's shadow went outward, connecting with the shadows of the flames, and tall flames in the dark magenta color rose up from the ground as the initial flames were extinguished. As Risa kept her eyes on the brief smokescreen, Lucy decided to check on her icy rival.
"Emiria, are you okay?! Emiria, can you hear me?!" Lucy asked Emiria in a concerned manner, leaning forward over the woman who was badly wounded.
Emiria responded in a pained manner, groaning in frustration as she rolled over to look up at Lucy, "I'm a bit surprised that you're worried about me, especially since I was so bad to you throughout this event."
"You did cause me trouble, Emiria, but I can't just walk away after seeing you and Hiyasu being so heavily wounded now. As a Sabertooth mage, I still have to protect people who are being harmed by evil mages." Lucy replied while maintaining her worried facial expression, before turning away to have a determined look on her face.
Lucy turned around to see Suzuna make the twister of water be in a neon blue color, before making it burst to leave behind neon blue water that quickly froze to become neon blue icicles. The spell was called Ice God's Spinning Fangs, and the icicles rapidly spun as they fell down to the ground. Some of them made contact with Risa's flames, causing smokescreens and heated explosions to occur, and the ones that landed on the ground were quickly freezing it in a thick layer of ice. If those were supposed to be Yukishimou's icy fangs, then Lucy would gladly unleash her own type of fangs.
She made her hands form the shape of a fanged mouth, and Lucy unleashed the spell called Wind Altitude Aerial Burst. She swung her hands forward for her attack to absorb the massive amount of icy wind and heated air in the cavern, and Lucy immediately fired the attack at Suzuna. Suzuna simply stood there, letting herself get hit by the attack. However, that was intentionally done for Lucy and the others to see that the icy winds from earlier allowed Suzuna to create a neon blue shield of frost around her entire body.
She seemed invincible, smirking evilly as she could attack her foes without even taking any damage from their spells. Suzuna activated a new spell called Ice God's Neon Lights, and the spell made her shoot out neon blue beams of ice resembling aurora lights. As Jenny tried to overcome her feelings of fear from earlier, she held out her hands accidentally shot out her Ice Magic at one of the beams. The light blue aura sphere made the beam become that same color, but it also made the shield around Suzuna start to break apart like shattering ice.
As Lucy was struck by the beams that created massive explosions in shades of blue, she coughed up blood and screamed in pain. The attacks left large ice burns on her body, the ice giving her more pain as icy frost in the air came down on it. She struggled to stand up right now, not liking how Suzuna was such a powerful enemy, but the light blue clouds of smoke that were behind the neon blue clouds revealed something that surprised Lucy. Suzuna's shield disappeared, which meant that this was probably the best moment to attack her. Since there was a way to achieve victory on the final day of this icy event, Lucy faintly smiled as an idea and a theory began to take shape in her mind.
How was Chapter 54? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Lucy and Risa have joined the other winners of the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour in helping Emiria and Hiyasu unseal the goddess, but Suzuna stole the power for herself. The abilities of the goddess have infused with Suzuna's own level of skill, along with the goddess seeming to possess her, so Lucy and the other wizards will need to find a way to defeat this fearsome foe. By the way, this is the eleventh part of the Azure Ice Arc! I'll update soon. :)
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