Hey everyone ! As you can see, I'm still alive. I know it's been a long time, but I think you should try and get used to that kind of waiting as I still suffer from this whole "working from home" deal and if you add to that the fact that I'm also working on some other projects, well I can't work as much as I'd like on this story. I hope you can understand that and that I'm sorry for the delay. I hope you'll like this chapter anyway. Enjoy !

Chapter 57 : Overflowing water and frozen infinity

While Lucy and Gajeel's group were busy dealing with their own obstacles and trials, the rest of their friends were currently facing their own problem, like Juvia and Gray. The ice mage and his stalker were currently making their way through the base, plowing through the numerous enemies that came to them.

ICE MAKE : LANCE !

WATER SLICER !

A salvo of ice spears and crescent shaped water blades rain down on the Shocker soldiers, sending them all flying everywhere as Gray and Juvia stood side by side, slowly progressing in the long hallway they were currently going through.

- "Those guys clearly don't know when to give up." Said Gray, looking at the soldiers that kept coming back for more.

- "Then we'd just have to keep on beating them down until they can't get back up." Added Juvia, water bubbling around her hand when two new voices interrupted them.

- "You mages really are passionate when it comes to make a mess out of those guys." Said a young man with wavy shoulder length brown hair with a long coat as he fight off some Shocker Soldier.

- "Of course they are, Potato. From what I gathered, those fuckers did quite a number on them in the past." Added a man with slicked-back black hair and a goatee, also putting some soldier right where they belonged, laying on the ground.

- "So you two are Kamen Riders, right ?" Asked Gray without slowing down, sending a massive ice wheel at the soldiers.

- "That's right. I am Kazumi Sawatari, or Kamen Rider Grease." Said the first one, introducing himself.

- "And I'm Gentoku Himuro, Kamen Rider Rogue. Nice to meet you !" He said as he turned around and opened his vest, showing a shirt with 'Nice to meet you !' written on it, both in English and Japanese, which made the mages deadpan at him.

- "Why did you do that ?" Asked Juvia, sweat dropping at the action.

- "Don't try to understand. Beard is just weird." Explained Kazumi.

- "As if you're not weird too, Potato." Countered Gentoku, the young man turning to face his comrade, the two looking like they were about to jump at each other throat.

- "Please, now is not the time to fight ! Or at least not among ourselves !" Said Gray as he pulled them away from each other. "We've got friends to rescue and we won't do that if we're quarreling over such trivial matters."

- "The guy's right." Said Gentoku, calming down a little. "Let's look for the missing Riders."

The four of them then got back to the task at hands, plowing their way through Shocker's troop until they reached a new hallway where they came to a stop, coming face to face with a large platoon of Shocker Soldiers and a few monsters waiting for them.

- "Well, would you look at that. Looks like they waited for us." Said Kazumi.

- "Then it's a good thing." Stated Juvia. "This means that we're heading in the right direction. We'll just have to pass through them."

- "Well then, let's kick it up a bit." Said Gentoku as he and Kazumi pulled out two Driver, blue with a wrench like handle and some sort of reservoir on the side, connected to a hole in the middle of the device. Kazumi also grabbed a sort of spout bag with a robot on it while Gentoku grabbed a purple bottle with a golden cap, inserting the two trinkets on their Driver.

ROBOT JELLY !

CROCODILE !

- "HENSHIN !" They both shouted at the same time, pulling the leer down, with made two cylinder press down on the trinkets, squeezing the spout bag and cracking the bottle.

TSUBURERU ! NAGARERU ! AFUREDERU ! ROBOT IN GREASE ! BURAA !

WARERU ! KUWARERU ! KUDAKECHIRU ! CROCODILE IN ROGUE ! ORAA !

Both Riders transformed, Juvia and Gray glancing at the two liquid filled container that appeared around them, the first squeezing down on Kazumi, the second shattering around Gentoku. Now ready to fight, the battle began between the mages and Rider on one side and the Shocker Soldiers on the other. Grease, Rogue, Juvia and Gray had little to no problem to deal with their opponent, ice and water pummeling them while the Riders kicked and punched their way through the soldiers without breaking a sweat. But the four of them felt that this was too easy. They were starting to wonder what the hell their opponents were preparing when Gray suddenly got hit a crescent shaped water blade that sent him back, away from the rest of his friends.

- "Gray-sama !" Shouted the blue haired girl when the same thing happened to Grease and Rogue, the two Riders sent away and landing near Gray whose eyes were on the one responsible for the attack. Eyes that slightly widened when he realized who it was.

- "This is not good." Juvia, intrigued by Gray and the Riders reaction turned around to see who they were talking about and her own eyes widen. Standing a few feet away from her stood a monster that seemed awfully familiar to her. It was a female, judging by the silhouette, with dark blue skin that seemed to be covered with some kind of scales and covered in a black armor that was shaped like a coat with jagged whitish trim. Its legs were brown and shaped like boots and its head looked like it had been pulled completely inside a hat, blue orbs shining through tears in the 'hat' with tuft of what looked like blue hair peeking out of the bottom of the hat. And all over its body, there were pipes sticking out of her wrist, ankle, waist, shoulder and other places.

- "Is that… Juvia ?" Asked Juvia, eyes squinting as she looked at the creature whose hands were starting to ooze with water.

- "Looks like it." Confirmed Gray as he got back up and joined Juvia. "It look a lot like the monster you turned into back when you were a part of the Element 4."

- "Then it surely is one of those Another we heard about." Added Kazumi, also back on his feet.

- "If that's the case, then it's your job to defeat it." Stated Gentoku. "Go take care of that thing. We'll take care of the others."

Juvia nodded and turned to her Another, the boys taking care of the Soldiers in the meantime to make sure Juvia could focus on her own opponent.

WATER SLICER !

Juvia used her magic to send a wave made of multiple scythes blades made of water at her opponent, who counter-attacked with the exact same technic, the Another water being much darker than Juvia's, both attack basically cancelling each other.

WATER CANE !

Seeing that it didn't worked, Juvia immediately switched to another technique, creating a long whip with her water she then wave in between the water blade, successfully landing a hit on her evil twin who seemed to be unaffected, which was because it had just turned its whole body into water. It surprised Juvia at first before remembering that this was supposed to be a monster with a copy of her own power, which of course included the ability to turn its body into water. Juvia then realized that this fight might be much more of a pain than she first though. With both of them able to turn into water, how were they supposed to beat the other ?

But alas, this wasn't the only problem Juvia was going to have to deal with.

After throwing a few more attacks, also dodging the ones the Another was sending her way, Juvia noticed that her opponent had come to a stop. Juvia stood there, wondering what the hell was happening when she noticed the puddles she was standing on was being sucked into the pipes on her ankles, the beast roaring as she absorbed the liquid before unleashing a massive water bullet that Juvia barely dodged, the projectile reaching the wall on the other hand of the hallway, pulverizing it as if it was made of polystyrene.

"Does that thing become stronger by absorbing the water around it ?" Wondered Juvia with wide eyes before squinting them, clenching her teeth. "Then it's probably what happened with Juvia's Water Cane. This is going to be a pain to deal with."

As soon as those though had formed in her mind, she noticed the monster running at her with claws of water on its hand. Of course, Juvia's first reflex was to turn herself into water, but alas, that was exactly what the monster wanted her to do. As the water claw reached Juvia's body, the hand stopped moving inside of her water body and Juvia could feel her own body being absorbed into the hand. Eyes widening in horror, she tried to fight against it but it was fruitless. She was starting to fear the worst when…

ICE MAKE : SWORD !

Gray, after noticing what was happening to Juvia, managed to get out of his own fight for a moment to ran at Another Juvia, swinging a sword made of ice at its arm, forcing it to take a few steps back and allowing Juvia to reform her body, her eyes wide in fear of what almost happened to her.

- "Gray-sama… Thank you."

- "It's nothing." Answered Gray, eyes locked on the monster in front of him. "You might be the one who has to destroy that thing, but it doesn't mean I can't give you a hand. You'll be okay, you two ?"

- "Who do you think we are ?" Asked Grease while pushing back some soldiers. "We can perfectly take care of ourselves."

- "Don't worry for us." Added Rogue, punching a few soldiers. "We'll deal with those guys. You stay here and help her out."

- "Alright." Gray then turned back at the monster who was glaring at him, Juvia standing up by his side. "You can still fight, right Juvia ?"

- "Of course… Juvia won't be defeated that easily." Stated Juvia.

- "Perfect… Then let's show that thing what Fairy Tail mages can do. Besides, I've an idea…"

ICE MAKE : LANCE !

Gray created his famous spear shaped attack, the volley of icicle pushing back the Another a few steps.

WATER NEBULA !

Juvia, keeping a bit of distance with the monster, created two column of water rotating around each other as they came crashing down on the monster whose first reflex was to try and absorb the water. However, Gray came running to the monster, grabbing it for a few seconds before diving to the side to avoid the water attack that was closing onto the monster who, surprisingly, got swept off it feet by the water and sent crashing into a wall. When it got back up, it looked down at its arms and noticed that the pipes that were meant to absorb water had been clogged by ice, courtesy of Gray, said ice mage smirking at the monster he was facing.

- "I'd like to see you try to absorb her magic now." Taunted Gray as he turned to Juvia. "No need to hold back now."

Juvia smirked too and ran at her evil twin, her whole body turning into water as she crashed into the monster, taking it for a ride, sending it crashing down to the ground with the power of ten waterfalls, leaving the monster in a crater and it was just the beginning.

ICE MAKE : HAMMER !

The crater grew in size when a massive hammer made of ice fell down on the Another Juvia, crushing it down and burying it in the ground. It, of course, wasn't enough, as the creature got back up, head down and arms limping as it growled lowly.

WATER SLICER !

Juvia sent another wave of water blades at her twin and surprisingly, the blades were sucked into the pipes of the monster, shocking the mages as this shouldn't have happened.

- "But… Juvia though Gray-sama blocked the pipes ?"

- "I did !" answered Gray, just as surprised as she was. "It shouldn't have disappear like that ! What happened ?" He looked closely at the monster and he saw some kind of smoke coming out of the pipes. "Is that…"

*GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH* the monster suddenly roared loudly, its shout echoing and making the wall and ground tremble as smoke exploded from the creature, the air heating suddenly in the room.

- "It's steam !" Realized Juvia. "It's just like Juvia when she's angry !"

- "That make sense as it's your Another." Said Gray as he clenched his teeth. "However, I already proved that I can freeze boiling water. Stay away for now, Juvia. I'll take care of it." Gray felt confident, but maybe he shouldn't have.

ICE MAKE : GEYSER !

Gray summoned a mountain of spikes under the monster who surrounded itself with a bubble of boiling water and the ice melted instantly when it came in contact with it, taking Gray by surprise. The Another Juvia then summoned its own version of the Water Nebula straight at Gray who created a shield to protect himself and Juvia, but it only took a few second for the boiling water to melt the shield before the wave engulfed the two mage, burning their skin as they got washed away, the two ending on the floor, Gray coughing out water that burned his tongue as the monster began to slowly walk toward them.

"What can we do ?" Wondered Juvia as she watched the monster getting closer. "I can't use my water as it can absorb it to get stronger and its water is so hot even Gray-sama can't freeze it. How can we fight this thing ?" The monster was now right in front of her, a hand pointed at her and about to finish what it started before when…

SINGLE FINISH !

FUNKY BREAK ! CROCODILE !

Before the monster could reach Juvia, it was blasted away by a rapid succession of gold lightning and a crocodile jaw shaped energy construct which send the monster stumbling backward, the mages turning to look at Grease and Rogue, their weapons raised and walking toward them.

- "Does this guy is being a pain ?" Asked Kazumi at his partners who glared back at the monster.

- "Yeah… more than we first though." Admitted Gray as he looked at the steaming monster. "This thing's water is so hot it melt right through my ice."

- "And since that thing can absorb water, Juvia can't fight it since she could be absorbed." Resumed Gentoku "The situation is quite problematic. But there might be a solution." Both mages and Kazumi turned their head to Gentoku as he explained. "We saw back there that two of your friend managed to defeat their Another by using Kabuto's Zecter and Beast's Magic Ring. So maybe…"

- "We could also do something like this." Understood Kazumi as he powered down, taking his Driver of his waist and giving it to Juvia. "Here. Try to use this."

- "Are… Are you sure ?" Asked the water mage as she grabbed the Sclash Driver and the Robot Sclashjelly. "How will you fight if you give Juvia all this ?"

- "Don't you worry about it." Answered Kazumi as he took out another Build Driver and the Grease Perfect Kingdom Adapter. "I've got some aces up my sleeves, even though I might not need it for this fight. Now, go and show this beast that the original is better."

Juvia nodded and got back up, using her magic on the device and trinkets which both changed a bit. The Sclashjelly turned from robot to some kind of half-fish woman and the Driver turned a darker shade of blue with a bright blue handle instead of the yellow wrench shaped one. She put the Driver on her waist and turned the cap on the Sclashjelly before putting it in the Driver.

MERMAID JELLY !

Mechanical noises were heard as Juvia took a stance, her furious evil twin throwing a wave of boiling and steaming water at her, Juvia standing her ground.

- "HENSHIN !" She pressed on the lever just as the water fell around her, swirling as the same cylinder appeared around her.

TSUBURERU ! NAGARERU ! AFUREDERU ! MERMAID IN AMEONNA ! BURAA !

Once the cylinder appeared around Juvia, it got filled with blue water, some pipes around the structure absorbing some of the boiling water to add to the cylinder which, once full, squeezed around Juvia, forming the armor before exploding, the explosion of the structure blasting the boiling water away. Water then shot out of the headwear, the liquid raining down on her and finishing the armor. Juvia was now wearing a dark blue armor with a black suit underneath, the same kind of armor as Grease. The rest of the armor, which had been created by the overflowing liquid, was a lighter blue, adding fin like element on the forearm and shoulder pads, completed with a headwear that looked like fin, showing her eyes under it. And speaking about forearm, she had a dark blue version of the Twin breaker on her left arm and some kind of pipes on her right.

- "Not bad at all…" Commented Kazumi as he looked at Juvia who was busy looked at her armor. "It does feel powerful…"

- "It… looks a lot like the armor I had during the attack of Phantom Lord." Noticed Gray, now realizing that the armor he used when he fought the hybrid Juvia when Phantom Lord attacked was based on Grease.

Juvia, once the surprise had passed, looked at her opponent as it unleashed yet another tidal wave at Juvia who simply let the wave fell on her, trapping her in a swirl of boiling water which didn't bothered the water mage at all. And for a pretty good reason. Soon, the water got sucked in the pipes on her right hand, leaving not a single drop behind. Then she pointed her hand at her evil twin and water bullet shot out of the pipes at such speed that the monster couldn't stop or absorb them, forcing him back as Juvia ran at the monster, Twin Breaker in attack mode, easily piercing through the creature defenses and sending blow after blow, not giving her twin a single moment to breathe, sparks flying all around with each blow as the monster got pushed back more and more.

- "That girl know how to fight." Commented Gentoku as he watched Juvia landing a roundhouse kick at Another Juvia. "For a mage, she's pretty tough."

- "That is true." Added Kazumi. "I have to admit that at first, I though the weak point of mages was their physical strength, but I can see that I was wrong."

- "That's a mistake a lot of people tend to make." Admitted Gray as he kept looking at Juvia who was mopping the floor with her opponent. "But you can't underestimate mages like that. And certainly not when they are member of Fairy Tail."

As they talked, Juvia managed to send her opponent to the ground, giving her enough time to plug a few things in her Twin Breaker, which was still in Attack Mode.

TWIN ! READY, GO ! TWIN BREAK !

Juvia held her left arm vertically, the raging pile pointing upward as water from all around her gather at the tip, like a siphon absorbing it all in the golden spike, which included whatever water was oozing out of the monster in front of her. After a few seconds, the siphon disappeared, the Twin Breaker now surrounded by a bluish aura as Juvia shot forward, the same aura around her forming a swirl, just like her Water Jigsaw, and once she was close enough, she struck her evil twin with the Twin Breaker which pierced the monster and shot a powerful focused blast of water right through it, the blast exploding the monster as the water kept shooting forward and destroyed the wall a few meters behind. Once the monster was destroyed, all that was left behind was a young unconscious woman and a broken watch like device that Gentoku picked up.

- "And that's one down." He said as he looked at the broken watch. "I wonder how many of them are left by now ?"

- "I don't know, but we'll get them all eventually." Said Kazumi as he took his Driver and Sclashjelly from Juvia. "Nice fight, by the way."

- "Thank you. Your powers are really impressive." Thanked Juvia with a little nod.

- "Yeah, that was a great fight." Added Gray. "But we're not done yet. We still have to find the others and help them before anything bad could happen to them." While Gray was trying to wake Juvia who had fainted when he praised her fight, Kazumi and Gentoku were looking at the broken watch in the latter hand, frowning as they thought about something.

- "Speaking of watches, why didn't he came with us ?" Asked Kazumi at his comrade. "He should feel concerned more than anyone else."

- "I think he had some things to settle back home. But he'll come." Answered Gentoku. "Just not right now."

- "Guys, are you ready ?" Asked Gray, standing next to Juvia who was awake and ready to go. "We have Riders to save."

- "You're right. Let's go."

The group then resumed their search, finally able to reach the end of this hallway and after looking around for a few minutes, they finally found what they were looking for, or at least partially. As they were about to turn at a corner, they were stopped by a red flying creature that slammed onto Gray's forehead, forcing him to a stop as the group also stop to look at whatever stopped them, only to find a small red bird with a large ring on its torso hovering in front of them.

- "Wait… Is that ?"

- "One of Haruto's PlaMonster : Garuda !" Finished Juvia as Gray took a step forward, looking straight at the bird.

- "Then I guess it means that Haruto is near, right ?" Garuda screeched a little as if to say 'yes'. "Then lead us to him. We'll give him a hand."

With another noise, Garuda began to fly away, the mages and Riders following it as it turned a few times, passed by many doors and Shocker troop our group easily got rid off until Garuda stopped in front of another door.

- "He's right behind that door, then ?" Garuda nodded at Gentoku. "Alright, then. Let's go !"

The door opened and the group entered the room only to take a step back, surprised by how cold it was in this room, the group immediately noticing the ice that was scattered everywhere in many form and size. Even Gray, who wasn't the kind of guy to usually feel the cold was shivering a little. Then, there was an explosion in the middle of the room and out of the dust cloud shot a shining slivery armor clad young man that rolled on the ground a few seconds before coming to a stop, the armor disappearing to reveal Haruto.

- "Haruto !" Said Rider turn around as he got to his knee to see his two fellow guild member running to him, followed by Gentoku and Kazumi, much to his surprise.

- "What ? What are you all doing here ?!"

- "What does it look like ? We're here to save you and the others !" Answered Gray as he helped Haruto to stand up.

- "But how did you know that we were in a pinch ?" Asked Wizard.

- "Gentaro's Burgermeal. It send us a video of Gentaro's fight." Explained Juvia. "We know that you're facing against Another Mages."

- "Another Mages ?"

- "Those are just like Another Riders, but for mages from this world." Explained Gentoku as he shown Haruto the broken watch they got after Juvia's fight. Haruto's eyes widen a bit before he sighed.

- "Then it does explain why this thing felt so familiar." He said as he turned to look at something that stood in the middle of the room. As the smoke cleared, they saw a humanoid monster with black eyes that shone dangerously on a white face with sharp demon-like teeth. On top, he had a mane of black hair with the tips of his strands seemingly frozen. It was a buff monster without any armor on his upper body and arms that seemed to be carved out of ice, a symbol tattooed on its right pectoral with black armor covering the legs and feet. The hair, symbol and ice made it very easy to understand what this thing was exactly. "It's Another Gray."

- "An… Another Gray-sama !? Juvia… Juvia's not ready for this…" Cried the water mage as she held her face between her hands, Kazumi looking at her in disbelief.

- "Are you sane ?"

- "If it's my Another, then I'll deal with him." Said Gray as he took a few steps, already taking his usual fighting stance.

ICE MAKE…

*BAOOM*

Before Gray could do anything, he was blasted off his feet by some explosive bullets, forcing him back as the one who fired at him walked to stand right next to the Another.

- "Well, well, well… Would you look at that ? Mages and Riders vainly trying to stop us, how original…"

- "You !" Gray growled as he stood up, pointing at the one who fired at him, a familiar gorilla robot covered with cannons. "You were on Galuna Island ! You're the one who resurrected Deliora's corpse !"

- "Oh, you remember me. I feel so honored." Thanked Gunrilla with full sarcasm in his voice. "Looks like you all came just in time to save your friend. Not that it will matter in the end."

- "The only thing that doesn't matter here is whatever your babbling about." Said Kazumi as he and Gentoku took a few steps forward.

- "You can try if you want, but you won't stop us and in the end, we will prevail." Added the bearded man.

- "Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that if I were you." Said Gunrilla as Shocker soldiers and Lieutenant entered the room, all standing just behind the gorilla. "As I said, whatever you do won't matter. Your situation is hopeless."

- "Hopeless ? You're wrong." Stated Haruto as he got back up. "As long as we keep on fighting, there will always be hope." He then looked at Gray and Juvia. "You two go and take care of Another Gray. We'll take care of those guys." As he said that, Gentoku and Kazumi had both put Build Driver on their waist and got ready.

GREASE PERFECT ! ARE YOU READY ?

PRIME ROGUE ! ARE YOU READY ?

- "HENSHIN !"

FARMERS FESTIVAL ! GREASE PERFECT ! GAKIN ! GOKIN ! GAKON ! DOCKING !

TAIGI BANSEI ! PRIME ROGUE ! DORYADORYADORYADORYADORYADORYA DORYAA !

- "ANNIHILATE THEM !" And with this last shout from Gunrilla, the fight began. The three Riders were facing Gunrilla and his squadron while Juvia and Gray began to fight the Ice mage evil twin.

ICE MAKE : LANCE !

Gray summoned his spears made of ice, his opponent doing the same, some spears cancelling each other while some managed to go through, forcing the two ice masters to dodge the attack.

WATER SLICER !

Juvia, using the fact that the Another was still in mid-air, fired her water blades at him, hoping to at least do some damages. However, the Another waved a hand at the blades which all froze in an instant. But the most surprising part was that the Another then grabbed some of the frozen blade and began to eat them.

- "What ?! He can eat ice ?!" Exclaimed Juvia while Gray grit his teeth.

- "Just like ash for brain and the other metallic dumbass… Don't tell me it also…"

Before he could finish his sentence, Gray was interrupted by a roar from his double as he unleashed a wave of cold air followed by another flurry of spears, Gray building a shield of ice to protect himself and Juvia. However, and much to his surprise, he could see a thin film of frost covering his shield which then shattered like crystal when the spears came in contact with it, pummeling the two mages who could only watch in disbelief.

- "Did it… Did it just freeze my shield ?!" Asked Gray, eyes wide in shock. "Just how cold is that guy ?"

- "If he can freeze Gray-sama's ice, Juvia can't imagine what he can do to her water." Added Juvia, feeling like this was going to be a pretty one-sided match for her.

- "If you're not feeling right about this, then don't fight, Juvia." Advised Gray. "Or at least don't come to close to him. I'll take care of him."

ICE MAKE : SAUCER !

Gray created a giant buzzsaw made of ice that shot at the Another while spinning at high speed. However, the Another opened his mouth and a gust of cold air came out of it, freezing the buzzsaw as the Another Saucer shot at it, shattering Gray's while shooting at Gray who felt like he had to test something.

ICE MAKE : SHIELD !

Gray created a new wall of ice and this time, the wall put up with it, the Saucer leaving deep gash in the wall but at least it withstood the attack.

- "I see…" Grinned Gray. "I understand how it works. It's not his attack that freeze over my ice, put the air that come out of him. Things might be easier than I first though in the end."

- "Gray-sama ! Watch out !" Juvia's warning came just in time as the Another just fired with a replica of Gray's Ice Cannon, the cannonball piercing through the shield and hitting Gray in the shoulder, sending him to the ground as a second one was already closing on him. However…

SIERRA CANE !

A long rod made of boiling water appeared on the cannonball's trajectory, the scalding water and the strength of the cane being enough to shatter the ice before it could reach Gray who looked at his partner.

- "If it's his air that can freeze anything, then Juvia should be able to take care of the ice." She said as she stood beside Gray. "I can still fight !"

The Another growled and launched a full salvo of spears at the two, only to be engulfed by a wave of hot water which weakened the spears who were then easily destroyed by Gray's own spears, shattering his opponent's ice before raining down on said monster. And for a few minutes, the same kind of schema kept repeating itself, Juvia using her water to weaken the opponent's ice and giving Gray the opportunity to strike.

- "Well, they're doing pretty well." Noticed Kazumi as he sliced through some Shocker soldier with the Stag Blade on his arms. "Better than expected, at least."

- "It's true that they weren't off to a good start." Admitted Gentoku, using his Steam Blade and Nebulasteam Gun to defend himself. "An ice monster able to even freeze ice against an ice and water mage, it wasn't the best match up to begin with."

- "As long as they have hope, they'll still have a chance." Added Haruto as he slashed an opponent with the AxCalibur, feeling confident about their friends victory.

But it may have been a bit too soon to think about that.

After taking blows for 5 minutes, the Another had enough. He roared as cold air burst out of him, freezing the ground as spikes came out of the frozen floor, shooting at Gray and Juvia from under them, making them jump around to avoid being skewered. However, this was not what the monster wanted. The Another took a deep breath and spat a chunk of ice that shot through the room and hit Juvia in the stomach, sending the water mage to the ground with a cry of pain.

- "JUVIA !" Gray immediately rushed to her, looking at the wound. There was no blood, but it wasn't a good sign either. Juvia's breath was short and erratic and she her skin was weirdly cold. Too cold. "What is happening ?"

- "Leg… Juvia's legs…" Was all Juvia managed to say but it was enough. Gray looked at Juvia's legs and sure enough, something was wrong with her. Her feet were now made of ice and the ice was slowly crawling up her legs.

- "Are you… freezing ?" Was all Gray could say when he felt a chill down his spine, looking up to see his twin above them, a sword made of ice in one hand, falling down toward them to slice them in half. Gray put his hands in position to counter it, but it was soon proved to be unnecessary.

GOLD ! READY, GO ! PERFECT KINGDOM FINISH ! DOGODOGODOGODOGODOGON !

READY, GO ! PRIME SCRAP BREAK !

Both Grease and Rogue met the Another in mid-air with their finisher, both attack connecting at the same time which send the monster flying to the other side of the room, giving Gray some time to think about the situation and what to do.

- "What's happening to her ?" Asked Haruto as he kneeled next to Juvia, in front of Gray.

- "That bastard shot her with something and it's slowly freezing her." Explained Gray through clenched teeth. "Do you know of a way to save her ?"

- "There's only one way to get rid of it : by destroying the monster." Explained Kazumi. "It always worked like this."

- "If you destroy that thing, it should destroy whatever he put in her." Added Gentoku. "But this thing can only be destroyed by you. You think you can do it ?"

- "You kidding ? Even if I couldn't, I would try anyway" ! There's no way I'm giving up just like that !"

- "Good to know. Then take this." Haruto then handed Gray his Infinity Ring, the ice mage looking at the Ring with wide eyes. "Juvia got rid of her double by using a Sclashjelly and a Sclash Driver so you should do the same. Now go show that thing what it means to have hope."

Gray looked at the ring, remembering that this was supposed to allow Haruto to access his strongest form and according to what the Slayers told him and the others, it was one hell of a strong form. Grinning, he tightened his fist around the ring, letting his magic merge with it while his evil twin got back up, alas too late to stop Gray from getting his hands on this new power. Now holding a light and dark blue ring, a WizarDriver with the color scheme as the ring, meaning it was dark blue and the hand was lined with light blue instead of orange, appearing on his waist before getting up and sliding the hand to the right side.

SHABADOOBI, TOUCH HENSHIN ! SHABADOOBI, TOUCH HENSHIN !

- "HENSHIN !"

FROZEN INFINITY, PLEASE ! KŌRI-SHIMO-HYO, GAKIN-TSUMETAI-TŌSHŌ !

The magic ring appeared behind Gray and cold winds burst out of it, forcing the onlookers to look away as the air wrapped around him, forming a new version of the Infinity Style. This one was light blue instead of silvery, the diamond like armor now a darker shade of blue and looked like chunks of ice, with stalagmite on the shoulders and smallest spikes on the forearms. On his head, no helmet but instead a vizor that was made of clear ice which covered Gray's eyes. Looking at his new armor, Gray nod approvingly before glancing at Juvia, whose body was now frozen up to her waist, sign that she had not much time left. He had to beat that thing and quickly or else Juvia would become an ice sculpture for life. The Another unleashed another wave of freezing air at Gray who simply put his hands together and stretched them toward his opponent.

ICE SHIELD, PLEASE !

A magic circle appeared around his hands and a massive wall of ice appeared, blocking the attack but, unlike the other ice attack thrown before, without freezing over. Gray then charged at his evil twin, dodging the ice spears thrown his way to reach him and start to pummel him, his punched leaving cracks on the part of his body that were made of ice. At some point, the another made blades grow on his arms to fight back, but Gray wasn't done.

CONNECT, PLEASE !

Gray put his hand in the magic circle and pulled a shining two-tone blue axe looking like the Axcalibur but without the dragon theme, replaced instead by a demon like creature that made his friends brow furrow wondering what that could mean. But now wasn't the time for that.

TURN ON !

Gray turned the axe into its Calibur Mode and used it to cut through the ice blades effortlessly, dealing a few more slashes at the creature, pushing him back until he managed to throw him to the ground. As the creature got back up, Gray turned to look at Juvia who was ice up to her shoulders. Time for fun was over, he had to finish it all right now. For that, he turn the Axcalibur in Ax mode and touched the hand on it with his ringed one.

HIGH TOUCH, FREEZING STRIKE ! GAKINGAKIN !

Frost shot out of magic circle behind Gray, frost that covered the ground until it reached the monster which got quickly encased completely in ice while Gray waved his axe around, energy building up in it as it slowly grew in size. When it reached the maximum size, he swung it down at the monster, cleaving it clear in half, the ice shattering as the creature exploded. As soon as the creature exploded, Gray turned around to see how was Juvia and sighed in relief as he saw her body slowly thawing out. He unmorphed and walked over to his friends, giving Haruto his ring back.

- "Thanks for the help."

- "No problem. You did great with it." Congratulated Haruto. "And it was just in time."

- "I can see that." Gray then kneeled down next to her. "You're alright ?"

- "Juvia is fine." Said the girl as she got back up. "A little cold, but fine."

- "Then everything's alright." Said Kazumi.

- "Now that's settled, we've still got to find whatever Shocker is planning in here." Reminded Gentoku. "Did you found anything before finding this cold dude ?"

- "Beside that generator, not much." Said Haruto as he pointed at a massive generator on the other side of the room. "But with that being said, I felt something weird ever since we arrived. As if there was energy running through the whole base, like we are in some sort of gigantic machine of some sort."

- "Whatever it is they are preparing, we better go and found the others before doing anything." Said Gray as he turned toward the door. "I don't know what they're preparing but we'll stop them all together. Now let's go !" Nodding, they all ran after Gray out of the room to look for the others, none of them noticing the generator which suddenly began to glow even brighter, power building up on the inside and preparing for something no one among the Riders and mages were ready for.

Ok, it's a bit shorter than usual, but as I said before, the confinement is slowly taking its toll on my inspiration and if you combine that with my projects that also take some of my times, the result is pretty self-explanatory. Well, anyway I hope you liked it and I'll see you one day for the next part of this story. See ya !

Next time : Battle of Mount Katalto part 4. The fight of the three possessed mages. Leveling up the maiden.