Fairy Tail - Twilight Empire

Chapter 130 - Bonds

Levy scurried back to the hideout, sliding down the entrance while her mind raced at a mile a minute. Damn it, damn it, damn it!

She'd gone to scout, figuring that if Invel had some way of tracking them, Levy would fly under the radar, since her magic was all but kaput for the moment. She got close enough to listen in on their conversation, using a small spying tool she'd devised while up in the mountains with Gajeel, Lily, and Lucy a few months ago. It wasn't the best or most clear, but she managed to get a handle on the situation.

"Invel, that Imperial creep, has trapped Erza and Cana in some sort of ice spell," Levy said.

Gray sat up, thankfully. Yukino, too, glanced over their way.

"Invel? He's the one out there?"

"You know him?"

"He was the right-hand of the Emperor. The Winter General, said to be the fiercest ice-wizard in the world."

"Doubt it," Gray said. He got to his feet with Juvia's help. Master Makarov and Wendy were doing remarkably well at healing everyone. Well...almost everyone. Natsu still lay unconscious. "You get a look at what sort of ice magic?"

"Nothing in particular. It was freezing, and I wasn't even in the thick of it."

"Doesn't help much."

"Invel uses a lot of his power to control people," Yukino said. "Makes sense, he'd have trapped even Erza and Cana."

"Trapped them how, Levy?" Lily asked.

"He called it Ice Lock, and apparently the only way out of it is for the two to fight to the death," Levy said. "Or, submit, and join the Twilight Empire."

"Then we must stop them before they hurt one another!" Carla shouted from where Wendy was healing Mirajane.

"Agree," Levy said. "But I'm not sure how."

"Well, you said it's a lock, right? What if we undid it somehow?" Juvia asked.

"It sounds like it has a particular set of rules, which would mean having to undo the magic fundamentally," Levy said. Her head hurt.

Every second wasted was another Erza and Cana were closer to legitimately hurting one another. How could the rest of their friends just sit around and let that happen?

Levy looked around the room. Gray would be needed for his operation, but getting him too close could force Invel to somehow break the spell and maybe lead to even worse consequences. He had to have some sort of failsafe in place—Levy had run off to tell the guild what'd happened before she was spotted, so if he described it, she missed it.

What an idiot.

She wanted to kick herself for doing so, but dropped the idea. No point in doing that now.

Alright, Levy, what to do?

Freed would give them a chance, with his Justu Shiki. Levy had access to similar magic, but her abilities were all but worthless at this distance and with this level of complexity. She had access to her Light Pen, of course, but again, at this range, how would she be able to rewrite anything?

"Gray, would you be able to directly manipulate the spell?" Levy asked.

"No. That's not how my magic works, unfortunately."

Levy leaned against the wall. Her heart pounded. Come on, Lev. Think.

What if they could interrupt it somehow? But...how? How would they get the drop on Invel, who was able to—