Frozen in Time || Gruvia Fanfiction ✓

Chapter 22

~~~ Juvia ~~~

  Zadicus laughed hysterically.

  "You think you have a prayer of chance when you're in that sorry state?"  He mocked.  "And besides, I'm not too keen on fighting you.  I need as much of your magic power in tact if the Gates are to open.  That being said, I think it's about time that we get underway."

  The stone depiction that was currently floating beside Zadicus began to exert a dark aura.  Tendrils slithered out from the darkness, and in the blink of an eye they shot out towards the water wizard.  Juvia gasped as the dark matter wrapped around her wrists, ankles, and middle.

  "Juvia!"  Wendy shouted weakly from the floor.

  "What's happening to me?"  Juvia shouted in fear as the tendrils started dragging her towards Zadicus.  He smirked.

  "These lovely things will drain your magic and convert it into the energy that will unleash the demons of Hell.  You should be honored to play such a role."

  "Leave her alone damn it!"  Natsu demanded, trying and failing to stand.

  "If only I could get up," Erza said through clenched teeth.  She looked at Zadicus with a deadly glare.  "Then you'd be dead!"

  Juvia could feel the magic being taken from her, draining the very essence of her life away.  Her blurry vision finally landed on Gray.  His eyes held an icy coldness that almost alarmed her more than the situation she was in.

  Save him from the darkness.

  That thought alone kicked Juvia's fighting spirit into high gear.  She lurched back against the ropes that held her in place.  Desperately she tried to slip away, but the magic-draining things kept her tightly bound.  Zadicus raised an eyebrow.

  "Looks like someone is as peppy as ever," he commented as Juvia repeatedly tugged at her bindings, feeling her power leave her at a rate much too fast for her liking.

  "I will never stop fighting, not until I've fulfilled my promise!"  In one more attempt to free herself, Juvia called forth whatever magic was left within her.  Water enveloped her body completely as she yelled," Water Slicer!"

  Blades of pressurized water tore through the magic ropes, causing them to dissipate.  Juvia stumbled forward while Zadicus looked on in shock.

  "Impossible!"  He shouted.  "You shouldn't have any magic left!  Those bindings were unbreakable!"

  Juvia regained her balance, but just barely.  She was deprived of most of her magic, and her breaths came in short, ragged intakes.

  You know what you have to do.

  "I know that I can't beat you hand-to-hand in the condition that I'm in right now," she stated.  "But I still have a trump card."

  "Juvia?"  She looked back at Gray as her body began to glow with an intense blue light.  "What are you doing?"

  "I'm saving the ones that I can't live without."

  Before Gray could respond Juvia spread her arms out on either side of her, the light becoming brighter with every passing second.  Her hair whipped wildly around her face as the power coursed through every inch of her.  Juvia heard Wendy and Carla gasp.

  "You can't!" Wendy cried, tears streaming down the young Dragon Slayer's face.  "Don't do it!"

  "It took years for Althea to master that spell!"  Carla shouted.  "You haven't even known it for an hour!"