The group stood in silence, the temple walls around them groaning like a living thing. The stone was old—too old—and cursed by the unnatural energy of the sealed demon. Beneath their feet, the ancient floor was cold as the day Ur froze Deliora.
Gray walked alone ahead of the others, his mind a storm.
Erza kept her hand near her sword, just in case. Lucy held Happy close. Natsu looked impatient, like a volcano ready to erupt.
Shinra followed quietly, his senses sharp—aware not just of the enemies above, but the emotional tension unraveling among his friends.
They reached a massive chamber—circular, with eerie inscriptions and jagged ice spires jutting from the ground like frozen screams.
And in the center of it all…
A towering coffin of dark ice. Unmoving. Cracked. Ominously humming.
Gray's eyes widened. "No…"
Erza's brow furrowed. "That… is Deliora?"
"Yeah," Gray whispered, stepping closer, haunted. "That's him. Still frozen."
Suddenly—
A loud *crack* echoed through the air.
Then a mocking laugh, sharp and cold as the northern wind.
"Well, well, Gray. You made it after all."
The shadows parted, revealing **Lyon Vastia**.
Clad in a flowing blue robe with frost patterns, he stood tall and confident, arms folded.
Gray's blood ran colder than the ice. "Lyon…"
Lyon's grin widened, eyes filled with both pride and bitterness. "You still cling to Ur's teachings like a lost child. How pitiful."
---
"Why are you here?" Gray demanded, fists clenched.
"To complete what Ur couldn't," Lyon replied smoothly. "To melt the ice. To *free* Deliora. And then, to *destroy* it."
"You're insane!" Erza shouted, drawing a blade.
"Quiet, Titania," Lyon said without even glancing at her. "This is between me and Gray."
"Ur *gave her life* to seal that demon!" Gray yelled. "You're about to undo her sacrifice!"
Lyon's expression twisted. "No. She ran from what had to be done. She sealed the demon instead of destroying it. *She was weak.*"
"No," Gray snapped. "She did it to save us."
"You were the reason she died!" Lyon barked. "You distracted her. You made her choose. And now you walk around like you're a hero."
Shinra stepped forward, his voice even. "Your grief has turned into poison, Lyon."
"Who the hell are you?" Lyon narrowed his eyes. "You don't belong to this story."
"No," Shinra said calmly. "But I'm part of the chapter that comes next."
---
With a flick of his wrist, Lyon cast his magic.
**"Ice-Make: Snow Dragon's Fang!"**
Shards of frozen spears surged toward them. Gray countered with his own spell:
**"Ice-Make: Lance!"**
The two clashed in mid-air, the resulting shockwave blasting through the chamber.
Erza immediately sprang forward to block Lucy and Happy from debris. Shinra calmly stepped in front of Natsu, flicking his finger in a spiral.
A thin shimmering veil—his *Infinity Barrier*—absorbed the lingering force.
"You stay back," Shinra said to Natsu. "Not yet."
Natsu growled. "What? Why?"
"Because this is Gray's fight," Shinra replied, his tone patient. "And if it becomes *ours*, we'll know."
---
They moved like lightning—mirror images trained under the same hand, with hearts that once beat in sync and now clashed like rival storms.
"Ur *believed* in both of us!" Gray shouted, dodging a spike and retaliating with a wall of jagged ice.
"She believed in *you*," Lyon snarled. "She stopped training me! Because of *you*! You ruined everything!"
"You were like a brother to me!"
"Then why didn't you die instead of her?!"
Those words cut deeper than any spell. The chamber trembled with their emotion.
Their magic crackled in the air—gray mist from Gray's controlled, defensive spells; jagged white frost from Lyon's aggressive, unstable blasts.
They clashed in the center of the room, fists meeting in a blast of white light—
—and were blown apart in opposite directions.
Gray coughed, struggling to stand. Lyon knelt, panting.
"You think this will stop me?" Lyon spat. "I've already begun melting the seal."
---
Far above, behind a crumbling wall, **Ultear** stood, half-shrouded in shadow.
She smiled.
"How beautiful," she whispered to herself. "Hatred between brothers. A perfect storm."
She touched the stone wall with her fingers, subtly channeling her Time Magic to manipulate the melting seal on Deliora. Just a nudge. Just enough to *help things along*.
"You'll be free soon," she cooed at the demon's frozen form. "And in the chaos… I'll get what I want."
---
Back in the temple, the group gathered as Gray knelt, trembling.
Shinra walked to him, placing a firm, warm hand on his shoulder.
"You still care about him," Shinra said softly. "Even now."
"I do," Gray murmured. "And that's what makes this harder."
Shinra nodded. "Then save him. Not just from Deliora… but from himself."
Gray looked up, eyes sharper. The ice in his heart hadn't melted—but it had shifted.