Chapter 224 - Frozen

"I'll take care of this, you go and get that other bottle of cloud before it finds a way to escape!" Petunia said and started using her Gummy cloud more like a weapon than just being a flying dress.

"Go!" 

"Okay! I'm on it!" Gem said and took cover under Petunia's Gummy cloud until the end of the empty space inside the cloud where the floor just suddenly dropped to a lower level.

"It's getting bigger, oh no," Gem muttered to herself and tried to push the wall of water-like cloud between her and the other bottle which the active cloud was trying to help escape.

But then, the more Gem tried pushing the wall, the more her feet sank inside the cloud's floor, making Gem assume that the cloud was doing it on purpose since Petunia was just out there distracting it.

So it was basically doing three things at a time, not even to mention the random lightning strikes that Gem and Petunia needed to be careful with a lot because of the water's conductivity.

"I can't sink down there right now… I don't have Solitude to escape to!" Gem thought to herself before fixing her stance and trying even harder to push herself through the water wall.

"AAARGH!!" Gem shouted and noticed her necklace glowing brighter the more she tried to exert more power.

"I'm not weak!!" Gem said and successfully pushed herself through the water, which turned out to be full of water after all! Instead of just being a wall.

"Ahh! Wait! I didn't breathe enough to last long inside here!" Gem thought to herself while swimming around to the wall which was once again hard to breakthrough.

"Auuugh!!! What should I do?" she added and looked around, trying to find the other cloud inside the glass, which she then fortunately found in the middle of the makeshift pool inside the cloud's body.

The water over there was clearer and calmer compared to the storm outside, and because of the light coming from Gem's necklace and the glowing calm cloud inside of the glass jar, the water inside the makeshift pool seemed less intimidating and more like a fit place for a vacation.

"Focus, Gem! We only have how many seconds left inside this place? We can't die right here! Now move!" Gem's survival instincts kicked in and reminded Gem of the reality she was in right now.

Since Gem did not inhale enough air to last long underwater, Gem felt the pressure running through her veins.

"What should I do first??? Should I run to the outside now or grab the bottle first? It's at least five meters away from me… I don't know if I can last that long!" Gem's fear spoke.

"Stop wasting time and just go do it Gem!" Gem's mind said which made Gem swim to the bottle immediately.

"I'm going out here with you, alive or not!" Gem thought and pushed herself harder towards the blue heart of the angry cloud.

But little did Gem know her Salamandite was still actually malfunctioning. Up until she grabbed the glass jar and tried swimming back to the water walls, Gem felt a chilling temperature that was not there before.

And because superhumans are not actually sensitive to temperature, it was only until Gem was already running out of breath that she noticed the jar freezing from her hands.

"Ahhh, what is happening?!" Gem asked with a very light-headed vision.

"I need to get out quickly!!" Gem thought while the pressure of her blood was rising to her upper body.

She tried kicking her way out of the wall, but the wall's resistance was as strong as ten elephants!

"What's happening??" Gem thought in despair as her strength decline the longer she stayed breathless.

"Help me… Help me!!" Gem tried to shout but the water only went inside her mouth, making it harder for her to focus and keep her cool.

"Gem!!" she heard Petunia's muffled voice from outside of the water walls.

"Go up!! Gem!! Swim upwards!!" Petunia said desperately while pounding on the water wall to get Gem's attention who could only ever see flashes of what was happening in front of her.

Gem had never felt the dangers of doing something so risky before, thanks to her Salamandite that has always kept her safe and out of danger. 

But now that she's actually in danger, the thought of no one saving her finally sank in Gem's head.

"How did I get here?" she asked.

Was it Lei's fault? Because he accidentally let this raging cloud out of its bottle? But what about the other bottle? Why is the cloud there still inside? Why is it not ranging like this one?

A lot of thoughts crossed Gem at the moment, it was almost as if she were already dead.

It was the exact same reaction when she almost died upon crossing the fiery borders and when she and Von fell down the cliffs of the island.

Having regrets and a lot of questions, but still accepting the result nonetheless.

Gem even closed her eyes and let the water take over her body.

But to Gem's surprise, it didn't happen.

"Gem!! Oh my gosh! Why didn't you swim!?" Gem heard Petunia's worried voice and slowly felt her body coming back to her.

"I'm asking you! Why didn't you swim up!!?" Petunia said even louder and stroke Gem in the back to push the water out of her lungs.

"Ughh," Gem murmured and proceeded to spill out all the water that she accidentally inhaled back to the calm pool.

Turns out, there was an opening to pool from the upper part of the cloud which was not totally covering the roof at all, unlike what they had thought.

And what's more surprising, was the fact that this opening was made by Petunia who just punched all existing frozen clouds from the top, allowing them to make a platform there to stand on.

"Did you do this?" Petunia asked calmly after finally seeing Gem calm down, pertaining to the freezing cold temperature up the clouds and the suddenly frozen state of the cloud that was just rampaging earlier.

"H-Huh?" Gem asked and finally looked around the situation for the first time.

But instead of paying attention to the sudden changes of temperature with the cloud, Gem just proceeded to look down the pool where she accidentally left the other jar of cloud in.

"I need to get that," Gem said without paying attention to Petunia who immediately stopped her from diving into the pool again.

"The pool's frozen," Petunia said while holding Gem's arms tightly, "Why did you even come here? You almost died!" she added which made Gem pout while stifling her coughs from almost drowning.

"I-I thought you needed some help," Gem said and was prepared to get scolded by Petunia again, but instead of lashing out, Petunia just looked down and calmed herself down.

"What happened here?" Gem asked after finally noticing the frozen state of everything that was around them, including the cloud that just suddenly stopped moving after being completely frozen.

"I don't know. You tell me," Petunia said to Gem and paused when she felt something weird with her body.

Something familiar that she had only experienced once before.

"Petunia! You-"

"I know, just wait…" Petunia said and hid inside her almost ruined Gummy cloud as she transformed back into her cat form.

"Oh no, this is such a mess," Gem said after looking around the ruined laboratory for the third time.

"Well, at least the cloud's not rampaging anymore. We should get the water out of it first and put it back inside its bottle. These clouds are really dangerous especially if they had been disturbed," Petunia said while walking out of her Gummy cloud cover, now back to her more familiar cat body than her human body which caused her more inconvenience with the fight earlier.

"What do you mean disturbed? Did Lei do something to disturb this cloud?" Gem asked with a slightly annoyed impression on Lei who almost got her killed.

"No, it's not. It's something more complicated than just a simple toss and plays that Lei and I were doing earlier. Lei is in no way compatible with making this very complex thing very upset to start chaos. It's almost as if someone did it on purpose," Petunia said with an air of wonder, somehow having an idea in her mind about who it was that really upset the cloud.

Although she saw no signs of abnormality with the cloud earlier when she took it, Petunia was still sure that it was not Lei's fault. Because if it was, then it must mean that Lei had some knowledge about Alchemy after all, unlike what he's claiming to be.

"Who do you think did it?" Gem asked and saw Petunia contemplating whether to answer her or not

"I'm not sure but…" Petunia said and went in for a whisper.