"So Blake why did you tell us to conserve our magic?" Nova asks. The large group was hiding out in a locker room.

"Well once Kordell is ready, we're going to Mt. Atlas ourselves." Blake explains. "We can't waste our magic on a foot soldier like that Kayla girl." after Kordell had revealed himself, Kayla had disappeared.

"And who is this Kordell anyways." Emory asks.

"I'm the youngest S-Class mage in Siren Fang." Kordell emerges from the lockers. He was wearing a black sleeveless hoodie with the Siren Fang guildmark on the back and a gold necklace with the guildmark. Under it he had a white T-shirt, black shorts, and white tennis shoes. The third place the guildmark was proudly displayed was his actual guildmark, which was on the side of his shoulder in a black color. "I got a request to investigate the disappearance of rune mages so I went undercover as one."

"That explains why you've been gone for over a month." Lily says.

"Lambert has all the council members, rune knights, and workers of the council under his control. I'm not sure what magic he's using." Kordell explains. "I didn't know about his plan involving our guildmates either. I wish I did so I could've warned you sooner."

"It's not your fault." Max smiles.

"I gotta say though, you were disguised pretty well." Lily laughs. "Didn't recognize you at first until I saw your gold eyes."

"Well enough with the reunion." Lilith jumps up. "Are we gonna save our guildmates or what?"

"Lilith is right." Rhea stands up. "Kirifuda, Tanith, and Naomi can take care of themselves, but I'm worried about Brendon and Buzz. Brendon's only twelve while Buzz is well... An Exceed."

"My team member is in there as well." Max says. "Let's go save our guildmates!" The group rushes out, Max and Lilith lead the way. The halls were completely empty. Not a single guard, frog, nor council workers were to be seen. Kordell looks around suspiciously.

"Something isn't right..."

"What's wrong, Kordell?" Blake asks.

"The halls were never this quiet." Kordell looks straight ahead just in time to see Lilith throw open the doors. "Wait-" Lilith tries leaving, but hits something.

"Ow..." she rubs her head. Beside her, Max puts his hands out and they touch an invisible wall. Purple runes appear in the middle of the door.

"No mages of light guilds may pass until they complete all levels." Emory reads. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"My my, did you honestly think I'd let you leave so easily?" a projection of Lambert appeared in the middle of the group. All the mages jump away from it, readying their weapons or getting ready to attack. This Lambert was dressed in garb that looked as if it belonged in a dark guild. He had black pants and shoes. He wore a black, military style coat and a black cape. His epaulets were spiked and a skull medallion was displayed proudly on his chest. Lambert's blonde hair was in a slightly messy hairstyle. "Let's make this into a game. You light guild mages have to defeat my players. What I mean by players is every council worker with magic and the entirety of the rune knight army. And if you get past all of them somehow you'll need to defeat me. Level one has started. Good luck light guilds." Lambert's projection vanishes.

Ro groans as she rubs her head. She must've fallen a great deal since she could only see darkness above her. The smell of old rocks, filth, and other ancient smelling things filled her nose. It blocked her from smelling anybody from the group. The cave was silent except for the faint dripping of far off water, everybody else must be far away. Ro sits up to look around. She was surprised to feel a little ball of fur in her arms, but sighed in relief when she realized it was Baja. Ro must've grabbed him before they fell.

"Baja, hey Baja." Ro shakes him awake.

"Huh?" the exceed sleepily rubs his eyes. "Ro, where are we?"

"Somewhere in the mountain." she stands up. "Well we better start looking for the rest."

"Agreed! Let's get going!"

The two walked for what seemed like hours. In actuality they had only been walking for less than an hour. There was just miles and miles of rocks and dirt and musk that prevented Ro from smelling anything. That's probably how she didn't know that there was a human on the ground. The youngest one, Brendon. She tripped over him and got a mouthful of dirt. At least it wasn't something like a rock.

"Arg... What was that..." Ro groans. Baja walks over to a lump in the dirt and starts poking it.

"What's this?" he asks. The lump starts to move and Baja jumps back. An Exceed appears from the lump.

"Is it morning yet?" it yawns.

"Oh good! We found dragon slayer and Exceed!" Ro says. "Time to get up lazy bum!" Ro pokes Brendon.

"Five more minutes..." he turns over.

"Nope! C'mon we need to find the rest of the group." she helps him up. Brendon sleepily rubs his eyes. Ro picks Buzz off the ground and places him in Brendon's arms. "That's one down, a bunch to go."

Hikari stared up at the endless darkness above her. She was unwilling to move or do anything for that matter. She couldn't find Turtle and she could only hear an endless expanse of silence. It's been a "great" day so far. Climbing a mountain, freezing, then falling down into a dark abyss was just "perfect." Of course it could be worse. She didn't know how, but it could be. Light footsteps coming toward her made Hikari turn her head from the darkness and to a bit more darkness. A figure emerged from the thick sheet of (surprise!) darkness.

"Hey are you alright?" the figure asks. They lean over to look at Hikari, allowing both of them a clear view of the other's face. "You're Hikari from Angel Heart, right?"

"Yeah. Aren't you Kirifuda of Diamond Hydra?"

"That's me." Kirifuda offers a hand, but Hikari declines it. She sits up by herself and rubs away some dirt from her hair and back. Kirifuda takes a silver pocket watch out from the breast pocket of his black waistcoat. Light colored dirt stood out against his black pants with gold colored pinstripes and long black coat with gold colored trimming and decor. Its high collar covered most of his face with a white dress shirt underneath. He stands up straight and Hikari can see his leather boots with gold studs. "No use mulling around here. We need to find anybody that's part of the group."

"Agreed. But we should seriously find Turtle first. I'm a bit worried about her."

"Turtle?"

"Yeah my exceed." Hikari stands up and stretches.

"I see. Well let's not waste any time then." Kirifuda starts walking. "We've been down here for around two hours."

"Two hours? Huh feels only like a few minutes." Hikari follows him. Only a few minutes of walking in silence went by when Hikari's stomach growled. "Ah sorry for asking, but do you have any food?" Kirifuda digs through his multitude of pockets.

"I have some candy, but you don't want to eat those."

"Nah it's fine. I'll ask when we find others."

"Sorry I can't help."

"Like I said it's fine." there was a sudden loud bang that startled both of them. "What was that?!" Kirifuda swiftly pulled some cards from one of his coat pockets. He motioned for her to follow. They crept against the wall as quietly as they could. Another loud bang erupted, this time it was closer and came from a nearby bend. The two cautiously and quietly made their way around the corner. Kirifuda peers past the bend to see Brooke freaking out and throwing rocks at the wall. The ground and walls around her were soaking wet.

"Hey Siren Fang mage... Uh... Brooke!" Kirifuda approaches her. Hikari was trailing behind.

"Who's there?!" Brooke whips around.

"Um it's Kirifuda of Diamond Hydra and Hikari from Angel Heart is with me." Brooke lets out a small sigh of relief, but her body was still tense.

"Hey what's wrong?" Hikari asks.

"I thought I saw a spider. Plus I hate the dark."

"Oh here." he puts all but one card away. It starts glowing a bright orange, lightly illuminating its surroundings. "It's a blaze card only half activated."

"Thank you."

"Hey... You know... Now that I can see you better... You're actually pretty cute."

"Huh?!"

"Nothing~" he smiles and walks on.

"I think he just called you cute." Hikari walks past Brooke.

"Wait! Cute?!" she chases after the two.

No new characters this chapter, but I'm still accepting for all guilds. A few things, if you haven't noticed, the chapter has a different name. Yes, I'm still introducing characters, but I'm about halfway through my introduction arc and it was getting a little tiring writing out character intros... I also added a new cover! It's the Siren Fang guildmark and please don't criticize it too much... It's my first digital drawing and admittedly not my best. I'm sorry if I haven't introduced your character yet! I'm getting there and they'll definitely be introduced by the end of the arc (excluding the dark mages). And that author's note was longer than intended... Thank you for reading!