"But…why?" I wondered aloud as I stood. "What do we know about this Amber Coffin?"

"They're a dark guild. Not really anything special in terms of big heists. It almost seems as if all they do is take hostages and fight people that interest them, and more often when they refuse, they destroy the entire guild."

I grimaced. "Where are they?"

"They're stationed in the port farther to the east than Hargeon."

I stretched once again. "Alright, well, what do you say we give them a welcoming committee? Lyon, Kagura, are you in?"

"Sorry, but I've got to get back to the guild and report this job request," Lyon said before taking his leave, leaving the job request with me, after saying a quick "Good luck."

"Alright then, Kagura?"

"I don't see why not."

"And Gray?"

"Sure, I'm game."

We all exited the house and headed for town. "Alright, let's head to the guild hall and see if anyone else knows about this."

With that, we entered the building, with Kagura getting a couple weird looks to say the least, but we ignored them and went to Makarov.

I waved. "Hey there!" I greeted.

"Inigo! It's been a while. Been busy with the house, have you?"

"Finished it a couple days ago actually, but I came down with something. Nothing major, but I didn't want to give it to anyone else."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Also, why'd you bring the Mermaid?"

"Actually, that's why I'm here," I showed him the request. "From the Dark Guild, Amber Coffin. I'd heard they took Cana as well."

Makarov nodded. "A team has already been dispatched. You three should head there to help them."

We all nodded and headed out.

Once we finally made it to the dispatch team, they were busy trying to find a way inside the building. The dispatch team was manned by Natsu, Mirajane, Erza, Happy, and Juvia.

We observed for a minute from the skies, seeing that the team was having quite a bit of trouble getting through the Amber Coffin's initial defenses, with a seemingly impenetrable wall blocking their way, guarded by five or six skilled mages, as well as another dozen…what looked like Requip Mages? I don't know, they were wielding bows which shot magic arrows, so I'm not sure, anyway, they were also placed at the only entrance point.

I let Kagura and Gray off. "Alright, tell the team to move out of the way."

"If you don't mind me asking, what are you planning?" Gray inquired.

I shrugged. "Well, you know, sometimes in life all you need to succeed is a gigantic electric battering ram," I said with a smirk before they both ran off. I began charging up my magical power, lining myself up with the entrance way.

I took the position a runner takes before a race, and then took off, my lightning following every step. The run soon broke into a fly as my magic barely kept me aloft. "Devil Slayer Secret Art: Unholy Piercing Charge! Thunderbird's Dive!" I yelled as I picked up speed, going faster than my brain could react until I crashed fist-first into the entrance, opening a 40-meter-wide hole for my comrades to charge through unhindered.

I made a blade to call my own and started cutting through the guild members, finding that they all put up quite a fight. I was soon knocked back to where my comrades were holed up, trying to fend off their own batch.

"You know, I'm starting to wonder if Cana is even worth all of this!" Gray called and he bashed someone with an ice hammer.

"Yeah, what do you say we call it quits here?" Happy asked.

"No way! Who else am I gonna have drinking contests with!" I yelled in rage before slicing through another couple of mages. Still, no matter how many we knocked back, more just took their place, and then, everything just stopped via whistle. "Jeez, if that's all it took, then why didn't we do that sooner?" I wondered before Mirajane turned my head to look at the person who actually whistled.

It was a woman who looked older than any of us, maybe twenty-three-ish. I don't want to seem unfair in judgement, but that's beside the point. "Hey there!" she called down to us from a raised balcony. "So which one of you is Inigo Asher?"

I stepped forward. "That'd be me. You put a bounty on my head, didn't you?"

"That I did," the woman admitted.

"Care to explain why?"

"I…well, you'll find out when you face me. I have a couple elites for you and your friends to get past before you get to me, so we'll save it for then, okay?"

"And what about our friend? Is she safe?"

With a snap of her fingers, Cana was dragged out, looking confused before she looked down to us. She then ran to the edge of the balcony and waved ecstatically to us. "Hey there, Glittermate!" she called down. "You should come join us; it's been a beer-barrel of fun up here!"

The woman grimaced as Cana was taken out of sight. "That girl gives me a headache. Anyway, I'll be in the back. I'll have the best of the best to fight you until then. Ta-ta!" she said as she took her leave, whistling once again, signaling everyone to attack again.

Soon though, five people appeared that stood out from the rest. One of them waved their arms, and a magic circle formed around the entire room before the scene shifted to that of a blank white one, with just our group and those five to fight.

"Illusion magic like Ivan Dreyar?" Juvia inquired.

"No," Erza said. "This is an entirely new arena. Plus, I feel a surge of magic energy coming from every one of us."

"To give everyone a fair chance, this field will give you near unlimited magic power, that is to say, we can drain you, but you can't drain yourself through magic use," one of them said. He pointed to himself. "Name's Abel Rodac by the way. We got a Dark Ecriture user named Alina, and Illusion Magic user named Opal, and a Light Ecriture user named-"

I shot him in the face. "Too many names…" I moaned as everyone charged at each other.

Their Ecriture people both went after Erza, Mirajane, and Kagura, and began battling them, while Abel and Opal went after me. Opal summoned what looked like the entire animal kingdom to attack me, which I of course ran away from, while Abel used his Afterimage Magic, which is really just Clone Magic, to make multiple copies of himself, to block my way at several points, as well as my way forward.

The others took to their opponents, and I was left with my two. Eventually Abel cornered me against the animal kingdom, and I wasted magic to try and fend them off, but they disappeared on me. Breathing a sigh of relief before turning back to Abel, who punched me in the face, I stood. "Damn it! I don't have time for you!" I yelled as I blasted several of his clones.

He stuck his tongue out at me, showing a rather playful nature, as he made even more copies and charged straight at me. However, instead of being attacked from the front, where I was expecting to be attacked and ready to block and counter from, I was knocked upside the head from the back, where Abel actually was.

"Damn illusions…"

Suddenly, as even more were about to attack, Natsu's fire interrupted. He jumped in front of me and pushed back the whole of the line of Abels. "You go on ahead; I heard you got business with the leading lady," he said with a smirk.

"Yeah whatever, Flame Breath. I guess I can give you this one since I totally owned you at the Grand Ball," I countered as I ran past him, jumping over Natsu's wave of fire which knocked Abel down, allowing me to run past him.

I dashed away from the battle as I followed where the leader ran off to, ready to settle whatever grudge she had with me.

Author's Note:

Hey guys.

I really just want to use this to apologize for the extremely long author's note last time, and I promise it won't happen again.

Anyway, not really much to say, but the first original arc will end next time...yeah, it's short. The next one is longer though, so yeah...