Korra let out a groan as she struggled to open her eyes until she opened them fully. It was then that she realized she was in a circular room.
She was on her knees, her legs bound by metal clamps and her two arms were hanging in the air by chains whose handcuffs had strange symbols on them.
She tried to free herself by pulling hard, but the grip of the chains was too strong. In fact, this was beginning to feel familiar.
"I see you're awake now." said a voice from the entrance of the room. Stepping out of the shadows, a gray-haired man in a cloak appeared. "So you're the one I've been told about, huh?" said the man bending down to be at eye level. "Personally, you're not my type."
"Who are you?" asked Korra suspecting he had something to do with her situation.
"Of course. Where are my manners?" asked the man before standing up. "I am Gritchmen and I am the dark guild master Akuma."
Korra was surprised at that. She had been told that the dark guilds were groups of mages who went on missions that were outside the rules of the magical council. She would never have expected to meet the master of one of them, let alone like that.
"What do you want from me?" asked Korra.
"From you? Nothing at all. What I'm interested in... is the spirit inside you." said Gritchmen pointing at her, leaving the Avatar very surprised.
"W-what? How do you know that?" asked Korra nervously and surprised that he knew something that only those in the guild knew.
"Simple. I have the ability to detect spirits. I have to admit, I didn't expect to see a spirit inside a human, let alone fused with it. Not to mention that spirit is the most powerful and pure I've ever seen." said Gritchmen.
"What do you really want?" asked Korra seriously.
"You see, being a member of Fairy Tail, you've heard of slayer magic, right?" asked Gritchmen and as he looked at the Avatar's continued serious look, he knew she had. "I happen to have a very rare and very little known slayer magic. I am what is known as... a spirit slayer."
Korra's eyes went wide with shock at hearing that.
"S-Spirit slayer? That means you..." began Korra startled at what she was about to say.
"That's right. I... eat spirits." said Gritchmen with a sinister smile.
Korra was in complete shock at the revelation. All her life, she had heard of humans fighting spirits. Even Kuruk, one of her past lives, was dedicated to hunting them. When she opened the spirit portals, humans and spirits began to live together and in this world, she learned that mages like Lucy befriended them and summoned them to help them on certain occasions, but never, never... would she have imagined that there could be a mage whose magic allowed him to devour spirits.
Just learning that and that he was after Raava left her completely terrified.
"Let me tell you something. Ever since I got my magic, I've felt an insatiable hunger towards spirits. At first, I used to seek out celestial mages to devour their spirits, but unfortunately, after certain events, there are only a few left and as you can see, there aren't many spirits loose in the human world." began Gritchmen, horrifying the Avatar to learn that he hunted spirits of mages like Lucy to eat them.
"I can eat like a normal person, but the hunger for spirits I had was so great that it was driving me crazy. I thought it would be hopeless until one of my subordinates told me about you, a mage who possesses a spirit inside her. It was too good to pass up, so I ordered you to be brought here." said Gritchmen.
The spirit slayer reached down and grabbed her face with his hand.
"And now that I know how powerful that spirit is, when I devour it, my hunger will finally disappear and it's all thanks to you." said Gritchmen.
Suddenly, Korra bit him on the hand, making him scream in pain as he recoiled.
"I won't let you do that!" exclaimed Korra angrily at the spirit slayer's intentions.
Gritchmen glared at the Avatar with an expression of rage and madness as his hand became covered in dark blue energy.
"You fucking bitch!" exclaimed Gritchmen performing a slash across the Avatar's chest, making her scream out loudly in pain, leaving a few cut marks on the clothes and a bit of a wound on the skin. Gritchmen took a deep breath, trying to calm down. "You're lucky I don't like to mess up food. Besides, if I were to kill you, it's possible that spirit would disappear." said Gritchmen before turning and walking away. "Get some rest. We'll see you at lunchtime." said Gritchmen before leaving the room.
Korra gasped for air due to the pain she was feeling. That attack earlier, not only had it hurt her, but she could feel that it had hit Raava as well. She hadn't felt pain like that since Unalaq ripped Raava out from inside her and started attacking her. What was worse was that it all reminded her of when Zaheer and the Red Lotus captured her and hung her in the air to kill her using mercury poison.
The whole situation terrified her a lot and she didn't know how to get out of it. She could only pray for something to happen.
The Fairy Tail mages had been running for some time in various places, following the dragon slayers on the trail of the captured Avatar. Their journey took them to an ominous place, surrounded by dead trees and the remains of shattered houses until finally, they reached the ruins.
"Are we on the right track?" asked Erza to the dragon slayers.
"Yes. They took Korra to this place." said Natsu.
"Not only that, but I can also tell her scent is getting stronger around here." said Gajeel.
"We must be close." said Wendy.
"Is Korra... in this place?" asked Lucy frightened that her friend was being held in a place like that.
"Where exactly are we?" asked Gray.
"Juvia has never seen a place like this." said Juvia.
"I've read something about it. Long ago, this was a sacred place where the villagers prayed in the temple to any divinity, be it god, spirit, or even demon." said Levy.
"They prayed to demons?" asked Mirajane.
"Why would they do such a thing?" asked Charle.
"Maybe they were desperate for someone to help them." said Happy.
"But unfortunately, the church didn't like the prayers being so liberal, so they sent a squad to destroy the temple and the village." explained Levy.
"How could they do that to those poor people just for praying to who they wanted?" asked Lisanna.
"That's not manly at all." said Elfman.
"That was a long time ago. When the church's methods were considered a little over the top." said Levy.
"A little?" asked Lily.
"We don't have time for that. We have to find Korra as soon as possible." said Lucy desperate to find her friend.
"Calm down, Lucy. I understand that you're worried, but remember that we don't know anything about the guys who took her and if what Natsu and the others say is right, then we must be in their territory, so we have to be careful." said Erza.
Lucy had to admit she was right. They didn't know who it was that took her, not to mention there might be traps somewhere if they were on their turf. There would be no use trying to save her if they weren't able to keep themselves safe.
"Hey, guys!" said Natsu getting the attention of the others. "Looks like Korra's scent ends... at that place." said Natsu pointing to an abandoned temple in front of them.
They all entered the temple looking for some clue as to where she was taken, but the place was empty except for an altar.
"Are you sure this is where the trail ends?" asked Gray.
"Salamander isn't wrong, I smell the trail ends here too." said Gajeel confirming the fire dragon slayer's words.
"But there's nothing here." said Happy.
"There must be some hidden entrance or something, can you find out?" asked Erza.
"We'll try." said Wendy starting to sniff the room with the other dragon slayers.
But when Natsu started sniffing the ground like a dog, he stopped.
"Hey, I smell something." said Natsu drawing everyone's attention.
"What did you detect?" asked Lucy.
"I notice Korra's scent along with other people's." said Natsu.
"They must be hiding underneath us." said Mirajane understanding the bad guys' method.
"Then we have to find a way to open the entrance." said Lisanna.
"We can do that..." started Natsu before standing up with his trademark grin. "Or we can do this." said Natsu raising his fists wrapped in fire.
"Wait, Natsu!" said Erza trying to stop her friend.
But it was too late, as Natsu hit the floor hard, causing it to shatter and everyone to fall to the floor below.
"You idiot! Look what you've done! Now they'll know we're here!" said Gray scolding his friend.
"Tsk. I don't care. Those guys took our friend and we're going to make him pay for it." said Natsu.
"I agree with Salamander. Besides, this way we'll be able to find her easier than interrogating those we encountered." said Gajeel.
"I don't care. We have to go look for her." said Lucy.
"Very well. Then we'd best split up to cover more ground. If any of us run into any of them, you must not underestimate them, understood?" asked Erza, receiving a nod from everyone.
After that, the mages split into groups with the intention of finding the Avatar quickly and getting her out of that place.
Gritchmen was in the dining room quietly preparing to receive his 'delicacy', but then, the sound of the collapse caused by a certain fire dragon slayer was heard.
He was about to do something when one of his subordinates entered the room.
"Sir, some intruders have sneaked into the lair." said the subordinate.
"Do you know who they are?" asked Gritchmen.
"They seem to be mages from the Fairy Tail guild. They've probably come to rescue their friend." said the minion.
"I see. Looks like I'll have to eat sooner than I expected. Have the prisoner brought to me at once." said Gritchmen.
"But sir, what do we do with the intruders?" asked the subordinate.
"You and the others take care of them and make sure they don't interrupt my meal, is that clear?" asked Gritchmen.
"Crystal clear, sir." said the subordinate before walking away before leaving the room.
Gajeel, Levi and Lily were running through the corridors of the place, hoping to find the room where Korra was being held or, to the iron dragon slayer's liking, the room where the person in charge was so he could kick his ass.
That's when they entered a completely empty room.
"Notice anything, Gajeel?" asked Lily, with Gajeel sniffing the air.
"No. She hasn't been here and there doesn't seem to be anyone else." said Gajeel.
"In that case, let's move on." said Levy taking a few steps forward.
But then, Gajeel noticed a silhouette moving in the shadows and approaching her friend.
"Levy, watch out!" shouted Gajeel pouncing on her and knocking her out of the way with a punch that impacted against the ground, generating a smoke screen.
"Wow. I'm impressed you were able to dodge it." said a male voice.
When the smoke cleared, the three saw a burly Elfman-like man with brown skin, white shaved hair, and a lifeless look.
Lily transformed into his warrior form before pointing his sword at the newcomer.
"Who are you?" asked Lily.
"My name is Texer." said the man introducing himself.
Mirajane, Elfman, and Lisanna were running down a hallway, looking in any room they could find on their way in search of their friend, but so far, they found nothing.
Later, the three siblings came to an empty room. They were about to continue on their way when suddenly, something held them back.
"But what?" asked Mirajane trying to take a step, but she was unable to move her feet from their place.
"Something has glued our feet to the floor." said Lisanna looking at that the floor of the room was covered with a black substance that kept them stuck to the floor like glue.
"What kind of man would do a dirty trick like this?" asked Elfman trying to free himself from the substance.
"Me." said a male voice.
The three siblings looked over to see approaching a man with hair so long it covered half his face and his body looked pale and listless, but the creepy thing was his toothy madman grin.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Darxs." said the man introducing himself.
Gray and Juvia were going through the halls in search of the Avatar. While their main intention was to search for their friend, something else was going through Juvia's mind.
"Juvia is on a mission alone with Gray. If this is a dream don't anyone wake Juvia up." thought Juvia in a dreamy manner.
They both entered a room and before they passed through the exit door, a stone wall suddenly formed, blocking the only way out.
"What the hell?" asked Gray in surprise at that.
"I'm sorry, but I won't let them get past here." said a voice from behind them.
The two wizards turned around to see a fat, balding man with sunglasses and a lit cigarette.
"If you're wondering who I am, well, you all know me as Obrot." said the man introducing himself.
Lucy, Erza, Wendy and Charle were running down a hallway, with Lucy in the lead, for of them all, she was the one who most wanted to save Korra, her friend, the one who thought of her as a sister.
They reached an empty room and before they took another step.
"Look out!" shouted Erza grabbing the celestial mage and stopping her in time, as a series of sharp bone spikes shot out of nowhere and impacted the floor she was about to step on.
"Damn it, I missed!" said a male voice.
"Oh, come on. Don't complain." said a female voice just as, from out of the shadows, two people with pink hair came out. "It wouldn't be fun if they died so soon."
"Who are you? Answer me!" demanded Erza summoning two swords.
"It would have been enough to ask nicely, you know? I'm Kimi and he is my brother Maru." said the girl introducing herself and her brother.
"That smell." said Wendy.
"What's wrong, Wendy?" asked Charle.
"They were at the place where Korra disappeared!" said Wendy.
"Was it you who kidnapped Korra?" asked Lucy demanding answers.
"Who?" asked Maru.
"I think she means that woman we were sent to capture." said Kimi.
"Oh, right. That was a simple and boring job." said Maru.
"What do you want from her?" asked Charle.
"Us? Nothing at all. It's our master who wants her." said Kimi.
"Your master?" asked Lucy.
"In case you didn't know, you are at the base of the dark guild, Akuma." said Texer.
"Dark guild?" asked Levy surprised by that information.
"What does your master want from Korra?" asked Mirajane.
"You see, our master possesses a very rare magic." said Darxs.
"What kind of magic?" asked Gray.
"You will know it as... spirit slayer magic." said Obrot.
Lucy was very scared when she heard that, as she could understand a certain thing about that magic.
"Spirit slayer? You mean he devours spirits?" asked Erza somewhat frightened by that information.
"That's right, our master has an insatiable hunger for spirits." said Maru.
"And since your friend seems to have one inside her, he has decided to invite her for a meal. She being the food." said Kimi with a sinister and malevolent tone.
"That smell... You! You were in that forest when we faced those bandits!" said Gajeel pointing at the newcomer.
"I see you figured it out." said Texer before making the underside of his fingers turn into blades. "But I think it's too late for that now."
"Anyway. Let's not waste any time. It's time to eliminate you." said Darxs making a black, sticky sludge come out of his hands.
"Don't take it personally. I'm just following orders not to let you through." said Obrot causing another stone wall to block the other entrance, leaving him and the two Fairy Tail mages locked in the room.
Lucy felt two things. The first was fear knowing that there was a man capable of devouring spirits and was now targeting Raava, the spirit that inhabits Korra and is the key to the Avatar's existence. The second was anger at seeing that those guys didn't mind killing a person if it meant satisfying their master's appetite.
She didn't care about facing those two or even facing their master spirit slayer. All she cared about was saving her friend from those people, getting back to the guild, and returning her to her world as she had promised.
"I won't let it happen!" exclaimed Lucy pulling out her whip and a pair of golden keys. "I won't let anything happen to her! I plan to save my friend and take her away from here!"
"Oh, how brave. If you want to take her away so badly…" said Kimi as several bones emerged from her and her brother's body. "You'll have to go through us."
Korra wondered what that had been shaking and collapsing noise she heard earlier.
Just then, two people entered the room where she was imprisoned.
"Congratulations, young lady. It looks like the master is ready to receive you." said one of the men, startling the Avatar.
"Hey, aren't you worried that she might escape while we move her." said the other man.
"Don't be ridiculous. She has those handcuffs that nullify magic. There's no way she can cast spells." the first man said.
Hearing that, Korra's eyes widened from shock as she mentally banged her head at how stupid she had been. Anyone outside of the guild who had seen her powers believed she was a mage like anyone else in that world.
That time she was held by the Red Lotus, she couldn't do any kind of bending because she was suspended in the air and the chains were made of titanium, but now she was in a locked room with chains that had seals that prevented her from performing magic, which she didn't have.
Seriously, how did she not think of that before? I guess knowing that a spirit devourer wanted to eat Raava threw her off a bit.
Now, with all that cleared up, she formed a plan to escape from there.
The first man reached over to remove the chains that kept the Avatar's arms dangling and before he could get the key in, Korra blew a blast of fire from her mouth that struck the man and sent him crashing into the wall, knocking him down in the process.
"B-But how did you...?" the second man asked in shock, as it was impossible for anyone to cast any spells with those anti-magic handcuffs.
Before he could comprehend what was happening, with a strong tug, Korra ripped the chains from the ceiling, freeing her arms in the process and then stretching her arm forward, she caused a pillar of rock to form from under the second man who pushed him up to the ceiling and upon impact, lowered the pillar, letting the man fall to the ground unconscious.
Now that the area was clear, Korra used metalbending to draw the key to her and use it to free herself from her chains. Once free, she set out to escape the place before Gritchmen found out how long it took for their food to arrive.
As soon as she was out of the room, she was about to go somewhere else when suddenly, the wall in front of her suddenly exploded, causing a smokescreen that forced her to shield her eyes with her arms.
"Damn it. There's no end to this place." said a voice so familiar that it made the Avatar's eyes widen in surprise and she lowered her arms to see emerging from the smoke a certain fire dragon slayer.
"Natsu!" exclaimed Korra happily before running up to him to hug him, startling the fire dragon slayer a bit.
"Korra, you're okay!" exclaimed Natsu happy to see her friend safe and sound.
"What are you doing here?" asked Korra breaking away from the hug.
"What do you think? We've come to rescue you." said Happy.
"Rescue me?" asked Korra.
"Of course we did. We leave no friend of ours behind. If one of our own is in danger, we'll come to help. That's the way we are in Fairy Tail." said Natsu.
Korra smiled at how kind and good a friend the dragon slayer was.
"Thank you. Now we need to get out of here before they find out about this." said Korra about to run, but that's when Natsu noticed the wound on her chest and grabbed the Avatar's arm, stopping her in the process.
"Who did that to you?" asked Natsu with his head lowered, causing his hair to shadow his eyes.
Korra knew what he was referring to.
"That didn't..." began Korra trying not to talk about it.
"Who was it?" asked Natsu demanding answers.
"It was... Gritchmen, the guild master." said Korra before Natsu let go of her arm and started walking in the opposite direction of the Avatar. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to kick that bastard's ass." said Natsu stopping.
"What?! No! Don't do it! He's a spirit slayer!" said Korra fearing for her friend's safety.
"A spirit slayer?" asked Happy frightened by that information.
"I don't care! That guy hurt you and I'm going to make him pay!" said Natsu running forward in search of his target.
"But no...!" said Korra trying to stop him, but it was too late.
"Understand, Korra. Natsu cares a lot about his friends and when he found out you got hurt, he couldn't let it go." said Happy who knew more about Natsu than anyone.
Korra liked that about Natsu caring about his friends, she might even come to admire him, but he was going to face the guild master who was also a spirit slayer, a similar magic to her own.
Although she was still afraid of the man and his power, her concern for Natsu was greater. Besides, if Gritchmen didn't catch her, sooner or later he would go for another spirit to eat, like Lucy's, so she decided to go help the dragon slayer, followed by the exceed.
Gritchmen was in his personal dining room, waiting for the men sent for Korra to arrive with their food. Even though he knew there were intruders in the lair, he felt confident that his subordinates would be able to contain them until he finished eating and once done, with the power he would get from that spirit, he would be able to take care of them on his own.
Suddenly, the entrance door to the dining hall shot out of place.
Looking ahead, Gritchmen saw Natsu, Happy and Korra entering the room with serious expressions.
"Ah, takeout. It's better service than normal." said Gritchmen arrogantly.
"I'm not your food! You may be powerful, but I'm not about to let you keep devouring more spirits! We'll stop you right here and now!" exclaimed Korra angrily.
"Is that so?" asked Gritchmen before settling his gaze on the fire dragon slayer. "You must be Natsu Dragneel, the fire dragon slayer from Fairy Tail."
"And you must be the bastard who hurt my friend, right?" asked Natsu.
"And what if I was?" asked Gritchmen.
Natsu clenched his fists and wrapped them in fire.
"I'm going to make you pay for that!" exclaimed Natsu.
"I see. So this will have to be the hard way. Better for me." said Gritchmen rising from his chair and causing a dark blue energy to surround him. "They say food tastes better after exercise."
Korra could sense that this energy was similar to that of a dark spirit, which scared her a little, but she steeled herself as she prepared to fight. She couldn't let a person like that loose in the world and most of all, she couldn't let it hurt Raava, Lucy or any of her friends.
