Oi, everybody! Here's business and response to reviews:

I need to close up the "Lucy's future" poll soon as well as the "What guild should she join after training" poll. According to some reviews I should add Azazel as one of Lucy's love interests. I'm fine with putting that on the poll, but I will say this. He is the last option I'm adding to that specific poll, and since I've added so many choices to that poll I've made it multi-select in case you have voted once but now have a different opinion based on the options available. Also... I finally got to one hundred reviews! Thank you to everyone who reviewed! So please vote on the many polls I have so I can close them soon.

DISCLAIMER: FAIRY TAIL BELONGS TO HIRO MASHIMA

Chapter 10: Raging Souls

Azazel watched as Kuhn approached and sighed. He honestly expected Amaryllis' dimension to exist throughout all eternity. But now he could clearly feel in the air that this whole lie was going to be unraveled and that it will crumble. His question was would it be for the better or the worse?

Kuhn's and Apollyon's eyes were locked as Apollyon waited for an answer. Finally, Kuhn responded, "You."

There was silence again. Apollyon lowered her head, "So you are here to attempt taking my life. Go ahead and try," Apollyon raised her head and started to walk forward. Her dark magic energy surrounded her making her hair slightly start to lift up as if being blown by a light breeze. For those who were looking at her, they could see a new look in her eyes; a look of determination. When Apollyon was only a few feet away from Kuhn, she said in a voice quiet enough to be blown away by the wind, "I'll kill you first."

Even though it was said so silently, everybody heard the grave words that came out of Apollyon's mouth. Lucy's face grew pale as she listened to those words. They had the same emotions in them that Lucy had for Team Natsu, but especially for Natsu. What made up a majority of those emotions was anger, sadness, and betrayal, but there was also one more emotion hiding in between the other negative ones.

With Lucy being distracted, Natsu took that opportunity to attack. "Iron fist of the Fire Dragon!" Natsu punched the right side of her rib cage and so she went left. Natsu grinned and cracked his knuckles when he heard the familiar sound of ribs cracking. His grin slowly faded as he watched Lucy get up and brush herself off as though she had just tripped.

Lucy held back a smile now that it was her turn. She balanced on her left foot and started to bend backwards, her right leg pointing towards the sky. Then Lucy started muttering some strange words and made motions with her arms and hands as if she was playing a harp. Then Lucy started to bend forward until she knelt on one knee with her right hand over her heart. "May the night provide me solace from a burning world."

Above them formed something dark and Natsu had no way to describe it. A vortex of dark magic appeared above the area where Lucy and Natsu where fighting only and it seemed like an artificial sky.

"Oi, what did you just do!?" Natsu exclaimed angrily. Lucy only smirked in return. "That's it! Fire Dragon's Crushing Fang!" Natsu started running towards Lucy at a breathtaking pace, but she expected that.

Lucy raised one of her hands towards the sky and brought it down again. A part of the dark vortex started to release a part of itself down to where Lucy stood in a shape that looked like a ribbon. The width of the "ribbon" was one-half Lucy's width and looked about twice her height. Once in Lucy's hands it looked like a normal ribbon, except for its excessive size and odd shades of coloring. Natsu thought this would e another easy hit, but then Lucy took the ribbon in one hand and quickly brought that hand up so the ribbon was the only thing that separated her and Natsu.

Thinking the ribbon was harmless, Natsu planned to burn straight through it. As soon as he made contact with the ribbon, Natsu drew his hand back. There was a deep cut on it and was bleeding heavily. With Natsu puzzled on how this could happen, Lucy twirled the ribbon so that it wrapped around his neck, tied one of his arms to his body, and wrapped it around the leg of his body opposite of the trapped arm. Drawing her arm up and flicking her wrist sent Natsu flying and ended up with him skidding across the ground. Blood filled the air as she did this and instead of soaking the ribbon, the blood dripped off of it.

Natsu painfully tried to get up. Lucy smiled at his attempt, glad to have more fun. "This is no ordinary ribbon Natsu. It is made out of my magic and is razor sharp. It is like a sword in form of a ribbon. While it does not cut me, it lacerates you leaving deep gashes."

By then Natsu was on his feet. "Then I'll just have to burn that ribbon of yours. I'm all fired up!" Natsu clenched his fist and started to run closer, once he was a few steps away he yelled, "Roar of the Fire Dragon!" At close range he hoped it would burn her, but out of the flames the tip of the ribbon emerged and it furled around his wrist. Lucy began to fling him again, but with his free hand Natsu rashly grabbed the ribbon so when he was thrown, he pulled the ribbon along after him.

Natsu was quicker to stand up this time, even though his wounds had gotten worse. "What are you gonna do now, Lucy? You're just a weakling again without any form of defense."

Lucy showed no reaction to his words. Instead she raised both her hands to the sky once more and this time two ribbons came down. "Natsu, you really are an idiot. I told you these ribbons are made of my magic and because of that," Lucy motioned to the vortex above their heads, "I have an unlimited supply of these ribbons."

Natsu growled and charged at her again. He tried to continue his strategy of taking away Lucy's ribbons. Lucy found this very amusing so whenever Natsu came at her she would let him take her ribbons after harming him in some way. Soon almost the entire battleground was a disarray of discarded ribbons.

Lucy didn't look tired in the slightest, but Natsu looked like he could just drop dead at any moment. All his clothes were ripped, even his precious scarf. His blood soaked everything red, even the ground beneath him. With every breath he took it seemed he coughed up blood along with it.

Lucy looked at him with pity. "Aw, poor Natsu. Would you like to give up now?" Natsu glared at her with enmity blazing in his eyes. "Oh? So does that mean you would prefer for me to put you out of your misery myself? Just so you know I'll be elated to do so."

"No… way," blood poured out of Natsu mouth, but he used the back of his hand to wipe it off his chin, "I'm still… fired up!"

Lucy gave an exasperated sigh. "Is that so? I guess I have to end the fun we've been having now"

Natsu charged at her and Lucy prepared the eight ribbons she was holding, but at the last second Natsu jumped and attacked the vortex. Lucy sat down lethargically, resting her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. "Natsu, you shouldn't have done that," she commented with boredom, twirling a strand of ribbon in between her fingers. As Natsu made contact with the vortex, he seemed to be electrocuted by dark magic that looked like black lightening. He fell to the Earth. When he didn't get up after two minutes, Lucy yawned and walked towards him. Upon reaching his body she looked down at his unconscious face and swiftly kicked him in the stomach. He rolled across the ground, leaving a trail of crimson blood.

"Is that all you have, Natsu? I was sure you said that you were "fired up." Am I mistaken?" Lucy prepared to kick him again, but then a voice called out to her.

"Lucy, stop! Stop kicking him! I-If you don't, I'll make you regret it!" Lucy looked over to see who said those words.

Lucy gave a playful grin. "Oh, really Erza? You couldn't land a blow on Apollyon and you are currently being held immobile by Azazel. Not very threatening."

Another voice called out. "You're such a demon! A cold-hearted, inhuman monster! You are as petty as to do this to someone for being better than you?"

Lucy sighed. "Lisanna, Natsu is worse than trash beneath my feet. After watching our, well, I don't know what to even call it since it wasn't much of a fight. Look at him, he's barely breathing. Also, I am not a demon, I just act like one."

"Lucy, they're right," Apollyon silently appeared beside Lucy. "Stop kicking him."

"But…," Lucy looked lost.

Apollyon pulled out a kamayari and handed it to Lucy. "Stab him through the heart with this end his existence." Lucy raised the kamayari and prepared to stab it down.

"Amaryllis," Kuhn said with a strained voice and a pale face, "Why do you have that?"

With no emotion evident on her face, Apollyon answered, "It's what you killed me with. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't remember."

Kuhn lunged forward and grabbed Apollyon's arm, pulling her so close that they could feel each other's breath and that her eyes met his. "Of course I remember that. It's been my biggest regret!"

Apollyon's face was filled with astonishment, but only for a few seconds. Her face reverted back to being expressionless and she muttered, "Liar." Apollyon snatched her arm away from his grasp, saying again, "Liar." Apollyon stretched out her arms in front of her with her hands raised. She focused her magical power into a sphere. Making eye contact with Lucy, she said, "This whole world is filled liars and agonizing memories. I wouldn't be surprised if your world was the same."

With those words said, the magical sphere released a powerful laser that enveloped Kuhn. It was too bright to see, but everybody could hear the sound of the beam throwing Kuhn into the side of a building. Apollyon ceased her attack and waited for the smoke to clear. The laser left deep trenches in the ground and once the smoke cleared, they could see the silhouette of Kuhn clinging to the edge of the trench near the destroyed house. This time, without making eye contact with Lucy, Apollyon said, "It is time I destroyed this world. I shouldn't have shown mercy on this world in the first place. Lucy, this one act will be my teachings for you. Once you kill that pink haired boy I will start. I will make sure you, Azazel, and that celestial spirit get out alive. If you so desire I will make sure the others of your world survive, too. It is well past time for me to let this place drop into eternal darkness."

The silhouette of Kuhn started to stand, but everybody could see it was with much struggling that he did so. He started to limp closer. Once again he was only a few steps from Apollyon. "Lucy, please, kill that man now," Apollyon pleaded with no emotion on her face or in her voice. Millisar just stood there, not saying anything.

Lucy clutched the kamayari so tightly that her knuckles started to turn white. She raised it above her head and struck it down, but stopped just as the pointed tips started to draw the blood of Natsu's chest.

"Should I… really do this?" Lucy asked. Erza, Wendy, Lisanna, and the Exceeds were screaming at her not to do it, but everyone that Lucy thought supported her stayed silent. A soft moan sounded and everybody's attention turned to the waking Gray.

"Ugh… Wait, what's going on here? Is that bloody pulp on the ground Natsu. And is that Lucy standing over him with a trident looking thing? I must be dreaming."

"Gray, I'm so glad you are alright!" Erza exclaimed. "A lot has happened, but pretty much Lucy is trying to kill Natsu and the girl over there is named Apollyon and she plans on destroying this world, which turns out to be an alternate universe."

Gray sat up straight. "Holy…," He kept looking from Lucy to Natsu. He then looked Lucy in the eyes and said, "Is what you are about to do really worth it? Will you have no regrets at all?"

Lucy thought about his words then raised the kamayari off of Natsu's chest and sprinted to Apollyon. "Apollyon, when you first tried to destroy this world you saved it because you had regretted what you had done, right?!"

Apollyon looked at the dark sky as she responded, "Yes, I did regret destroying that world, but what's done is done and the way it has turned out now… I can't hesitate. I must destroy. This time I won't regret it because I will die along with this cursed world."

"Live," Kuhn said with much passion in his voice. He looked straight at Apollyon and said, "You must live. I took your life away from you once and I… I don't want to do it again. I-,"

"Enough!" Apollyon cut him off. She spread out her demon's wings and soared off into the sky. "Lucy, come here please," she asked. Lucy flew up beside her. "Take my hand and focuses your magic energy down your arm into your hand. I'll do the same. When our magic powers merge I'll take care of the rest." Lucy nodded solemnly. Lucy accepted that this was Apollyon's decision.

Gathering the magic energy together, Apollyon gazed at the world she was about to ruin below. Purple flames appeared at the perimeter of the town and the ground was starting to crack. As this was happening, Lucy knew how Apollyon was doing it and with what type of power because of their connected hands. "So this is what she meant by the last lesson," Lucy thought.

Lilura noticed the kamayari that was discarded onto the ground and shouted at Kuhn, "Kuhn, the kamayari is right there by your feet. Take it and throw it at that witch!"

The sky was starting to turn blood red. Kuhn glared at Lilura. "No, I will not be fooled by you again. I'm content with dying because…" he paused then focused his sights on Apollyon, making sure to make eye contact, "Because I love Amaryllis!"

Apollyon looked away, but not before everybody noticed the tears streaking down her face. "Stop it! Don't say that! It's too late! This world is going to fall! How..." Apollyon gritted her teeth, "How can you still see me as Amaryllis and still love me after all that I've done and what I'm about to do?"

Tears started to form in Kuhn's eyes, but he did not let them fall. "Amaryllis, you never changed, it was me. I allowed myself to be tricked and you paid the price."

Apollyon gave a soft smile and said, "But you still love me. It's okay, Millisar. I… I could never despise or hate you." Then the sky turned pitch black. "Oh no," Apollyon muttered, "It's too late. The destruction of this world is impossible to stop now. We are all doomed to burn in the underworld."