Hello, and welcome to the tenth chapter of The Broken Road. It took a lot of thinking to really get some ideas into place, but I figured it out after going through some old stuff. I don't really think this chapter is going to be all that exciting because there's a lot of stuff we have to get through before we can see some fighting, but I'll try to make it alright.

Anyways, here's the chapter. Enjoy.

Merhaba, Underground Facility *Mitsu POV*

Gray and I were walking through some kind of long corridor. To be honest, I really didn't care if these mages were "immortal" or not. There was no way someone could live forever. I was thankful that I was with Gray, one of the few mages in Fairy Tail I really liked. I'm not sure why I volunteered to even come to this place. I hated being mixed in with my brother, but for some reason, I felt like I couldn't just abandon him. I was deep in thoughts about the whole situation when Gray asked me a question.

"Do you think we'll find anything here?" the ice make mage asked, looking at me as we walked down the hallway.

"I'm not sure. I mean, why would an immortal mage be hiding down here in the first place? Don't they have better things to do than to stalk us through an underground facility?" I asked as I shrugged.

Gray nodded his head and we kept walking. But still, I kept thinking about what Gray had asked me. Was there really something down here? It wasn't like me to get so deep into thought, but I couldn't help wondering about all of this.

Clang

The sound startled me and I let out a shout of surprise, looking all around, my eyes wide with surprise and a little bit of fear. Gray looked back at me, a weird look on his face. I looked down at the ground and saw the metal pipe I had accidentally hit. I calmed down and just laughed as we continued on. There was nothing to be scared of. Nothing was down here.

"You alright? You seemed kind of startled by that pipe you accidentally kicked." said Gray as I waved it off.

"It's nothing. I was just surprised by it." I replied as Gray shrugged his shoulders.

Still, it was a good thing we had the lights on in this place. Surprisingly, the lights still worked in this stupid place. That's when everything went wrong. I must have spoken too soon because the lights that were on behind us started to shut down, every light we had passed going dark, the darkness flooding the corridor behind us. I took a step forward while looking back. Gray cursed as he looked in front of us and I looked forward to see all the lights in front of us shutting down.

The only light that still worked as the light that hung right above us. We were on an island of light in a sea of darkness. Darkness was all around us and Gray just chuckled calmly as he looked into the inky blackness.

"Looks like you were only half right, Mitsu. We didn't find him, he found us."

*Garret POV*

Ding clank scratch creak

The sounds surrounded us at all times, but it didn't bother me. Natsu and I were walking through the tunnels, when suddenly the noises stopped. The fire dragon slayer looked up at the ceiling and shrugged. Instead, he turned to the long hallway that was ahead of us and started shouting.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" he shouted, his voice bouncing around the tunnel.

I laughed as Natsu scratched his head and looked around. I was really pumped to start fighting against some strong opponents. I had promised myself that I would become an S-Class mage just like my sister, and I wasn't about to let some immortal mage get in my way! We passed several steel doors, and we tried to open them, but they were all jammed shut. Natsu kicked one of the doors and cursed as he tried to open one.

"Why won't they open? Come on you stupid door!" he shouted as he tried to pull open the door.

"Natsu, we don't have time to be investigating all these rooms. These tunnels have to lead to some sort of ending area where we can all meet up again. Come on, let's go." I said as Natsu looked at me and sighed as he left the door.

"Alright, but I just hope that there's some food around here. I'm really hungry." sighed Natsu as we continued to walk.

As we walked, I couldn't help but feel like something was wrong about this part. It was like somebody had purposely jammed all the doors to stop from someone from getting in…or something from getting out. I shivered slightly, although it was mostly from excitement. Even I was excited, I couldn't help but feel a bit creeped out by the place. Suddenly the lights started flickering, and we stopped, staring up at the lights. I growled and frowned as I looked up at the blinking lights.

"Oh, come on! They've been working for at least three decades with no maintenance and now they stop working?" I shouted, angry at the light bulbs for failing at this crucial time.

Natsu narrowed his eyes as he looked at the light bulbs and looked down the hallway. All the lights were flickering as well. Natsu's lip curled into a smile. It was just what Natsu needed to really get back into serious fighting, an enemy who couldn't die.

"Garret, I don't think this is a coincidence at all." said Natsu calmly as all the lights shut off.

We stood in the darkness for a while, and then a flame appeared in front of us. I jumped back and Natsu narrowed his eyes as the flame got larger, revealing a man wearing a brown leather jacket with an armor plate fixed on his right shoulder. He had well-kept brown hair and he had brown eyes that reflected the orange glow of the fire he held in his left hand. He looked smug and grinned at Natsu, raising his wide but flat sword.

"Well, if it isn't my son, Natsu."

*Karis POV*

Lucy and I had our suspicions. The entire set up was way too unnatural. They purposely split us into groups so we would be easier to take down. But I still had a hard time believing that I could really defeat an immortal mage. The lights weren't very good, some of them flickering on and off and some just completely dead. We must have gotten the shortest hallway because we could see what looked like the end of the hallway. One of the lights was broken, but it was easy to see the wall.

"That's the end, but I see a door at the end as well…" reported Lucy as I tried to see through the darkness.

It took some time, but I finally did it. It was a steel door, much like the many we had passed on the way here. We were about to head towards it when we heard a sound that sounded like the cry of an animal. It was like the groan of steel, but it felt more…human. It seemed to echo throughout the tunnel and we hurried towards the steel door, the noise getting louder…and closer with each second. Lucy grabbed onto the steel door's handle, but we were completely surprised when the door opened on its own.

I froze when I saw who had opened it. I was looking into the face of the girl who we had seen on the way to Fairy Tail, Malice Southerland. She gave me a sad smile.

"Hello, Karis."

*Kory POV*

"I told you that you couldn't run, little boy." cackled an old voice as the figure stepped into one of the only activated lights in the hallway, arms of shadow scaling the walls of the corridor.

I stepped back towards the other working light, the horrible memory of the dying forest coming back to me. The old man with the three cornered house looked at me, his eyes closed. Wendy stepped forward, ready to challenge the old man. She had a determined look on her face and I remembered that her job was to protect me.

"I won't let you harm a member of Fairy Tail!" she shouted at the old man.

The old man chuckled at Wendy's words and the shadows stretched across the walls, coming off the walls like long ribbons of inky darkness, and grabbing Wendy's arms. They lifted her into the air and I tried to help her, but the ribbons wrapped around my left leg and my right arm, lifting me into the air. The old man smiled as the ribbon-like darkness unraveled from around our body parts and dropped us.

"We'll see who needs protecting…" cackled the old man as all the lights turned back on.

*Athena's POV*

I heard Justin let out a shout of pain and I immediately looked for him in the darkness. Justin was trying to keep the pain down, but I eventually found him, grabbing his shoulder and asking what was wrong.

"E-Everything suddenly hurts! What's going on!" screamed Justin as Erza suddenly tensed, sensing something.

"Someone is walking down the hallway!" she said as she drew her sword, holding it in front of her.

I tried to keep Justin quiet as I told him everything was going to be ok. He tried to keep his grunts of pain as quiet as possible, and the voice echoed through the tunnel.

"There was once a man named Luscious. He wanted strength, and he bargained with the Goddess of Death. He acquired great power, and went almost insane with it."

Footsteps were heard, getting closer with each second. Erza took a step backwards, concentrating on what was about to happen. I felt my heart slam in my throat as the footsteps got closer. Justin's eyes were wide with terror as well.

"However, he was eventually defeated. Luscious was a member of the Court of Nine, and his rampage sparked a small civil war in the court. We tried to keep the conflict minimal, but it didn't work, and eventually, a small little fight happened…" said the voice, a mocking tone in his voice.

Without looking at us, Erza ordered me to drag Justin into the nearest room. I looked around for a steel door. I found one that was close to us, but would it even open?

"Hurry!" hissed Erza as I nodded frantically, dragging Justin towards the steel door.

I gripped the cool handle and pulled it open, a horrible screech echoing through the tunnel. Without thinking about how dark it was inside the room, I dragged Justin inside and we shivered inside the room, trying to avoid detection.

"I was scared, and I devoured Luscious. I also devoured the judge, Jasif."

"Who are you! Show yourself, coward!" I heard Erza roar.

There was the sound of a light flicking on and then the voice spoke in its worst voice, a voice that sent shivers going down our spines.

"My name is Hudson, and I will be devouring all of you."

…

Well, it isn't the best chapter, but it had to be done. It's just the set up chapter. I'm going to be going writing a fight each chapter by the way. I don't have much to say because I'm kinda tired after writing this. I'm sorry if you didn't like it, but it was necessary for the future chapters. See you all later! FF