"Fairy Glitter," Laxus muttered as a humongous amount of magical energy surged straight toward Karna.
Karna sighed. 'Did he lose his common sense or something?' he thought.
As the attack landed, Laxus waited to see if he had won the exchange so that he can end this once and for all. But what remained was Karna—without a single scratch on his body—swallowing golden energy into his mouth.
"Seriously, Laxus, did you forget that I have an Arcane constitution? I can eat any kind of magic," Karna said indignantly, feeling his already existing reserve of magic grow even more from the energy he had just absorbed. He flexed his arms as more energy started flow throughout his limbs.
Laxus stared wide-eyed with shock, realizing most of his magic had been wasted in that attack. He had banked on the idea that the spell used energy from the sun or moon, but he hadn't realized it had actually converted the energies into chaotic Ethernano as a form of attack.
Laxus looked at his hands, feeling the loss of magic from that move. Even though the energy was taken from external sources, he had to use his own magic to maintain Fairy Glitter, and the intensity of the spell was proportional to the amount of magic he put into it. But he was also feeling a bit confused as just like Karna said, he had forgotten about the fact that Karna can eat magic made up of Ethernano. A mistake that he never makes with the amount of focus he gives to each battle.
And a battle of this importance ,where he has to give it his all so that he can finally make sure that his younger brother can be safe, he will never make such an awful mistake.
'Something messed with my mind, and if it was Karna, he would have used that armour of his before resorting to cheap moves such as this. Something else influenced this. But I have no time to look for it now, I need to finish this battle first'
Laxus knew he couldn't stop—if he did, there would be nothing he could do in the future to stop Karna. Just as he was about to step forward and continue battling, his vision went dark again. This time, he wouldn't wake up for a long time.
---
After a few hours.
"Ivan… huh," Makarov sighed, understanding the root cause of Laxus's behaviour all these years. He remembered the day he had found both Laxus and Karna in Ivan's hideout, blood splattered everywhere even though both of them were devoid of any physical injuries when he had found them. At the time, he had been more worried about the kids' physical wounds and had only treated those, never checking for lingering mental magic.
Plus, after the incident, he had attributed all the behavioural changes to Laxus's trauma caused by his own father and hadn't looked deeper into it.
'This was my fault,' Makarov thought as he looked at Laxus, now lying in a bed at Porlyusica's. He then turned to the other bed, where Karna was tied up in bandages covering his entire body. Makarov sighed but allowed a small smile. The wounds Karna had weren't from his fight with Laxus—they were from the guild members who had seen what he'd done.
Even though Karna's injuries had been negligible, the guild had noticed he was badly wounded and had healed himself to hide it. So, they made sure to beat him up enough to confine him to a bed for a while. One of the scariest moments was Porlyusica leaping onto the crowd and throwing paralysis-inducing chemicals at Karna.
Makarov had been terrified for a moment, seeing a shadow of the old Fairy Tail member who used to thrash S-Class wizards without using a drop of magic.
But the real terror came when Cana stepped forward with an expression that froze everyone trying to attack Karna.
"This isn't over."
Three words—and she walked away. The rest of the guild members immediately cleared her path, some shaking in their boots.
Makarov wouldn't say it aloud, but in that moment, he had seen something scarier than Porlyusica.
"You're gonna die when you get out of here, kid. You pissed her off way too much this time," Makarov told Karna, who shivered slightly in his bed.
"You don't have to tell me, Gramps. I'm thinking of staying in bed as long as possible before going back. Hopefully, she'll cool down a little by then," Karna muttered, shifting into a more comfortable position.
Makarov just shook his head. 'You still have a lot to learn about women, kid.'
Then, he turned to a more serious topic.
"How did you find out he was enchanted?" Makarov asked, his tone colder than intended.
Karna stopped moving, his expression turning serious.
"When Laxus used Fairy Glitter, his magic completely vanished, leaving only a tiny amount to keep him conscious despite the massive stamina drain from casting high-powered spells back-to-back and taking heavy damage from my strikes. Plus, at that moment, my power was heightened from absorbing the Thunder Palace's magic, boosting my Aura Sense significantly. Since Laxus's magic was nearly gone, it couldn't overshadow the enchantment—which was made with such trace amounts of mana that even Laxus never noticed it all these years. After finding it, I made sure to knock him out and use my Dispel on him."
"Haah," Makarov sighed. "So, in a way, we were lucky this happened. Otherwise, we'd have faced bigger problems when we least could afford it." He relaxed—but seeing Karna's frown, he sensed something was wrong.
"What is it, kid?"
"Master, using his entire magic on Fairy Glitter to take me down—and forgetting I can absorb magic—isn't something Laxus would do, even under extreme physical and emotional stress." Karna turned to Makarov, his eyes looking deadly serious. "I think a third party influenced Laxus to make that move."
A/N- hope you like it and every 100 powerstone gets extra chapter of Jason.