"What do you mean?" Karna asked, but an instinct deep within him told him that it had something to do with him not being turned into a Lacrima.
"There was one more member of the Earthland wizards who was turned into a Lacrima, but during the time when the Anima was absorbing the Ethernano, the amount of Ethernano we found in that location surpassed the combined energy we had excavated all these years. The strain of the absorption was taxing, because of which we had to use up a large chunk of the Ethernano we had absorbed by that time to absorb the rest of it in that location," the soldier gulped. "We had no idea that the large chunk of Ethernano was an important member to those people."
Karna's face showed sudden realisation.
In his research of the Anima that he had conducted alone, he was able to determine that the Anima initially absorbs the purest forms of Ethernano before it starts to convert living and non-living beings saturated with Ethernano into Ethernano crystals with the frequency of their own world.
'Oh shit,' Karna cursed in his head as he realised what had happened. After the deal with the R-System, he had kept a large amount of Ethernano in the basement of his house, and if the Anima had worked in the way he thought it did, it would have taken those Ethernano crystals directly from his basement and used them to power the rest of the machine.
But since they were unable to find Karna in Edolas, they might have thought that he had been turned into fuel and used up. Karna could imagine what their reaction to it would be. Plus, Gildarts might be back as well. Karna listened to what the soldier said later about the destruction that eliminated the monarchy of the kingdom, and now the Fairy Tail wizards were currently working on something in the palace while not allowing even a single person to get near it. After making sure the soldier was alright, he began walking towards the capital city.
'Damn, it almost feels like dinosaurs coming back to resurrect their friends who were transformed into oil, just to find out they were used as fuel by people. That can be a good story, I guess,' Karna tried to distract his mind from the troubles he would have to face when he met his guildmates.
From the information he was able to gain from the soldier, the destruction had surpassed any statistics they had made before about what would happen if all the magic disappeared from the world. Even though the king lied and brainwashed his subjects by saying that they would immediately die without magic, it was all so he could gain control of the kingdom, defeat all the Exceeds, and take control of all the magic in Earthland.
There had been research conducted about what would happen if magic disappeared. Other than the main problems like the falling of the floating islands and the difficulty in using many day-to-day comforts, there was still a lot of chance to gain back what they had lost.
As Karna was walking towards the capital in complete denial, he saw something that destroyed his denial completely.
"Oh, this is not good…" Karna groaned as he looked at a completely frozen capital. Everything seemed to have a layer of ice covering it, as if the town were a tiny model that had been put inside a freezer for a long time.
He then began walking through the town towards the castle, which seemed to have a lot of mechanical devices fitted and pointed towards the sky.
But as he was walking, he made sure to make his presence as unnoticeable as possible. Even without magic, he had created many techniques that allowed him to do so.
As he was walking through the city, Karna inspected the ice covering it and found that it was stronger than the maker-magic ice used by the guild's ice wizards. That only left one explanation for why Karna had been unable to find Frostborn's Lacrima when he had gotten up.
"Ultear must have used it, and Frostborn might also have had a hand in it as well. Since he had learned a few enchantments from Grandine to communicate with people on the outside as long as they had contact with his Lacrima, he might have convinced her to be a Dragonslayer. I hope it wasn't as bloody as what Laxus had to face." He then paused and took out the Horse Talisman from his pocket. "Damn, its power's out and there isn't enough Ethernano in the atmosphere for it to regain its energy. I've got to make sure to be more careful, I guess."
As Karna was walking, he saw something peculiar. A man was running through the alleys while trying to stay hidden. The most interesting thing was that the man looked like the mirror version of Gajeel but a bit more studious.
'Edolas Gajeel,' Karna thought in his mind as he immediately vanished and appeared directly in front of Edolas Gajeel.
"Hey, I come in peace!" he shouted as Karna raised an eyebrow in confusion.
In the canon, he was supposed to be on the side of Earthland Fairy Tail, but with the way he screamed right now, Karna was sure things had gotten a lot more problematic.
"Hey, hey, calm down, you're a reporter, right? I can see your notepad and your camera," Karna said gently as he pointed towards Edolas Gajeel's items.
"Oh." Edolas Gajeel calmed down quickly as he realised he was not in any danger. He patted his clothes as he looked at Karna again.
"You don't seem to be from Edolas. Are you one of the people who got freed from the Ethernano?" he asked.
"Nah, I came from the other side. I wanted to find out exactly what happened here before I start my rescue plan, and luckily I found a reporter. Can you tell me what is happening here?" Karna asked.
"Sure, I can tell you about it, but I don't think you can fix what is happening here. It's a lost cause. And I didn't expect anyone could come here without the Anima. My name's Gajeel, and you might have met my counterpart in Earthland who is a Dragonslayer. Here, I am a reporter."
"Oh, I am Karna Vermillion, member of Fairy Tail and Earthland Gajeel's comrade. Nice to meet you."
As soon as Karna said his name, Edolas Gajeel's eyes widened.
A/N- hope you like it.