"It is very nice to meet the new generation's Fairy Tactician. Though it is sad that the circumstances are not pleasing for either of us," Brain said as he prepared his spell secretly. Damn it, just a few more seconds…
"Take your time. I won't interfere with your escape," Karna suddenly said out loud, which brought shock to almost everyone in the vicinity.
Cana and Karna were trained in the art of magical sensing by Mavis Vermillion, the prodigy who brought the wrath of God upon herself at a very young age.
Detecting teleportation magic—one that uses Dark magic, one of the easiest elements to detect for living beings—let's just say, Brain's move of hiding looked like a large campfire blazing to Cana and Karna's senses.
"What are you planning?" Brain asked, still continuing to increase his magical power. He had no idea why Karna was letting him do this, but he knew a man such as Karna—known for his tactics—would only allow him to leave if he had some kind of agenda. But he couldn't take any chances right now; one of his own had been taken out in an instant.
Plus, Karna had clearly profiled Cobra the moment he arrived. That was extremely suspicious. Brain had spent the last few years making sure that information about the Six did not go outside. Every mission was completed without a single survivor.
Brain had no choice. He activated the magic, and all six of them disappeared in a black light that covered them all.
Karna removed Incursio, which was covering him, and looked around. Almost all of them were injured from the battle he had been late to attend. Then he turned toward the direction they had come from.
"You can come out now, Master Ichiya, Wizard Saint Jura."
This surprised the others, who turned to find two people missing from their group. But seeing them now made them realise why these two had been absent.
Ichiya had wounds all over his body as if he had been manhandled, while Jura clearly had a stab wound that did not seem to be treated well. There was a band-aid on top of it that was hazardously leaking blood.
Wendy immediately went to heal them, while Cana started handing out stamina potions to the others.
"May I know why you made such a choice, Mister Karna?" Jura asked politely.
Karna smiled. He could already feel a few doubtful looks directed at him from the other members of the alliance, as they didn't know him personally, and his decision to let them go was not welcomed. But Ichiya was watching without any sign of fear—among the people present, aside from the Fairy Tail members, he was the only one who personally knew Karna's character due to the many collaborations he had done with the Fairy Tail guild.
Karna looked straight at Jura, who had decided to ask him before taking any action. Unlike most people who would have attacked first, Jura at least had the decency to ask before taking any measures. Karna then turned toward Hibiki.
"From what I remember, I sent a sensing program for your Archive Magic a few years back to your guild. Would you mind using it on the surrounding forest?" Hibiki was surprised for a moment but then activated his Archive Magic, which made a circular screen appear in front of everyone.
Archive Magic—capable of turning any kind of information into data, like magical structure—is a magic that requires a really rare type of affinity and extreme creativity to be effective. If he had been given a choice to choose a type of magic before appearing in this world, Karna would have chosen it, as he could already imagine many ways he could use it to bring nightmares to his opponents, whether they were gods, dragons, or demons. But sadly, he had no affinity for it. And getting it now would only interfere with the path he had already chosen for himself.
It didn't take long for Hibiki to find the relevant information, and he was shocked by what he had found.
"What did you see, Hibiki?" Ichiya asked.
Hibiki wiped the sweat from his forehead as he reported.
"The sensor has found the presence of a few thousand wizards within the forest. Their power levels might not be high enough, but their numbers are enough to run down most of us," Hibiki reported, which made the atmosphere grimmer than before.
Jura turned to Karna.
"I'm sorry for doubting you, Mr. Karna. Were you worried that if we attacked, we would have to deal with all those people at the same time?"
"Just Karna is fine. And no, that's not the reason I let them go," he said, then moved toward Hibiki and asked him to display the map for everyone to see.
"What you see here are the dark guilds affiliated with the Balam Alliance, which is under the control of Oración Seis. Now, this might seem like a problem at first, but we can use it as an opportunity to destroy a large number of dark guilds.
The reason I let them go is because I'm sure that with our abilities, we will be able to take care of them. But the rest of the dark guilds will see this as a defeat and start running away. That will only make it harder for us to catch them later."
The others nodded, agreeing with Karna's reasoning.
"If we just wanted to destroy Nirvana, a few S-Class wizards would be more than enough. But this is our opportunity to take care of them—and the alliance between guilds was formed with this idea in mind."
"Seeing that you're telling all of us about this means that you have a plan, right, Karna?" Erza asked.
"Well, not exactly a plan, I suppose, but more like a direction that can guarantee us an easier victory," Karna said with a grin that sent shivers through those who saw it.
A/N- hope you like it and every 100 powerstone gets extra chapter of Jason.