Lucy and Hibiki were running towards the location where Karna had sensed the presence of Angel. Each of them had serious expressions on their faces as they kept on running towards their target. Even though their aim was taking down Angel, the reasons for doing it were completely different.
Lucy's Flashback
"Lucy, Angel is a Celestial Wizard who uses her spirits as objects and does not care whether or not they get hurt while doing so. But due to the specific condition of the contract they are in, they can be freed if she is completely defeated. So do your best."
Flashback over.
Even knowing that some unknown spirits were under the control of someone who did not care about them was more than enough for Lucy to act upon it. But the last bit of information that Karna told her was even more serious.
"One of her spirits is Leo's friend, Aries."
Lucy knew that she couldn't lose this battle.
Hibiki, running by her side, also had his own reasons not to lose the battle he was about to be a part of. Karna had secretly sent information to him before he had left.
"Angel was the one who almost killed Karen and took her spirits a few years ago."
In the original timeline, Karen had been killed and her keys were stolen by Angel. This was revealed in the canon fight between Lucy and Angel, where Angel had used that knowledge to psychologically defeat both Lucy and Hibiki. Hibiki had almost fallen to the dark side, as the knowledge that the killer of the love of his life was standing in front of him made him fluctuate on the line between light and darkness. It was only because of seeing Lucy's bond with her spirits—which even made Gemini hesitate to attack her—that he came back to the light.
But in this timeline, Karna had made sure that Karen survived Angel's attack. Though he was unable to save the keys from being stolen, as he had sensed the presence of Brain nearby. He could have taken Angel out, but Brain was an entirely different matter. He was not strong enough to face an S-Class Runemaster at that young age. Plus, the fact that the conditions for Zero's awakening were different was also an added risk.
So, he had decided to let it go last time.
Right now, Hibiki was on a warpath for revenge. Karen might have survived and learned her lesson when it comes to the treatment of her spirits and reconciled with Loki, but that near-death fight had created fear in her, which made her retire from the wizarding world almost completely. She still worked at Lamia Scale, but Hibiki was always angry that she had to quit because of fear.
"Remember, it's better to let Lucy take charge in the fight. And when things begin to seem like they're going wrong, transfer the Urano Metria spell to Lucy."
Hibiki was surprised. He knew that Karna had a really extensive intelligence network, and Ichiya's silent approval while Karna gave everyone plans showed him that his ideas could be trusted, but he was still doubtful.
"Urano Metria is an S-Class spell. Yes, it has been made with Celestial Wizards in mind, but it requires a bond between wizard and spirits in a way that hasn't been seen in centuries. I know your guildmate Lucy is kind. But trusting her to do it in a life-or-death battle seems like a bit too much."
Karna just grinned at that and replied,
"Trust me, she's a member of Fairy Tail. And we have a habit and tradition of breaking limits that have never been broken before."
Back to the present.
Hibiki looked at the serious expression Lucy had while running towards the location of Angel. He hadn't trusted the idea Karna had given him before. But seeing her current expression—knowing that it was because she knew about Celestial Spirits being mistreated—made him see something in her that Karen once lacked.
'Show me you can do it, Lucy. Show me the bonds of a wizard in Fairy Tail.'
In another part of the forest…
"May money stand as witness to our fight before I completely make you vanish from the world, Wizard Saint," Hoteye greeted Jura as he came out of the forest.
'This is going to be a pain,' Jura thought as he remembered the conversation he had with Karna.
Another Flashback.
"Now, the thing about Hoteye—or Joseph, that's his real name—is that he can be easily swayed to our side if we play our cards right," Karna said, speaking to Jura about the opponent he had to battle first.
"What do you mean?" Jura asked, confused.
"One of the effects of the activation of Nirvana is that, even without the interference of the one who controls it, it automatically changes the affiliation of a person from dark to light or vice versa, depending on which part of the spectrum he or she was on before. But it depends on the person being on the line between dark and light. So it's better for people on our side to be careful about their emotions.
Any kind of negative emotion that leads to a spiral will increase because of the effects of Nirvana, and it will stay that way until Brain activates the runes. With that, he'll gain more control over Nirvana and will be able to divert it only toward the targets he wants to change—and in this case…"
"All the legal guilds," Jura finished grimly. "So what do you want me to do specifically?"
"Hoteye is after money only because he wants to find his brother, who was kidnapped many years ago. Unlike the others who do not see the error in their ways, Hoteye knows that he is making the wrong choices, but he still does it in order to save his brother.
What I want you to do is ensure that Nirvana affects his already wobbly equilibrium. This will require you to tire him out a bit before you hit him with the information that a few of the Fairy Tail wizards know."
"What information?"
"We know the location of his brother."
Back to the present.
'Whether or not Nirvana works, the information is more than enough to stop him—if Karna's speculations about his actions being a result of trying to save his brother are correct,' Jura thought as he prepared for battle.
A/N- hope you like it and every 100 powerstone gets extra chapter of Jason.