Karna slowly opened his eyes as he woke up in the middle of the forest. He gently rubbed his eyes as he realised that he was in the centre of a forest whose flora seemed completely unknown to him.
'Looks like I fell asleep the moment I started to travel. The toll of the demon slayer form might have been more than I had thought,' he thought as he yawned while stretching.
"Well, looks like that sleep brought me back to a hundred percent, but I wonder how long I have been asleep. More importantly, how long have the other members of the guild been in this dimension?" Karna asked himself as he started to walk in a randomly chosen direction. He knew for a fact that the battle was not over, and if it had been, he would have been automatically transported back to Earthland by the reverse anima.
He then found out that his inventory was working, but when he took out a small shard of ethernano, he realised that the shard was a lot duller than it was supposed to be.
"Guess the ethernano is not the same in this world, or maybe their frequency is not the same as the one back in Earthland, so the magic cannot be absorbed by the people of Earthland normally. Mystogan must have researched a way for them to do it while he was in Earthland all these years.
And Happy and Carla were in Earthland for some time while they were in egg form. That might have given their bodies enough time to adapt to the frequency of ethernano in Earthland, while a familiar nudge from Happy's parents allowed them to access their already inherent biology that was adapted to the frequency of Edolas, allowing them to access their transformation magic in this dimension."
Karna then tried to access his magic and see whether he could attune to the frequency of magic in this dimension. But it seemed like he was unsuccessful.
"The ethernano in the atmosphere is way less than I had thought before. No wonder they think there will be scarcity in a few years. With the trace amount I am able to sense, I won't be able to calculate the adaptation required to use magic in this dimension. Guess I will have to get my hands on the medicine Mystogan has, and if it happens like in the canon, Gajeel might have a vial as well," Karna muttered to himself as he kept walking.
He then tried to activate Incursio and found out that it was working, although its lightning and magic absorption seemed to have shut off. It seemed like the fact that it only took physical energy ensured that Karna could use it even though he could not access even a bit of his magic.
"Man, I won't be able to use Sharingan or any other ability I usually use. And not being able to use archery feels a bit weird," Karna thought as he wore Incursio and began to slowly fly through the sky. While he was flying, he made sure to look for any human settlement or anything similar so that he could have an idea of where he was.
After he flew for half an hour, he suddenly spotted many injured people on a battlefield. Although the fight was over, Karna could see that the defeated party was so wounded that they were unable to move.
He checked through the injured soldiers and was able to recognise them as Edolas soldiers by the armour and weapons they carried.
He then saw a soldier who seemed the least injured and was walking slowly. He immediately landed nearby and removed the soldier's armour.
"Hey, are you alright?" Karna asked carefully, figuring the soldier must be in pain or shock because of the battlefield.
The soldier slowly turned towards Karna and was about to say something, but suddenly his eyes went wide with terror and absolute fear. He pointed towards Karna's chest and screamed in fear.
"You… you are part of them. LEAVE US ALONE!!!" the soldier screamed and began running away. His fear and terror gave him an energy boost that allowed him to run even with his wounds.
Karna was puzzled by this, but when he looked at where the soldier had pointed, he realised that his upper body was actually naked. It seemed like his fight with the demons had destroyed his clothes, but he had not realised it earlier.
And he was pretty sure the soldier had pointed straight at the Fairy Tail symbol on his chest before he had started screaming.
"Damn, what did they do in this timeline?" Karna muttered to himself as he found a dishevelled banner, which he fashioned into a cloak to cover his body.
He figured it was better to get some information before revealing his real identity.
He then moved to another location, helped another wounded soldier, and asked him for directions to the capital city.
"What do you mean, capital city? Don't you know what is happening there?" the soldier asked, looking at Karna as if he were a madman.
"Ah, well, I mostly lived in the forest for the last few years and haven't gotten out much. Plus, I have no map or any means to know what is happening outside," Karna lied while scratching his head.
"The capital city is in that direction," the soldier said while pointing. "But I suggest you go in the opposite direction without looking back," he advised as he sat up.
"Why? What happened there?" Karna asked.
The soldier had a lost look in his eyes but finally managed to speak up.
"It all started with His Majesty's plan to get ethernano from Earthland. Everything was going fine, and it seemed like Edolas would finally survive the catastrophe of losing magic. Everything was going well until the dragonslayers showed up from Earthland."
Karna listened intently, as he knew this was what had happened in canon. But given the current conditions, he knew a lot of changes might have occurred.
"They began to free the people trapped within the Lacrimas one by one. And with each one that came out, another wave of power joined their side. At the end of it, they managed to find the biggest piece of ethernano we had collected and managed to free all the people trapped within it, along with all the items that were absorbed as well.
It seemed like everything was over. We believed that they would leave after making sure we had no way of attacking their place again. But as the last person was freed, things started to spiral in a direction none of us even expected it to reach," the soldier muttered with a hollow look in his eyes.
A/N- hope you like it.