The words of the Council guards startled everyone at the Fairy Tail Guild's base:
"Refining Demons?"
"What... the one from the last battle?"
"Are you kidding?"
"Guild Master!"
"What should we do? Are we going to let them take Gar?"
Makarov quickly stood up and said:
"This can be explained."
"The Demon in Gar's hand was not refined in the traditional sense."
"It was the corpse left behind after killing a Tartaros Demon during the battle outside Vichi City last time."
"It's just Recycling the corpses of those Demons."
"It can't be considered refining, right?"
"At most, it's just war spoils."
But the leading guard did not listen to Makarov's explanation:
"He needs to explain this matter to the Councilors."
"Our mission is to bring him back to the Council."
"I can't decide on anything else."
Gar recalled Gengar and said:
"It's fine."
"I'll go with them."
"Anyway, there are no secrets that can't be explained."
At this moment.
Yajima's voice came from behind the guards:
"That's right, Makarov."
"It's better to listen to them."
"If the Demon in Gar's hand is not a problem, the Council won't make things difficult."
"The Council also has no choice right now."
"Fairy Tail's reputation isn't very good right now."
Yajima walked out from behind the guards and stood in front of the rebuilt Fairy Tail Guild.
Makarov couldn't help but frown, the people inside the Guild looked puzzled, and Gray said somewhat displeased:
"Didn't we already win?"
"Why does it seem like we've done something wrong?"
Yajima shook his head and sighed:
"Although we won."
"We lost so many people, and Grimoire Heart is indeed unable to attack again."
"But this war lasted for so long."
"So many Guilds were involved, and many Guilds and Magicians have long been dissatisfied with you."
"Plus Ivan's betrayal and Gar refining Demons."
"Although everything can be explained, we still need to go through the process."
Makarov wanted to stop it, but it was too late.
Clang!
A pile of rebar fell to the ground, making a crashing sound.
Makarov turned his head to look at Laxus:
"Laxus!"
Laxus's face was startled, disbelieving:
"Betrayal?!"
"My father betrayed us?"
The rest of the Guild members were also startled, except for Gar and Gildarts.
Laxus's entire world collapsed, and he looked at Makarov:
"Grandpa?"
"What exactly is going on?"
Makarov's face was grim, and he said:
"Ivan, in pursuit of power."
"Joined the Balam Alliance during our war with Grimoire Heart, there's nothing more to say."
"From now on, Fairy Tail members who see him."
"Kill without mercy."
After speaking, he closed his eyes with difficulty.
Laxus was disbelieving and roared loudly:
"Impossible!"
"How could he join the Balam Alliance!"
"You're lying to me, aren't you!"
He rushed in front of Makarov, wanting an answer.
Makarov opened his eyes, raised his hand to try and hold Laxus down:
"Laxus!"
"Now is not the time to discuss this!"
"Go back and calm down!"
But as soon as his hand was placed on Laxus's shoulder, Laxus shook it off:
"Impossible!"
"How could he have betrayed us!!!"
Laxus shook off Makarov's hand and rushed out.
The scene became silent for a moment.
The Fairy Tail members looked at each other, unable to believe this matter. Although they didn't have much contact, Ivan risking danger to bring back Lacrimas for Laxus to heal his physical problems didn't seem like something that kind of person would do.
Yajima seemed to know he had said the wrong thing:
"Sorry, Makarov."
Makarov shook his head:
"It's fine."
"He would know sooner or later."
"It's better to know and accept it sooner."
"I'll go with them."
Gar said:
"No need, Guild Master."
"You should keep an eye on Laxus."
"If there's anything, talk it out."
"Don't keep it bottled up."
"Laxus isn't an unreasonable person either."
"He has his own judgment."
Makarov was startled:
"This..."
"Alright, I understand."
In fact, Makarov planned to keep it hidden and only reveal it when he couldn't hide it anymore.
His original intention was not to let Laxus get hurt.
But little did he know that this kind of protection would only deepen their misunderstanding. Many dead ends that couldn't be untied were actually just misunderstandings that weren't clearly explained.
Gar turned around, looked at the guards, and smiled:
"Let's go."
He walked directly past the guards towards the Magic Council's airship.
Seeing Gar being so cooperative, the guards didn't say anything either.
They followed Gar onto the airship.
Yajima also offered an apology and then boarded the airship.
The Magic Council's airship slowly ascended.
Inside the airship's room.
Gar walked into the prepared room, which was like a single dormitory, cast a cleaning Magic on himself, then used transformation Magic to change into a set of black pajamas, and lay directly on the clean white single bed.
Relaxing after a long time, Gar closed his eyes and cleared his mind.
To be honest.
The blow Hades dealt him some time ago was indeed significant.
It caused Gar to be unable to fully recover during this period.
He could only temporarily numb himself by being busy with various matters in the Guild, avoiding thoughts about that battle.
But he always had to face it.
Perhaps things had gone too smoothly in recent years, including dealing with various enemies and intervening early to rescue some people and matters, leading him to rely too much on the memories in his mind, subconsciously treating his understanding of many people and events as if they were from the anime.
Hades, this old fox who had lived for over a hundred years, really taught Gar a solid lesson.
The time Hades spent just studying Magic was longer than Gar's age.
He thought that by creating that kind of massive Lacrima, he could resist most enemies, but how would the enemy act according to his thoughts?
Hades was forced back by him, but then immediately came back.
What was the reason for him coming back?
It was Hades' research on 'Fairy Law'.
It was Hades' hundred years of experience.
It was Hades' unwavering belief in the fairness of time.
So...
The massive Lacrima's first appearance suffered a terrible defeat.
It's not that this thing is useless, it just happened to encounter Hades.
It gave Gar a solid slap.
It woke him up.
Although Gar later used transformation to become Gengar, fooled Hades, escaped, and even taunted Hades a bit.
But in reality, it was just bravado.
Thinking about it now, Gar couldn't help but smile bitterly.
Gar stretched, got up from the bed again, leaned against the wall, and his consciousness entered the space, finding one of Hades' earlier notebooks.
Previously, inside the Grimoire Heart Guild, he had collected many books and research notes that Hades had collected.
He hadn't been in the mood to look at them, but now that he was relaxed, Gar was ready to study them.
But as soon as he opened it, the sentence written on the title page made Gar freeze.
"Between heaven and earth, 'Magic Factors' exist and circulate among all things. Magic constitutes everything in the world. A Magician's strength is not determined by Magic, but by the strength of their own Magic Power — Hades."
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