Chapter XXI: Edolas
The Truth About Edolas
"What do you mean, because of you?" Natsu demanded. His usual cheerful grin had vanished, replaced by an intense, dark glare. "How could you possibly be responsible for this?!"
Carla pulled in a shuddering, fragile breath, her tight composure crumbling entirely under the weight of the moment. "Edolas—the world on the other side of that portal—is dying. Its natural magic is finite, fading, and running out. Six years ago, their King ordered the construction of massive hyper-space magic gates called Anima to steal magic from other worlds."
Happy's eyes widened in sheer disbelief. "Other worlds? But... that's..."
"It's real," Carla's voice turned bitter, laced with raw sorrow. "For six years, smaller Anima portals have opened across Earthland, draining magic wherever they appeared. But someone was hunting them down, sealing them before Edolas could siphon what it needed."
Wendy felt the pieces clicking together in her mind. "Mystogan... He told me he'd been suppressing them all this time."
"Yes," Carla confirmed softly. "But the one over Magnolia was too massive, too dense for even him to contain. Edolas finally took what it craved—an entire city's worth of raw Ethernano, along with every soul inside it."
Heat began to ripple from Natsu's body, subtle sparks of flame dancing around his clenched fists. "And what does any of this have to do with you and Happy?!"
Carla closed her eyes tightly, unable to meet his gaze. "Happy and I... we are Exceeds. We were dispatched to Earthland six years ago as scouts—advance agents for Edolas. Our knowledge of our homeland and our directive was seeded directly into our minds before we were sent across the rift."
"Directive?" Happy's voice was tiny, tremble-laced. "What directive? I don't remember any mission! I'm just Happy!"
"Because you never tried to remember!" Carla snapped, her voice cracking as tears spilled over her whiskers. "You were content playing the innocent fool, acting like you were just a silly cat who loves fish! But we had a duty, Happy! We were sent here for a reason!"
"What reason?" Wendy asked, her voice a fragile whisper in the vast, empty crater.
Carla looked at Wendy, then at Natsu, agonizing conflict tearing across her face. "I... I can't say it. Not yet. Happy has to unseal his own memory, or the truth remains incomplete."
"Six years."
The deep, rumbling voice cut through the heavy quiet like a blade.
From the shattered remains of what had been the guild hall's east wall, Gildarts stepped out into the open. His clothes were singed, his orange hair tossed by the wind, but his magic aura pulsed around him with absolute, terrifying fury.
"Six years these portals have been stealing people, and not a single soul thought to inform the S-Class mages?" Gildarts's Crash Magic crackled dangerously around his knuckles. "How many towns have been wiped off the map? How many lives lost?"
Behind him stepped the rest of the Clive family. Teilanne moved with lethal grace, her crimson ki swirling around her form like a calm flame. Kizuna's golden energy flickered erratically, reflecting his internal turmoil, while Uruk and Sala fell into flank positions with quiet, battle-tested focus.
"Dad!" Wendy cried out, running to Gildarts. Cumber moved instantly to her side, his large, muscular frame forming a protective barrier in front of her.
"We were inside when the center collapsed," Teilanne said quietly, her dark eyes locking onto Carla with a gaze so sharp the Exceed visibly recoiled. "The spatial distortion was completely alien to this planet. One second space held firm... the next, reality folded."
"We were scattered across the perimeter of what used to be Magnolia," Uruk added, analyzing the terrain with sharp precision. "The selective nature of who was left behind suggests the portal filtered out specific energy signatures during the absorption phase."
Sala tilted her head, watching Happy and Carla intently. "Dragon Slayers, Exceeds, and those carrying non-native ki bloodlines. Beings whose energy signatures either originate outside Earthland or possess internal, self-sustaining generation."
Natsu blinked, looking between the Saiyan siblings in shock. "You guys knew about this?!"
"We suspected," Kizuna gritted out, his knuckles white as he suppressed his golden power. "Your magical signatures never matched normal Earthland life, Carla. And the timing of your arrival..."
"Six years ago," Cumber murmured softly, understanding. "Right when the Anima gates began to open."
Carla hung her head in deep shame. "We were spies. Living tools sent to gather tactical intelligence on Earthland's magic reserves and military strength. Everything—Natsu finding Happy's egg, Wendy meeting me at Cait Shelter—it was all calculated."
"No!" Happy shouted desperately, tears streaming down his fur. "I love Natsu! He's my partner, my best friend! I would never spy on him!"
"You would, because it was written into your mind!" Carla yelled back ruthlessly. "Form bonds with elite mages, integrate into their guilds, gather data! The fact that you formed genuine attachments doesn't change what we were sent to do!"
Teilanne stepped forward, her gentle, motherly aura replacing the sharp warrior's edge as she looked down at the weeping Exceed. "What was the core objective, child? What were you ordered to achieve?"
Carla trembled, looking up into Teilanne's calm, unjudging eyes. "I... I cannot speak it. The seal requires Happy to unlock his half first. It's a mental lock meant to prevent captured scouts from spilling secrets under interrogation."
Natsu took a step forward, his jaw set in a hard, uncompromising line. "Then we make him remember. Now."
"It doesn't work by force, Natsu!" Carla cried miserably. "The memories are locked behind emotional acceptance! He has to want to confront what we really are!"
The wind howled softly through the barren stone basin. Happy stood motionless, staring down at his small, trembling paws. Silence stretched long and heavy, until the little blue cat finally spoke, his voice barely audible over the breeze.
"Are we... are we going to save them?"
Wendy blinked through her tears. "Happy...?"
"Natsu, Lucy, Erza... everyone is trapped in another world because of our kingdom," Happy looked up, his big round eyes filled with tears, yet holding a fierce, unshakeable resolve. "If we're going to save our family, then I don't care about the mission anymore. I need to know the truth. I want to remember!"
A visible shift rippled through Happy's posture. The naive, childish confusion melted away as ancient, dormant memories flooded his mind. His eyes went glassy for a brief second before refocusing with terrifying clarity.
"The Dragon Slayers," Happy whispered, his voice sounding hollow and strangely mature. "Our primary directive... was to monitor, isolate, and, if necessary, eliminate the Dragon Slayers."
The words struck like a physical hit. Natsu staggered back half a step, betrayal and shock flickering across his face. "Eliminate... us?"
"Dragon Slayers represent the ultimate existential threat to Edolas," Carla explained, her own unlocked memories now merging with his. "Your magic is self-sustaining—you generate Ethernano internally. Even if Edolas completely drains Earthland of its ambient magic, Dragon Slayers would retain their power. You could fight back. You could destroy their empire."
"So you were sent to assassinate us," Wendy said softly, her heart aching.
"Only if you posed a threat to the extraction!" Happy insisted frantically, taking a step toward Natsu. "The main plan was to use our bonds to manipulate you—to keep you docile so you wouldn't resist when the Anima activated! But I didn't know! I swear I didn't know, Natsu!"
Gildarts's Crash Magic flared bright white, shattering a nearby rock into dust just from the sheer pressure of his anger. "And what happens now?"
Carla and Happy exchanged a long, resolute glance before turning together to face the gathered mages and Saiyans.
"Now... we break our oaths," Carla declared, spreading her white wings as magical energy hummed through her feathers. "We are going to Edolas. We are going to break into their kingdom and take our family back."
Happy wiped his tears, his jaw set with a fierce, stubborn pride that matched his partner's. "And if the King of Edolas tries to stop us... we'll knock him down!"
Breaking Through to Edolas
"Wait," Natsu said, his voice dropping into a hard, purposeful tone as he stepped toward the two Exceeds. "You're saying you can actually take us there? To Edolas?"
"Yes," Carla confirmed, her small jaw set. "Happy and I can tap into the spatial resonance between worlds. It's how our eggs were sent to Earthland six years ago."
She held up a paw, her dark eyes locking onto Natsu and Gildarts with icy seriousness. "But before we cross, there are four conditions you must accept without exception."
"First," Carla continued, her tactical mind laying out the cold reality, "returning to Edolas makes Happy and me traitors to the Royal Crown. The moment our presence is logged, we will be hunted. You will all require complete disguises."
"Second: no further questions about our origin or original mission. What we have disclosed is all you need to know to survive."
"Third: I have no physical memory of Edolas. My knowledge comes entirely from implanted neural directives. I cannot act as a terrain guide."
She paused, pulling in a deep, sharp breath. Her voice dropped into a deadly, unshakeable whisper. "And fourth... if Happy or I show even the slightest sign of reverting to our core programming—if we hesitate, betray you, or attempt to lead you into a royal trap—you are to kill us on the spot. No hesitation. No second chances. The lives of Fairy Tail depend on it."
A heavy, suffocating silence settled over the empty stone crater.
"Nobody's killing anyone," Natsu gritted out, his fists tightening. "You're our friends."
"We are going," Gildarts declared, stepping between them to break the tension. "Every single one of us. The Clive family, Wendy, Natsu. Our home was taken. We're going to tear that world apart until we get it back."
Teilanne nodded, reaching out to gently touch Gildarts's arm. "Agreed. Though we must proceed with discipline. A realm stripped of ambient Ethernano presents severe tactical constraints."
"Our ki reserves should operate at one hundred percent efficiency," Uruk observed calmly, adjusting his arm guards. "Ki is life-force generated from within the bodily vessel, entirely independent of external atmospheric Ethernano—much like Dragon Slayer magic."
"Then we're locked in," Natsu said, a low grin breaking across his face as fire flared around his boots. "Let's go smash some kingdom doors."
Carla unfurled her white wings. But instead of the small, feather-light appendages she usually summoned, her wings expanded dramatically, glowing with a soft, ethereal translucence that hummed with spatial frequency. Beside her, Happy let out a small gasp as his own wings expanded to match hers, shimmering with silver light.
"It feels... heavy," Happy murmured, stretching them. "Stronger."
"Because we are unlocking our true physiology," Carla explained. "Grab hold. Natsu and Wendy take our shoulders. The rest of you must maintain physical contact—the dimensional slipstream will tear apart anything detached."
The group formed a tight, synchronized unit. Happy carried Natsu while Gildarts held Natsu's shoulder; Carla supported Wendy while Cumber anchored her with a massive hand. Teilanne, Kizuna, Uruk, and Sala linked arms behind Gildarts, creating a chain of physical and energy-bound contact.
"Ready?" Carla asked, her wings beating faster.
"Do it," Gildarts commanded.
With a powerful, synchronized stroke of their ethereal wings, Happy and Carla launched upward into the night sky, shooting directly toward the residual vortex rift hanging above Magnolia.
The moment they hit the barrier, reality distorted violently. Colors inverted—blacks turned to searing whites, and space folded in on itself like crushed glass. Even Teilanne's battle-tested senses reeled as the gravitational pull shifted through three dimensions at once.
Then, with a sound like a cracking whip, they broke through.
Welcome to Edolas
The world that exploded into view shattered every expectation.
Floating landmasses, capped with lush green forests and sprawling rivers, drifted serenely across a sky painted in violent shades of magenta, amber, and deep violet. Rivers did not merely run down mountains; some flowed upside-down across the undersides of floating islands, defying every law of terrestrial physics. Strange, spiraling crystalline trees sprouted from the earth, and schools of glowing, winged aquatic life swam through the open air as if it were water.
"It's... beautiful," Wendy breathed, her eyes wide as she took in the impossible horizon.
"And entirely chaotic," Uruk added, his analytical gaze scanning the inverted topography. "Gravitational vectors here are completely decoupled from planetary core mass."
Their awe was cut abruptly short.
Without warning, the luminous wings on Happy and Carla's backs flickered out like dying candles. The group instantly stalled in mid-air, plummeting straight down toward a canopy of strange, twisting trees.
"Magic doesn't sustain automatically here!" Carla shrieked over the rushing wind as they free-fell. "External flight constructs burn through internal reserves instantly!"
Teilanne didn't panic. In mid-fall, her crimson ki erupted smoothly around her body. With effortless grace, she caught Wendy and Cumber under her arms while simultaneously reaching out with her tail to snag Carla by her collar.
Around her, Kizuna and Sala flared their own golden ki, catching Gildarts, Natsu, Uruk, and Happy in mid-air. Unlike magic, their internal ki responded perfectly, allowing them to execute a controlled, hovering descent into a dense grove of spiral-leaf trees.
They touched down with a heavy series of thuds, kicking up vibrant purple leaves.
"Is everyone intact?" Gildarts asked, shaking off the impact.
"If by intact you mean covered in strange foliage, yes," Cumber grumbled, picking a golden leaf out of his hair.
"We need disguises immediately," Kizuna noted, looking out past the treeline. "Walking around looking like Earthland mages will draw attention fast."
Lacking proper local garments, they improvised using the local flora. The spiral trees bore massive, tough leaves that could be woven together, while tough vines provided bindings. Within an hour, they had fashioned crude, colorful ponchos, leaf-woven vests, and floral hoods.
"I look like a bush," Cumber muttered flatly, eyeing his green leaf vest.
"A very muscular bush," Wendy offered sweetly.
Their first encounter with the locals was an absolute disaster.
Emerging onto a dirt path near a small farming village, they spotted three human villagers carrying wooden baskets. Natsu opened his mouth to ask for directions—only for the villagers to drop their baskets in sheer terror the moment their eyes landed on Happy and Carla.
"The Exceeds!" one old farmer shrieked, falling flat onto his face in the dirt. "Forgive us, noble lords! We have paid our magic taxes! Spare our village!"
Before anyone could say a word, the villagers scrambled away into the brush, screaming in blind panic.
"Well," Sala purred dryly, crossing her arms. "That went smoothly."
"Their terror was directed specifically at Happy and Carla," Uruk noted coldly. "Which indicates Exceeds occupy an elite, feared tier in Edolas's social hierarchy."
A sudden, comical misstep by Natsu triggered a coil of spring-loaded vine plants, launching the entire group through the air in a tangled heap. They crashed through the decayed wooden roof of an abandoned roadside storehouse, landing inside with a loud clatter.
"Jackpot," Natsu declared, sitting up and pointing to rows of dusty clothing racks.
The storehouse was filled with local Edolas attire—eccentric, leather-bound, steampunk-inspired outfits with high collars, buckles, and vibrant cloth trims. Stripping off their leafy camouflage, the group quickly changed into proper local clothing, blending in far better with the world's bizarre fashion sense.
Emerging back into the sunlight, properly dressed, Natsu scrambled up a rocky ridge to scout the terrain.
"Guys! Look!" he shouted, pointing toward a distant, valley-bound settlement.
Rising out of the center of the town was a colossal, tree-shaped structure. Mounted prominently near its crown was a massive wooden crest—a giant, stylized fairy wing.
"The guild mark..." Wendy gasped, her voice trembling with hope. "Fairy Tail!"
"Our people must be inside," Gildarts said, his jaw setting into a hard line as he adjusted his new leather coat. "Let's move. But keep your heads down—we're local travelers until we confirm the situation."
As they approached the massive tree-building, muffled voices echoed from the entrance. The voices were instantly recognizable—yet the cadence, tone, and laughter sounded disturbingly wrong.
Natsu pushed open the heavy wooden doors, and the group slipped quietly into the main hall, ducking behind a row of large wooden casks near the entrance.
What met their eyes was a fever dream.
The guild hall was bustling, but reality seemed entirely inverted.
Juvia stood near the bar in a scandalous, revealing outfit, casually tossing her hair back and teasingly winking at a man huddled in the corner. That man was Gray—bundled in three heavy winter coats, shivering uncontrollably, his face red as he stammered nervously under Juvia's aggressive attention.
Across the room, Elfman sat weeping on a stool while Jet and Droy shoved him around, laughing meanly. At the paperwork desk, Nab—who had never taken a single job on Earthland—was furiously logging quest receipts with frantic speed.
And sitting gracefully at a corner table was Cana Alberona, dressed in a pristine Victorian dress, sipping Earl Grey tea from fine china with her pinky finger extended.
"Is... is Cana drinking tea?" Kizuna whispered, his mind short-circuiting as he stared at his sister's alternate self. "Where's the barrel of ale?!"
"She's acting like a proper aristocrat," Gildarts added, his face twisted in utter paternal horror. "What kind of nightmare world is this?!"
"Well, well, well."
A sharp, dangerous voice cut through their hushed whispers.
Standing right above their hiding spot was Lucy. But she wore no bright smiles or blue ribbons. She was clad in black leather, studded belts, with a tough, punk-rock haircut and a heavy whip strapped to her thigh. She leaned over the casks, glaring down at them with absolute, predatory suspicion.
"What do we have hiding under the tables?" Edolas Lucy drawled, her hand resting on the hilt of her weapon. "Spies? Or just lost rats?"
Every single member of the inverted Fairy Tail hall froze, turning their gaze directly toward Natsu, Wendy, Gildarts, and the Clives.
Their quiet infiltration was over.
The Test of Power
What happened next could barely be called a battle—it was more akin to a natural disaster.
Gildarts moved first. His Crash magic erupted outward in concentric, devastating waves that disintegrated everything in their path. The elaborate guild hall furniture crumbled to fine dust, the wooden walls fractured into splintered debris, and even the air itself seemed to crackle and fragment under the sheer weight of his aura.
The reversed guild members scattered in panic, their earlier bravado evaporating instantly. The heavily bundled alternate Gray's multiple winter coats provided zero protection against a magical force that simply unmade matter at the molecular level. He was swept off his feet and thrown across the hall, knocked unconscious before he even hit the far wall.
But it was Teilanne who truly demonstrated the terrifying gulf between their power and this world's capabilities.
The Saiyan matriarch didn't charge, yell, or strike a pose. She simply stood in the center of the surging chaos, her crimson ki expanding outward like a tide of dense, heavy liquid fire. When the first wave of royal guards rushed toward her, they simply... stopped. Not frozen by spellcraft or paralyzed by fear, but pinned to the floorboards by a crushing gravitational force that made even breathing a struggle.
"You want to see what real power looks like?" she asked conversationally, casually lifting a dozen armored soldiers into the air with a slight flick of her wrist. "I once destroyed a world-ending weapon with my bare hands. Your little anti-magic restraints are amusing toys."
Captain Knightwalker, to her credit, tried to pivot tactically. Her mechanical armor shifted and whirred, deploying hidden thrusters and retractable blades. She launched herself at Teilanne with speed that would have been blinding against a normal opponent.
Teilanne caught her by the throat in mid-air, halting the momentum as effortlessly as swatting a fly.
"Captain Knightwalker," Teilanne said politely, as though commenting on the weather, "I suggest you reconsider your approach."
Beside them, Kizuna was discovering that his golden ki was operating at an unprecedented level. Without atmospheric Ethernano suppressing his energy, his power fed on itself, growing sharper with every heartbeat. When the militant alternate Mirajane launched a devastating dark blast directly at him, Kizuna didn't dodge. He flared his palm, absorbed the impact directly into his aura, and thrust it back at her with double the momentum.
The resulting shockwave blasted her straight through three solid wooden walls, leaving a human-shaped hole leading out into the courtyard.
"Fascinating," Kizuna murmured, staring down at his glowing hands as golden electricity danced across his knuckles. "The energy resonance here is completely uninhibited. My ki isn't fighting against a heavy magical field like it does back on Earthland."
Nearby, Uruk and Sala were dismantling Master Jose's defenses with surgical, terrifying precision. The alternate master possessed impressive raw output, but he was up against martial artists whose training transcended standard spellcasting. Every dark spell he fired was deflected, every angle anticipated, every desperate maneuver countered before it could fully manifest.
"Your form is sloppy," Sala remarked, casually stepping past a blast of dark magic that pulverized a stone pillar behind her. "You rely entirely on overwhelming output without understanding vector control or kinetic flow."
Uruk agreed with a slight nod, his sharp eyes cataloging every mistake. "Magical combat in this realm has stagnated. No adaptation, no martial discipline. It is tactically primitive."
Natsu and Wendy were sweeping through the remaining guards with a blend of Dragon Slayer magic and pure indignation. Natsu's flames roared with liquid intensity, melting through heavy iron shields and magical barriers alike, while Wendy's Sky Dragon currents whipped up localized tornadoes that tossed armored soldiers into the rafters, leaving them disoriented and thoroughly subdued.
Then Cumber stepped forward, providing the most jaw-dropping display of all.
The youngest Clive sibling had always been the quietest, the most disciplined and reserved. But seeing Wendy targeted and hearing that their comrades were being used as battery feed had snapped his usual self-control.
His golden ki flared with such blistering heat that the wooden architecture nearby began to scorch and turn to ash. The air warped and shivered around him, radiating a pressure that forced everyone nearby to take a step back.
"Nobody," Cumber said, his voice quiet yet echoing across the entire ruined hall, "hurts my family."
The prim alternate Cana, who had been trying to maintain her aristocratic composure while hurling card spells, froze dead in her tracks. Her fine teacup slipped from her fingers, shattering on the floorboards as she stared at the golden-haired warrior standing before her like an absolute force of nature.
"This is impossible..." she stammered, her voice shaking. "No human possesses this much energy. The localized readings are off every scale we have!"
"That's because it isn't magic," Cumber replied coldly, his golden aura stabilizing into a blinding, steady shimmer. "And if you don't drop your weapons right now, I'm going to demonstrate the difference."
A tense, suffocating quiet hung over the room for a single heartbeat.
Then, unexpectedly, the gothic version of Lucy burst out laughing.
It wasn't the cold, arrogant sneer she had been putting on earlier. It was a bright, genuine, immensely relieved laugh.
"Oh, thank goodness!" Lucy gasped, dropping her whip and leaning heavily against the counter. "I was terrified we'd have to keep that act up all afternoon. Do you have any idea how exhausting it is to play a ruthless villain?"
The shift was instantaneous and bewildering.
The dark, gloomy facade vanished completely. Before their eyes, the familiar, vibrant Lucy was back—her gothic leather outfit dissipating under a simple transformation spell to reveal her usual bright attire, complete with her warm, familiar smile.
All around the damaged hall, similar illusions dissolved. The militant Mirajane's dark attire faded into her soft blue dress as she offered a gentle smile. The shivering Gray began shedding his heavy winter coats with a sigh of relief. The timid Erza straightened her posture, her timid demeanor vanishing as her familiar armor materialized over her shoulders.
Natsu blinked, the flames on his fists dying down into tiny sparks of confusion. "Wait... what?"
"It was a test," the real Cana explained, casually tossing away her tea saucer in favor of a massive wooden barrel of ale she dragged out from behind the bar. "Though honestly, we thought you'd see through the act a bit sooner."
From behind an optical concealment ward stepped Master Makarov. His familiar diminutive frame and warm, stern expression were a massive relief after the cold impostor they thought they were fighting.
"Forgive the theater, my children," Makarov said softly, his eyes full of pride. "Given the danger we face, we had to be absolute certain you possessed the strength required for what comes next."
In Teilanne's grip, the alternate Knightwalker shimmered, her dark plate armor giving way to the familiar scarlet hair and armored breastplate of Earthland's Erza Scarlet.
"You can let go of my collar now, Teilanne," Erza said with a faint, embarrassed smile. "Though I must say, your restraint is remarkable. I fully expected to be knocked out cold."
Teilanne set her down smoothly, her eyes narrowing as she looked around the room. "Explain. Right now."
The real Mirajane stepped forward, her hands folded neatly in front of her. "When the Anima portal swallowed the guild and dragged us to Edolas, we were immediately ambushed by the Royal Military. But rather than throwing us into the dungeons, King Faust had us brought directly to the capital."
"He gave us an ultimatum," Levy added, pulling a small leather notebook from her pouch. "Cooperate with the crown's directives, and the guild would be granted limited freedom. Resist, and every single member would be locked into the siphon vaults to have their Ethernano drained until nothing remained."
"So you just complied?" Sala asked, her golden eyes sharp.
"We pretended to comply," Erza corrected firmly. "We used our freedom to map the capital's defenses, locate the holdouts, and identify the core power nodes driving the Anima siphon array."
"And when rumors reached us that a group of unmonitored spatial travelers had breached the perimeter," Gray said, strapping his boots back on, "we knew someone from Earthland had made it through. We had to verify if you were strong enough to take on Faust's royal guard, or if we needed to keep you hidden."
Gajeel let out a sharp bark of laughter, his iron studs reforming along his knuckles. "Turns out we worried for nothing. You guys hit like a runaway dragon."
"The reversed personas were an illusion barrier to test your resolve," Freed explained, dismissing the last of his runic scripts with a wave of his hand. "We had to know if you would stand and fight even if the guild appeared compromised."
Juvia stepped up next to Gray, clasping her hands together in her usual manner. "Juvia deeply apologizes for acting so strange! It was painful to pretend, but we needed to be completely sure."
Wendy wiped a tear from her cheek, a wide, tearful smile breaking across her face. "You're all okay... You're really okay!"
"We are standing," Makarov said gravely, his tone shifting back to the grim reality at hand. "But we are far from safe. With every passing hour, King Faust's engineers refine the siphoning grid. He intends to use the Ethernano stolen from Earthland to forge a permanent dimensional bridge."
"And Earthland isn't the only target," Wakaba grunted, taking a slow drag from his pipe. "The royal archives mention dozens of worlds that have already been siphoned into barren husks. Edolas feeds on the life-force of other realms to sustain its own magic."
"So what's the play?" Gildarts asked, his Crash magic fully settling as he folded his arms over his chest.
"We strike at the heart of the kingdom," Erza replied without a second of hesitation. "We destroy the central Anima core, free the remaining captives, and sever the connection to Earthland permanently."
"Simple enough," Cumber said dryly. "Anything else?"
"Actually, yes," Lucy added, her expression turning dead serious. "We have to do it before the Grand Magic Games begin in three days."
Uruk tilted his head slightly. "Grand Magic Games?"
"King Faust's national victory festival," Macao explained grimly. "He plans to parade the captured mages from every conquered realm before the public, then execute them in the royal arena to demonstrate Edolas's total dominion."
The room went completely quiet as the full weight of the situation landed. This was no longer just a rescue operation for Fairy Tail—it was a battle to stop an empire from harvesting entire worlds.
"Three days," Teilanne murmured quietly, her tactical instincts already evaluating assault angles, supply lines, and entry points. "Can we gather sufficient intel and execute a full castle breach in seventy-two hours?"
"We don't have a choice," Makarov declared, his eyes burning with quiet resolve. "If Faust completes the siphon, Earthland will be stripped bare—and every world after it will follow. We end this here."
The clock was ticking. And the battle for Edolas had officially begun.
The Real Edolas Fairy Tail
"Wait," Cumber said, his golden aura subsiding into a faint, warm haze as his analytical mind seized on a glaring contradiction in their explanation. "If you were merely acting to test us, then where is the actual Edolas Fairy Tail? The one that naturally belongs to this world?"
The question hung heavily in the air. The Earthland mages exchanged uncomfortable glances, their earlier relief momentarily faltering.
"About that..." Earthland Lucy began, rubbing the back of her neck hesitantly. "It's... complicated."
Before she could elaborate, the guild hall's heavy oak doors burst open yet again. But instead of royal guards or illusory impostors, a young man stumbled across the threshold, looking around at the cracked floorboards and shattered tables with wide-eyed, frantic confusion.
He had spiky salmon-pink hair and familiar sharp features, but his attire was dramatically different—an elaborate, high-collared velvet coat lined with silk trim, polished leather boots, and cravat detailing that practically screamed high society. More strikingly, his posture lacked any of Natsu's wild aggression; he stood with an almost overly formal, defensive posture.
"What in the world happened to this place?" the newcomer demanded, his voice higher and far more nervous than Natsu's deep roar. "And why does everyone look so... unrefined?"
Wendy blinked, taking a small step back. "He looks exactly like Natsu... but he smells like expensive perfume?"
"Natsu Dragneel!" a sharp, commanding female voice echoed from behind an overturned counter.
A woman strode into view—tall, blonde, wearing a heavily studded leather harness over a militaristic coat. Her eyes locked onto the fashionably dressed Natsu with absolute, predatory intensity.
"Lucy Ashley," the alternate Natsu stammered, his posture immediately shrinking. "How... delightful to see you again. I was simply out inspecting the carriage line..."
"Save the excuses," Lucy Ashley snarled, uncoiling a heavy leather whip that hummed with kinetic energy. "You've been absent for weeks without logging your itinerary with the guild council. Time for your mandatory discipline!"
What followed was both terrifying and utterly bewildering. Lucy Ashley launched into her signature Screwdrive Crush—a rapid, highly complex flurry of whip strikes that crackled through the air. Yet rather than inflicting bloody wounds, the strikes seemed designed for extreme psychological conditioning, snapping inches from his face and force-pinning his coat to the wall. The alternate Natsu endured it with pathetic, resigned patience, flinching with every crack but making no move to fight back.
"Um," Earthland Happy said quietly, hiding behind Natsu's shoulder, "is this... normal interaction for guildmates here?"
"Regrettably, yes," a soft voice replied from the side entrance.
Everyone turned to see three figures stepping out from the shadows of the doorway: an Exceed with dark fur wearing a small vest, another with white fur and small hair ribbons, and a young girl with long blue hair tied in twin tails who was unmistakably another version of Wendy.
"Happy?" Earthland Happy squeaked, pointing a paw at the dark-furred cat creature. "But... I'm Happy!"
"And I am Happy as well," the Edolas Happy replied with a polite bow. "Though given our shared nomenclature, we should establish a formal distinction to avoid tactical confusion."
The Edolas version of Carla stepped forward, her expression far less stern than her Earthland counterpart. "My, what an extraordinary gathering. Dimensional travelers, I presume?"
"Exceeds..." several Earthland mages murmured in unison.
However, Teilanne's sharp Saiyan eyes narrowed immediately. She took a step toward them, her crimson ki flaring just enough to sense their biological signatures. Beside her, Mirajane's expression clouded with puzzle.
"You possess the physical traits of Exceeds," Mirajane noted, her brow furrowing, "yet... there is no otherworldly aura. No dimensional displacement signature."
"That is because we are not biologically connected to Extalia," the Edolas Wendy explained smoothly. "In Edolas, natural Ethernano veins within deep Lacrima deposits occasionally trigger physical mutations in human lineages. We are simply humans who possess animalistic phenotypic traits."
"The energy frequency is entirely human," Uruk confirmed after a brief scan, his voice flat and precise. "No spatial wings, no native flight capability anchored to atmospheric mana."
"Precisely!" the Edolas Happy agreed cheerfully. "Though I can manage a brief hover spell using standard propulsion lacrima. It is quite convenient for retrieving high inventory!"
Their conversation was cut short as the alternate Natsu finally managed to unhook his coat from Lucy Ashley's whip pins.
"Has anyone received word from Erza?" he asked nervously, straightening his ruffled collar. "The Royal Army patrols near the eastern border have intensified significantly."
"She's still on reconnaissance," Lucy Ashley grunted, coiling her whip with practiced speed. "Scouting the perimeter grid."
"What do you think she's like here?" Wendy whispered to Natsu, her natural curiosity taking over. "If personalities are inverted..."
Natsu's eyes lit up with wild imagination. "Maybe she's super lazy! Like, she wears pajamas all day, eats cake in bed, and refuses to touch a sword!"
"Or perhaps her tactical mindset is completely chaotic," Uruk mused analytically. "Operating on pure whim rather than strict military protocol."
"I bet she's terrified of conflict," Earthland Happy giggled. "Like she hides in a box whenever someone raises their voice!"
Before anyone could speculate further, the alternate Natsu turned his gaze toward Earthland Natsu. Seeing another version of himself standing tall, hands ablaze with fiery magic and looking completely unbothered by Lucy Ashley's presence, his jaw dropped.
"How are you standing like that?" Edolas Natsu asked in disbelief. "She has the whip out!"
"Because I don't let people push me around!" Earthland Natsu snapped, sparks flying from his knuckles. "Hey, leather-Lucy! Back off him! Can't you see he's already stressed out?"
The entire guild hall went dead quiet. Every Edolas member froze in sheer, unadulterated shock.
"Did he just..." a local member whispered.
"...talk back to Lucy Ashley?" another squeaked, backing away toward the door. "He's a dead man!"
Lucy Ashley's eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. She took a step toward Earthland Natsu, her hand tightening around the grip of her whip. "Well, well. It seems our dimensional visitor thinks he can dictate terms in my hall—"
"Lucy. That is enough."
The voice was gentle, soft, and so achingly familiar that it cut through the rising tension like a blade.
Every eye swung to the doorway. Standing there was a young woman with short, pale white hair, soft blue eyes, and a simple linen dress. She held a basket of gathered herbs, her expression radiating a quiet, unconditional warmth.
"Lisanna..." both Natsus breathed simultaneously.
For Earthland Natsu and Happy, time seemed to stop entirely.
The air left Natsu's lungs in a sharp, ragged gasp. Seven years of grief, of buried pain, of cold nights remembering the sister figure who had vanished during a mission, shattered in an instant. Tears welled up in Natsu's eyes, spilling down his cheeks before he could even process them.
"Lisanna..." Natsu whispered, his voice cracking violently. "You're... you're alive."
Happy let out a heartbroken sob, his small paws flying to his mouth as tears streamed into his fur. "Lisanna!"
Without a second thought, both Natsu and Happy lunged forward, arms wide, desperately reaching for the girl they had mourned for nearly a decade.
CRACK!
Lucy Ashley's whip struck the floorboards inches in front of Natsu's feet with violent precision, stopping them cold.
"Don't touch her," Lucy Ashley commanded, her tone dropping into a deadly, protective coldness. "You aren't her Natsu, and he isn't her Happy. And she certainly isn't your lost sister."
The words hit harder than any physical strike. Natsu froze in mid-stride, his chest heaving as he stared at the white-haired girl.
"What do you mean?" Wendy asked softly, her own heart breaking for her friend.
Carla stepped up beside Wendy, her small face grim. "Look closer, Natsu. The energy signature... the linear timeline of this realm. This isn't our Lisanna brought back to life." She paused, letting the bitter reality settle over them. "These are native citizens of Edolas. Completely separate souls who merely mirror the physical appearances of those back home."
The Edolas Wendy nodded sadly. "Our lives, our memories, our upbringings—they belong entirely to this world. We are not your family."
A heavy, suffocating weight fell over the room. The initial shock of seeing familiar faces dissolved into the stark reality of their situation.
"Then our real guildmates..." Kizuna said, his golden aura pulsing with a dark, steady intensity.
"...are still captured," Sala finished coldly. "And time is running out."
Before anyone could process the sorrow further, the emergency ward on the guild hall's outer perimeter violently shattered. A man rushed through the double doors, gasping for breath, his face pale with terror.
"Everyone out!" Nab yelled desperately. "The Fairy Hunter has locked onto our spatial coordinates! The Royal Third Division is closing in!"
Instantly, the Edolas Fairy Tail shifted into a disciplined, military-style evacuation drill. Members began stashing documents, locking down heavy crates, and gathering around Levy, who was already standing at the center of a massive, glowing magic circle etched directly into the floorboards.
"Fairy Hunter?" Gildarts asked, his hand dropping to the hilt of his cloak.
"Erza Knightwalker," Lisanna explained hurriedly, slinging a pack over her shoulder. "The Royal Army's most ruthless commander. She hunts down non-sanctioned guilds."
"Illegal?" Natsu growled, wiping his face angrily. "Fairy Tail isn't illegal!"
"In Edolas, all free magic is outlawed!" Edolas Wendy shouted over the rising hum of the spell array. "We operate as an underground resistance! Hold onto something heavy!"
Levy slammed her hands onto the floor. "Spatial Relocation Protocol—Initiate!"
The entire wooden structure lurched violently. To Teilanne, Uruk, and Kizuna, the sensation was fascinating—the physical building didn't collapse; its structural atomic lattice was being temporarily folded through a localized spatial tear, sliding through space like a stone skipping across water.
A second later, the blinding light faded.
The guild hall dropped back into reality with a heavy thud. Outside the windows, the sunlit clearing was gone, replaced by the damp, shaded canopy of a deep forest miles away.
"Mobile headquarters," Edolas Elfman said with quiet pride, wiping sweat from his brow. "Works every time."
Teilanne immediately stepped to the window, her sharp eyes scanning back toward the ridge they had just departed. High above the distant tree line, a small squad of royal airships hovered. Standing on the lead vessel's bow was a figure clad in dark, spiked armor, her crimson hair blowing wild in the wind as she held a massive, double-bladed spear. Beside her stood a tall man with slick blue hair and an unnatural, mocking smirk.
"Erza Knightwalker..." Sala muttered, recognizing the sheer killer instinct radiating from the armored woman even miles away. "And her captain."
Through a broadcast Lacrima intercept array Levy was monitoring, the captain's voice crackled into the room.
"--all units, report to the Royal Capital immediately," Sugarboy's recorded voice echoed clearly. "The Earthland Fairy Tail extraction is complete. The stolen mages have been successfully processed into the primary Lacrima Vault."
Knightwalker's cold response followed: "Understood. Prepare the execution staging grounds for the Grand Magic Games. King Faust will have his display."
Inside the hidden guild hall, the atmosphere turned to ice.
"Processed into Lacrima..." Wendy whispered, horror strangling her voice.
"They haven't just imprisoned them," Carla said, her voice shaking with rage. "They are actively converting their bodily Ethernano into solid crystalline power cells to fuel the kingdom's machinery. If the process completes... there will be nothing left of them to save."
Cumber's golden ki flared up violently, scorching the wooden floorboards beneath his boots. "They're turning our friends into batteries..."
"We have three days," Gildarts declared, his Crash magic humming with absolute lethality, shaking the very air around him. "Three days before this King Faust puts on his little show."
Teilanne stepped to the front of the group, her crimson aura flaring up to merge with Cumber and Kizuna's golden energy, creating a terrifying pressure that made even Lucy Ashley take a step back in awe.
"We do not negotiate with world-harvesting tyrants," Teilanne said softly, her voice carrying the absolute promise of total destruction. "We are going to breach their capital, shatter their vaults, and tear that kingdom down to its foundations."
Lisanna looked at the Earthland warriors, seeing the unmatched, terrifying power radiating from them. A small, confident smile broke across her face.
"Then you're going to need a map of the royal dungeons," Lisanna said quietly. "And Fairy Tail Edolas is going with you."
The battle line was drawn.
To be continued ...
Next Time- Chapter 22: Key of Hope & Super Saiyans?!