Target: Edolas!

Raindrops pounded on the bare ground, splashing up cold, muddy water.

The once bustling guild is now nothing but empty ruins.

Wendy knelt in the mud, gazing at the cruel scene before her, her body trembling with fear and cold.

Is anyone else here...?

Her voice was choked with sobs, so faint it was almost swallowed by the sound of the rain.

Just then, a figure appeared out of nowhere in front of her.

It's Jiang Bai.

Upon seeing that familiar figure, the string in Wendy's heart, which had been stretched to its limit, finally snapped.

The dam of despair collapsed instantly.

"Brother Jiang Bai!"

Wendy couldn't hold back any longer and threw herself into Jiang Bai's arms, bursting into tears.

"Everyone... everyone's gone... waaaaah..."

Jiang Bai gently patted her trembling back, his voice both gentle and firm, carrying a reassuring strength.

"Wendy, don't worry, everyone's alright."

"My brother is here."

These four simple words seem to possess the magic to dispel all gloom.

Just as Wendy's crying subsided a little, something suddenly seemed to be churning up the ground not far away, creating a small mound.

Then, with a "poof," a head with a full head of pink hair popped out of the soil.

It's Natsu.

He climbed out of the pit, covered in dirt, dusted himself off, and looked around blankly.

"Where am I? Where's the guild?"

"Mr. Natsu!" Wendy was both surprised and delighted to see him.

She wiped away her tears and pointed to the empty ground beneath her feet, saying, "This is our guild."

"What?!" Natsu's jaw nearly dropped to the floor.

"Just now, just now there was a huge vortex in the sky that sucked the guild and everyone in..." Wendy's voice was still filled with lingering fear.

After listening, Natsu scratched his head and asked a crucial question.

"Then why are we okay?"

Carla, who had been quietly perched on Wendy's shoulder, spoke calmly at this moment.

"Perhaps it's because you're all Dragon Slayer."

"Dragon Slayer?" Natsu frowned, then suddenly widened his eyes as if he had thought of something, looking at Jiang Bai was standing to the side without a single drop of rain on him.

"That can't be right! Jiang Bai isn't like that!"

An absurd thought instantly occupied Natsu's mind.

He pointed a finger at Jiang Bai in shock and said, "Could it be that, Jiang Bai, you, like Laxus, have hidden your identity as Dragon Slayer?!"

"You're overthinking it." Jiang Bai looked at him speechlessly.

"I can only perfectly control the magic within my body. Anima, or the vortex Wendy mentioned, can't absorb my magic at all."

After listening, Natsu gave a vague "Oh" in response.

"Sounds simple enough, huh? As expected, Gray and the others are all idiots; they can't even do something this simple."

Jiang Bai was too lazy to explain the difference in difficulty to him and directly steered the conversation back on track.

"Alright, the important thing now is to bring everyone back."

His gaze shifted to Carla.

"Carla, you should know something, right?"

Carla's body visibly stiffened, and a hint of surprise flashed in her eyes.

"How... how did you know?"

"I know a lot," Jiang Bai said calmly.

"But you should explain it yourself; Wendy is very worried about you."

"Natsu--!"

Just then, Happy flew over from a distance and plunged into Natsu's arms.

Looking at the terrified Wendy, and then at Happy who knew nothing and was only focused on snuggling up to Natsu, Carla finally made up her mind.

"All right."

She took a deep breath and said in an unprecedentedly serious tone, "Everyone in the guild has actually been absorbed into another parallel world, 'Edolas'."

"Edolas?"

Carla nodded, stretched out her wings, and pointed at Happy.

"That tomcat and I both came from that world."

"Huh?!" Natsu and Wendy exclaimed in disbelief at the same time.

Ignoring their surprise, Carla continued to explain, "Edolas is a world where magic is about to run out."

"To prevent magic from disappearing from their world, the king of Edolas invented a magic that could absorb magic from other worlds."

"That's Super Sub Space Magic, Anima. It's that vortex in the sky just now."

"This plan began six years ago."

"Then why did you absorb the Fairy Tail?" Natsu asked, puzzled.

"Didn't I already say? It's to increase Edolas's magic power."

Wendy immediately realized. "Is it because we Fairy Tail have so many mages and so much magical power that we've been targeted?"

Carla glanced at Jiang Bai and added, "That's true. However, I think the main reason it attracted Anima was because Jiang Bai was here; his overwhelming magical power was what ultimately drew her in."

Happy was completely confused, but finally grasped the key point. It timidly asked, "This... everyone was taken away... because of me and Carla?"

"Indirectly speaking, yes." Carla's voice lowered.

"We were given a mission before we were even sent into this world..."

"Impossible!" Wendy immediately interrupted her.

"Carla, you hatched from an egg!"

"Happy too!" Natsu chimed in.

"It's just as Wendy said," Carla said, her voice filled with guilt.

"But we were instilled with this mission even while we were still in the egg. I don't know why, but this male cat seems to know nothing about it..."

"That's how it is, it's all because of me..."

Carla was interrupted by a warm hand before she could finish speaking.

Jiang Bai placed his hand on Carla's head and gently rubbed it.

"Alright, this has little to do with you or Happy. Don't take all the blame on yourself, and stop blaming yourself."

Carla was quite touched at first, and a glimmer of light appeared in her watery eyes.

But she soon discovered that Jiang Bai was getting addicted to rubbing the cat, and he even changed the angle several times, looking quite pleased as he petted it.

Carla's face instantly darkened.

Hey! When did I give you permission to rub my head?!

"Smack!"

After listening to the entire explanation and processing all the information with his single-threaded brain, Natsu slammed his fist and drew his final conclusion.

"Anyway, we're going to that world called Edolas and bring everyone back, right!"

"That's right!" Jiang Bai smiled, withdrew his hand, and nodded.

Then, he looked at Natsu and gave him a meaningful smile.

"Moreover, Natsu, the time has come."

"It's time to bring Lisanna back!"