Chapter 243
"All right, everyone, look this way! Smile! Yeah!"
Click!
The two Fairy Tail guilds from different worlds gathered together for one enormous group photo.
Once this opportunity passed, there might never be another chance to capture a moment like this, so everyone took it surprisingly seriously.
To the members of Earth Land’s Fairy Tail, the entire operation had long since stopped feeling like a war and turned into something closer to a guild retreat in another world.
They had fought, traveled, met their counterparts, and were now celebrating together, so most of them were having the time of their lives.
After the group photo, Cana found Marshall and immediately began grumbling.
"Seriously... where did that stupid old man run off to?"
She looked around in annoyance.
"Marshall, we’re not going to accidentally leave him behind in this world, are we?"
"No."
Marshall shrugged.
"Once Reverse Anima fully activates, everyone with Magic Power inside their body will automatically be transferred to Earth Land. The only way Gildarts could stay behind is if he deliberately found some way to hide from it."
He waved dismissively.
"If he wants to run around having fun, let him. Who could possibly keep that guy under control?"
Marshall glanced toward the Edolas Cana nearby.
"Besides, he’s the one who chose to disappear and miss his chance to meet both versions of his daughter. He can’t blame anyone else for that."
Edolas Cana was practically the perfect image of a refined young lady.
She smiled gently.
"I know Gildarts is the father of the other me, but my father doesn’t have that name."
Her smile became warmer as she looked at Marshall.
"Still, I certainly wouldn’t mind having an adorable little brother like you~"
Earth Land Cana immediately puffed up with pride.
"Hehe. My Marshall’s great, right?"
She pointed proudly at herself.
"I raised him myself!"
Before Marshall could respond, he suddenly sensed Magic Power beginning to flow upward toward the sky.
"Oh."
He looked up.
"Reverse Anima has started."
The currents of Magic Power were unmistakable.
"I should go deal with the last bit of cleanup too."
Cana blinked.
"Oh? What are you planning now?"
Marshall grinned.
"I’m taking some of this world’s valuable heritage with me."
"Would be a shame to let it all go to waste~"
His first stop was Edolas Lucy.
Marshall handed her a small booklet.
"Lucy, could you give this to Mystogan for me?"
She looked down at the title.
[Development Guide for a Magic-Free Technology Tree]
Marshall handed her another document.
"And this is the list of traitors inside the kingdom."
He smiled.
"Consider both of them farewell gifts. I can’t exactly take all his good stuff without leaving something behind."
Lucy raised an eyebrow.
"Why are you giving them to me? Wouldn’t it be better to hand them to him yourself?"
"No time."
Marshall shook his head.
"And you Fairy Tail guys should probably make a copy of the guide before giving it to him. It might help your world in the future."
The booklet contained as much scientific knowledge as Marshall could still remember.
He hadn’t written it down earlier mostly because he had already discussed most of those ideas with Mystogan over the years.
During the last few days, he had simply organized everything into a more coherent summary.
As for why Marshall had suddenly become so generous...
well, he had taken far too much from the royal palace to walk away without feeling even slightly guilty.
The first haul was the palace’s collection of magical books.
Lisanna had already transferred a great deal of Edolas knowledge through the magic terminal over the last two years, but truly valuable magical research wasn’t something that could simply be purchased in ordinary bookstores.
The royal collection was different.
It contained information accumulated by the kingdom itself.
Naturally, Marshall packed up the entire thing and took it with him.
Yet even that wasn’t the most valuable treasure he found.
The true prize was the massive magical weapon hidden within the royal arsenal—the Dorma Anim.
The moment Marshall discovered that the king had actually been keeping such a masterpiece in reserve, he was stunned.
For once, even he had to admit that the magical engineering of Edolas was incredible.
Dorma Anim resembled an enormous black Tyrannosaurus-like suit of magical armor, but its most absurd feature was its ability to absorb the surrounding Magic Power and convert it directly into energy.
Its resistance to ordinary Magic was over ninety percent.
For practical purposes, it was nearly immune to magical attacks.
Only Dragon Slayer Magic carrying a draconic attribute could reliably damage it.
Marshall couldn’t help wondering whether this thing was essentially Edolas’s version of the Black Dragon, Acnologia.
Its specifications were almost absurdly overpowered.
Fortunately, Fairy Tail had launched a surprise assault immediately after passing through Anima. King Faust hadn’t even had time to properly react before the capital had already fallen.
Otherwise, if a real battle had broken out and somebody damaged Dorma Anim before Marshall discovered it...
he might have spent months mourning the loss.
If he could completely master the technology behind it, he could eventually manufacture armor with similar resistance to Magic.
An entire force equipped with anti-magic black armor...
Marshall could already imagine it.
If Fairy Tail ever built a guild army like that, who in Earth Land would be able to stop them from doing whatever they wanted?
Marshall truly hadn’t expected Edolas to possess technology this advanced.
Mystogan, meanwhile, had no use for weapons dependent on Magic Power once the world entered its post-magic era, so he simply gave Dorma Anim and the related technology to Marshall.
That gift was valuable enough that Marshall genuinely felt a little embarrassed about taking it for free.
Hence the technology guide.
"Magic Power!"
Someone suddenly shouted.
"The Magic Power is disappearing!"
Reverse Anima was beginning to take effect in earnest.
Magic Power stored within Magic Items started leaking away and rising toward the sky, and the members of Edolas Fairy Tail became visibly unsettled.
They had known this was going to happen.
They had even mentally prepared themselves for a future without Magic.
But knowing something would happen was very different from watching it happen before their eyes.
For professional Mages who had spent ten, fifteen, or even twenty years studying and relying on Magic, watching that familiar power disappear from their lives was naturally painful.
"Looks like it’s almost time to say goodbye, Lucy-nee."
Edolas Lucy visibly shuddered.
"Ugh. Don’t call me that."
She folded her arms.
"It feels weird."
Then her expression softened slightly.
"Do you think... we’ll ever see each other again?"
"Of course."
Marshall winked.
"I left coordinates behind in your world."
"Once all the Magic Power disappears, accurately locating Edolas again will become much harder, but I’m sure I’ll eventually find a way back."
He smiled confidently.
"As long as I become strong enough."
Lucy studied him for a moment before smiling.
"Is that so?"
"Then I’ll look forward to seeing you again someday."
"Mm."
Marshall glanced upward.
"Reverse Anima still needs a little time before it completely finishes. You should go say goodbye to everyone."
"I’m leaving ahead of you."
He waved once, then transformed into a streak of light and shot into the sky, crossing through subspace and returning to Earth Land.
A vast torrent of Magic Power was already flowing through the interdimensional passage into his world.
If left alone, all that energy would eventually disperse into basic magical particles and merge naturally with Earth Land.
But this was the Magic Power accumulated across an entire world.
Edolas might have been suffering from a severe shortage, but even the remaining Magic Power of an entire world represented an enormous amount of energy.
Letting a resource of that scale simply disperse would be an unforgivable waste.
Marshall descended from the sky and landed on the outskirts of Magnolia.
Then he began carefully controlling the flow.
He had prepared a smaller Anima array on the Earth Land side as well.
Anima wasn’t merely capable of drawing Magic Power across worlds.
It could also condense that Magic Power into Lacrima.
Under Marshall’s precise control, the enormous torrent of energy rapidly crystallized at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Before long, an immense crystal structure had risen from the ground, already surpassing even the Tower of Heaven in size.
And this represented only a portion of the incoming Magic Power.
Marshall stared at it with satisfaction.
This trip had paid off far better than expected.
Soon afterward, small figures began appearing one after another in the sky.
Cats.
Apparently Reverse Anima had entered its final stage and had begun expelling living beings whose bodies naturally contained Magic Power.
The Exceeds arrived first.
Then came Fairy Tail.
One guild member after another dropped out of the sky.
Only a handful could fly, but the Exceeds quickly caught the others and helped lower them safely toward the ground.
Marshall started counting heads.
Erza.
Gildarts.
Wendy.
Natsu.
Gray.
Mira.
Lisanna.
Wendy.
Elfman.
Laxus...
Marshall paused.
Then slowly looked back.
Wait.
Something was wrong!
He counted again.
Wendy.
And...
Wendy.
"...What?"
Marshall stared upward.
Why the hell had big Wendy come back with them too?!