"Which bastard did it?! Who pulled out Magnolia's most valuable cherry blossom tree?! Step forward right now!!"
The next morning, as expected, Makarov stood on the bar counter, hopping mad.
He roared at his troublemaking children below, waving a rolled-up newspaper.
"The mayor is furious! Absolutely furious! Do you know how many apology letters I have to write?!"
Natsu trembled as he clung to Happy, sweating profusely as he forcefully claimed to have absolutely no idea what had happened.
"It wasn't me! I didn't see any tree!"
"Aye! No idea what the Master is talking about!" Happy tilted his head, playing dumb with Oscar-worthy dedication.
Lucy smiled knowingly.
She wrapped her arms around Natsu and Happy, her face bright and fully recovered from her cold, and whispered, "Really... thank you both!"
"W-Why are you thanking us~" Natsu turned away awkwardly, pouting as he "naturally" replied, completely failing to hide his embarrassment.
"Haha!"
Watching the two who seemed to have grown even closer, Ankh contentedly took a sip of his warm tea.
Gajeel leaned against the table, crunching on a handful of bolts.
He watched Natsu get thoroughly chewed out by Makarov and couldn't help but question the Fire Dragon Slayer's intelligence.
"Is he stupid?" Gajeel muttered. "Stealing flowers is one thing, but he steals a whole damn tree?"
Gajeel simply couldn't comprehend Natsu's thought process.
Ankh glanced sideways at the Iron Dragon Slayer with a knowing smirk.
'Just wait,' Ankh thought inwardly.' You'll probably progress even faster than Natsu when it's your turn, you little iron block...'
Everyone in the hall laughed at Natsu's misfortune without a shred of sympathy, while Natsu and Happy remained silent, stubbornly playing dumb to the bitter end.
Fortunately, when Natsu had pulled out the tree the night before, he didn't completely destroy Magnolia's landmark.
He had actually replanted it properly before dawn... Plus, after all these years, the Mayor of Magnolia and Fairy Tail had maintained a reasonably good relationship, so the damages would be overlooked with enough groveling from Makarov.
Just as Ankh was happily watching Natsu get scolded, he felt a sudden heavy weight on his right shoulder.
Turning around, he saw Laxus standing behind him.
Without a single word, Laxus quietly pointed his thumb toward the guild's back door.
Understanding the silent signal, Ankh set down his teacup and followed him outside.
Once out the door and away from the noise, Ankh looked around and said in surprise.
"You're here too, Mystogan?"
The guild's most elusive man, cloaked in his usual heavy black robes and mask, stepped out of the shadows and gave him a slight nod.
"I need to talk with you, Ankh."
Mystogan's muffled voice came from beneath his scarf.
Ankh glanced at Laxus and asked, "Is this about that long-term mission you two were working on?"
"Something like that..." Laxus said indifferently, crossing his muscular arms and leaning against the brick wall.
Ankh studied Mystogan for a moment before cutting straight to the chase: "Is it about your homeland?"
Mystogan breathed a visible sigh of relief, whispering, "So you already know."
"Lady Porlyusica is from another world," Ankh stated calmly, "and you... must be the Jellal from that other world."
Mystogan nodded.
He then drew one of the staves from his back and forcefully planted it into the ground.
Hummm.
An illusion magic array immediately rose around them, blocking all lines of sight and sound from the bustling street.
As the magic glowed, Mystogan reached up and removed his hood and scarf.
He revealed his face—entirely identical to Jellal's.
"My homeland is extremely similar to this Earthland world. It's called Edolas, a world with extremely scarce magic power. The kingdom ruling there is the Edolas Kingdom, and... I am the king's son."
Laxus raised an eyebrow, genuinely surprised. "You're a prince? You never mentioned that."
Mystogan shook his head, speaking somewhat dejectedly: "I take no pride in this title... My father is an extremely radical man, frantically seeking magic power by any means necessary to sustain our world."
"He forbids citizens from possessing magic, viewing all magic users as criminals. Later, my father grew increasingly dissatisfied with our dwindling resources and activated the legendary super-dimensional space magic 'Anima' to plunder and absorb Earthland's magic power..."
"Anima," Ankh mused. "That name alone sounds domineering."
Laxus scratched his head, speaking with evident frustration. "This guy has been running around repairing the dimensional damage Anima caused to Earthland all along, but he's gradually reaching his limit. There are too many of them."
Mystogan nodded silently and continued: "Anima portals have been appearing in various places over the years, plundering ambient magic power. I've been desperately trying to close them, but just a few days ago, Anima's appearances became more frequent and aggressive. I had no choice but to seek Laxus's help..."
As the prince of Edolas, and with the crimes being committed by his own father, Mystogan had never intended to drag Fairy Tail's members into this from the beginning.
He had planned to carry the burden and resolve these evils himself.
However, the situation had gradually worsened.
Anima's usage methods were clearly evolving—it was no longer simply absorbing ambient magic power from the atmosphere, but had begun seeking out life forms possessing super-strong magic power.
While pursuing Anima alongside Laxus, Mystogan had recently narrowly rescued many mages who were almost sucked away into the portals, making him realize this solitary crusade couldn't continue.
The plundering of magic power was one thing—the most important difference between Earthland and Edolas was that Earthland's magic power could circulate endlessly.
As long as mages existed and the world remained, magic power would eventually regenerate.
If it were just magic power being plundered, Mystogan would willingly spend his entire life making amends for his father's crimes.
But now, human lives were at stake.
So, swallowing his pride, he had no choice but to seek help from one of his few equals in the guild—Laxus.
Laxus looked at the despondent Mystogan and said gravely, "That magic is truly insane, Ankh. It suddenly descends above areas with concentrated magic power or large gatherings of mages, then mercilessly pulls everyone and everything toward the sky like a giant black hole."
"While you were off dealing with Oración Seis, Mystogan and I were running around closing these portals, and we suddenly discovered something alarming..."
Laxus turned to look directly at Ankh, his expression deadly serious.
"The appearance locations of Anima are getting closer and closer to Magnolia."
"That old king is no longer satisfied with plundering magic power from remote areas. He's set his sights on the place where the kingdom's strongest mages gather: Fairy Tail."
Ankh stroked his chin, his ruby eyes revealing thoughtful consideration.
Laxus continued, "This concerns the guild now. Mystogan no longer dares to act recklessly or continue wandering far away to close distant portals. With just our limited strength, we can't protect everyone when the big one hits. So I want to ask you... do you have any way to completely resolve this matter?"
Ankh looked up at the sky, recalling details from the original story timeline.
According to what Mystogan and Laxus had said, Mystogan's emergency handling of Anima had undergone significant changes.
At the critical moment, he had actually turned to Laxus for help, and Laxus, trusting Ankh, had brought him into the fold to prepare for the disaster in advance.
In the original story, Mystogan had poor interpersonal relationships and kept everyone at a distance, so he could only think about handling things himself.
As a result, when the city of Magnolia was taken away by Anima, he failed to protect the guild and ended up exhausted, as if completely drained.
Ankh had actually considered this Edolas matter before.
Now that Mystogan was willing to cooperate proactively instead of carrying the world on his shoulders alone, this disaster wouldn't be much of a threat anymore.
Looking at the two powerful young men before him, Ankh smiled.
"If the enemy can come here..." Ankh declared smoothly, "then we can go there too."
Laxus and Mystogan's eyes widened.
"Passively filling the gaps in Anima is useless," Ankh finalized. "We should take the initiative, cross over, and destroy that damned magic at its source!"