After locking onto Anima's position, Zed moved swiftly, leaping directly into the sky. Ordinarily, such a burst of power would have shattered the ground beneath his feet—but Zed's control was so precise that not even a crack appeared unless he willed it.
"What is he going to do?" Lucy asked, still reeling from the earlier events.
"I'm not sure," Mirajane replied, shaking her head. Even after traveling with Zed for a while, his true strength remained a mystery to her.
Suddenly, a deafening roar erupted from the sky, and a colossal beam of light shot toward the royal capital. In an instant, the beam engulfed the Anima installation.
This was one of the newer techniques Zed had acquired. Among the leader slime's many moves, Zed had initially only been able to use a handful. But now, aside from the Supernova Explosion, he could execute nearly all of them—albeit with slightly diminished power.
This particular move involved ejecting a laser directly from the mouth. In the original work, the leader slime had used this move to buy time while preparing its ultimate technique: Disaster Rain. Despite how brief the charge time seemed to ordinary people, to beings of their level, even a fraction of a second could mean death.
Thus, the leader slime developed this laser-spitting technique to serve as both an offensive and defensive measure.
Zed wasn't planning to use Disaster Rain here—he wasn't a sadist, after all. He simply needed to neutralize the threat. The laser enveloped Anima completely, disintegrating it in a blinding flash. A magma-like trench opened where the device once stood, stretching diagonally into the earth.
Anima was erased from existence.
Could the Edolas kingdom rebuild it? Maybe. But with the world's dwindling magic reserves, even if they managed to reconstruct it, they wouldn't have the energy to power it. Zed's strike hadn't just destroyed a weapon—it had severed Edolas from its future supply of magic.
"It's done," Zed said upon landing. "The device they used to steal magic is gone. At the current rate of depletion, this world's magic will run dry within a few years. Even if they rebuild Anima, it will be useless."
"This place is hundreds of kilometers away from the capital! How did he hit it so precisely?" someone gasped.
Aside from Mirajane and the others who had seen Zed's power firsthand, the rest of the onlookers were stunned.
Makarov's thoughts jumped to the Council's Magic Satellite Cannon, also known as the Etherion. A long-range, city-destroying weapon that required unanimous council approval to use. Yet Zed's attack matched—or perhaps surpassed—it in range and destructive potential.
"But… will all magic really disappear from this world?" a Fairy Tail mage asked nervously. "What will we do then?"
"You can survive without magic," Mirajane said calmly. All eyes turned to her.
"Erina, Hisako, could you compile some of our development data?" she asked.
"Of course," Erina nodded. "Our world doesn't rely on magic at all. You just have to follow a different path."
"We can't jump to that level immediately," Hisako added, "but with time and people, anything is possible."
Zed chuckled. "You're forgetting something. The tech we use is from the Gourmet World. It's way more advanced than anything in your world, and it doesn't rely on magic either. I can get you some of the older-generation systems—those are already far ahead of what you have."
Except for Rukia, everyone had seen the Gourmet World's technological level. Even its 'outdated' tech would revolutionize Edolas.
"What are you guys talking about?" Makarov asked, confused.
"We're talking about a way to survive without magic," Mirajane explained.
"Is that really possible?" someone asked.
Mirajane nodded. "It is. But it'll take effort—and time."
With that, the group departed. Their next destination: the World of the Dead.
Lisanna followed as well. Although she felt reluctant to leave, there wasn't much choice. Back at Fairy Tail, Lisanna's sudden appearance stunned the guild. A person believed dead standing in front of them? It caused quite a stir.
After the chaos died down, the group returned to the Gourmet World.
"Your guild members are really something, Sister Mira," Erina said, amused.
"Well, they treat the guild like a real home," Mirajane smiled.
Zed didn't fully agree. Some members did see Fairy Tail as family—but many others left when times got hard. After the Tenrou Island incident, Fairy Tail's decline wasn't just due to losing its strongest mages; it was also because many others chose to walk away.
Still, he said nothing. After all, joining a guild wasn't the same as selling your soul. People had the right to leave.
Soon after, Zed opened the portal to the World of the Dead. Nakiri Senzaemon and the others stayed behind.
One of the main reasons for visiting the Soul Society was to test whether the gourmet cells in Erina and the others could devour spiritual particles the way they had absorbed magic in Edolas. If successful, it could unlock their soul power earlier than usual.
Normally, to awaken soul power, one had to reach a certain mastery of Food Immersion—but that took years, even for the gifted. If spiritual particles could accelerate the process, it would save everyone valuable time.
Zed himself didn't need this. He had already absorbed the Hogyoku and awakened his soul power long before mastering Food Immersion.
As for the Zanpakutō… Zed had no interest. Though born from the wielder's soul, a Zanpakutō still came with risks. It had its own consciousness and could potentially be manipulated by external forces.
Besides, Zed had no intention of sharing his inner world with some random sword spirit—especially not a male one. It just felt… awkward.
And compared to the leader slime or the Hogyoku, the Soul King was weak. Why bother with a low-ceiling power system?
Rukia, however, had her own reason for returning. She didn't want to drag Ichigo Kurosaki into danger because of her presence. She wanted to check in and make sure everything was stable before leaving again.
Time worked differently across worlds. If she returned to the Gourmet World for a month, only a single day would pass in the Soul Society. She planned to grow stronger and come back to protect Ichigo.
To that end, she needed to hand over her phone.
Soul Society's phones were used to dispatch Hollow-hunting assignments. As long as Ichigo killed the assigned targets, they wouldn't notice anything unusual about her absence.
It didn't take long for Rukia to find Ichigo's house. He had just gotten home and was still mulling over the events of the night before.
If not for the hole in his wall, he would've thought it was all a dream.
"ICHIGO KUROSAKI!" a voice rang from outside his window.
Ichigo turned and saw Rukia standing on the windowsill.
"AAAHHHH—"
He tumbled off his bed in shock.
"Was that really necessary?" Rukia sighed.
"What do you mean 'necessary'? You just showed up on my windowsill out of nowhere!"
"I can't exactly come through the front door, can I?" she said. "Anyway, enough chit-chat—catch."
She tossed him a few items.
"What are these? A phone… gloves?" he asked, examining them.
"The phone receives assignments from Soul Society. If a Hollow appears, you'll get notified. The gloves let you knock yourself into soul form so you can fight."
Ichigo blinked. "Wait… why are you giving me this?"
"It's simple," Rukia said flatly. "You'll be handling the Hollow extermination duties in Karakura Town from now on."