Early the next morning, everyone gathered at Gildarts's house on the outskirts of town.
Under normal weather conditions, Magnolia would already be bathed in warm sunlight by seven o'clock.
Today, however, was unusually different.
The sun was hidden behind a thick layer of dark clouds.
The entire area around Magnolia was heavily overcast, and the oppressive atmosphere was punctuated by the deep, ominous rumble of loud thunder.
Mystogan looked up at the sky.
The dark clouds were intensifying, gradually swirling to form a massive vortex shape.
He reached out his hand, and a few cold raindrops gently fell onto his palm.
"Once we cross over, I won't be with everyone right away. I have my own matters to attend to first," Mystogan explained, turning to look at the group gathered in a circle around him.
"The time is almost here. Please unleash your Magic Power to the fullest!"
At Mystogan's command, the guild members unleashed their Magical Power, forming brilliant, multicolored pillars of light that shot straight up into the sky like beacons.
Mystogan also took several of the magic staves from his back and planted them firmly into the ground.
A series of glowing magic circles appeared above the staves, continuously expanding and rising toward the clouds.
Drawn by the immense energy, the dark clouds covering Magnolia gradually moved toward the eastern forest.
The light drizzle over the town slowly came to a stop, prompting the curious residents of Magnolia to step out of their homes.
"Look over there! So many strange pillars of light!" one resident pointed out.
"The dark clouds are all moving in that direction," another observed.
"It feels less oppressive here now."
Soon, the entire town noticed the massive commotion caused by the Fairy Tail members' magic.
"It's coming! Ultear, get ready!" Raizel shouted over the wind.
"Okay!" Ultear responded, channeling her Magical Power directly into her crystal ball.
Several intricate white magic circles instantly appeared around her.
BOOM!
With a deafening roar, a terrifying surge of Magical Power gathered in the sky, forming a massive white pillar of light that instantly enveloped their section of the eastern forest.
The trees, the earth, and the ambient magical creatures in the area began to transform into pure Magical Power, continuously rising and being absorbed into the vortex in the sky.
Using her Arc of Time, Ultear bought a little precious time for Raizel by stabilizing the volatile edges of the spatial rift.
"Charge!" Raizel commanded.
Carla and Happy led the way, with Wendy and Natsu right at the front.
Raizel immediately used his Take Over magic to transform into the UlforceVeedramon.
Enlarging his majestic size, he carefully clutched the vanguard members and flew straight into the turbulent spatial rift.
"We'll leave the rest to you!" Makarov's robust voice gradually faded away into the roaring wind.
Down below, Makarov, Ur, Ultear, Gildarts, and the other members who stayed behind all transformed together into a single, massive Magic Crystal.
A blinding light suddenly obscured Wendy and Natsu's vision, accompanied by an intense, dizzying sensation and a rapid flash of multicolored light.
...
When Raizel and the others finally opened their eyes, the world around them had completely changed.
"Are those... mountains floating in the sky?" Erza couldn't help but exclaim in awe.
Countless small islands and massive landmasses floated effortlessly in the sky, with beautiful waterfalls cascading from them into the abyss.
Down below grew enormous, bizarrely shaped plants never before seen in Ishgar.
Raizel immediately sensed the Magical Power in the air.
The ambient Magical Power was minimal, with only a small trace contained deep within the earth.
Fortunately, Raizel and the others had consumed the X-Balls before coming here, so his internal Magic Power reserves were already full and unrestrained.
However, the members still needed to carefully control their usage of Magic Power.
The Ethernano here were so scarce that there was practically no natural way to replenish their energy once exhausted.
"Is this Edolas?" Carla whispered.
"Our true homeland?" Happy added, as the two flying Exceeds observed their breathtaking new surroundings.
"It really is another world," Kagura murmured, observing the alien landscape.
Even though Raizel had mentioned it in detail, the concept of a parallel world still seemed too absurd to her.
She had been slightly skeptical before, never expecting there to truly be another reality.
Floating islands and reverse waterfalls flowing through the sky—such magical phenomena were completely impossible in Ishgar.
"So many weird plants I've never seen before! This is amazing!" Natsu yelled excitedly, looking around.
Raizel quickly interrupted Natsu's exploration: "I know you're all excited by the new environment, but we're not here for sightseeing. Our primary mission is to find the giant Magic Crystal containing our guild members and rescue them as quickly as possible."
"You're right," Wendy agreed, feeling a bit embarrassed, having been completely captivated by the scenery moments earlier.
"Flying in the open sky makes us way too conspicuous to any local military. Let's find a concealed place to land," Raizel suggested.
Reverting from his Take Over form after descending, Raizel led the way on foot with Happy and Carla flying close behind.
"Hey, the last time Raizel carried us like that was years ago," Gray sighed as he jumped down onto the grassy terrain, nostalgically recalling his very first encounter with Raizel during a similar flight.
"Alright! Let's hurry up and find everyone!" Natsu rubbed his hands together, unable to contain his fiery eagerness.
Wendy blinked her eyes, looking around the vast landscape. "But where should we go to find them?"
"Leave it to me! I just need to sniff them out with my nose..." Natsu boasted.
However, after taking two strong, deep sniffs of the alien air, Natsu immediately gave up, slumping his shoulders.
"It's no use. Everything here smells completely unfamiliar... I can't distinguish anything at all."
"Really? Even the air tastes a bit different on my tongue," Wendy commented after taking a careful breath to test the atmosphere.
"I already scouted the direction of a nearby city while we were flying. Let's head to the city first to gather information before deciding our next move," Raizel instructed, pointing toward a distant settlement over the hills.
"All I can see is weird forest everywhere. What if we get lost in here?" Happy complained nervously.
"Don't worry, with me here, we definitely won't get lost," Raizel reassured him.
As long as he could freely use his Magic Power thanks to the X-Balls, Raizel could either fly up for an aerial view or use his Archive to map their direction if they strayed off course.
"Oh? It's that strange river from earlier," Natsu said excitedly, pointing ahead.
"It's weird enough that the river itself floats in mid-air, but it's even flowing upward into the sky," Erza noted, nodding in agreement at the bizarre physics of Edolas.
"Shh!" Raizel suddenly signaled for Natsu to lower his voice.
He gestured toward a local fisherman who was sitting quietly by the cliff edge ahead.
Natsu and the others peeked through the bushes in the direction Raizel pointed.
"Is that someone from Edolas?"
"That's great! They look quite similar to us humans," Wendy quietly sighed in relief.
"What strange, alien appearance did you expect them to have? Just think about Mystogan—of course they'd look exactly the same as us," Raizel smiled gently and patted Wendy's head.
"Hehe."
Only then did Wendy realize her silly assumption, her face slightly reddening as she laughed awkwardly.
"Look, he's fishing! I really want to go fish too!" Natsu cheered softly.
Raizel quickly grabbed Natsu by the scarf just as he was about to run over and ask for directions.
"Forget it, let's not alert the locals to our presence just yet."
"By the way, since our guild is likely the target, those with highly visible marks should cover their Fairy Tail Guild Marks first," Raizel advised.
He took several rolls of bandages from his bag and handed them out to everyone.
"Erza, use your Requip to change your outfit to one without a Guild Mark on it."
Erza's usual Heart Kreuz armor had a prominent Guild Mark printed right on the chest plate.
"Okay, understood." Erza immediately changed into a simple, inconspicuous white blouse and dark skirt.
As they continued down the path, Natsu bumped into the person in front of him.
"What's wrong?" Natsu asked, noticing that Raizel and Erza, who were walking ahead, had abruptly stopped in their tracks.
Gray remained completely silent, slightly tilting his head upward toward a rocky ridge.
"Oh?" Natsu finally noticed two local herb gatherers standing on the path directly above them, but the locals' expressions seemed entirely off.
They looked absolutely terrified.
Happy fluttered up, raised a paw innocently, and smiled.
"Don't be nervous, mister! We're just travelers who accidentally got lost in the woods."
Instead of greeting them, the two herb gatherers practically scrambled down the rocky slope at their fastest possible speed just to prostrate themselves in the dirt before the group, pleading desperately.
"Please... please show mercy and spare us!"
"Lord Exceed! Please spare our humble lives!"
Natsu blinked, his face blank, indicating he'd completely forgotten the briefing... even though he had literally just been sitting in Raizel's living room hearing about this the very night before.
"Exceed? Who are they talking about?" Natsu whispered loudly, scratching his head.