The next 3 days passed as Lucy, Erza, Wendy, and Charla are walking on a path in the eastern forest, the group heading for Natsu's temporary shelter home.
"is Gray still at his home?" asked Erza to Lucy as the Ice Maker Wizard has been locked up in his apartment room after Haruo's passing, the man felt he was the one at fault as he just stayed in his home.
"yeah" replied Lucy with a frown. "Juvia told me that he just stays on his bed, keep on saying that it was his fault over and over"
"I see" said Erza, her brows forming a frown. The Scarlet Knight sighs a bit as Gray is blaming himself too much for Haruo's death.
"If only we were more stronger" said Wendy, the young dragon slayer hugging Charla close in her arms. "then we could have…"
"Wendy, stop saying things like that" said Charla as Wendy is thinking that she herself is also the one who is the fault on why Ikaruga got taken away by the 8 Generals of Lingyue.
"enough of that, we need to focus on getting Natsu back to himself" said Erza while facing forward. "if we keep on blaming ourselves, we just fall down deeper into the hole"
"yeah" said Lucy as the group keeps on walking and finally arrives at Natsu's temporary shelter home which is a tent.
"Natsu!" Erza hollered to the man as the group enters the tent as there is no one inside other than bags of clothing and food placed aside.
"did he go out fishing?" asked Lucy as it is Natsu's favorite pastime activity.
"but doesn't he usually do that in the afternoon?" asked Wendy, having invited to fishing once by the salmon haired mage.
"let's look around and try to find him" said Erza as the others nodded before they all went around the area to find the salmon haired mage.
Their search went about 2 hours as they regrouped and found no signs of Natsu or Ikki.
"he's not fishing" said Wendy as she and Charla went to the nearby lake where Natsu usually fishes.
"he's not by the cliff" said Lucy, checking the high areas where Natsu would usually just stands for hours to admire the nature nearby.
"he's not even rebuilding his home" said Erza as Natsu had been trying to rebuild his home but he has been busy because of taking care Ikki and mourning Haruo's death.
"I wonder if he had gone to the guild while we went here?" said Charla, thinking that they just miss Natsu when they were going to meet him at his home area.
"if we did, I would've smelled Natsu-san's scent" said Wendy as the Dragon Slayer's scent is strong and sensitive after all.
"just where could he had gone too?" asked Erza while rubbing her chin.
The day soon turned to the afternoon as Erza, and the others went to the guild and asked anyone who had seen Natsu or Ikki, but none did meet them for the whole day.
This made everyone worried thinking that something might had happened to the man and Ikki around Magnolia, as they searched for the father and son, high and low.
We now turn our attention to the Sakura Cave where Erza, Lucy, Wendy, Charla, and Cana are at, the group thinking that if anyone wants to find Natsu is either by the guild, his home, or in the cave where he is frequently at.
Erza and the others look around in the cave as they found no one other than Ash and his Wyvern family, all are resting on their nests together with no sight of Natsu or Ikki.
"this is just weird" said Cana as she turns to look at the others. "Natsu or Ikki aren't here nor anywhere around Magnolia, this is just getting really weird"
"Wendy, do you pick up his scent?" asked Lucy to Wendy who is sniffing the air with her enhanced nose before shaking her head.
"Natsu-san frequently comes here, so his scent is everywhere. I can't tell if he had gone away or not" said Wendy as she had no idea on where the Salmon haired mage could have gone to.
"we got another dead end here, huh?" said Erza while crossing her arms before she hears footsteps coming into the cave as she turns and sees Juvia, Gray, Mira, Elfman, and Lisanna coming in. "Gray?"
"I got the word" said Gray while looking around. "they're not even here, huh?"
"I'd betted 1000 jewels that he and Ikki be here" said Mira while placing her hands on her hips as she looks annoyed. "first was that attack on the guild, and then Haruo and then this?!"
"hey, Mira-nee!" Lisanna elbowed Mira's side before nudging towards Gray.
"ah! I mean!" said Mira in a frantic, thinking that Gray is still blaming himself for what happened to Haruo.
"I'm fine" said Gray as he turns to them. "I can move on and live with that blame"
"Gray-sama.." muttered Juvia while frowning.
"just where could Natsu had gone to with Ikki?" said Elfman while scratching his chin and started thinking.
"do you think he could've gone to…" said Lisanna as everyone thought of Lingyue in their mind.
"I mean….Natsu isn't such the type to take revenge…right?" said Lucy while looking to Erza who rubbed her chin in thinking.
"maybe we should head to Hargeon, ask anyone of Natsu got on a boat or something" said Mira, suggesting that they widen their search area.
"I agree with Mira, if Natsu had gone to Lingyue with Ikki, we better go and find him" said Cana. "he might have gone there to get Haruka and Ikaruga back"
"but why would he go alone? He could've asked us for help, right?" asked Lucy with a worried look.
"Natsu is never the type to ask for help in any situation" said Erza before her eyes gaze at the grass bellow as there are a few sakura petals lying on the grass before they flew away from a coming breeze. "he always helps others, never the other way around"
"Natsu is a real man through and through" said Elfman with a head nod, respecting the salmon haired mage.
"ok, let's just stop talking and find him" said Charla while raising a paw up. "who knows what kind of danger that man might get himself into"
"Charla's right, if anything we should follow him and give him some back up if he intends to go to Lingyue no matter what" said Gray as everyone nodded.
Before anyone could leave, Erza felt a magic disturbance nearby as she turns and sees black static coming in the air around the river stream as it is electrocuting the air.
"what's going on there?" said Mira, seeing the same thing.
Everyone turns to see the same thing as the black static in the air started to become berserk before a large black portal appeared upon the area.
"what is that!?" exclaimed Gray in surprise to see the portal that started to suck in the air.
"everyone! Hang on to something!" exclaimed Erza as the portal is sucking everyone in.
"Charla!" screamed Wendy as she hugs Charla with her left hand while gripping her hold on the grass, as her legs are getting sucked into the portal.
"hang on, you two!" exclaimed Elfman as he grabs the ground with his left hand while he holds the hand of Gray who is holding Juvia.
"just what is that thing?! A portal or something!?" exclaimed Mira, the Majin transformed her hands into claws and latched on the ground while Lisanna holds onto her back.
"I don't know! I just know that something like that is never a good thing!" said Erza, the Scarlet Knight using her sword that pierced through the ground to hold on.
Lucy who is using her whip to latch to a cut down Sakura tree is slowly losing her grip as the portal started to suck in air even harder than before.
"w-wait a minute!" exclaimed Lucy before she lost her grip on her whip and she flied right into the portal. "Kyaaaaa!"
"Lucy!" shouted Erza as everyone sees Lucy flying right into the portal that is sucking her in
"Water Cane!" exclaimed Juvia who swung her right hand as it turns into water before firing a water rope that wraps around Lucy's hand, saving the blonde mage who nearly got sucked into the portal.
"pull her in, Juvia!" said Gray as Juvia nodded and started pulling back Lucy with her Water Cane.
Lucy started to get pulled back from the mysterious portal before the portal started to get more violent as black electrical static started to rage everywhere.
"it suddenly went crazy!" exclaimed Cana, holding onto a tree stump.
A bolt of black electricity strikes out of the portal and hits Elfman, Gray, and Juvia, shocking the three hard.
"Elfman!" "Gray!" "Juvia!" exclaimed Erza and the others as the three including Lucy started to get sucked into the portal.
"aaaaahhh!" screamed Lucy as she with Elfman, Gray, and Juvia disappeared into the portal.
"damnit!" said Mira before she heard something above as she turns and her eyes widen as saucers, Ash with his family who are holding their ground from the air sucking portal, the Wyvern lost his gripping on the ground and is flying right at the group right towards the portal. Mira soon screamed "LOOK OUT!"
Everyone turns and saw Ash's big body coming right at them as they screamed too before they got hit by Ash and they all flied right into the portal then disappeared in it. The portal started to rage before it suddenly closed, leaving black electrical static in the air that soon disappeared.
Flake with her two wyvern children growls confusedly as Ash disappeared with Erza and the others into the portal.
Meanwhile with Erza and the others, everyone are flying in a stream of light and electricity as they just spin around in it.
"I think I'm going to puke out my breakfast!" said Mira as they had been spinning for 2 minutes and even spinning that long isn't a good thing for the head.
"look!" exclaimed Lucy as she sees light at the end.
"I don't like this at all!" exclaimed Elfman before everyone reached the end of the tunnel where the light is so bright that they closed their eyes.
Upon exiting the end of the portal, Erza and the others slowly opened their eyes and sees the blue sky with the harsh feeling of wind slamming on their body.
"eh?" they all said before they look down and realize that they are hundreds of feet high in the air while going to the hard ground in imminent minutes. Their eyes bulge out while their jaws dropped. "aaahh!"
Erza regained her composure as her Heart Kreuz armor glows before getting replaced with her Heaven Wheel armor, she soon grabs Cana and Lisanna's hands to catch them before turning towards the others. "grab those who can't fly!"
Charla latches on Wendy's back before using her Aera magic to summon her wings on her back. Mira transforms as she catches Elfman and grabs his back. The only ones who remained with no flight are Juvia, Gray, and Lucy who are descending to the ground very fast.
"Lucy-san! Gray-san! Juvia-san!" shouted Wendy to the three
"Lucy! Call a Spirit with Wings or anything!" shouted Gray as the three are heading down fast.
"I don't have a Spirit like that!" screamed Lucy while in tears. "Juvia! Make something big out of water!"
"Juvia can't make a big water pillow if we are descending over a 100 miles per hour! We'll be splatted when we hit the water before the ground too! " shouted Juvia as they are getting closer to the ground faster before Ash came flying in and grabs the three with his claws then flaps his wings to stay airborne.
"phew! Thanks Ash!" said Gray, relieved that he and the girls didn't come to the ground and became human pancakes. Ash growls in response before looking up as Erza and the others landed on the wyvern's saddle back.
"I nearly had a flashback of my life just coming to me" said Lucy, while trembling scared.
"we are lucky that Ash came with us" said Juvia with a relieved smile.
Ash soon flies down to the ground while letting off Lucy and the others down first before resting down his body for Erza and the others to get off.
"where are we?" said Mira, coming down from Ash's saddle and seeing the surrounding area as they are in a forest region of somewhere not of Magnolia.
"looks like a forest, but the trees are so.." said Gray as he sees some trees that are yellow, blueish green, and grey, all having weird shaped leaves. "….different"
"I don't think we're in Magnolia or on Ishgar anymore, you guys" said Cana as she is nearby a broken wooden direction sign which she picked up and dusts off the dirt to reveal some kanji like words that the Card Mage doesn't recognize. Cana soon turns to the others and showed them the letters then said. "I think we're in Lingyue now"
"wait a minute, reel it back" said Mira while holding a hand up then continued. "are you saying that we are on the Lingyue? As in the southern continent, Lingyue which is estimated to be a month's trip on a ship!?"
"hey, I'm just thinking of it, you know" said Cana, telling that her thinking is a suggestion to where they are.
"for wherever we are" said Erza as she looks around and could hear some wildlife noises. "we are no longer in Magnolia, that is for sure"
That's a wrap!
Bye bye