User blog comment:Miskos3/Fairy Tail 538: When the Flame Goes Out, Review/@comment-24053170-20170603054652/@comment-24053170-20170604064805

Considering its one of those fade away into nothingness style deaths, I am pretty sure Natsu disappearing off-screen was probably the entire point.

After all, Zeref did say that without him the etherious would cease to exist, meaning he basically became non-existent.

If your going to become non-existent, why would they bother leaving a body for his friends to find?