Anna finished the training she received from Mira and was able to detect the levels of raw magic around her much better now. Afterward, the tiger also found out that there potentially are several other minerals that could generate water or air when using raw magic on them, just like the already existing heating or light ores.
“Oh my, I didn’t expect you to come here.” Aura was in her pine forest when she got surprised by the unexpected arrival of a certain black-haired jaguar.
“I heard that your biome is temperate but not cold, and there was a lot of praise for being gorgeous, so I got curious about it.” Ari looked around in the area before facing the wolf. “It really does look nice. Pines are great trees. The best is the smell, though!” She became a quick fan of the forest.
“Thank you very much~.” Aura enjoyed the praise.
“Are you doing anything right now?”
“Bored?” The wolf tilted her head.
“Maybe a little.” Ari shrugged. “Everyone seems to be doing their own thing today.”
“Yeah, I love Sophia’s domain for that!” She nodded. “Plenty of room for your own crazy things, but you also can just hop to someone else and play with them~.”
“That is true.”
“Anyway, I was just about to burn down most of this forest, so you came at the perfect time if you feel like playing with fire!” Aura came back to her question.
“Eh?!” The jaguar got loud. “Why would you want to burn down this lovely place?”
“Forest fires introduce new nutrients to a forest that help it grow even better.”
“Even though the forest runs on magic?” Ari looked confused.
“Minor details!”
“Seems pretty major to me, though.” She tilted her head at the wolf.
“Well, to be fair, I was just hoping for the nutrient thing to be an added side effect.”
“What’s the main motivation, then? I think it would be a shame to destroy this lovely place.”
“I’m unhappy with the terrain.” Aura came to the main issue. “I made this place before Sophia showed us her cherry blossom forest, and I didn't know you could make your biome something else other than completely flat.”
“Ahh, I see!” The jaguar nodded while looking around in the forest and noticed that there was no elevation whatsoever. “Is that really a reason to burn it down, though? It’s still a nice place and Sophia would be happy to have as much space as possible of her domain covered. It might be better to add a new area to the forest that has improved terrain instead.”
“But I wanna burn down a forest!” The wolf started to sound pouty.
“Fair enough.” Ari had no chance of going against her on that.
“So, do you want to join me?”
“In burning this place down or changing the terrain?”
“Yes.” Aura’s reply was full of smug.
“I should’ve seen that one coming.” The jaguar looked a little awkward. “I mean, I usually only like to burn things when I’m upset, but…”
“That’s why you threatened to burn down Sophia’s domain so many times already when she misbehaved, huh?”
“Precisely~.” She smiled at her.
“Alright, do you want me to make you angry, or should we just have some fun together?”
“I think I’ll go with the latter.” The jaguar didn’t feel like becoming angry at the moment. “How much of the forest do you want to burn down?”
“Whatever happens, happens~.” Aura gave her a playful reply. “We’ll start some nice fires and enjoy the show!”
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“There’s nothing but free spirits in our group, huh?”
“Absolutely!” The wolf nodded. “Okay, I give you the honor of the first burn.”
“Nu-uh!” Ari shook her head. “This is your place, so you have to go first. Also, I have the feeling that pine trees take some effort to burn down, so I don't want to embarrass myself by going first and doing no damage!"
“You overthink things too much, my dear~.” Saying so, Aura turned to her right. Then, she went silent for a few seconds, and immediately after, a massive pillar of fire with a diameter of 100 meters shot into the forest in front of her. “Oh, you might be right about the pines being sturdy.” Once the flames were gone, she looked at the damage and noticed that while the pines were burned, many big pieces of carbonized trunks remained in the path of destruction she created.
“The fire isn’t really spreading, either.” Ari pointed out that while there were still some flames burning here and there, the fire had basically not spread further than the initial pillar.
“Do you think magic maybe also reinforced them to make the trees sturdier?”
“I’d be surprised if it didn’t.” The jaguar nodded.
“Yeah, you’re probably right on that.”
“If I had to take a guess, constant burn for longer probably would be more effective than a short burst of strong flames.” The jaguar tried to come up with a strategy.
“Alright, give it a try!” The wolf encouraged her idea.
“Mhmm.” Tilting her head, Ari looked around for a little before stretching out her hand in front of her. “Sophia is doing it all the time, but I’m not that good at sensing magic levels around me, so I’m not sure if that’s a good idea…”
“It will be fine!” Aura disagreed with her.
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely!” She nodded. “By the way, what are we talking about?”
“…” The jaguar just stared at her. “You get along well with Sophia, don’t you?” She felt a sense of déjà-vu talking with her.
“I’m a big fan of blondie!”
“Ahaha.” Ari let out a dry laugh.
“So, what’s the plan?” The wolf got interested in her idea.
“When Sophia uses big types of fire magic, she always releases her internal magic in the area and then lights it on fire, creating a massive inferno that way. It seems like it would be ideal for our situation, but I’m not good at sensing magic, nor do I have much at my disposal in the first place.”
"I'm excellent at sensing magic, and I have way too much of it inside of me, too!”
“Isn’t that a nice coincidence?” Ari smiled at her.
“Sure is!” Aura nodded. “Should we give it a try?”
“Are you sure it’s not dangerous?”
“I’m sure it is dangerous~.” It was part of the reason why the wolf was a fan of the idea.
“Oi!”
“We’ll spread our magic nice and evenly. Then, immediately after we light it, we’re going through to good old portal over her and leave the blast zone.” Aura gestured at the pink gate right next to them. “Contrary to Steph, I don’t enjoy being set on fire, either.”
“Oh, I like that!” Ari quickly calmed down after hearing that she had a plan. “Okay, how about I release my magic around the portal area here, and you make a circle around that? You’re a lot faster than I am, and you have at least ten times as much magic as I do, so you can cover a much larger area.”
“That sounds like a plan to me.” Nodding once, the wolf then immediately dashed off into the forest.
“Okay, let’s see how this will go wrong.” Having some doubts by now, Ari still got to work and also released her own internal magic in the area.
“Alright, we should be good!” Aura returned to the portal after around 15 minutes. “Everything in a 10-kilometer radius around us is coated in a nice layer of raw magic. If that isn't enough to get a forest fire started, I’m out of ideas.”
“If your forest survives that, I think it has earned the right to stay, and you have to start new somewhere else."
“Fair enough.” The wolf agreed with her. “Anyway, please do the honors of starting the fire~.”
“Are you sure you don't want to do it yourself?”
“Absolutely!” Aura nodded. “It was your idea, after all.”
“Ah, you want someone to blame if it goes wrong, got it.” The jaguar saw through her.
“Ahaha~.”
Reluctantly agreeing to be in charge, the jaguar then used her last bit of magic to create a small ball of fire and shot it into the forest. Then, before it could ignite its surroundings, the duo quickly left through the portal.
----------------
“How long do you think we have to wait?” Back in the portal hub, Ari tilted her head while looking at the wolf.
“That's an excellent question." She had no idea, either. "Oh, wait a moment. Sophia made me another portal to the forest on a hill to overlook everything. That’s the place that made me dislike the flatness in the first place, but it would be a good place to see how it’s going. It’s around 100 kilometers away from the area where we started the fire, so it should be safe for us to go there.”
“100 kilometer sounds good!” The jaguar was okay with the distance, and the two went through the second portal, which led to a different area inside the pine forest.
“…” Arriving there and looking in the direction of where they started the fire, the two instantly went silent.
Their plan had worked perfectly, and the forest was burning down as they intended. The intensity of the flames was something else, though. Thanks to being on an elevated area, the duo was able to perfectly overlook the flaming inferno that had already reached a diameter of around 50 kilometers and was growing rapidly while eating away the pines. The crackling sound of the raging fire could even be heard from their position.
The smoke it created was awe-inspiring, as well. Literal tons of it wafted into the air above the forest, and it was thick enough to block the all-white canopy of Sophia's domain. The smoke was even above the two already and caused ash to rain down where they were, as well as coating the trees and the ground in a layer of grey.
Aura and Ari watched the world burn for a little longer before eventually returning through the portal once the fire was closing in on them at a rapid pace, as well as the smoke and ash getting to a level where it felt dangerous to breathe.