Sophia and Ari told the other two what was going on and why they were feeling so sick. Naturally, Maya and Anna were shocked that the blonde tiger accidentally shared some of her magic power with the jaguar. Still, the real mess was just about to happen.
"You did what?!" The wolves joined the group, and Fen immediately freaked out when he heard the story.
"Are you serious...?" Aura, too, couldn't believe it.
"Check it with your detection magic. Ari now has exactly the amount that went missing from my magic power on top of her old power, and her whole magic only started working again after I activated it."
"Wow..."
"That's it... She finally did it..." Fen shook his head. "Sophia finally broke magic for good..."
"Ehh...? Sure, it was super surprising, but I just shared some of my magic?"
"..." Everyone just stared at her.
"No." The male wolf looked like he wanted to jump at Sophia and attack her. "This is by far the most ridiculous thing you ever did. Nothing else is even remotely comparable to this."
"Why? I feel like I did much more outrageous things before."
"No." Fen repeated himself. "Your magic power's yours. You can share it with others temporarily to refill their power, but that's it. Your own power will always recover, and the one you shared it with never gets their capacity increased. You can't give it to others."
"I did, though." Sophia only shrugged her shoulders. "It was quite easy, too."
"And that's why you broke the very foundation of magic."
"That was pretty brittle, anyway. Half of it makes no sense, and the other half seems to be unknown or misunderstood." The blonde loves magic, but she has had the feeling that something's wrong with it for a long time. She found it weird from the very beginning, actually.
"That's just because you-." He wanted to mention how she's how a different world, but that would be highly inappropriate. "You know..."
"No, that's just the reason why I keep asking questions." Sophia didn't accept this answer. "Activation words make no sense. Most people can't use chantless magic, but frigging kitchen appliances can. Sometimes, you can literally do whatever you want, but other times, there are supposed to be limits for whatever reason. Magic can basically read your mind because it works on an imagination basis. It also helps you out and auto-completes ideas if you have no idea what you're doing. Not to mention that magic can actually mess up. If you think I destroyed the foundation of magic, please explain all those things to me in a matter I can understand. Once I get it, I'll stop destroying it."
"..." The wolf needed a moment.
"I'm waiting~." The blonde looked at him with expectant eyes. "By the way, that's just how magic is and or works, is not an answer."
"I don't have any answers for you. I do understand some of your questions, but magic's indeed exactly what it is for me. I never had any reason to question it before meeting you."
"So, what makes you think I broke magic when, while you know how to use it, you actually aren't sure about how it really works, either?"
"Because it doesn't make any sense what you're doing. It goes against everything that is known about magic."
"Yes." Aura agreed with him.
"Is that so?" Sophia tilted her head. "Maya, what was your reaction when you first met us, and I showed you my way of using magic?"
"Err..." She only scratched her cheek.
"What about you, Anna?"
"Uhh... I thought more or less the same, I would say..."
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"T-That-!" Fen was speechless.
"Am I onto something, or am I not?"
"I..." Fen needed another moment. "I really want to say you're insane, but you have a convincing argument... I shouldn't deny it from the get-go. What do you think, Aura?"
"Well, I do believe she is insane, but I thought that long before she came up with this. Our girl has a point here, though. Actually, Sophia's not the first one to question activation words. They didn't scrutinize as much about magic as her, but a lot of the more powerful demon folk, too, had similar gripes with activation words. They are easier to use, but no one really can explain why exactly some can't use chantless magic."
"I keep liking the demons more and more." Sophia was a fan of them. "Though it'll take a while, I can't wait to visit their continent!"
"We'll have a lot of fun there~." Aura was looking forward to it, as well.
"Are... you actually going to visit the continent where the demon folk lives...?" Ari hadn't heard about the plan yet and naturally was surprised.
"Yep~." The blonde gave her a nod. "Not anytime soon, but I wanted to go there for a long time already, and Aura, who was there before, keeps telling me stories that make me want to go even more badly."
"But how?" The jaguar tilted her head. "Distance aside, there's a gigantic ocean in between. Even with ships, it's supposed to be unreachable because it's so vast. Leaving sea monster out of the picture, too."
"That's a good question." Sophia looked at the female wolf. "How do we get there?"
"It's not that hard to fly using magic. There are also lots of beautiful islands along the way where you can take a break."
"There you have it, Ari" She didn't question Aura's answer.
"Wow..." The jaguar didn't even know where to start. "You really shouldn't have such a conversation in public. People will think you're crazy. Dampening your fall is one thing. I think I even heard about levitating for a few seconds, but actual flying? Across an entire ocean?"
"I have some free time next week, wanna learn it, my dear jaguar?" The female wolf smiled at her. "With the power Sophia gave you, it won't be a problem for you, either."
"Seriously?!" Her eyes grew wide in shock.
"Welcome to our side~."
"Oh no..." Ari's common sense started to hurt.
"It's not so bad once you get used to it." Maya also welcomed her.
"R-Really...? How long did it take you..."
"That's a good question. I'll tell you once it happens."
"Uuh..." She didn't like the sound of that.
"Ari's so lucky..." Anna mumbled something inaudible for everyone to herself.
"Err..." The black-haired girl looked at the members of the overpowered group. "All those things aside, no matter how hard it is for me, is there anything I have to watch out for with the powers I received from Sophia?"
"Hmm..." The previous owner of the magic tilted her head. "Avoid pouring your power into it when you say or think about something stupid."
"I'll keep that in mind. Your words are credible, after all, because you're speaking from experience."
"Sure do."
The group chatted for a while longer and gave the jaguar more tips about her greatly improved magic. Eventually, though, Sophia and her group decided to leave. Most of the stuff was taken care of, and even though the duo was feeling a lot better, Ari and the blonde still felt tired, and a bit of their muscle pain was still left, as well. The two wanted to completely recover before playing around with magic together.
----------------
Back in their home, Sophia was feeling extremely hungry. Maya happily cooked her a big meal while the wolves needed some alone time to deal with and understand what their resident oddball did and left them on their own. While the couple was eating, they talked about the events.
"What a day~." Sophia sounded a bit exhausted.
"You can say that again." Maya nodded in agreement. "You sure do some outrageous things. You now even broke Fen's knowledge of magic. Poor guy."
"I'm impartial when I break someone~." Sophia spares no one. "Still, I'm really happy for Ari. Oh, maybe she actually has enough magic to keep up with us on our travels now? I highly doubt we'll find anyone who can keep me better in check."
"Bold thing to say when the two of you, according to Fen, broke the very foundation of magic together."
"Not our biggest selling point, is it?" She saw the problem.
"Yeah. You might be right, though. She is good at handling you most of the time. But, regardless of power, didn't she already turn you down?"
"Kind of? School aside, she wants to stay with Anna, so..."
"You're not thinking about sharing your power with the princess, too, are you…?"
"Not really, no. I've already lost like 1/8 to Ari. I don't regret it, but Anna, as well... That would be like 1/4 in the end. I love magic too much to sacrifice that amount."
"That's good. While you do a lot of stupid stuff, I also kinda don't want you having to pace your magic because you gave away too much."
"Absolutely~. I want to play without thinking about my power!"
"Speaking of playing around, can you take it easy tomorrow?" Maya looked at her tiger. "We now know you got sick because your magic power got messed up, but take another day off to get everything out of your system, okay?"
"Yeah, that sounds like a plan. While my headache and all that is gone, I still feel a bit weak and wobbly on my legs. I'll sleep in late tomorrow and mess around with Fenny's knowledge of magic some more in the afternoon. I'm sure he'll be delighted about it."
"Absolutely..." She felt a little sorry for the wolf. "Well, I like the plan. Though, I'll spend some time in the castle tomorrow. We planned to continue teaching Eluna, after all."
"Check in on Ari for me, okay? To make sure she's good again."
"I doubt I have to. The princess will tell me all about it."
"Fair point."
The two chatted for a while longer after dinner before eventually heading for her usual bath together. Afterward, as it had gotten relatively late, the couple went to their bedroom and slowly got ready to sleep.