Sophia had finally fully recovered from being sick and got tired of being in bed all day. Bored beyond belief, she then ran away with Fen to play around with magic. Far away enough that no one could find them, the two ended up in a gigantic plain about 100 km away from the capital.
"Alrighty, let's give this idea a try~." Sophia energetically raised her fist.
"Remember, I don't want to explode." Fen wasn't nearly as cheerful.
"I'll try my best."
"No, no, no, don't try, just don't."
"Alright, I'll make sure I don't pour significantly more magic power into you than you normally have."
"Good." The wolf settled for that. "What was the plan again?"
"Well, as you actually couldn't activate your magic while I was topping you off with my power earlier, let's try it when you're already using it." As a short test wasn't successful, the blonde wanted to try a different approach. "I bet I can force myself inside of you."
"..." He only stared at her.
"Wow, magic power without context is top-tier innuendo material."
"Even with context, you're pretty borderline, idiot."
"Ahaha..." The tiger had no plans to deny it. "Okay, let's give it a try. Use some magic that depletes your power quick so we can see if it works."
"Hmm, I guess I could just turn my detection magic all the way to the maximum. It uses a good amount of magic, and we don't risk a potential chain-reaction of catastrophes."
"Aww..." Sophia looked disappointed.
"I thought you wanted to learn how to hold back?"
"I've stayed in bed for the last two or three days because I was sick! I wanna play~!"
"Alright, fine... If we actually get it working, we can try to blow something up big time." The wolf, too, likes to play, after all.
"And if it doesn't work out...?"
"We blow up something even harder to get rid of the frustration."
"I love you a bit right now." Sophia really liked his plan.
"Just a bit?"
"We don't want to make Maya jealous, do we?"
"F-Fair point..." His expression changed when he thought about the cat-girl.
"Or Aura~."
"Shut up."
"Hehe."
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Once the two were able to concentrate again, they started getting ready to experiment.
"Okay, where were we?" Fen had lost track for a moment. "Ah, right, l guess it should work for a start if I use my detection magic on full blast for the time being."
"Yeah, boring but effective."
"Alright," The wolf concentrated on his detection, and five minutes quickly passed. "I'm starting to feel a tiny dent in my power. You can start with whatever you want to try now."
"Sounds good." Sophia got closer to him and buried both her hands into the fluffy fur on the side of his body. "Hmm, it really feels like there's some sort of barrier when I try to pour my magic into you."
"As I said, it doesn't work if the recipients using magic, too."
"Time to use force~!"
"E-Eh...?" He didn't like the sound of that.
"Fenny, keep using your detection magic. At the same time, I'll try to overload this barrier thingy."
"O-Okay..." The wolf still had mixed feelings.
"Alrighty, full power!" The blonde closed her eyes and seemed to be concentrating really hard for a while. "Oh? I kinda... Hmm, is it actually working? It feels like something's flowing over to you..."
"Y-Yes... I'm starting to feel something, too... It's unbelievable how you- STOP!" His voice suddenly was filled with panic, and he jumped away from the tiger.
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"What...?" She had no idea what was going on.
"Haa... T-That was scary!" Fen needed a moment to catch his breath. "I think you broke something again..."
"Huh?"
"I started to notice your power flowing into me, and something suddenly seemed to have snapped... Afterward, all of your power came at me at once like a tsunami, and it felt like I would explode for a moment..."
"So, it is possible!" Sophia almost looked happy about the revelation.
"That's not the point!"
"Sorry..."
"Seriously... Just how much power did you- Why is half of your magic missing?!" He used his detection on the tiger and noticed something alarming.
"Well... the barrier turned out to be a tough enemy, but I really wanted it, and so I gave it my all~. I kept increasing my power, and suddenly... whoosh." She made a little wave gesture with her hand towards the end.
"That sure was no whoosh!" Fen yelled at her.
"Sorry..." She apologized once more.
"You know by now how much 50% of your power is... Even with what you lost the other day, that amount's still enough to destroy a city or four. Don't force that into a friend without prior warning."
"Yes... I just really wanted it to work and forgot to think about any possible consequences..." She looked slightly devastated after having heard him saying it out loud.
"Urgh..." Fen needed a moment. "Now I can't be angry... I, too, tend to forget everything else when I'm engrossed in something. Aura probably can sing you a song about that... We did a lot of messy stuff when experimenting with magic back in the day. She's the same, though. I was set on fire more than once by her... Among many other things…"
"Hehe." Sophia felt better. "Sounds like it was fun with her."
"That's up for debate..." He paused for a moment. "No, well, yes... Yes, it was."
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Afterward, the duo decided to take a break. Fen wanted to leave the feeling of almost exploding behind while Sophia waited for her magic to recover. Once they were good to go again, both decided to resume the experiment.
"Alright, time to go all out!" The tiger was very motivated.
"If possible, without me exploding, though!" He was still a bit wary.
"I'll try my best!"
"..." Fen glared at her for a few seconds. "Fine, what's the plan?"
"Let's do something flashy~. I kinda want to do a gigantic fireball!"
"With both of our power combined...?"
"Yep!" She gave him a hearty nod. "Oh, do you think you could see it even from the capital?"
"Err... remember the town we picked up your cat? I'm pretty sure they'd see it, too."
"Seriously?!"
"If we aim right, we could destroy the capital from here with that fire."
"Hmm... Sounds like fun. Let's do it."
"E-Eh?!"
"Oh, no..." Sophia noticed her mistake. "Obviously not destroying the capital, but let's make a fireball that reaches the sky."
"That new jaguar friend of yours will surely chew you out afterward."
"She'll never find out~."
"..." He only stared at her, knowing how good the tiger was at keeping a secret.
"I-I'll deal with it if it happens..." She averted her face. "For now, I just want to play~. After being sick, I have a serious urge to be as active as possible. What would be better than the biggest and most flashiest magic anyone ever saw."
"Well, what do I care?" He gave up. "Still, don't even think about pushing any sort of responsibility on me afterward! I'll bite you."
"Haha, don't worry, it'll be fine. We're just playing a bit with fire. What could possibly go wrong?"
"..." The wolf, once more, only stared at her.
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"Okay, you start preparing your fire magic, Fenny. While your power keeps lowering, I'll supply it with my own as I pour it into you. Once, let's say, I only have 1/4 left, you activate it, and we'll enjoy the show~."
"But slowly, okay? I didn't like the feel of exploding right now..."
"Sure."
Sophia buried her hands into Fen's fur again while the wolf began to prepare his fire magic. A couple of moments later, she also began to supplement him with her power.
"Oi, stop!" He immediately started yelling again.
"What...?"
"You're too fast! Last time, it took you way longer to break the barrier!"
"Yeah, about that..." Sophia looked somewhat awkward. "About that barrier inside of you... That's, well... It's gone. I think I broke it for good because my magic started to flow without any sort of resistance."
"Are you for real...?"
"Yep. Sorry about that."
"W-Well... it sounds like a good thing...? Let's talk about that later, okay?" Fen wasn't sure how to feel about it. "Still, slow down a bit, okay? I had only used 10% of my power, but you filled that up in an instant again."
"Eh...?" The blonde looked confused. "I only poured like 5% of my power into you, though?"
"Huh?" He seemed shocked. "No, your power is below mine again, so there's no way you only used 5%! Ignoring the loss from transferring the magic, even!"
"I did, though?" Sophia could only tilt her head.
"There's no way... Wait a moment..." Fen suddenly stopped. "M-My magic's also going down slower now... Your power feels... different, too. More condensed... pure. D-Don't tell me magic power can have varying power?!"
"No idea." She was still tilting her head.
"I-It would explain why your power goes down so slowly when you use magic and or why it recovers so fast. Furthermore, it going so catastrophically wrong all the time, even when you claimed having used only a little power... It all makes sense now..."
"Okay?" Sophia had no idea what was going on.
"What sort of monster are you?"
"H-Hey!" She didn't like the sound of that.
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Afterward, once the wolf calmed down, the two continued their experiment after having promised to talk about the tiger's magic later.
"Alright, I think it's slowly time to stop, Sophia..." There was a hint of worry in his voice. "I've never used so much magic at once... or even witnessed being used. It also feels like I'm slowly losing control of it, and we really don't want that."
"Yeah, I think so, too- Ah." The tiger agreed, but her expression suddenly changed.
"W-What...?" He had a bad feeling about this.
"l, uhh, can't stop it for some reason..." While she said so, the girl stepped a few meters away from Fen. "I'm also concentrating really hard on it, but my power keeps leaving me..."
"Oh no..." His expression darkened. "Okay, we're bailing. The fireball's canceled. I'm about to lose control with any more power. If that happens... the plain here, together with us... gone. I'll start dissipating the power into the vicinity to get to a more stable level so we- Ah." He stopped talking.
"W-What...?" Sophia got a taste of how it feels to get Ah'd.
"It... It's not working... For some reason, I can't get rid of the magic that I was preparing."
"Oh." Sophia turned pale upon hearing this, and both were at a complete loss about what to do now.