Sophia had successfully shared a part of her magic with Anna to get her on the same level as Ari. Once she activated her new power, the princess felt better than ever. They also chatted about their plans to experiment more with the blonde's portals. Still, as she was pretty tired out from boosting Anna, the group decided to do all that once they were fit again.
“Alright, let’s get started!” The following day, shortly after breakfast, a very motivated-sounding princess was staring at Sophia and Chloe with sparkling eyes while all were in the mansion's living room.
“Maya, please add the removal of the portal to Anna’s room to my to-do list.” Looking rather tired, the blonde faced her secretary.
“Okay.”
“Why?!”
“Number one rule of this house, being way too energetic before noon is forbidden…” She let out a yawn before continuing. “You should know by now that I’m rarely of any use in the morning hours.”
"Urgh… Chloe, you're cool, right? Let's get started already, and she can join us later!"
"Sorry, I'm a guest in this home, so I must abide by the rules.” The fox-girl also let out a yawn while answering her.
“She’s just as useless in the mornings.” Maya translated it for the princess.
“Stop being so similar, you two!”
“Yeah, because you’re the prime example of a morning person.” Ari was also with her and only rolled her eyes.
“How about this…” Sophia seemed like she had an idea. “As we aren’t allowed to play with the portals because our worrywarts are concerned about explosions, no matter how impossible they are, how about we go to the lake Fennyfenny and I created? There’s plenty of empty space around there. You can get warmed up with whatever magic you want, and once I'm actually awake, Chloe, you, and I can get to the portals…”
“I love the sound of that!”
"Great…" With another yawn, Sophia got up from her sofa, and the group went downstairs to the portal room. On the way, they also collected the wolves, who wanted to come with them after they heard that the girls wanted to experiment with the portals later on.
----------------
“Are you serious?!” Arriving at the place, Anna got loud as she looked at the gigantic lake with wide-open eyes. “You caused that?! I can’t even see the other side!”
“Well, Fennyfenny and I really overdid it a little bit…” Sophia decided to omit a lot of details here. “I think we did a good save on it, though.”
“Sure, it’s beautiful around here, but…” The princess paused for a moment before pointing at the lake. “LOOK AT THAT!”
“I have to agree with the loud girl.” Maya nodded a few times.
“Just how much magic did you two use…?” Chloe was also staring at the lake with big eyes.
“All of it…” The blonde awkwardly scratched her cheek. “We did an experiment where I channeled my magic through Fen. He used his magic constantly while I kept filling him up with mine… It kinda ran out of control and used up all of Fen's and my magic before it exploded.”
“I see.” The fox-girl tilted her head. “Really?”
“Yeah… It suddenly started sucking out my magic through Fen, and it only stopped once both of us were basically empty… then boom.”
“Hmm…” She furrowed her eyebrows. “I get that it ran out of control because that is way too much magic at once to stay in control, but… The crater… the lake is not even remotely big enough for that… Is that really all that happened?”
"E-EH?!" Anna got loud again. "Y-You are seeing this gigantonormous lake in front of you, right?!”
“I do.” She nodded. “I also know that Fenfen’s magic alone, when going out of control, would easily reach halfway, maybe even all the way to the capital from here. Combined with Sophia, the resulting chain reaction would easily destroy the capital and… probably half of the continent…” Chloe paused for a moment. “And that’s a conservative estimate.”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“…” The couple turned silent.
“After all,” She continued. “Even if adding Sophia’s magic would just double Fenfen's output, which it doesn't… Doubling the auth-… magic control doesn’t double the power behind it. It being impossible aside, because it’s too much, rather than doubling, both of them together, it would end up being 10 to 20 times as powerful…”
“W-Wow…” Anna and Ari were amazed.
“…” Fen also just stared at her. “There… There’s something…” He then glanced at Sophia. “Once we’re back home, we’re going to have another conversation about magic. There are some more very specific things I need to know… There seriously is too much going on…”
"Okay…?" The fox-girl looked slightly confused. "If it's something I can answer, I'll happily do so."
“How much chaos could I cause with the magic Sophia gifted me?” Anna got a bit interested in the topic.
“W-Why do you want to know that…?” Ari looked at her with a concerned expression.
“Because I want to know what I am or rather, would be capable of!”
“I’m not sure if I want you to know…” She had a bad feeling about this.
"I recently learned that magic is much more personal, but…" Fen glanced at Sophia, Chloe, and Maya before continuing. “But you should be able to destroy your castle with absolute ease.”
“Why would you use this example?!” The jaguar got loud.
“Ohh!” The princess’ eyes started sparkling instead. “That’s amazing!”
“Is it?!” Ari really didn’t share her opinion.
“Well, I would never do it, but it’s nice to know how much magic I now have!”
“G-Good…”
“It sounds like I can play around a whole lot now!” Anna looked really happy about it. “Let’s get to the portal experiments!” She was very motivated.
“Alright!” Chloe liked the sound of that.
“Let’s go!” Sophia was just as motivated.
“What do you think is a safe distance?” Maya glanced over at Ari with a wry smile.
“The other side of the lake…?”
“Shut up, you two!” The blonde didn’t like their exchange. “100 meters are totally fine!”
“I thought it was impossible to explode?! Why 100 meters?!" The jaguar was straining her voice a lot today.
"You can also stay right next to us if you want to. It was just a suggestion to make you happy." Sophia shrugged in response.
“I like the 100-meter idea.” Ari reconsidered her complaint.
“Alrighty!” She decided that it was enough of that. “Anna, want to try and get the direct portals to work with us, or do you want your own to play with and get accustomed to your new magic?”
“Oh, do you already have a plan for the direct portals?!” The fox-girl got excited after hearing that.
“Not at all.” She shook her head.
“Ohh…”
“Uhh… maybe I should start with something easier, after all…?” The princess was starting to have some doubts about the whole plan. “Maybe I should begin with training chantless water-based magic with the help of the lake…?”
“Sure.” The blonde smiled at her. “That’s totally the safe option to do.”
“T-Thank you…” Ari sounded incredibly relieved that they were still able to make sensible decisions.
“As long as you think flooding the equivalent of a school is the safer option compared to maybe destroying a portal leading to nothing.” Sophia glanced at the jaguar while showing her a smug grin.
“A-Ah…” She immediately turned her head away.
“Fair point.” Anna nodded. “I don’t want to create that much chaos.”
“I hate tigers…” The jaguar gave up.
“They’re the worst, aren’t they?” Maya knew the feeling.
“Yes.”
“Okay, let’s play with portals!”
“Yay!” The tigers ignored them.
“Is that okay…?” Chloe pointed at Maya and Ari while looking at the other two.
“It’s fine~.”
----------------
Afterward, the trio went to a slightly more open space, and Sophia started by creating a portal leading to an empty corner of her storage dimension for the princess to test out her magic on.
“Hmmnnn…” Anna was circling around her portal and was looking at it from all angles. “I have absolutely no idea what I’m supposed to be doing…”
“Welcome to step one of inventing; or playing with new or unknown magic.” Sophia and Chloe just smiled at her.
“What is step two…?”
“Trial and error.”
“An explosion.” The chaos duo wasn’t precisely on the same page. "A-Ah, yeah, that’s what I meant…” The blonde slightly corrected herself. "T-Trial and error, of course..."
“Because that’s one and the same for you!” Maya got loud again while watching them together with Ari and the wolves from the sidelines.
“Shush!” The blonde just waved her hand at the cat before looking at the other tiger. "I don't know… pour some of your magic into it, try to extract some… Heck, throw some fire at it. It might result in something interesting and or fun. The portal connects to an area inside my storage where nothing is. You can't destroy anything on the other side."
“Oh, I see! Well, I might try to get a little rough with it, then!” Anna started smiling.
“…” Hearing that, especially from the princess, who would rather hear than speak those words, Sophia glanced at Ari while tilting her head.
“W-What…?” Slightly embarrassed for some reason, she looked back at her.
“Nothing~.”
“…”
“Anyway,” Sophia then focused on Chloe. “Thanks to the fresh air and all the chatting, I’m almost fully awake. Should we experiment a bit, as well? Let’s find a way to use the portals without my extra dimension as a proxy!”
“Alright!” The fox-girl raised her hand in motivation. “What about enchanting items with the portal magic? Didn’t we want to do that, too?”
"Ah!" She had forgotten about that. "One thing after another!"
"Good idea!"
Afterward, the two got ready to do a lot of safe experimenting and playing around with their foolproof ideas for improving the portals.