Boosted Continuation – A new world

The trio was still in the small cave under the cherry blossom forest and busy studying the crystal cluster that sucked out their magic power when touching it. Naturally, as they were a curious bunch, they just had to find out what it was for.

“Alrighty, back to this thing!” Sophia pointed at the massive crystal. “Does anyone have any idea what our new overlord is?”

“Eh? You already started worshipping it?” Chloe just stared at her.

“It looks majestic and is able to drain our magic in seconds! What’s not to worship here?”

“Fair point.” The fox nodded a couple of times.

“It is?!” Anna couldn’t follow their logic.

“Absolu-, Oi!” The blonde was interrupted by Blu on her shoulder, who had headbutted her cheek strong enough to make her stop talking. “Don't worry, you’re still my number one overlord. The crystal is just a lesser one! It’s not going to beat you anytime soon!” She then gently patted its head a couple of times. “Hey!” A second later, Blu flapped its wings so hard that it almost swept Sophia off her feet as it took flight before landing on a root that was hanging from the ceiling.

“Someone doesn’t like to be messed with, huh?” Chloe looked at the parakeet with a wry expression.

“Yeah, ma-, Blu really doesn’t like to be teased.” Sophia had some experience with that, after all. "Aside from the fact that I was kinda serious. Oh, wait a moment! Or did you get upset over how we weren't treating the crystal thingy seriously enough and were just playing around?" She faced the bird while tilting her head, causing it to move its head up and down a couple of times.

“What should we do, though?” Anna stared at the crystal.

“Should we give it what it wants?” Chloe did the same. “Feeding it as much magic as we can, that is.”

“We might as well try?” The blonde shrugged. “The worst that can happen is it, together with all of us, exploding, after all.”

“And you complained about my remarks earlier!” The fox lightly glared at the short tiger, who had gotten quite loud over her teasing regarding bad events from before.

“You got me there.” Sophia had nothing to say there. “Blu, you’re the one who showed us that the thing’s special. You better make sure it doesn’t explode on us!” She looked right at the bird, who in return lifted its right wing in a way that looked like it was saluting to the tiger.

“You sure have a lot of faith in our little bird friend, huh?" Anna’s eyes wandered between Sophia and Blu.

“Of course!” She just nodded. “I mean, Blu can easily beat us up and then some, so protecting us should be no issue, either~.” Sophia smiled at the bird, who then puffed up its chest to make itself look even more important.

“So cute!” It didn’t have quite the desired effect on the girls, though.

“Good enough for me!” The princess was happy with that explanation and reaction.

“Alright, Anna, you go first.” The short tiger smiled at her fellow tall one.

“Why me?!” She wasn’t a fan of the plan.

“Because, as of now, you’re the one with the least amount of magic authority around.”

“Which means you’re the least risk of making the crystal explode.” Chloe completed the blonde’s reasoning.

"A-Ah.” Anna liked that just as little, for even more reasons. “Well, good point, though.” It did make a lot of sense, after all. “Alright, fine!” Agreeing to the plan, albeit somewhat reluctantly, the princess then got closer to the crystal again and placed her hand on it. Immediately upon touching it, the cluster began to dimly glow, and roughly 20 seconds later, she retracted her hand again. “I’m already basically empty!”

“Ha.” The other two girls ignored her and stared at the crystal instead. “Curiously enough, while not as strong as when Anna had her hand on it, it was still ever so slightly glowing.

“Is it storing the magic it sucked out of me?” The tall tiger tilted her head.

“Maybe?” The shorter striped girl wasn’t sure, either. “I can feel some power radiating off of it now, though, so you might be right with that.” She nodded a few times.

“Shall I go next?” Chloe pointed at herself while looking at the blonde.

“Sure!” She just nodded.

“Let’s go!” Highly motivated, the fox placed her hand on the crystal and left it there for a little over a minute. While she was doing that, the cluster lit up considerably more and stayed like that even after she was done, too.

“Okay, it’s definitely storing magic inside.” Once Chloe was done, Sophia concentrated on the crystal. “I can roughly feel the same power from it that you two poured into it.”

“Surprisingly, depleting all of your authority in like a minute is no fun at all…” The fox sounded a little tired. “Not being able to recover in your domain only makes it worse, too.”

“True!” Anna nodded a few times.

“Well, it would make little sense to recover here when I want to flood my domain with raw magic! That’s also used to reset your authority once it enters your body, after all.” The blonde shrugged because there was nothing she could do.

“Fair enough, but still!” The two weren’t happy about it.

“So, my turn now, huh?” Sophia just ignored them and placed her hand on the crystal. The second she did that, it started shining on a level that easily overpowered the level of Chloe’s reaction from before. It was nowhere near the eye-searing brightness Blu had caused when the bird had briefly landed on the cluster before. She left her hand on it for about two minutes before removing it again, and once it was done, the crystal kept shining in a noticeably brighter light than before. "Okay, I have to agree, getting your magic sucked out that fast is a bit much, at least if you aren't doing it voluntarily."

“We know!” The two showed no sympathy after they went through the same before.

“What now, though?” The short tiger was still staring at the glowing cluster.

"A good question.” Anna tilted her head. “Chloe, what’s next?”

“Why me?”

“You’re the one who suggested feeding it magic.” The princes looked at the fox. “So, what’s step two?”

“What gave you the impression that I have a plan or even know what’s going on?” The pink girl shrugged in return.

“I’m not necessarily surprised.” Anna just smiled.

“How about you come up with something?” Chloe threw the ball back at the tall tiger.

“Ehh…?” She paused for a moment. “Should we bring it to the cottage? It’s really pretty, and the glow's looking great, too. It would look nice in front of the cottage’s entrance.”

“I wasn’t thinking about decorative uses, but sure, you’re not wrong.” The fox scratched her cheek while nodding once.

“You two are something else.” Sophia rolled her eyes. “Blu, while I agree with them that it would look nice, there surely have to be some better uses for this thing, right?” She pointed at the cluster while looking at the parakeet. In return, the bird moved its head up and down a few times. “See!” The blonde then faced the other two.

“And what would that be?” The duo, naturally, couldn’t interpret much into the nodding of a parakeet.

"A good question.” The short tiger didn’t have more details, either. “Is it possible that we can use the crystal as a storage for magic?” She tilted her head. “If it goes in, it should be able to come out again, too, right?”

“It could be.” Chloe nodded a few times. “What use would that be, though?”

“That would be the best thing ever!” Anna suddenly got loud.

“You have a use for that?” Sophia faced her fellow tiger.

“Absolutely!” She nodded a few times. “It would help me use bigger magic with more power than I currently have, wouldn’t it?!”

“Oh?” The other two seemed surprised.

“It means that after charging it a couple or many times, I would be able to use the same types of magic as Sophia does, doesn’t it?!” The princess sounded really excited. “If I get it out of the crystal and use it together with my own magic at the same time, I mean!”

“Ohh!” The blonde and pink girl also got louder.

“I’m not sure if that even works, but it’s worth a try, isn’t it?”

“Absolutely!” The two heartily agreed.

“Maybe it could also be used in our biomes." Anna wasn't done with her ideas just yet. “Mira said that some stuff, like mutations, can use a lot of the ambient magic thingy, right? I can’t see that like you two, and I also have a hard time feeling it unless it’s really a lot. I can easily sense it in the crystal, though. Maybe you can place a charged one in the middle of the biome you’re currently creating and release it at once to create some extra fancy effects!”

“Wow!” Sophia sounded impressed by her ideas. “We definitely need to try that out!”

“Wait a moment…” Chloe seemed to be thinking about something. “That biome thing sounds very interesting. “Right now, we have crystal filled with so much magic that the glow is hurting my eyes. We’re in a cave with many crystal tunnels leading to and from it, right under a portion of the cherry blossom forest. What would happen to the area if we manage to release the stored magic?”

“We need to try that out!” Sophia nodded a few times. “Maybe we can grow the crystal tunnel structure all the way to the trees and turn them into the same!”

“Let’s go!” The other tiger felt the same. “How do we get it out, though?”

“No idea.” The two shook their heads. Blu, who had been watching them until now, then suddenly took flight again and landed on the cluster. It instantly turned so bright that the girls needed to avert their eyes, but it thankfully stopped again after five seconds. Interestingly enough, while it was still shining to some degree, the white to light pink color of the crystal changed to a very deep pink and purple instead.

“Whoa!” The girls had the same reaction.

“Wait, now it really has the exact same color as ambient magic!” Chloe noticed something familiar in the color.

"You're right!" Sophia thought so, too. "Hmm, does that mean it's full? As in, that’s as much magic the crystal can store?”

“Oh, that would make sense!” The fox could follow her explanation. Hearing that, Blu, who was still sitting on it, nodded a few times while flapping its wings.

“Ohh!” They got even more excited.

“Can we use it now?” Sophia looked at the parakeet. Immediately after, a portal appeared in front of the girls, and Blu used one of its wings to gesture at it, urging them to step through it.

“Ah, Blu’s up to something.” The blonde was used to the random portals already. “Let’s go and see what’s going to happen.” She was the first to enter it before the other two also followed after her. The last thing they saw before disappearing through the portal was another blinding light illuminating the cave before they arrived at the other side.

 

 

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