Boosted Continuation

Sophia took a quick break from exploring the monster country with the others and instead went on a trip with Blu in her domain. For the past couple of months, she’d been amassing extreme amounts of magic, and it’s time to do something with it. It had reached critical mass and became able to speak again, so she had to use this chance.

“By the way, magic can’t do anything on its own, right?” Sophia was still chatting with the particles. “Like, someone or something needs to have an intent to use magic for you to become active?”

‘Yes.’ The raw magic right in front of her formed into a new set of sparkly letters. ‘Flora and fauna either wants or needs us to do something for it to happen.’

“What about Blu, though?” The tiger then looked at her shoulder, where the little parakeet was still sitting on. "Our bird here was created by magic, yet Blu can do magic on its own."

‘Blu was created by Mira with the intention of being a bird. In result, Blu is a bird. A strong bird. Fauna. Thus, Blu can use magic.’

“Alright, fair enough. I hadn't thought that far.” She nodded a few times. “So, if I want for magic to be creative on its own in my domain, I first need to turn it into something that can use it? Like Blu.”

‘Yes’

*Chirp* Magic and the bird were on the same page.

“Does it matter who creates it? Mira created Blu, so I assume Blu has to adhere to her rules when it comes to magic. Even though I allowed our parakeet to go wild, and, according to Kel, Blu also does do so, I’m sure Mira’s rules still play a role.”

‘Different’ The particles swirled around for a bit. ‘Plays a part, but place of creation is more important. Blu was created in Mira’s domain. Rules of her domain apply. Mira’s domain is not quite as strict as the regular world. Creation in Sophia's domain means creation with her rules.'

“Ohh!” Sophia energetically clapped her hands. “This is perfect!”

‘Exception:’ The particles got a little wilder to get her attention. ‘Creations from domains have to adhere to rules of the normal world when leaving the domain.’

“Even though I use Canir’s authority and his power ignores those rules?”

‘Yes.’ They moved up and down. ‘Domain creations are different. Not 100% Canir magic, unlike Sophia. While little, other people also supply magic.’

“Ahh, fair enough.” She scratched her cheek. “Oh, kind of when I boosted some of my friends with extra magic power, and because they already had some beforehand, they didn't get any of Canir's properties?"

'Similar.' They didn’t disagree. ‘Creations are natural. Canir can only bless blank authority alone. You use it, but it gets converted when leaving you.'

“Mhmm, I can’t say I fully understand, but it sounds like it makes sense.” The blonde looked a little confused.

‘Yes’

“So many opportunities to have here!” Sophia nodded a few times. “Having something created by my domain for my domain sounds lovely! It could also help Blu manage the place, keep some people in check, and not-so-secretly help them out.” She glanced at the bird again during the last part.

… The parakeet once more turned its head away after having gotten caught once more.

“Alright!” She rubbed her hands together. “Is there enough magic here for a new friend?”

'This is highly dependent on which creation you're thinking of.'

“Is it enough to create something on the level of Blu?” Sophia got a little more concrete.

‘In order to match Blu’s authority, 68.31136% of the available raw magic in this cluster is needed.’

“So close!” Sophia answered without thinking. “Wait! I only need a little over two-thirds? Mire told me that Blu’s around 4000 times my magic power! Does that mean there’s currently 6000 times my authority floating around us?! It even overwhelms my domain senses, so I have a hard time telling.”

‘No.’ The particles moved from left to right a couple of times. ‘The estimation of Mira was based on your authority on the date of Blu’s creation.’

“Okay?” That only confused her more.

‘Your current authority is approximately 287% higher.’

“WHAT?!” She got loud after hearing that. “How did I get that much stronger?!”

‘Overseers experience heavily accelerated growth when using authority in their domain.’

“I’m not an overseer, though.” The tiger shook her head.

‘Correction: Overseers in training experience accelerated growth.’

“I’m not an overseer in training!”

‘Adjusted correction: Overseers in training, even when currently in denial, are under rapid growth in their domain.’ The particles then got a little wild for a second. ‘No further corrections on the matter accepted.’ They apparently didn’t like being talked back to.

“…” Judging by her expression, there were many things she wanted to say, but Sophia opted against voicing them as she knew that it was futile. "A-n-y-w-a-y, that does mean that there’s more than enough magic for a parakeet like Blu, right? It seems like I could make it stronger, but one of the main goals is getting Blu a friend, so it should be roughly the same levels of power.”

*Chirp!* The parakeet in question on her shoulder let out an energetic chirp in return.

‘A very thoughtful way of doing things. Commendable. Approved.’

“So?!” Her excitement reached new highs.

‘Not good.’ The particles swerved from left to right once more.

“Why?!” It wasn’t what she wanted to hear.

‘It’s too early for you to make a living creation. Complicated task. Too hard for you. Too weak.’

“I know that I’m weak, but that’s why I started saving up raw magic to help like we’ve been doing all the time in my domain when creating new biomes!”

‘Living creations like Blu don’t work by proxy creation like flora. All the raw magic needs to be channeled through you to compress it.’

“So it’s impossible for the current me because I can’t do something like that yet?”

‘Not impossible.’ The particles disagreed with her.

“What’s the problem then?” Sophia felt like she was missing something. “I could do it, but the process would kill me? That would be suboptimal, true.” She didn’t feel like dying today.

‘It would not kill you.’ They frantically moved around to deny that claim.

“So, what’s the issue?” The blonde tilted her head. "It's not impossible, and it won't kill me. I'm failing to see the problem. I won’t be able to control it, and it won’t transform into a bird? Maybe even blow up my domain?”

‘As long as intent is clear, failure is unlikely.’

“Could you get to the point?” The tiger was getting impatient. “Else, I’ll just try it and see what happens. That was the plan in the first place, after all. In fact, that’s how all my plans are structured.”

‘Severe magic fatigue.’ The particles got to the point.

“I don’t like the sound of that.” Sophia’s expression changed. “What does that mean?”

‘Your body is not yet adapted to using that much magic at once. Similar to forcing a big object through a small hole. It will be painful.’

"…" She paused for a moment before raising an eyebrow. "Did you really need to use that comparison?”

‘It is a fitting analogy. Thus, it was a good example. Why?’

“Never mind.” She decided against voicing her concerns. “How much pain are we talking?”

‘Too many variables to tell.’ The particles were unable to specify that.

“Fair enough, I guess.” Sophia scratched her cheek. “Can you tell if it would do lasting damage to me?”

‘Define damage.’

"Something that will have a lasting negative effect on me."

‘It will not.’ Magic seemed quite confident about that.

“So, no permanently stretched holes, either?”

‘What?’ Additionally to that, several sparkling question marks appeared around the word.

“Ignore my stupidity, please." Her mind was still in the gutter.

‘We’ll try.’ They even added a smiley behind it. ‘A hard task, though.’

“Oi!” She didn’t like that. “Back to the topic, I still don’t quite get why you called it severe magic fatigue earlier. Pain doesn’t exactly make me tired of all things.”

‘The fatigue will follow after the pain. Your body will completely overexert itself. Your authority will get fully depleted, but it’ll just keep going.’

“Okay, that doesn’t sound fun.”

‘It will all happen in rapid succession, too. Putting even more strain on your magic system. Extreme soreness and general aching will likely be the result.’

“Extreme?” She raised an eyebrow.

‘Extreme’ The particles repeated themselves. ‘Your elevated healing gifted by Canir also won’t be able to negate it.’

“Can’t say I’m much of a fan of that.” Sophia finally had her first doubts. “How long, with my current regular growth, would it take until I become able to make a friend for Blu without it hurting me?”

‘Too many variables for a precise estimate.’

"A rough one is fine.” She didn’t need the correct day after all.

‘Approximately 5 to 7 years.’

“Yeah, no, that’s not happening.” The blonde firmly shook her head. "That's way too long!"

‘Is it? It is a remarkable growth.’

“For someone who’s only 23 years old, five to seven years is a looong time!”

‘A valid complaint.’

“So, what do I have to do?" She fully decided on pulling through with it by now. “From what I remember, Mira created a ball of super-dense magic and somehow turned it into Blu.”

‘This is the first step. To match Blu’s strength, you need to compress 68.3031% of the raw magic in this area as tightly as possible.’

“Mhmm, let’s do 70%.” Sophia's expression turned into a slight grin. "It's still basically the same power, but I can one-up Mira! Well, it’s not like she was going all out, but that doesn’t matter.”

‘Understood’

*Chirp!* There was a hint of protest in the bird’s chirp as it gently slapped Sophia’s cheek with its wing.

“Don’t you go and pretend now that you wouldn’t do the same if you were me.” She lightly rolled her eyes while glancing at the bird on her shoulder.

*…* Blu immediately went silent.

“How does one compress raw magic, though?” The tiger returned her attention to the floating particles.

‘Carefully’

“…” Sophia stared at the floating word while slowly shaking her head. “I was wondering about the technical side of it.”

‘Magic can only guide you on what to do, including warnings and limitations. How is not part of instructions.’

“I feel like you gave me plenty of how before.”

‘No’

“Yes.”

‘Negative’

“Fine…” Noticing how more and more floating ‘No’ appeared in front of her, she gave up on pressing any further. “Blu, would you mind giving me a little demonstration?”

*Chirp! The bird gave a cute salute with its wing before flying over to the hand Sophia was holding up for a stage. There, the parakeet lifted both its wings. A moment later, particles of raw magic began gravitating towards one wing and got absorbed by it before a tiny ball with a solid light pink color started forming at the tip of Blu’s other wing. Chirp~!* There was a hint of smugness in its voice.

“Okay, that wasn’t nearly as helpful as I had hoped it to be.” The tiger scratched her cheek with her other hand before Blu relocated itself to the floor. “Well, I guess I just start copying Blu by passing magic through my body with the image of compressing it into a dense ball.”

*Chirp!* The parakeet lifted one of its wings in response.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Saying so, she lifted her arms, and magic particles soon started floating towards her left one before immediately leaving through her right one again. Closing her eyes and concentrating a bit harder, the particles leaving her right hand slowly began to form into a rough cluster before eventually coagulating into a sphere. Once she got the hang of it and it actually looked like a small pink ball, Sophia opened her eyes again as her body eased up. "It's easier than I imagined! It doesn’t hurt, either! Just a little tingly feeling. Will that get worse later on?”

‘Compressing raw magic is just preparation.’ The unaffected magic particles formed into new words. ‘Painful part will be using it to create an equivalent to Blu.’

“Ah.” That wasn’t what the tiger wanted to hear. “Wait, I just noticed, will I be able to lose the ability to talk to you at some point while compressing the raw magic?”

‘As long as the compressed magic is nearby, nothing will change.’

“That’s reassuring!”

‘Additionally: Remaining ambient magic will be enough for conversation even after the creation is finished. Replies will just be slightly less complex.’

“Ohh!” Her mood brightened up again. “If that is the case, could you give me a counter of how much magic I need to compress? There’s no way I’ll be able to keep track. 100% would be enough to create a bird who is slightly stronger than Blu.”

‘Affirmative.’ The particles then formed into a few numbers. ‘0.072%’

“Ah.” Her mood immediately took another dive. A moment later, she took a short break to pull out a chair from her storage and sat down on it before continuing. "Seems like this will take a while, and I’m not going to stand here the entire time.” She demonstratively crossed her legs afterward, as well.

Once she had gotten comfortable, Sophia did nothing except sucking in and compress magic for the next couple of hours. The little ball of magic in front of her had gotten considerably red in color while emitting a small glow. However, she was still encased in a sparkly pink dome as there was still a lot of excess magic floating around.

‘100%’

“Haa…” The moment she saw those liberating numbers floating in front of her, Sophia let out a strained sigh. “That took way too long!”

'Time to complete was within estimation.'

“That’s not what I mean…” She shook her head as she stood up from her chair. “However, this is quite something.” She then reached for the floating orb, about the size of a golf ball, and gently touched it. "It’s pretty warm, too.”

‘The energy within the orb is rather potent, which causes a rise in temperature.'

“Fair enough.” She could only shrug in return. “So, now, I need to use this compressed ball to create a friend for Blu, right?”

‘Correct’

“And that will hurt?”

‘Very’

“How lovely…” She let out another sigh while looking at the orb. "The next question would be how to do it. Back when Mira made Blu, she placed the ball between her hands and pressed them together, and then Blu was suddenly there. If I had to take a guess, she crushed the orb to instantly unleash the magic and convert it through her body into Blu."

‘Affirmative.’ The particles moved up and down. ‘Mira does not need to create compressed magic. She can do it internally. She likes to show off, though.’

“Understandable.”

‘All overseers do.’

“Shush.” It felt like another jab to her. “Okay, just to be extra sure.” Sophia took a deep breath. “I place the orb between my hands. Then, while imagining the creation of a powerful parakeet to become a friend for Blu, I crush the orb and guide the magic into my thoughts. Afterward, bam, bird?"

‘Imagination, activation, bam, pain, bird, yes.'

"You had to sneak that one in there again, huh?"

‘Yes’

“Okay, let’s just get over with it.” Sophia grabbed the orb and placed it between her hands. Then, she closed her eyes and started concentrating. “There’s just no way it will be that bad, so--- G-GAAHHH!” She crushed the orb, and in that very instant, her entire body spasmed as a pain-filled shriek echoed through the area.

‘Pain’ The magic particles even changed the font they were using to indicate them being smug about it.

"Gaahhh…" Sophia was still in exceptional pain as she fell down on her knees before slumping down to the floor entirely as she was losing consciousness.

-*Chirrp~*-

Right before her vision entirely faded away from fainting caused by the unparalleled pain, Sophia imagined hearing the sound of a bird with a slightly higher-sounding chirp than the one she was used to from Blu. However, she was unable to confirm its source before blacking out completely.