Sophia had gathered all of Nathan's group and brought everyone together at her mansion in the capital to tell them even more about her portals. She mostly went into detail about how they normally link to her domain rather than to each other, and then showed it to them. Naturally, the prince didn’t believe her at first, but as she could back it up with evidence, he had no room for discussion.

  “Why is everything so white around here?” The group arrived in an empty part of Sophia's domain, and Nathan wasn't sure how to feel about their surroundings.

  “I have a thing for white~.” Saying so, Sophia wrapped her arm around Maya’s waist next to her.

  “Ehehe~.” The white-haired cat-girl liked that.

  “That aside, this is just the default state of my domain.” The blonde tiger smiled at the prince. “It will change once something is put here.”

  “It will change…?” He tilted his head. “What even is a domain?!”

  "It's my own little world disconnected from the regular world, built and maintained with magic."

  “Does this make any sense?” Nathan looked at Vivi for help.

  “Not at all!” She rapidly shook her head. “It’s amazing, though!”

  “Is it?” The prince looked around some more. “The only amazing thing is the strain it’s putting on my eyes.”

  "True!" Nina agreed with him.

  “I’m surrounded by nothing but critics…” The blonde did not appreciate their complaints and slowly shook her head. “I just wanted to start with this to make the other things following after this more impactful! Back me up here, Vivi!” She looked at the puma, who had gotten the same tour the day before.”

  “She’s a bit clumsy in doing things, so little she does makes sense, but it will get better later.” Vivi had already gotten a good grasp on Sophia’s personality.

  “I won’t tolerate another individual teasing me in this group!” The blonde immediately glared at her in response. “You’re pretty, so I’m the slightest bit okay with it, but no!”

  “Ehh~? Really?” The puma smiled at her.

  “Shush!” Sophia wasn’t giving in to the temptation. “Anyway, let’s relocate to shut up the critics!” Saying so, she snapped her finger, and the entire group was immediately swallowed by a cloud of pink and purple particles.

  "Ohh, my savanna biome!" Anna was the first to react when she noticed where they ended up, as she excitedly looked at the dry steppe with lots of red sand, dead bushes, a few acacia trees, and a bunch of sandstone rocks and hills all over the place.

  “Your… savanna?” Nathan looked at her sister while being more confused than ever.

  “Yes!” The princess happily clapped her hands. “I came up with the idea, and Sophia and I made it together~.”

  “You made it?” He only looked more lost.

  “This is what happens if you put in some work and magic.” Sophia gave him a cheeky thumbs-up. “This area used to be the same white nothingness as the other place until we started shaping it into this savanna with lots of magic and some plants and sand that we borrowed to get it started.”

  “You can make biomes with magic?” The prince only kept having more questions the more Sophia explained things.

  “No, but you can use existing plants and grow them into a biome befitting for them while actively shaping it in a way you want.” The blonde lightly shook her head. “Well, at least I can’t create biomes from scratch. I have no idea if it’s generally impossible.”

  “That is quite something.” Nathan looked around some more before facing his sister again. “You really made this?”

  “Well, I came up with it and helped as much as I could, but the more magic you have at your disposal, the more you can play around in here, so Sophia’s contribution was a lot.”

  “I supplied extra magic, sure, but Anna did most of the work~.” Sophia didn’t want to belittle her achievement.

  “This is… I don’t have the words to describe it.” The prince was overwhelmed. “Does Father know about all of this?”

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  “Kira has been here before, and Ellie even has her own little area, but I don't think Menzor has come to visit yet. He knows about the part where you can grow plants with magic and how it makes them stronger than ever, though. After all, this also works in the regular world. Like on trees or crops.”

  “Wow, really? That’s valuable information in the unfortunate case of there ever being a famine or a similar catastrophe.”

  “Menzor said the same, too.” Sophia nodded a few times.

  “So, you’re just all building places in here that look fun or interesting?” Nina tilted her head while looking around. “Like, there’s this savanna, and Vivi told me about an ocean as well as a cherry blossom forest earlier.”

  “Yes!” Sophia showed her a beaming smile. “All of us made a lot of biomes and other places to our liking! Everyone made their favorites!”

  “That sounds like so much fun!” Vivi liked that a lot.

  “It kind of does.” Nina agreed with her. “Did Ari do something, as well?” She became curious about her little sister's work.

  “Interestingly enough, Ari’s one of the most active in my domain. She’s worked on at least four biomes so far!”

  “Really?” The golden jaguar looked a little surprised. “I’d love to see what my little sister has been up to. I bet the types of places say a lot about her personality, as well!"

  “It sure does!” Sophia gave her a thumbs-up. “There’s one place in particular she made that describes her perfectly! It just screams Ari in how much it resembles her very being!”

  “You’re not going to show her what I think you’re going to show her.” The girl in question glared at the smug-looking tiger.

  “I sure will~.” Sophia’s expression got even more playful as she smirked at her.

  “I can’t wait!” The older sister happily clapped her hands once in anticipation.

  "Let's go!" The blonde snapped her fingers once more, and after another flurry of pink and purple particles, the group found themselves in a little more violent spot.

  ----------------

  “What is this?!” Nina couldn’t believe her eyes. They were on a rather high hill that was surrounded by nothing but gray ash towering up to mountains all around them. A little in the distance, a flaming inferno in the shape of a burning pine forest spanned over the visible horizon as far as they could see, which constantly spewed fresh ash and embers high into the air.

  “This is Ari’s eternal inferno.” Sophia smiled at the golden jaguar. “She lit the forest that another friend of mine made on fire and used so much magic that it will never stop burning.”

  “Is there anything you want to talk about…?” Nina looked at her little sister with a concerned expression. “Any pent-up issues or aggressions?”

  “I hate you so much!” Ari glared at the blonde before facing her sister. “She’s just messing with you! Aura, the one who originally made this forest, asked me to set it on fire because she wanted to rebuild it! I just helped her! She and I then burned it together! Unfortunately, there was too much magic and it chain-reacted into this eternal version! Aura then wanted to keep it like that because she thought it was cool."

  “It is pretty cool.” Vivi could follow her logic. “Well, it’s hot, but you get what I mean.” She had to help herself to a pun, too.

  “I can’t say I dislike it, but I’m not the main instigator here!” Ari tried to defend herself some more.

  “I see.” Nina scratched her cheek. “Still, if you want to talk about something, I’m there for you, okay?”

  “I hate it here.” She hung her head in response.

  “Why doesn’t it stop, though?” Luca also got interested in it. “Like, I get that using too much magic could lead to issues, but the magic would disappear at some point, no?”

  “Magic naturally generates in plants, and when you grow them with magic in the first place, this effect is highly elevated. That’s also why it’s rather easy to make biomes in here. Once you get it started, it just keeps growing.” Sophia smiled at the cat-boy before continuing. “Aura used so much magic in this area while growing the pine trees that they regenerate and grow as fast or faster than the fire burns them, and keeps feeding it. In this case, it'll simply never disappear."

  “That is quite something.” Luca couldn’t come up with anything else to say.

  “Well put.” Nathan agreed with him.

  “I can’t believe my little sister is a pyromaniac.” Nina was still having fun teasing her.

  “I am not!” Ari glared at her.

  "Well, to be fair, you set a rather large number of things on fire." Anna scratched her cheek as she glanced at her girlfriend.

  “Oi!” The black-haired jaguar did not appreciate that. “It’s not that large of a number, okay?!” She couldn’t entirely refute it, though.

  “I still don't exactly know why we’re here.” Nathan looked around again before facing the blonde. “Not this place in particular, but as a whole. Didn't you want to explain something about your portals to us?”

  “Right!” Remembering that part, Sophia clapped her hands again while transporting everyone to yet another corner of her domain. To be precise, they ended up in the central portal hub with multiple dozens of portals plastered all over the place. Some were active, while others weren’t, as well as some being see-through and others still having the old style with the inside just being a solid color. “This is one of the areas where most of the portals I create appear. All of them lead to various places, including the castle in the royal capital.” She then pointed at a specific portal whose inside showed a room in said castle.

  “I wasn’t expecting there to be that many!” The prince didn’t even know where to look first. “You really just put them wherever, huh?”

  “Pretty much!” She gave him a thumbs-up. “The portals for you and the others that you all can use for traveling will end up here, as well. From here, you can go to the capital or visit us, for example. As I mentioned before, opening portals linked directly to each other will take a lot of magic to open. The ones leading to my domain use a lot less. You probably need no more than 20% of your magic power to open a portal leading to here. The portals naturally want to go here, so my domain kind of helps out, for the lack of a better explanation.”

  "Wow, that's great! 20% is a lot more manageable even for spontaneous trips!" Nathan liked her explanation a lot.

  Once Sophia returned to the topic and gave them a rough rundown of her portals, she explained how they could use them and showed them which of the existing portals led to which places. That way, they won't get lost in the future when they start using them. Afterward, she also enchanted one item each in their possession with her portal magic so the four would always have it with them.

  - ShyviaAngel -

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