Chapter 319 (Patreon)

Chapter 319

Aura and Cirrus had their match in Sophia's domain, and they decided to declare it a draw after testing each other's strength and techniques. After all, neither of them was really going all out and were simply trying to gauge their abilities. However, they liked their styles and agreed to have more challenges in the future where they actually try.

“That was so much fun~.” The group was back on the floating island, and Aura was still beaming from her little test of strength with Cirrus.

“Glad you’re getting along with the newcomer.” Sophia smiled at her. “I’m still impressed you managed to hold back that much from going full destruction mode.”

“Her way of fighting is quite unique, so it would be a waste to go full power and brute-force my way through it.” The wolf shook her head. “Cirrus probably can go even harder on her defenses, too, so figuring out how to get around those is way more interesting than using raw power.”

“Fair enough.” The blonde only reacted with a shrug. “Okay, Kel stayed in the domain to show Cirrus around a little more together with Lime and Blu. How about we return to the ocean and try to get closer to the demon continent? Ari, I hope you’re okay with him protecting you.” She let out a small chuckle as she looked at the jaguar. “Alternatively, feel free to join the two elder dragons and our two birds in my domain~.”

“I think my chances out here are better.” She vigorously shook her head. “I don’t want to accidentally get caught in the crossfire of the birds punishing the dragons because that much is inevitable.”

“True.” Sophia agreed that it was only a matter of when and not if.

“Let’s go!” Steph energetically raised her arm high in the air.

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As no one was against the plan, they officially stopped being sidetracked, for the time being. They returned to their boat down below on the ocean by using one of Sophia's portals that had been kept active back when they abandoned it to explore the floating islands.

“So, uhh… which way?” Back on their boat, Sophia looked around while awkwardly scratching her cheek. “I know I'm useless when it comes to that, even on the best of days, but we're surrounded by clouds, and there's just a couple of islands around us. There's no reference at all, is there?"

“That way.” Aura nonchalantly gestured to her right.

“HOW?!” The short tiger raised her voice. “Do you come with a built-in compass?!”

"I know in what direction the demon continent is, and I know how the sun travels. That's all I need to know."

“What sun?!” Sophia pointed up at the sky. Because the clouds surrounding the archipelago were so high, only a small cutout of the sky could be seen right above them, and there was no sun visible.

“You could see it from back up there.” The wolf briefly gestured at the massive island above they were just on. “I just thought ahead and made a mental note of where it is before leaving.”

“Ohh!" The blonde clapped her hands. "Yeah, I don't do this thinking-ahead thing, so thank you for that!” She smiled at her. “Not that me knowing where the sun is would help even the slightest bit.”

“It’s not hard at all to learn how to read directions using the sun, you know?”

“I routinely get lost following a straight street, you know?” Sophia just kept staring at her.

“Haa…” Aura could only react with a sigh. She also ignored the fact that multiple girls tried to hold back a chuckle when the blonde said the word straight.

“Alrighty, Maya, would you please?” The blonde dropped the topic and pointed at the helm while she gestured in the direction Aura had said was the demon continent.

“On it~.” The cat-girl cutely saluted again before she gripped the wheel to steer the boat towards where they needed to go. She got them to the edge of the archipelago in no time and only briefly stopped right before the massive and dense cloud wall that surrounded the entire area.

“Do we have to navigate through the maze again to get out?” Steph poked the fluffy wall once they were right at it.

“I’m not playing the navigator this time!” Anna vigorously shook her head. “Getting in here was awful, so I’m good!”

“Well, it seemed like it was made to keep us out, so I assume that when we try to get out, there shouldn't be much resistance." Aura remembered that the maze kept spitting them out onto the open sea whenever they made a mistake, so she felt it would be easy to get back there.

“That better be true!” The princess really didn’t want to do it again.

“Only one way to find out~.” Sophia smiled at Maya on the helm.

“On it!” Knowing what she meant, the cat-girl adjusted the course and steered the boat right into the cloud at a slow speed.

Luckily, just as the wolf had predicted, getting out of the archipelago was a lot easier than getting inside. Instead of having to solve riddles and finding their way through the pearlescent cloud, the moment the boat came in contact with the cloud wall, it was literally sucked into it, and the group was immediately spat out on the other side.

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“Yippee!” Anna was rather glad it had worked out so well and happily clapped her hands once she saw the open water of the seemingly endless ocean right in front of them.

“I really need Cirrus to teach me how all of this works.” Sophia nodded a few times. “I have no idea what for, but I'm sure it would come in handy somewhere! Not to mention that it's super cool~."

"Not before she teaches me how to make snow clouds, though!" Steph stared at her sisters. "That has utmost priority, and I asked her first."

“I’m not sure if you should have this knowledge.” The blonde had a bad feeling about that.

“I’m not sure if I care.” The dog-girl smirked at her. “No, in fact, I know that I don’t care. If anything, it wants me to learn it even more!”

“Not surprised about that.” She rolled her eyes in return.

“We already have some snowy areas in the biome, like our ice-kingdom, or the mountain hut place Fenfen and I made, but it just happened in the process.” Chloe lightly clapped her hands in anticipation. “Being able to create snow clouds whenever and wherever we want will be sooo useful!”

“Again, I don’t think I want either of you to learn it, but making snow clouds is incredibly easy, you know?" Saying so, Sophia snapped her fingers, and a roughly ten-meter-wide cloud appeared right of their boat on the ocean before snowflakes began to gently fall out of it. "In fact, have you already forgotten that I did that for you back in the monster country?"

“Ah.” Steph froze for a moment. "I-I didn't, but the way you use magic is just pumping enough authority into it until it works. I want the cloud elder dragon to teach me how it’s done in an organic way!”

“I see.” The blonde tried her best to stifle a chuckle.

“She definitely forgot.” More than one of them came to that conclusion.

“To be fair, from what I remember, you said yourself that you still haven’t figured out how to keep the cloud going without having to pump magic into it.” Chloe looked at Sophia while shrugging. “That part is quite important if you ask me.”

“Fair enough.” Sophia had to accept that argument. “Well, I'm also hoping that Cirrus will help me get a working weather system for the domain. Actual clouds would be huge for that! Regular and rain clouds, that is. Snow is a bit too much if you ask me.”

“True!” Ari agreed with her and reacted with a vigorous nod.

“Shush!” Steph glared at her. “Every good weather system needs a bit of everything!”

“Even heatwaves?” The jaguar fought back.

“…” She went silent for a moment. “Y-Yes, even that.”

“You make it hard to complain back there.” Ari had to give up her resistance to snow clouds.

“Speaking of a weather system.” The blonde got back to the topic and looked at Maya and the jaguar. “The wind elder dragon would be exceptionally handy for that! What's your plan for meeting them by next week? You two promised that, after all."

“WE PROMISED NOTHING!” The two instantly glared at her.

“You started willing it into existence, though.” She lightly shook her head with a big grin on her face. “That’s basically the same.”

“It’s absolutely not!”

"I'm not sure if that now means that we will definitely meet the wind dragon next week or if it’s going to mean that it’s going to be the last one.” Chloe tilted her head while scratching her cheek. “It can go both ways at this point. It’s definitely either or now, though. Nothing in between is possible anymore.”

“Shut up!” The cat-girl and Ari got even louder.

“I really hope it’s the former rather than the latter.” Sophia was a big fan of how everyone was messing with each other, especially because she wasn’t in the center of it for a change. It's one of the few times when she doesn't mind getting the main attention.

Afterward, while bickering a little more, they continued to travel in the direction Aura had told them in order to get closer to the demon continent, or the next place to get sidetracked about.