"Ahaha! Hahahaha! That was so much fun, Benjamin! Please, take me to space again sometime soon. We can mate there again, against the stars!"

Sara said, then hopped off the invisible three feet tall trampoline of magical force that the panting and exhausted Lotus had hurriedly created in the last possible moment, landing gracefully on the swaying grasses below.

"Ah, good morning to you, Lotus. Good morning to you as well, Lulu," Sara waved as she walked toward them, her face still flushed with excitement and her eyes still sparkling with joy. "You would not believe what absolute fun I just experienced with Benjamin! It was incredible!"

"Benjamin... explain yourself right now!" Lotus jabbed her staff at Benjamin, pointing the glowing tip directly at his chest, her golden eyes blazing with anger and concern... and something that resembled jealousy. "I thought you were doing a double suicide with Sara! The way you were falling, the speed you were going, the complete lack of any landing plan—I was certain you were both about to splatter against the ground!"

"I am very sorry for causing you so much worry!" Benjamin clasped his hands together as if in prayer, bowing his head slightly, his expression genuinely apologetic. "I somehow forgot how to land properly on the way down. It was cool and dramatic to say ’let us just fall’ at the time, but Sys was busy mocking me inside my head instead of thinking of a way out of the situation. Thank you for helping us with your spell, Lotus. There would have been serious trouble without your initiative."

"So... not only did you fall from such an unbelievable place high above the world, so high that I could barely sense you," Lotus ran forward and grabbed Benjamin’s shoulders tightly, her fingers digging into his shirt, her face visibly pissed and her voice rising with each word, "but you went all the way to space to mate with Sara and have fun without me?! That is not fair at all!"

"Eh? That is what you are angry about? Not the near-death experience or the reckless behavior?" Benjamin asked, genuinely puzzled by her priorities. "Oh, and you knew about space? As expected of the legendary mage of—"

Lotus grabbed Benjamin by the collar and shook him frantically, her golden eyes burning with barely contained desire and impatience. "Enough talking! I do not want explanations or compliments right now! Quick! Take me to space right this instant and mess me up the same way you did Sara!"

"Ehhh?! I just got back from there, though..." Benjamin whined, his voice high and pleading. "Can we not do this another time? Perhaps tomorrow?"

"No excuses for your behavior! As compensation for raising my blood pressure and making me worry about your stupid reckless fall, you must do as I say without complaining... Or I will not let you hear the end of it for the next hundred years!"

And so, Benjamin disappeared from the spot with the now smiling and pleased Lotus, teleporting away, leaving Sara and an utterly confused Lulu standing alone on the open plains of the Whispering Wilds, surrounded by tall brown grasses swaying in the wind.

"...What is space? Or rather, WHERE is space?" Lulu turned to Sara and asked, her blue eyes wide with confusion and curiosity. "And how come you were doing a double suicide with Benjamin? That sounds very dangerous and concerning. Do you need to talk to someone about your feelings? Are you going through something difficult that I do not know about? I am here for you if you need support, sister..."

"...No... Uh..."

Sara could not put into words what she wanted to say in response, due to the extremely pitiful and worried look that Lulu was sending her way, as if Sara were a fragile thing about to break at any moment.

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Two Days After the Space Trip...

All the Amazons in Verdant Spire were mobilizing for something, moving quickly through the village streets and forest paths, their faces set with determination and urgency.

"Quick! Bring all the artifacts and legendary-class weapons out of the warehouse storage! Do not leave anything behind that might be useful!"

Something unprecedented was about to occur, something that would threaten the continued existence of Verdant Spire itself if the Amazons were not prepared to meet it head-on with their full strength and all their resources.

"Is this everything that we have available? Ask Deva to bring out the more sophisticated ones from the inner vault too! The enemy we are facing is not normal by any measure, and we need every advantage we can get!"

Indeed, the enemy was not normal at all.

Whatever was approaching, whatever had caused this massive mobilization of warriors and resources, it was clearly something that the Amazons had not faced in a very long time, perhaps never before in their history.

At the entrance to the forest that marked the boundary of Verdant Spire, multiple dark-skinned Amazon women guarded the way, lined up in an arc formation with armor of divinity shining on their bodies and weapons of war gleaming in their hands.

They were protecting their home and their families... and possibly, Benjamin too, if the threat came for him.

"Are you sure that you should be here on the front lines, Sakura? This is not your fight or your village," Elara asked the pink-haired kitsune standing beside her at the head of the formation, her silver eyes fixed on the threat yonder without looking away for even a second. "This is a fight of the Amazons, not of Shishi-no-su. You do not have to risk yourself here."

Days earlier, Tensei had pleaded with Sakura to be sent back home to Shishi-no-su, after what the Amazons had tried to do to him, after what he had experienced Benjamin do to the sky with that terrifying blast, and after the Amazons had tried to molest him again when he let his guard down.

Princess Lily had also been told to go back with him, taking the Amazon Elowen, one of Lotus’s daughter, alongside some other Amazons to Shishi-no-su for diplomatic delegations and cultural exchange.

In turn for him leaving, Tensei had sent one of his trusted agents to Verdant Spire—a deer beastkin girl with soft brown eyes and gentle manners—to replace the aid that was being sent away, ensuring that Sakura still had some support while staying in the Amazon village.