Just a spontaneous idea I had last night involving someone blueberry inflating up to macro size and flattening a city in the process! Stars August as the power-hungry berry, and includes growth and popping. :3

Desperate to make a revolutionary new mana potion, August causes himself to swell up out of control as a magical, city-crushing blueberry...

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A Swell Legacy
By: IndigoRho

Competing scents of citrus and fruit filled the air of the private laboratory of August, official court mage. For months the gray lion had worked on the perfection of a new mana potion, something that wouldn't just reinvigorate but empower. It had reached the point of obsession. In the past he'd always found success swiftly, basking in the praise and triumph while acting humble about his accomplishments.

Those at court who'd learned of August's latest quest had expected things to go no differently. Then the days had turned to weeks, and the weeks to months. Every new experiment proved to be a total failure, wasting time, resources, and patience. No matter what he tried he never seemed to get any closer to a solution.

The mage had gradually spent more and more time hidden away in either his lab or one of the many magic libraries in the city. Rumors spread of his struggle, and slowly August allowed his frustrations to overwhelm him. Shortcuts were taken, formulas were randomly combined, and questionable old magic was utilized with reckless abandon. It was a recipe for disaster.

Finally, after working for nearly a year, August reached a boiling point.

A tome flew across the room as August raged over yet another failure. The lion tugged on his mane with both paws, threatening to pull out clumps of fur until calming down to a slight degree.

“The full resources of a kingdom and what do I have to show for it? Nothing!” Another tome was launched, skidding over the stone floor. “Venom of the shimmering serpent? Useless! Globs of arcane goo? Useless! Juice from an infused blueberry bush? Useless! Dozens and dozens of promising ingredients yet none of them worked!”

At the end of his wits August roared at the top of his lungs, rattling beakers and bottles.

“Even if I mixed them all together I bet they wouldn't perk me up in the slightest!”

Out of a desperate desire to prove himself right in some way August grabbed the concoctions made from the venom and the juice and chugged them both at once, throwing the bottles on the floor afterward.

“Sure the taste was pleasant, but it was a failure yet—”

August went silent as he watched a faint blue glow radiate from his flat middle. He felt a tingling sensation accompanying it, and slowly his gray fur there began to change color, becoming blue. The glow steadily spread across the lion's body, and wherever it went the blue followed. Chest, arms, tail, face...it all turned blue, as if August had always naturally looked that way. White fur became a lighter shade than his gray, while his mane became darker, but it was all some kind of blue in the end.

The nervousness August had felt watching the change occur vanished the moment he realized he was more alert than before, his head a bit clearer. It was like downing a full kettle of tea, but nearly instant. Combining the two potions had worked! Kind of. Certainly exhaustion had left him, but he'd turned blue in the process. An odd side-effect that wouldn't matter as long as the mixture was a success.

August wasn't content, though. The results hadn't been nearly potent enough for his liking, nothing to be truly proud of after a year of effort. But if mixing two of the concoctions together had worked then surely adding a third would improve it?

Throwing caution to the wind, August grabbed the potion brewed from arcane goo and drank it all in one gulp. It wasn't long before the faint glow surrounding him intensified along with his alertness. There was also a chill and a slight pressure in his middle. Looking down in confusion, August saw that his normally flat middle had started ballooning outward. He could feel a weight to it, and when he nudged his belly with a paw a muffled slorsh echoed from within.

Some kind of liquid was beginning to fill the lion up.

While his mind raced over the possibilities, none elicited fear in August. If anything swelling up was making him excited. A reaction between the potions might've caused them to bubble up rapidly, a temporary bloating. But he felt too heavy for that. Maybe his body was actually creating more potion by itself? He remembered reading an old spell with a similar effect, but for water.

The larger August's gut grew the stronger his glow became, and he was feeling more energized than ever before. It was an incredible sensation, as if he could throw around powerful spells left and right without any fear of tiring himself out. But it also left him wanting more. August didn't just want to create a good mana potion, he wanted to create the greatest. Something that would be named after him, something that would enshrine him in history as one of the great mages of the world.

The fact his accidental concoction had turned him blue and given him a bouncing ball belly was ignored, of no consequence. Power required sacrifices, and dealing with a sloshy middle was simple enough.

Still unsatisfied, August waddled over to a different set of failed potions, sloshing with every step. He guzzled two more, and was rewarded with another surge of alertness, his glow flaring up. His expansion renewed, the lion rapidly blimping up.

More, he needed more!

August didn't even wait for his swelling to stop before draining two more bottles. He gave his massive middle a shake, grinning as he heard the brew within splashing about. The bigger he became the more powerful he felt. Fantasies filled the lion's head, of revealing his grand discovery to the whole court. They'd all be awed by his wonderful glow and girth, would heap praise upon him as he waddled around basking in the glory. The year of seemingly-futile work would shift from an embarrassment to a hard-fought triumph. No one would ever doubt him again!

The mage's waistline and chest were swelling as well, and August started to take on a round shape. Building pressure couldn't be ignored. With ease August cast a slew of durability spells both on his clothing and himself to ensure nothing would tear. After all, it'd be a tragedy if he popped before he reached his true potential. Despite the number and strength of the spells cast, August didn't feel like he'd exerted himself at all. His desire to grow larger only intensified.

From one side of the room to the other August waddled, drinking every potion he could find. His limbs had first puffed up, then turned into rigid swollen domes, before finally getting enveloped by his spherical mass of a body. Even his face had grown rounder, head sinking in slightly. He looked like a giant glowing blueberry, and with how much juicy potion he was filled with he might as well have been one.

August's hide creaked as it stretched, and so did his enchanted pants and the sash around his waist. The spells on them held, though, leaving the mage free of concerns.

The massive sloshy berry that August had become slowly wobbled towards a cabinet, smiling widely. With magic he conjured a pair of ghostly paws, ordering them to open the cabinet doors since he was far too round to himself. Dozens more failed experimental potions were revealed.

Success had already been had. But despite having access to an unprecedented well of mana, despite becoming a near perfect sphere, despite accomplishing enough to cement a comfortable legacy...August wanted more. Needed more.

One-by-one the ghostly paws grabbed the potions within the cabinet and brought them to August's eagerly awaiting lips for the lion to chug. His massive body rumbled, the blue glow flickered like flames, and suddenly the lion started to grow even larger.

August was expanding in every direction, actually gaining height along with width. His imposing mass pushed against furniture and anything that'd fallen to the floor. While some objects were pushed away everything was inevitably enveloped and then crushed beneath his bulk. He didn't even notice.

The once spacious laboratory was getting cramped, August rising towards the ceiling and walls. He'd swiftly exceeded ten feet in diameter, then fifteen, and almost twenty.

Directly across from August the heavy doors to the lab nudged opened, a local scholar backing in with a stack of tomes balanced in his paws. The moment he saw August he yelped
and dropped them all. “M-Master August! What happened!”

“Success! Isn't that obvious?” August bellowed before drinking the last of the potions. “I've created a mana potion that exceeds all those made before it, that renders them obsolete and quaint in comparison! I'm sure there'll be statues sculpted in my honor in under a month!”

“But you're...you're huge! You look like you're about to burst!”

August's growth hadn't slowed down at all, his bloated sides having reached the walls. “Nonsense! I'm filled with far too much power to pop like a pitiful balloon! This castle will burst long before I ever do!”

Quickly realizing there would be no talking any sense into the power-hungry berry lion, the scholar ran just before August swelled to block the entrance. August's body was pressing against almost every inch of the walls, ceiling, and floor. He felt the faintest hint of pressure, but at no point did he doubt the strength of his new, superior form.

Cracks formed in the stone, and it sounded as if the whole room was groaning. Of course August won in the end.

All four walls buckled simultaneously as the ceiling collapsed onto August, crumbling
down the curvature of his freed body. Soon his sides found new walls to press against, and the process was repeated over and over again. The castle was shaking as it was demolished from within. Faced with a towering blue mass, everyone fled.

From the outside there'd been plenty of strange, loud noises, but none had expected to watch an enormous blueberry-shaped lion swell right out of the castle. The foundation was flattened beneath August, reduced to rubble and then dust.

Larger than the castle he'd accidentally destroyed, August looked out across the city and grinned. He imagined the whole populous looking up at his magnificent mass in awe. They must have been cheering him, gushing over his amazing accomplishment. And they'd only be more impressed once they witnessed how immense he could actually become.

With all the mana flowing and sloshing within him August knew he could probably cast an illusion just as big as he was, or a protection spell that covered the whole city. Even if every other mage in the city teamed up he doubted they could compare to his incredibly might. Once he was tapped for the potent potion he'd brewed inside himself he'd not only be rich beyond his wildest dreams but famous, too! The entire world would soon know of August, and the praise would be endless.

While the castle was gone August was still expanding outward. Whole buildings were flattened with ease, citizens fleeing from the round shadow cast upon the city. The lion berry cared nothing about the wanton destruction he was causing. He was too busy practicing the glorious speech he would be making.

The old inner walls of the city weren't so much knocked over as they were crushed, over half the city annihilated beneath August. The mage college, temples, even August's own house were demolished utterly.

All August could think about was getting bigger and rounder and more powerful. The thought of returning to normal size had vanished completely from his head. He was starting to consider his future as a world landmark, a permanent feature on maps. The glorious spherical statues made in his honor would have to be enormous just to even begin to invoke his majesty and glory. He looked forward to them.

Overcome by delusions of grandeur, August didn't notice the pressure building against his stretched taut hide. The volatile mana sloshing inside him was steadily overwhelming the durability spells August had cast.

Creaks were getting louder, echoing out across what little remained of the city and into the fields beyond, where the inhabitants were still trying to put as much distance between themselves and the massive berry as they could.

Leaks sprung up across August's body as his hide weakened, but they weren't nearly enough to relieve the pressure. August was unfazed. His legacy was secure, his power unparalleled. There'd be enough stories written about him to fill the libraries of an entire kingdom. Every mage on the planet would aspire to reach even a fraction of his greatness, would make pilgrimages to see his immense and glorious form. To see a living god!

August's smile never waned, even as the countless leaks in his spherical body suddenly spread into long tears.

In an instant the enormous berry lion burst. The sound of the explosion was deafening, the ensuing shock wave strong enough to leave no one standing within a wide, wide radius. Those who recovered swiftly enough were able to witness a geyser of blue liquid erupting upwards, punching a hole through the clouds above. Shortly after came the strange rain, a mix of blueberry-flavored droplets and fluttering blue scraps of hide.

Where the city had stood—and been crushed—there was now a crater filled with a lake of blue. It was filled with the very potion August had created through desperation and recklessness. There was a gentle, beautiful glow to it.

In time the lake would be named after August, the mage ending up on maps just as he'd
wished. Its waters would be known throughout the world for their magical potency, a valuable and often essential ingredient for any respectable potion. The swelling it caused was—in fact—begrudgingly accepted as a reasonable side-effect for the power it granted. Round mages gradually became a common sight.

August had accomplished the very thing he'd dreamed of in a way he'd have never expected: he'd become the most famous mage in the world. He just had to burst to do it...