Makoto wants to devote as much of his summer break as he can on expanding his knowledge and understanding of mana and how to maximize his output and efficiency. To that end, Root provides him with an ancient-looking booklet of mana training techniques, while Eva furnishes him with a dense tome of deep mana theory—the real nerdy stuff.
While in the demiplane, after some administrative work, Emma directs him to a scheduled mock battle against the Wingkin. While there’s no doubt they’re a formidable opponent against virtually anybody else in part due to their flight and transformative abilities, Makoto obliterates them without breaking a sweat, but also offers practical guidance on how they should improve.
Makoto isn’t standing still, as when he gets some free time alone he heads out to the outskirts to launch a fusillade of brids in order to try to achieve the state of mana materialization. The first attempt results in him going into a kind of trance, as the next thing he knows, Mio and Tomoe are waking him up and wondering why he spent the night in the grass.
Eventually, Makoto gets the hang of the process, and not only figures out how to manipulate the mana outside his body, but materializes it into a sort of amber slime golem suit that moves with him and gives him even greater strength. It’s strength he believes he needs above all else, in order to fight and defeat the Goddess and Slayers of the world. It has to be him. He won’t have anyone who loves him (and, if he’s honest, he loves) dying for his sake.
The liveliness, vitality, and strangeness of the Demiplane is on full display for the balance of the episode, as all of the myriad races compete against each other to see who can hit a giant boulder from the mountains the hardest. The boulder helpfully displays a number on a scale of 0-to-1oo after each attempt. Emma scores a 78 for the Orcs, while the Gorgons get zilch, because the rock is already petrified.
Eris an Aqua only manage a 50, but score massive style points for their banana leaf magical girl outfits and poses and a barrier of ice that none of the other races can break through, but Makoto is able to dig under and dispel with the touch of his hand. Finally, the big dogs join the fun, as Mio whips out a Hero Suit she designed based on Makoto’s memories, and Shiki cleaves the boulder in two with a dwarven-made dragon slaying sword.
Not about to be outdone by his underlings, Makoto decides to have a bit of fun while also showing off his new ability for the first time. All it lacks is a name, but Shiki, Tomoe, and Mio call it “mana matter”, and he likes the sound of that. He then leaps up to the boulder, gives it a good punch while in his slime suit, and smashes it into teeny tiny pieces.
The display is so violent and powerful Tomoe and Mio are gobsmacked and Shiki straight up passes out. Hopefully he’s closer to being a match to the Goddess and her cronies, but it looks like some animals in the deep forest of the Demiplane will have business with him first. As always, my money’s on Makoto.
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