Clearly, Lunaria was useless. So Earnest was back to stomping around.
“Deemo! Are you there? Deemo! Where are you?!”
She threw open the door to the girls’ shower room and shouted at everyone inside. The girls just shook their heads—the ones who weren’t screaming in terror, that is—so Earnest kicked the door aside (it was barely hanging on by now anyway) and moved along.
“Deemo! Is this where you are?!”
Earnest burst into the men’s shower room, shouting at everyone inside. The boys just shook their heads—the ones who weren’t screaming in terror, that is—so Earnest kicked the door aside (it was barely hanging on by now anyway) and moved along.
“Deemo! Where are you?!”
Her roar shook the building. A spherical explosion of energy spread out around her at the speed of sound. And like an echo, an energy response came right back to her.
“Over there?!”
Earnest headed toward Deemo. She had just developed a brand-new active sonar technique, and she didn’t even realize it.
Deemo greeted Earnest as she lifted weights in the training room.
“Why are you here?” asked Earnest. “I thought training didn’t make magic beasts any stronger.”
“Yes, I thought so, too. But since I’m only half-beast, I figured I would give it a try…and it seems to be working. Quite well, in fact.”
With a heavy clang, she put her barbell back on the rack. According to the engraved numbers, it weighed in the high triple digits.
“Wow, you’re actually kind of a lightweight, aren’t you?” remarked Earnest.
Amplifying one’s muscles with spirit was a basic skill, one that anyone in the senior class could tap into. The amount of amplification, however, varied depending on one’s individual strengths and weaknesses. In Earnest’s case, if she removed the limiter she’d unconsciously placed on herself to protect her muscles and joints, she could easily bench press a literal ton.
Meanwhile, the self-proclaimed Overlord maxed out at just the high hundreds. Earnest was honestly surprised. Was Deemo this much of a wuss?
“I share my body with Maria, remember? Don’t you think I deserve praise for lifting this much as a brainiac-bookworm student council president? At first, you know, I maxed out at four-hundred-fifty pounds.”
“Whoa. Your average townsperson could lift that.”
“Really?”
“Um… I think so. They can, right? You don’t need spirit for numbers like that, surely…”
In Earnest’s case, she had been naturally emitting spirit since she was a young child, so she didn’t have any idea what the normal standard was.
“So…what did you need?” asked the Overlord.
“Oh! I wanted to ask you something. That moronic bastard-genius was completely useless to me.”
“Okay, so what is it?”
“Aw, are you gonna be mean to me, too, Deemo? C’mon, pleeease? ♡”
“I don’t know what you want unless you tell me.”
“Huh? Didn’t I already say it?”
“If memory serves, you didn’t.”
“What? No way!”
“Look, if you don’t need anything, I’ve got training to do.”
“No, no, no! I’m kidding! I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you! Wait, wait, wait!”
“I’m waiting.”
“Ummm… I’m sorry. It might be a little embarrassing for me.”
“Are you the most annoying person in the world or just the most annoying one of your species?” Deemo reached back for the barbell.
“No! I need you to teach me how to Materialize stuff!”
“Materialize?”
“Yeah! The thing you use to bust out clothes! Like what you’re wearing now!” Earnest thrust a finger toward Deemo’s body. “That’s not physical fabric, right? It’s more like…solidified spirit, yeah?”
“It’s not spirit. It’s miasma…though I guess it’s kind of like spirit. It’s what you humans call ‘vitality,’ I think. It’s the source of life for magic beasts.”
“Okay, I don’t really get all that. But if I can learn how to use it, I’ll be able to make clothing for myself anywhere, anytime, right? Then I won’t have to be the Red Avenger anymore!”
“This power isn’t meant for use as clothing.”
“That’s what you’re using it for, isn’t it?”
“The original use for Materialize is…”
With a whoosh, a black blade extended out from Deemo’s hand toward Earnest’s throat. The Materialize-crafted weapon began to sizzle and melt, burned by Earnest’s flames.
“…as a weapon, like this.”
“I bet it’d be useful for defense, too.”
“Magic beasts never defend. Anyone who cares about boosting their defenses isn’t a magic beast.”
“Being a magic beast sounds really annoying. Anyway, I want you to teach me how to do that.”
“The technique can only be used by magic beasts and, even then, only by high-ranking ones… Of course, I’m sure that won’t stop you.”
“We don’t know if I can do it unless we try, right? I’m the one who gets to decide whether I learn it or not it. I’m Earnest Flaming—the girl who never gives up.”
Deemo greeted this declaration with a sigh.
“All right. Let’s try to create some miasma first.”
Under Deemo’s guidance, Earnest worked on miasma creation and materialization for the next half hour or so. Ever so gradually, she began to produce results.
“Good. That’s right. The miasma’s getting thicker now. Keep going. You need to make it denser!”
“Nngh… Nngh… Evil things… Evil things… Evil thiiiiiings!”
Earnest bore down, thinking as hard as she could about things she didn’t like. Miasma, after all, was formed by the accumulation of negative energy—desire, rage, jealousy, rivalry, pride, gluttony, lust, laziness, and so on. And in Earnest’s case, the images that evoked the most negative emotions were…
Lunaria spewing out her usual venom.
Lunaria eating all the snacks Earnest had been saving up.
Lunaria hugging Blade tightly.
Lunaria…
Lunaria…
Lunaria…
“That contemptable wench…”
“Good, good. It’s building up. You almost have it materialized.”
Lunaria standing up, Earnest prone before her. Lunaria looking down at her with those eyes…
“Aaargh!”
“Yes! Now! Now, visualize the outfit you want to materialize!”
“Huh? The outfit? Um? Ummm…?!”
If Earnest wanted Blade’s eyes off Lunaria and on her instead, she would have to make a pretty sexy outfit… Whoa! No, no, no! Cancel, cancel!
The miasma had now reached a concentration sufficient to trigger rapid materialization. And at that exact moment, Earnest’s mind was filled with an image of something rather provocative. A lot like the outfit Deemo was wearing, in fact.
The costume solidified itself around her.
“Ooh… Ooh… I’ve got underboob and middleboob… Oooooh…”
A black, leatherlike membrane covered her body…but areas like the upper chest, the sides, and the back were all wide open, exposing the skin beneath. Her chest was very exposed, especially in the lower and valley areas, and it was rather…erotic.
“Wow. I can’t believe you actually did it,” said the Overlord.
“What’s that supposed to mean? You’re acting like you didn’t believe in me. Just who do you think I am? But, um, don’t you think this is a little too extreme?”
“No. By succubus standards, that’s fairly tame.”
“Since when am I a succubus?! …Hey, how do I change the design?”
“Well, it’s pretty hard once you’ve manifested it. You’ll run into memory capacity issues before too long. I don’t recommend it.”
“What? So…I’m just stuck like this forever?”
“If you don’t like it, you can go running around naked in that cloak like before.”
“No, no! This is fine! Wow, what a cute design! I, um… I love it? I love it! Thank you so much! Now no one will call me the Red Avenger anymore! Because I won’t let them!”
Earnest took Deemo’s hand and pumped it up and down.
“Thank you, Deemo! You’re the best teacher I ever had!”
“‘T-teacher’…?” The usually cool Deemo was taken aback by that word.
“Here, I’m gonna go show everybody right now!”
Earnest ran off, leaving Deemo alone in the training room.
“Hmm… A teacher, huh? I like the sound of that.”
The Overlord balled up a hand and stroked her hair over and over, like a cat washing its face.