[Reforged Shell — Cor Telluris]

[Status: Initiated]

[Geometry: Ancient Shell]

[Channels Grown: 10/10,008]

[Current Anima Depth Supplementation: +9 effective capacity]

[Effective Operating Capacity: 36 / 59]

This was the state of my core before I began merging a new set of material to enhance it, and I was surprised how quickly it was growing; it was almost as if combat and moving a lot of Anima and lightning through my body was accelerating the transformation of my channels.

With ten transformed channels, my effective operating capacity was now at 36/59, although with my cracked Anima Depth, I should have gained access only to 27/59 of my Anima Capacity.

These thoughts in my head distracted me from the pain, but thankfully, it did not last. In the last loop, I had discovered that Mortal Shell could heal injuries given time, and this should not have shocked me when it had repeatedly healed my soul, but I had always been killed too quickly for me to see this other side of the skill.

The pain in my chest turned cool as I felt my muscles around my chest begin to squirm and squeeze together, as if each muscle fiber was knitting itself back into place. It was a decidedly uncomfortable sensation.

My heartbeat began to accelerate as I felt the core inside rotate. Every rotation drew more of the materials into itself until it drank every drop, and it released a pulse.

I shivered because it felt like a cold wind had passed through my body, then it released another pulse and another, each pulse coming faster than the previous one.

Pressing my fist into the ground, I began to shake. I was not feeling pain, but the sensation was hard to describe; it was as if my insides were being rewritten by a cold pen.

The pulse subsided, and I gasped in relief, and a notification flashed past my eyes.

[Reforged Shell — Cor Telluris]

[Status: Initiated]

[Geometry: Ancient Shell]

[Channels Grown: 42/10,008]

[Current Anima Depth Supplementation: +15 effective capacity]

[Effective Operating Capacity: 42 / 59]

Oh, wow, I did not expect that reforging forty-two of my channels would effectively cover up a portion of the damage I had sustained from the last loop.

Then a thought occurred to me, and without even trying to command them, my new Anima flowed through one of the enhanced channels and left my Anima Depth.

I gasped in relief and a profound sense of shock as the weight of my new Anima, which had been exerting pressure on my Anima Depth, had been removed.

It was as if there had been a heavy load on my soul, and I had been carrying that load on a shaky and broken leg; finally, I was able to drop it, and my soul could heal.

In fact, I could feel it; Mortal Shell was cradling my Anima Depth, and a sense of warmth was filling it up. I was stuck with double amazement at the thought that my Anima Depth was being repaired in real time and my channels could comfortably hold Anima.

This was breaking the rules as I knew them. Of course, channels could hold Anima, but not for long; they tend to either transform the Anima or push it along. They were transit points of transformation, not containers to hold the stuff of creation.

Cor Telluris was laughing at this truth in its face, and I could only watch in amazement and disbelief. I now have 42, no, now 43 transformed channels, each was exponentially stronger than my previous seven Primary channels, and they could all be a backup storage for my Anima.

I sucked in a deep breath as I considered what this would mean for my future, before I pushed this thought aside, partly because it excited me, and also scared the shit out of me.

Pushing the air out of my lungs, I looked around me, and all I saw was death. The death cry of the Narghul Sorcerer had wiped out tens of thousands of the Khaaz demons, and the earth was still shaking as new demons were digging their way out of a pile of bodies, but it gave me a few moments of peace, and I intend to use it.

A notification had been sitting in the corner of my vision since I killed the Narghul Sorcerer.

[Second Earth Gate — Unlock Requirement met]

I had been ignoring it, not out of fear; I had wanted to complete my merger first, but now that my core was developing rapidly, ah, 44 transformed channels now, it was time to open this gate.

Cor Telluris was the priority in this loop and every future loop until my core was complete.

I looked at the dead field one more time, then I closed my eyes and reached for the Second Earth Gate.

∞

The gate did not open.

I had half-expected this. The First Earth Gate had not opened when I crossed its threshold either; it had sat there, stuck, waiting, and it had taken hundreds of kills past the threshold before the overflow shoved it loose.

The gates were not doors that swung when you reached them; maybe they had rusted shut, and the only key was more pressure than the rust could hold.

[Stored Essence: 14,598/10,000]

Well, would you look at that, it seems that I have pressure now.

I reached into the Demon Slayer title and felt the Stored Essence that I had amassed, and it was like a reservoir of accumulated demon-essence, all of this from fifteen loops of killing, the Sorcerer’s enormous contribution sitting on top of thousands of Khaaz like a boulder on a cairn.

As much as I disliked this loop, without its help, I don’t think I would ever be able to do things like this at my present level. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Anyone with the Demon Slayer Title would have to be at least at the Adept tier or higher to accumulate such kills in such a short amount of time.

I took hold of the mass, and I pushed it at the gate, but the gate resisted.

Well, if you want to be like that... I have been killing a lot of demons, and I have gained a lot of weight. Are you sure you can resist me for long, Second Earth Gate?

I pushed harder, and it was not like a physical sensation, exactly, but my body insisted on translating it into one.

There was a pressure behind my sternum, behind the Cor Telluris core, the feeling of leaning your full weight against a door that has not moved in a long time.

I poured essence against it, and the essence drained out of the title’s reservoir and crashed against the gate, and the gate held, and held, and held —

— and then something on the far side of it gave.

The gate tore open.