The flame essence was sufficient for the forge process, as the substance was producing temperatures the Hollow Avatar’s framework recognised as appropriate for the work, as it was the kind of heat that operated on essence rather than on iron and steel.

I lowered the sphere onto the cube and the crystal simultaneously, and the three materials touched.

The cube was the first to begin its transformation under the heat as its geometric structure began to unfold, the precise angles softening, and the cube’s surface losing its definition as the geometric binding loosened under the flame essence’s heat.

It was designed to be rigid only at standard temperatures, and the flame essence’s temperature was above the cube’s structural rigidity threshold. The geometric core began to flow, taking the shape of whatever surface it was in contact with, and that surface was the crystal.

Under the guidance of my intent, the crystal accepted the cube’s flow, as the core of the Narghul Sorcerer was the sort of essence container that made the Anima Depth of a Mage redundant.

The crystal began to absorb the flowing cube material into its structure, integrating it into the crystal’s depth. The cube’s geometric binding was being woven into the crystal’s essence-substrate, producing a hybrid material that had both the crystal’s essence-density and the cube’s structural binding.

I watched the integration through the Khaazim claw’s grip. The claw was sensing the process, since my eyes were too weak for such precise work, and I no longer had a soul as a sensory organ.

With the heat from the flame essence, the crystal and the cube were becoming a single substance, and the substance was condensing as the integration proceeded.

Slowly, the combined mass was reducing in volume as the materials interpenetrated, and the wasted space between them was eliminated as the geometric binding restructured the crystal’s internal architecture.

This was the most delicate part of the process since I had to ensure that the structure was fitting to the shell I wanted to create.

My body was focused on wielding powerful elemental magics and still being durable enough to clash physically where magic would not exist, and for such a shell, there were several options that could be selected.

The most powerful ones were outside my understanding, and even if they were, they were beyond the scope of the materials I had to work with.

I selected one option in the geometric binding structure. It was amongst the oldest and the most primitive shells in existence, and while it was not the strongest shell I could create, it was the one with the greatest potential for evolution and growth.

The usage of these ancient shells had been discontinued due to their primitive structure that was prone to corruption, but this body was nothing significant, and it could be made to fold into the shell without much rejection.

The combined mass began to take shape, becoming spherical, which was the natural form of compressed essence under geometric binding. The mass was condensing into a sphere approximately the size of a child’s marble, and the color suddenly lightened from the crystal’s bright red to brown, before it slowly turned golden.

The flame essence began to be consumed in a massive manner as I needed to purge every bit of Abyssal influence from the core. Half of it was used up in this process, and the other half was being incorporated into the combined mass. The red-orange sphere I had pulled from the demon’s chest was shrinking as the substance flowed into the condensing pill, the flame’s heat-energy and structural-substance both becoming part of the final product.

The work was completed in approximately ninety seconds, and what remained in the centre of the bowl’s floor, where the cube, crystal, and flame essence had been, was a single golden pill.

When was the last time a shell of such antiquity was produced? I could not tell, but it would serve as the basic tool I would need to complete my task.

I picked up the pill with the Khaazim claw, and it was far heavier than it looked.

The claw was almost fully reverted now. The chitin had softened to the point where the four-jointed structure was barely operational, the red glow beneath the surface nearly extinguished, and it was reverting back to my human hand, as the Corruption substrate that had been holding the Khaazim configuration was dissipating.

I had been holding back Mortal Shell from interfering with the Khaazim claw, but now I released it, and it began to chew through the demonic corruption, and I transferred the pill to my right hand before the claw lost its grip-capability entirely.

The right hand closed on the pill, and I felt its warmth, and then, using my left hand, I began to open my chest.

∞

The right hand brought the pill toward my sternum, and the Khaazim claw that was almost reverted, but still possessing the chitin’s tapered point at the index finger’s tip, drove into the skin at the centre of the chest.

The skin parted, and the sternum cracked under the chitin’s pressure, the bone’s structural integrity already compromised by the intense battle, and the chest cavity opened along a line approximately ten centimetres long to reveal my body’s heart.

The heart was still beating, though slowly, the rhythm weak under the body’s degradation. The new blood had survived the lightning strike and was circulating through the heart at reduced volume, and they were the only reason the heart was still beating, since they were providing the nourishment for its operation, but it was still failing.

Most of my internal organs no longer functioned, but a mage has two essential physical organs, which are their brain and heart.

I pushed the pill into the heart. The Khaazim claw, its last operational moment before full reversion, opened the heart’s surface at the apex with a precise puncture, and the right hand pressed the pill into the opening.

The heart’s musculature closed around the pill as it sank into the heart, and the puncture closed.

Mortal Shell’s binding was operational at the tissue level, the skin closing first, the sternum knitting beneath, the internal structures returning to position.

The binding was slower than it had been at the start of the loop, but the skill’s reserves were depleted, and it was only sufficient for the closure of the wound on my heart.

This was good enough as the heart began to absorb the pill.