The final hammer blow fell. The pattern upon the blank had fully formed, dark crimson veins snaked across the metal's surface like blood vessels, like tree roots, extending from the cutting edge to the blade spine, then converging into the tang. The embryonic form of a demon blade.
Yes. It was still, and only, an embryonic form. It still lacked that one final step.
Shinji gripped the iron hammer, his crimson demon eyes fixed upon the blank on the anvil.
The Second Talent, Read Intent, projected the blank's internal state clearly into his perception. The density of its heart was sufficient. Its purity held no flaws. The perception and will carried within those max-Affection fragments had been flawlessly forged into the metal's very structure.
What it lacked was not material. What it lacked was direction.
Taigen Sessai had spoken of the myriad dharmas returning to one, of finding that single "point" toward which all six transformations converged.
Tōtōsai had also said that Shinji's will had yet to take shape, that what the sword-soul had fed on from him was only a half-finished product. Two different people, standing at two different angles, had pointed toward the same conclusion. He had not yet found his own truth.
Though the former referred to the fundamental principle of Shinji's very existence, and the latter to the heart with which he wielded his yōki, one dwelling within, the other standing without, though their essences differed, they returned by different roads to the same destination.
So this blade could only reach this point. Yet it was already exceedingly close. It was already a demon blade infinitely approaching its complete form. It could already perfectly bear Shinji's yōki, even the Shura Form.
It was simply not yet perfect. If he could push it one step further, what would be born would not merely be a demon blade capable of perfectly bearing all of Shinji's power.
It would be a blade-demon, capable of growing stronger on its own, just like a yōkai. A tsukumogami. A sword spirit. These seven days had not been wasted.
Shinji set the iron hammer down. The moment the handle left his palm, the faint glow upon the hammer's face slowly receded, like a sated beast settling into stillness.
"Still short by one breath in the end. Though you've achieved your initial goal, brat, it's not yet perfect." Tōtōsai crouched at the edge of the furnace platform, his bulging eyes fixed on the blank for a long while, his wrinkled face twisted into a knot.
There was regret in his voice. Though this truly had been Shinji's original objective, all he had wanted was a stronger demon blade capable of bearing his full power, and the Muramasa before him was now, indeed, a complete demon blade, how could Tōtōsai not see that this blade could still go further?
He rose to his feet. His short legs carried him two steps to the anvil. He bent down, leaning close to the blank's surface, just about to speak, when the words stopped at his lips. His bulging eyes shot toward Shinji.
He suddenly felt it. The ground beneath his feet was trembling. But it wasn't the furnace-fire tremors so common here. It wasn't the slow churn of magma within the small volcano. It was, yōki. Yōki surging from within Shinji's body. The density of his yōki was skyrocketing.
"Son of a—" Tōtōsai instinctively retreated three steps. His short frame bumped against the corner of the furnace platform. The iron hammer nearly slipped from his grasp.
Myōga was even faster, that flea had already shot back into the depths of the rock crevice before Tōtōsai even opened his mouth, only his two tiny bean-like eyes peeking out. "Lord Tōtōsai! He—he's getting stronger—!"
"I can see that! Shut up!"
Yōki spilled from Shinji's body. Not an eruption. Not a rampage. This was, absorption. The full set of talents unlocked upon the iron hammer reaching 100 Affection was, according to the System's mechanics, fusing into his body. Hammer Sense, Read Intent, Furnace and Flame Made Whole. Three talents pouring in simultaneously.
The First Talent, Hammer Sense, traveled along his palms, along the extraordinary arm strength and superhuman control granted by the Soul-Chasing Archer Transformation, seeping into his bones and merging into a single whole.
The Second Talent, Read Intent, traveled along his perception, along the soul-targeting and locking system of the Soul-Chasing Archer Transformation, converging into his mind, overlapping and interweaving with the automatic marking function of his yōki film.
The Third Talent, Furnace and Flame Made Whole, this talent was the key. Furnace and Flame Made Whole. Its effect: the wielder could internally generate smithing-grade yōkai-fire, its temperature and purity scaling with the strength of their yōki.
Fire.
Unlike the ghostfire born from the phosphorescent embers of death's exhalation, this was a true second element, a second transformation Shinji now possessed. After the Thunder Transformation, the second element.
Yōkai-fire surged from his blood vessels. The sensation was entirely different from when he had fused the Thunder Horn. Then, Thunder had been merged through the harmonizing medium of Kikyō's reiryoku, the yin and yang balanced by a kiss.
It had begun roughly, but had subsided into something gentle and steady. The Fire Transformation, by contrast, was brutally direct from start to finish, with no soothing mediation whatsoever.
The smithing fire accumulated by the iron hammer over centuries, the moment it began fusing into his body, spread wildly along his blood vessels. It did not merely cling to the surface of his blood, it directly infiltrated the blood itself, altering its very nature.
The Blood Transformation, which had originally manifested as blood mist, perception, and bloodlust-driven frenzy, underwent a fundamental change beneath the infusion of this yōkai-fire. The temperature of his blood rose. From normal, to searing. From searing, to metal-melting.
The blood mist upon his body shifted from dark crimson to a glowing, incandescent scarlet. The air filled with that scorched, metallic scent released only when iron and stone were superheated.
Blood and Fire Transformation—fused.
Just as the Thunder Transformation had merged into the Bone Transformation to become the Lightning-Sinewed Body, the Fire Transformation merged into the Blood Transformation to become the Blood-Fire Transformation.
Blood was fire. Fire was blood. His blood was no longer merely blood. It was an undying furnace flame, flowing through his veins. From this moment forth, wherever the light of his flames fell, all things lay within his sight. Resonating with blood, transformed into sight through fire. Of course, the blood still remained.
It could simply be pushed, and ignited, at any moment. The Blood Transformation and the Blood-Fire Transformation were, in essence, two extensions of a single change.
It was like the layering of Lightning-Sinew and Strengthened Body.
Crack.
Fissures split across the cavern's rock walls. It was the combined result of the yōki and heat spilling from his body. Within a radius of ten paces, the temperature surged by several hundred degrees in an instant.
Even the forge Tōtōsai had been using for barely a month groaned and shuddered under the heat wave, as though it could barely withstand the strain.
"This brat—!" Tōtōsai steadied himself against the furnace platform, his bulging eyes wide. The wrinkles of his face held a mixture of shock and excitement.
"Son of a—! Breaking through a bottleneck just from forging a blade? Is he a yōkai or some human miko or mage—?!" He cursed, but he had also hit upon the key point.
In this world where humans and yōkai intermingled, sudden enlightenment was something that usually belonged solely to humans. Human demon slayers, miko, onmyōji, during their training, they would occasionally shatter the barriers of their perception in a single moment, their abilities skyrocketing. Because their power came from the soul, and even more, from perception.
Their reiryoku was determined at birth. They could not, like yōkai, continuously fight, continuously devour their own kind, continuously absorb the fear of humans, and thereby transform themselves, absorbing ever more impure worldly energies to gain ever more yōki.
Their acquired progress depended far more on how they wielded their reiryoku. The more refined and exquisite their control, the stronger they became. And perception determined the quality of that control.
In contrast, a yōkai's growth relied entirely on accumulation, on devouring, on time, on life-and-death tempering in battle. Step by step, they climbed upward. True shortcuts were vanishingly rare. One could even say none existed.
This held true even for daiyōkai at the Phenomenon level, they did not experience sudden epiphanies or ponder deep truths in this manner.
All one could say was that Tōtōsai didn't know of the Affection System's existence. He could only interpret the scene before him as this demon warrior having triggered some catalyst during the forging process.
Some catalyst that allowed him to break through his bottleneck. Of course, that interpretation wasn't exactly wrong.
And so, at this moment, Shinji opened his eyes. The violet veins within his crimson demon pupils were denser than before. Deep within them now flickered an extremely faint, orange-tinged light, the external manifestation of the Blood-Fire Transformation.
He raised his right hand. His palm turned upward. A flame surged from his blood vessels, emerging through his skin to hover above his palm. Not the ghostly green of ghostfire, but an orange blaze with a dark crimson undertone.
Its temperature was terrifyingly high. The air above his palm warped and distorted. He clenched his fist. The flame extinguished. He opened it again. The flame reignited. Perfect control.
"The Blood-Fire Change," he murmured. His voice echoed softly through the silent cavern. This was no accident. It was something Shinji had deliberately aimed for.
He had known from the very start that Tōtōsai's iron hammer could bring him sufficient surprises. To forge a blade, in a sense, was also to forge himself. Blood and fire united as one.
On the surface, the change was subtle. But without question, he had taken another step forward. A step beyond what he had been before. And this step, would once again become a new Essence Transformation.