A bright red flame began to blaze.
The ore from the Spirit World began to melt.
"..."
As the crisp ring of hammer blows echoed out, the melted Spirit World ore began to take shape.
[If you do it like that, it will take another year.]
"..."
It took an hour to hammer the softening ore, then put it back into the fire.
Like Pandora said, at this rate it might take a year... no, maybe a month.
But...
I didn't really care.
I could speed things up from here.
"The old me really did a lot."
[What are you trying to say?]
"...That I'm going to finish what I did at the end."
The flames burned even more fiercely.
At the same time, vitality began to drain from my body.
That fire was the one I could use through my contract with Urus.
There was a drawback in that if I used it for too long, I would turn into a spirit, but...
Well, it only fully transformed me if I kept it up for a month straight, so it wasn't much of a problem.
"It'll be a little hot."
[Ah...]
After heating it up and striking it down again and again, until I could no longer even count the hammer blows, I shaped the sword.
Pandora settled neatly into the sword's cross guard, and the blade was being forged solidly.
"...Come to think of it while forging this, it's sucking in the fire?"
That's fine... isn't it?
"What the hell is going on?"
[...]
The Excalibur that had been nearing completion suddenly began to suck in every nearby flame.
I hurriedly stoked the fire to keep the heat up, but like an elephant eating grass, Excalibur rapidly absorbed the flames.
"Hey! Pandora!"
[———]
"Ha... shit..."
I pushed the flames to the limit without overstraining my body, but even that was swallowed far too easily.
"..."
Pain like my left arm was burning began to spread through me.
At the same time, sensation vanished from my entire body, and the flames burned even more fiercely.
"Let's see whether you win or I do."
Part of my body began to undergo spiritification.
What I was doing now was no different from suicide.
Burning my own lifespan to increase the output.
The same technique I had used back in my Crozzo days, burning my lifespan away.
[———!!!]
"Speak in a way I can understand."
The proof of my contract with Urus engraved on my left arm began to grow little by little.
The flames blazed brilliantly and completely engulfed Excalibur.
Apparently satisfied for now, Excalibur stopped sucking in the flames, and
after breaking through the outer layer,
"..."
it revealed its radiant form.