My Lightning Dominion was gone, most likely evolved when Dara gave me her threads, and my field spell was now different, and the way I saw lightning was now different.
Each thread that erupted from my hands was as thick as my thumb, crackling with enough energy to light up a small village, and when I sent it out, they carried my will and tore through demons as if each thread were sharper than razors.
My lightning was not just shocking and burning; the threads gave them the power of cutting.
The second wave of lightning threads shot across the battlefield, fifty metres, a hundred, two hundred. They found the demons, cut through them, and kept going, and for the Khaaz with thicker defenses, they could not easily tear through the threads, as every action they made ensured that the threads bit deeper into their bodies.
My hands were glowing, and I was bleeding. Every thread I was sending out was slicing tiny grooves in my skin, and this was adding up, and if I continued in this manner, my arms would be shredded to pieces.
This was happening due to the fact that this spell was using so many channels across my arms that if not for some of my new enhanced channels, I would not be able to send out this ridiculous spell in such intensity.
[Stored Essence: 49,000 → 51,000]
The Third Earth Gate’s threshold was fifty thousand. I had crossed it. But the gate did not open, and this was a familiar thing to me now, because I knew that the Order of the Heavens had been broken, and now even the gates had to be forced open.
I will need more essence to blast open the door, but this was not going to be a problem when in front of me were nothing but demons.
Fine. I would kill more. I would kill until the gate had no choice but to recognise me.
The Khaazim were beginning to tear through the horde to reach me, and I sucked in a deep breath. This lightning thread was powerful, but it sucked a lot of Anima, and I had about twenty percent left in the tank, but I was rapidly regaining my strength so rapidly it almost felt unreal.
I was becoming lightning, and lightning did not tire. Raising my hand, the thread answered.
They shot toward the nearest Khaazim, dozens of them, wrapping around its legs, its torso, its tail. The demon tried its burst movements to tear through the threads, but they were made from lightning, and cutting them required more than they imagined; they would have to cut through the core of my magic, and that meant shattering my soul and body.
However, it was not the only Khaazim, and I heard the loud booming sound that came from a Khaazim accelerating to a blur, and five of them headed towards me and met more of my threads, and despite their speed, they were held in place.
Maybe I was screaming or cursing; it was hard to tell in moments like this, but I knew that pain was rushing through my arms, as pressure built across them, I felt something become loose, and I glanced down at my left arm, and I saw my little pinkie finger drop to the ground, the pressure from the six Khaazim had travelled up my threads and sliced through my finger.
I had lost a finger, but all the Khaazim were reduced to steaming chunks. I grinned because this was a good exchange.
[Stored Essence: 51,000 → 53,000]
My hands were bleeding much profusely now, and I knew I was healing faster than normal, but that was not making any difference. Mortal Shell, Endurance, and the sheer strength of a body forged by Celestial Marrow were keeping my arms in play for as long as I could fight through the pain, or until my hands were literally shredded into chunks.
I raised my bleeding hands over my head, and my weird silver blood began to rain on my black hair, and I had to admit, with a clear goal in front of me... I was beginning to have fun.
I closed my eyes, and I could hear the sound of my heart beating; it was faster than normal, due to the fact that Cor Telluris was remaking my channels, and the essence of so many demons flowing inside me and heading into that mysterious place inside me where my channel lies was accelerating this process.
Storm Sense was gone, but now they lived in my threads, and even after I shredded through demons, the thread did not just vanish; they went dim, but they were still connected to me, and through them I could feel all the demons rushing through the shattered remnants of their kind.
I felt like a spider at the center of a gigantic web, and at the moment, my threads had covered close to six hundred meters around me, and I waited for more demons to fall into the trap, while I was aware that if I overplayed my hand, the pressure would be so great that my arms would explode.
Well, I did not really care if I lost my arms, but that would make fighting difficult, and that would mean that I may need to give my body to the Hollow Avatar.
However, it did not matter that I was becoming more chummy with my hollow side; I was not about to give up my body to it, because I knew that the hollow was always hungry.
There was no malice in its actions, but fire would destroy even as it could create, and using the Hollow Avatar as little as possible was always the wise choice.
A few seconds passed, and I believed I had enough prey on my net, and my Anima Depth had reached eighty percent full, and without holding anything back, I poured everything into the spell.
My arms lit up, and it revealed thousands of tiny threads connected to my arms, and as these threads extended away from me, they grew thicker, and across the battlefield for hundreds of meters, the demons crossing to reach me were suddenly highlighted by the glow from the ground as the web of lightning lit up.
With my arms already raised up, I did not need to make any motions, and the net of lightning erupted from the ground, and even through my closed eyes, I could see the world brightening as the demons fell to my lightning.
[Stored Essence: 53,000 → 55,000 → 58,000]
The number climbed, as the bodies piled up. The red fog from the pyramid mixed with the smoke of burning chitin, and the sky became the colour of a wound from the carnage.
I stood in the centre of it all, alone, and I killed.