This time, the absorption was different. He couldn't afford pauses or breaks. He needed to create a vacuum large enough for the monsters to descend and see the tunnel directly.
"Come on," he encouraged himself. "Just a little more."
The hours passed, and Elio felt his concentration beginning to waver. Hunger, which he had managed to ignore for days, now made itself felt with renewed force. Wide Guard, his elephant familiar, stood by his side, a silent but reassuring presence.
It was during the seventh hour of uninterrupted absorption when it finally happened. Among the endless tide of cores, Elio glimpsed something different. The light from the outside made the color of the cores clearer, and enormous shadows moved hurriedly in all directions.
"I've almost reached the Locus," he whispered.
As more Locus shadows appeared in his field of vision, he made a quick calculation.
