Step 2: Stop shorting the inductor. Inductors cannot instantaneously change current, so the now-built-up magnetic field continues pushing current into the switching node. The magnetic field and the inductor current linearly ramp down over time.
The forced current will push charge onto the parasitic capacitance of the switch (from switch to ground), the inductor itself (from inductor output to inductor input), and the reverse diode capacitance (anode to cathode).
Since capacitor voltage is charge over capacitance, once enough charge is forced onto the capacitance at the switch node, eventually the voltage from the switch node to the output capacitance is high enough to turn the diode on in forward conduction. The rest of the inductor current is forced into the output capacitance until the remaining magnetic field in the inductor is depleted.
Step 3) Repeat very fast to reduce inductor size and ripple current required (100s of kHz or MHz speed). Vary the duration for which the inductor is shorted in step 1 according to how much charge you need to put on the output capacitor. You could figure this out open-loop by noting that output current at the high voltage side is in charge per second, output voltage is equal to charge over output capacitance, calculating the time taken for the ramp to grow and decay, etc. Or you could design a closed loop control scheme that looks at the output voltage and converts it to shorted duration for you (this is what most integrated circuit boost converters do).
In summary, you dump current into a inductor to build up a magnetic field, then you use the inductor's magnetic field to yeet current up over a large voltage difference.