Sword God in a World of Magic

When Kiva heard these words, his body became filled with terror.

He hadn't known who Shang was earlier, but now, he knew who stood in front of him.

Kiva's insides shook, but he did his best to hide it.

"Then you should know how stupid it would be to kill me," Kiva said with a calm voice.

Shang only smirked and looked into his eyes. "Why?"

"You know who I am, and you know how much my life is worth," Kiva said. "Killing me would bring you nothing but momentary satisfaction while keeping me as a hostage gives you monetary satisfaction. One is worth more than the other."

"You should know how expensive it is to become more powerful. Don't throw millions of gold out of the window just because you feel like it," Kiva said.

Shang nodded along.

Yep, Kiva Orvis was probably worth over 50 million gold.

"You know, you would have a point in other circumstances," Shang said.

Kiva's insides tightened.

"However, you tried to kill me back then, Duke Mithril has put a bounty of 20 million golds on my head after that, and you are actively killing the warriors," Shang said.

"Why would you care about the people I've killed?" Kiva asked with narrowed eyes. "You've probably killed just as many people as me. I refuse to believe that all the people you've killed are deserving of their death."

A couple of instances of Shang killing someone innocent shot through his mind.

"You're right," Shang said. "I wouldn't care as much about the warriors under normal circumstances. Sure, I feel some kinship with them, but not enough to risk my life for them."

"However, this is not a normal circumstance."

"Let me just say that someone I don't want to anger is invested in the warriors' survival."

Shang's smirk widened.

"Also, Duke Mithril, as well as his people, are my enemy, and I don't like to keep my enemies alive just for some money."

"Additionally, you've seen my face, and I want to keep my return a secret for now."

Kiva wanted to negotiate some more, but he quickly felt himself being pulled away as Shang ran off with him. Of course, Shang pocketed the corpses and their belongings.

"Wh-what are you doing?!" Kiva shouted in Shang's grasp.

"You know, I don't like lying," Shang said with a neutral voice. "I need to send Duke Mithril a message, and the message needs to be authentic."

Kiva wasn't sure what Shang meant, but his fear increased more and more as time passed.

Shang charged into the swamp with Kiva Orvis and quickly searched for a good place.

And just a minute later, Shang found a suitable place.

Between a couple of half-dead trees, Shang saw a gigantic millipede oozing poison. A terrifying poison swamp had already formed around it, which released a sizzling noise.

The millipede looked over and saw Shang.

narrowed his right

the millipede dove into

Stage Swamp

Shang stopped right beside the

try not to drink everything at

world broke down, and

"No, please-"

SPLASH!

shoved him into

SSSSSSSS!

immediately began

burning sensation on his hand, but it wasn't a

violently thrashing around below the surface as Shang's hand

swamp had turned silent, except for the sounds of violent splashing coming

feet broke the surface, but they

off as he tried his best to

Shang kept Kiva's body

Until he stopped moving.

to see if there was any life energy left

There wasn't.

He was dead.

Splash!

pulled him out and

his legs were

missing at

had burned off, and even a huge part of his flesh was missing. Obviously, his organs were also severely

basically didn't exist

eyes and nose were gone, just like his

to Kiva Orvis' corpse, Shang's

him, he was surprised by

Nothing.

He felt nothing.

He didn't feel regret.

He didn't feel satisfaction.

He just felt nothing.

like this was

like this

I've truly gotten used to these kinds of things,' Shang

I should get onto delivering the message

towards the north. This time, he didn't

towards the north, he retrieved a black mask from his inner

the same mask he had worn when he

put

fighting the Mages and Kiva Orvis,

and getting spotted, he decided that he

one knew that he was here, no

would make it far easier

fighting against, one wouldn't be able to prepare

the border between the Empress

It was currently night.

the surroundings and made sure that