Sword God in a World of Magic

As Jerald entered the room, he looked at Shang with a smile.

"You're not wearing your armor?" he asked.

"Yeah, about that," Shang said.

Jerald raised an eyebrow.

"I need a new one."

Jerald's eyebrows rose in surprise. "I take it you had a very tough fight?"

Shang nodded.

Then, he began to recount everything about the centipede and his fight with it. Jerald knew everything about Shang except for his control over Abominations, which was why Shang didn't need to keep anything a secret.

After Shang recounted everything, Jerald's brows furrowed. "Shang, I've fought maybe hundreds of True Path Stage beasts in my life, and I can tell you that not even one of them had any sort of power even similar to that centipede."

"I'm not exaggerating," Shang said. "This is exactly what happened."

Jerald nodded. "I know. If this came from anyone else's mouth, I wouldn't believe them, but I know you."

Jerald rubbed his chin in thought. "This doesn't sound like a beast at all. You said you saw a huge diagram. Do you still remember how it looked?"

Shang nodded. Even though Shang's mind was far below the power of his body, it still was vastly more powerful than a normal person's mind. Because of that, he remembered about 60% to 80% of the complex diagram.

Jerald summoned some paper and handed it to Shang along with a pencil. He knew that Shang probably didn't carry such stuff with him.

Shang reconstructed the diagram as best as he could and handed the paper back to Jerald.

When Jerald looked at it, his eyebrows shot up in shock.

"That definitely didn't come from a beast," he said. "You see how these circles are positioned in relation to each other? That follows the common Marnur Nomenclature for clean and dispersed creation for Magic Circles. When beasts use Magic, they don't use it in such a methodical and clean manner."

"These Runes also follow the classic Old Magic Library Placement. The position-"

know that I don't understand

the common conventions for smart Spell Casting. This

Magic Circle is far beyond my level. The Runes interact in very unusual, unknown, and strange ways. It's like there are concepts in these Runes

Mages, as in all of

and surprised glance.

what you've told me, yes," Shang answered. "You are basically already at the highest level in the five Kingdoms, and I think you can even estimate the power of the Kings. If this Magic Circle shows concepts that not even you know about, it can only

looked at the ceiling as he hummed. "That might actually be

think

came from?" Jerald

Shang nodded.

looked at the diagram for a bit

know, man-made beasts. The Skythunder Kingdom was once thinking about replacing the warriors with beasts that followed orders and were

incredibly complex and monumental this task would be. In fact, not even the King we had at that time

of that, the

"So, you think this was one of these man-made

likely," Jerald said with a

did it get here, and why was it

some more as he

rose as

"Invasive species," he said.

don't think it was put here deliberately but simply entered this

control such a creature wanted you dead, they

that, I don't think that you were deliberately

place on accident and lived inside

creatures are common and fulfill a certain purpose?"

purpose?" Shang repeated as he thought back to

could think

with

it sounds very likely. It traps the warrior in a very small area, taking away their flexibility. Its wall of scythes is nearly impenetrable by anyone fighting in close range. It seems like a perfect counter to a

told me, all the other Paths have deteriorated into what they are now. You said the God said that the Mages in the outside

to kill physis when physis can't even deal with an Archmage," Jerald

scratched his chin in