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-"

"You know that I

Jerald said with a short chuckle. "In short, this is a Magic Circle that follows all the common

you that the design of 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 that

raised an eyebrow. "High Mages, as in all of them or only the ones in the

looked at Shang with a quick and surprised glance. "You think

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,

he hummed. "That might actually

do you think about the centipede?"

it came from?" Jerald

Shang nodded.

looked at the diagram

creation of beasts. You know, man-made beasts. The Skythunder Kingdom was once thinking

Skythunder Kingdom learned about how to make something like that, the more they realized how incredibly complex and monumental this task would be. In fact, not even the King we had at that time could

that, the

looked at Jerald. "So, you think

Jerald said

it get here, and

hummed some more as he continued looking at

as

"Invasive species," he said.

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

control such a creature wanted you dead, they wouldn't

don't think that you

thing simply came to this place on accident and lived inside

these creatures are common and fulfill a certain purpose?"

purpose?" Shang repeated as he thought back

could think of one

deal with

likely. It traps the warrior in a very small area, taking away their flexibility. Its wall of scythes is

you told me, all the other Paths have deteriorated

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

his