Sword God in a World of Magic

A harsh wind blew.

On top of a hill was a broken castle.

Mere moments ago, this castle had been whole.

Now, the back of the castle was missing.

What had once been a room was now a ruin.

Half-broken walls were behind Shang as the bright sun shone down on him.

The bright sun didn't reflect Shang's feelings, but the weather didn't care about the feelings of living beings.

Shang's body had become a husk. Nearly all his muscles had shrunk to a sickly degree, making him look like a skeleton with merely some skin on it.

The two empty eye-sockets only strengthened this perception.

About 140 years ago, Shang sacrificed his left eye.

Today, he had sacrificed his right eye.

Shang couldn't possibly sacrifice his arms or legs since that would severely weaken his Battle-Strength.

Organs couldn't be sacrificed because that would reduce Shang's maximum life energy tremendously.

The ears or the nose weren't enough to achieve any kind of significant power with Entropy.

Shang had decided to go with the eye.

Due to his Spirit Sense, he wasn't reliant on vision anymore.

However, all of this was actually only of secondary importance.

In fact, Shang didn't even really think about what to sacrifice.

His mind had been someplace else.

Jerald.

His friend.

His only friend.

His closest companion.

Shang's life had always been surrounded by a cloud of darkness.

His Affinity made it impossible for him to have friends or companions.

His goal made it impossible for him to have friends or companions.

He was alone.

The world was dark.

His life was dark.

was willing to walk through

had walked into this

searching for power, he wouldn't need to be surrounded by

But he couldn't.

to achieve

only purpose of his

more purposes back

had stepped onto this

reach the end of the path,

The consequences didn't matter.

The sacrifices didn't matter.

The price didn't matter.

wanted to

needed to

had always believed that he had already made

believed that he had already come to terms with his

realized the true weight of his path

and lonely journey, Jerald had been

A ray of light.

in a place of

hard to walk the

at the hand lying in front

on it, and Shang had avoided

destroyed the Communication Crystal that Relon had given Jerald, Relon would

seconds, Shang's empty eye-sockets only

He didn't move.

wind blew across

mercilessly shone

was so

Shang only saw

of the hand

Step.

walked out of the still-standing part of the castle behind

of the castle was

What about King Storm?!

one of the True Mages responsible for organizing everything in

saw Shang's husk and the solitary hand on the ground,

the world around her

around her gathered beside her

say or do anything, her head

Shang didn't move.

empty eye-sockets

couple more True Mages arrived shortly, but they died as soon

minutes to move, and the only reason he was moving was that he was seeing

Sylvia was returning.

horrified expression on her face as she activated one Mana Step

stepped forward and scooped up