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.

to walk through

walked into this

just stopped searching for power, he wouldn't need to be

But he couldn't.

needed to achieve

was the only purpose

had more purposes

since Shang had stepped onto this dark path,

to reach the end of

The consequences didn't matter.

The sacrifices didn't matter.

The price didn't matter.

to reach

needed to reach

had always believed that he had already made his

he had already come to terms with his

the true weight of his path

dark and lonely journey, Jerald had been

A ray of light.

in a place of nothing but

wasn't actually that hard

looked at the hand lying in front

Ring on it, and Shang had avoided

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

several seconds, Shang's empty eye-sockets only stared at

He didn't move.

blew across the now exposed

sun mercilessly shone down on

world was

Shang only saw

of the hand

Step.

of the castle behind Shang, and her eyes widened in horror at what

the

What about King Storm?!

the True Mages responsible for organizing everything

the solitary hand on

the world around her

around

or do anything, her head

Shang didn't move.

eye-sockets

arrived shortly, but they died as soon as

move, and the only reason he was moving was that he was

Sylvia was returning.

on her face as she activated one Mana Step

stepped forward and