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.

willing to walk through

had walked

stopped searching for power, he wouldn't need

But he couldn't.

needed to

was the only purpose of

more purposes back

onto this dark path,

to reach the end of the path, no matter

The consequences didn't matter.

The sacrifices didn't matter.

The price didn't matter.

to reach

needed to

had always believed that he had already made his

believed that he had already come to terms with

realized the true weight of

dark and lonely journey, Jerald had been like

A ray of light.

place of nothing but

that hard to walk

looked at the hand lying in

it, and Shang

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

empty eye-sockets only

He didn't move.

blew across

mercilessly shone

was

Shang only saw

of the hand

Step.

the still-standing part of the castle behind Shang, and her eyes widened

the castle

What about King Storm?!

one of the True Mages responsible for organizing everything in the castle, and

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

world around her

the world around her gathered

or do anything, her head

Shang didn't move.

empty eye-sockets only stared

arrived shortly, but they

took Shang two minutes to move, and the only reason he was moving was that he was seeing someone approach in

Sylvia was returning.

a shocked and horrified expression on her face as

and scooped up