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

walked into this darkness

for power, he wouldn't

But he couldn't.

to achieve

was the only

he had more purposes

had stepped onto this dark path, all the

reach the end of the

The consequences didn't matter.

The sacrifices didn't matter.

The price didn't matter.

wanted to reach

to reach

he had already made

that he had already come to terms with his

realized the true weight of his path

lonely journey, Jerald had been like a

A ray of light.

nice in a place

hard to walk the

the hand lying in front of his

it, and Shang had avoided it on

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

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

He didn't move.

wind blew across the now exposed

shone down on the

was

Shang only

stood in front of the hand without

Step.

behind

the

What about King Storm?!

organizing everything in the castle, and she had

solitary hand on the ground, she took a horrified

the world around

of the world around her gathered

say or do anything,

Shang didn't move.

empty eye-sockets only stared

more True Mages arrived shortly, but they died

and the only reason he was moving was that he was seeing someone approach in his Spirit

Sylvia was returning.

was a shocked and horrified expression on her face as she activated one Mana

stepped forward and scooped up