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.

Shang was willing to

walked into this darkness

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

But he couldn't.

to

the only purpose

he had more purposes

had stepped onto this dark path, all the

reach the end of the path, no

The consequences didn't matter.

The sacrifices didn't matter.

The price didn't matter.

to

to reach

had always believed that he had already made his

already come

realized the true weight of his path

and lonely journey, Jerald had been like

A ray of light.

a place of

hard to walk the

lying

it, and Shang had avoided

Relon had given Jerald, Relon would know that Jerald

eye-sockets only

He didn't move.

wind blew across the

sun mercilessly shone down

world was

only

stood in front of the hand without

Step.

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

the

What about King Storm?!

one of the True Mages responsible for organizing everything in the castle, and she had heard and felt

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

the world

of the world around her gathered

could say or do anything, her head

Shang didn't move.

empty eye-sockets only stared

arrived shortly, but they died

only reason he was moving was that he was seeing

Sylvia was returning.

her face as she activated

forward and scooped up the