Sword God in a World of Magic

When confronted by death, many people would think about their life and reevaluate past decisions.

What were their regrets?

What would they have changed?

Maybe they shouldn't have been so strict with their children?

Maybe they shouldn't have broken up with their first love?

If they hadn't taken out that loan from those dangerous people, their children would have something to inherit today?

Naturally, Shang wasn't any different.

Should he have been more amongst people?

Should he have accepted the Sweeper's confession?

Should he have spared Jerald?

Shang thought about all of these things.

And he acknowledged something.

He would be happier if he had someone with him.

It would feel nice not to be alone right now.

Everything was so painful, exhausting, dark, and lonely.

Shang knew that he would feel better if he hadn't been so brutal and inflexible in his past.

However, did this mean that Shang would have changed his past actions if he could?

No.

If he hadn't killed Lash, the Grandmountain Kingdom might have killed him.

If he hadn't killed Jerald, he would have eventually caved in and told someone.

If he hadn't declined the Sweeper's advances, Shang wouldn't have had enough time to comprehend his form of Void Casting or the Concept of Twilight.

Yes, he felt lonely, and he wished that someone was at his side.

However, Shang knew that this luxury would come with a price he wouldn't want to pay.

And then came another thought.

So what?

Since everyone would die, it didn't matter what one accomplished in their life.

Might as well die happy and surrounded by loved ones, right?

However, that was only true when death was a certainty.

At this moment, Shang kept putting in effort.

Shang still had hope.

if there were loved

they feel horrible by watching him

him to give up and just

would Shang do

Probably.

was. Any person that told him to just

his side would

his likely death

and believe that

this was his

the right to fight for

end, Shang was glad that there

He didn't want them.

He didn't need them!

would

he was about

he would die

focusing on his body, and he

But he kept breathing.

He kept fighting.

One more year passed.

And another year passed.

of someone at the Fifth Realm, and any other person would have

wouldn't give

He would never stop!

death wanted to take him, it

More years passed.

Shang became 1010 years

moved a single muscle in the last

Mana in his body had started to leak out into

was a corpse that was unwilling to

He couldn't do anything.

couldn't even feel his

But he wasn't dead.

was agony, but

Was this living?

to most people's standards,

couldn't be considered

to Shang, this

long as his consciousness still existed, he

as he could think, he was

couldn't interact with the

was confined

alive, but in truth, he wasn't doing more than a

Was it life?

No.

Was it death?

No.

something between these

neither alive nor

It was limbo.

Or Purgatory.

This was Purgatory.

Shang had

ten years in this state,

by people that went