Sword God in a World of Magic

The Lightning Emperor sighed again, something he had been doing quite a lot in the past minutes.

"I assume you know about the lack of Mana?" he asked.

Shang nodded. "I was under the assumption that there was only enough Mana left to let one Mage Emperor survive if I want to become a God, and maybe not even that since the Abominations might have consumed even more Mana."

The Lightning Emperor nodded solemnly. "That's right, but that's only true when you are not willing to sacrifice a big group of people for your goal. Lucius was a kind man that wasn't the biggest fan of killing."

"I assume this isn't a problem for you?"

"It isn't," Shang answered emotionlessly.

"To become a God, you need to absorb ten Emperor's worth of Mana."

"In total, there are 16 Emperor's worth of Mana in the entirety of Aterium currently," the Lightning Emperor said.

"16?" Shang asked. "That's more than I expected."

The Lightning Emperor nodded. "There are eleven Emperors-"

"Wait, eleven?" Shang asked. "I thought there were only ten."

"There are nine Empires with ten Emperors, but there is one more Emperor who isn't very known. He was the only Emperor that Lucius left alive back then."

"His title is the Archivist, and he lives on one of the islands of the Beast Kings. He has dedicated his entire life to witnessing the progress of the world and archiving all the knowledge."

"He wanders the world from time to time, but he never kills anything or influences anyone. He just watches and documents. Not many people know that he exists, and he wants to keep it this way."

"Nevertheless, he is still an Emperor and a pretty strong one at that. I don't think any of us could win against him in a fair duel."

Shang nodded.

eleven Emperors who make up eleven Emperor's worth

Kings combined

in the endless ocean

and Aterium itself make

the remaining living beings and the atmosphere itself would barely

more than

difficult, the three portions comprising the ocean and the continent are

Kings and a couple of Mage Lords, you could spare two additional Emperors, leaving you with a

Shang just nodded absentmindedly.

power to kill

not care about many people, but I have

for centuries, and they knew a lot about me, but I don't have any desire to destroy them. It

pay that investment back in the

smiled in a friendly manner

resonated with

anyone else, but that

made the Temple of Blood

agreement," the Lightning

said with

Wester about everything. He will inform you

cue and stood up from his chair. "Thank you," he said as he turned around to walk towards the

the door

Custodian stood in the

Shang and stepped into the study. "I will be back shortly," he told

raised an eyebrow as he looked at the

here?" the Lightning

we are keeping the warrior

"Shang is quite a peculiar person. When I first investigated him, I misread him

rose further. "Misread?"

Emperor said. "I was accurate, but after talking with him, I found more information. You can