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.

Emperors who make up eleven Emperor's

Kings combined make up another

the endless ocean into Mana, that would be

islands and Aterium itself make up

the atmosphere itself would barely make

a bit more

extremely difficult, the three portions comprising the ocean and

of Mage Lords, you could spare two additional Emperors, leaving you with a total of three survivors besides

Shang just nodded absentmindedly.

Shang said. "You have the power to kill me, but instead of doing so, you are willing to

care about many people, but I have

centuries, and they knew a lot about me, but I don't have any desire

pay that investment

smiled in a friendly manner and

resonated with

to anyone else, but that didn't mean that it was impossible to work

Temple of

we have an agreement,"

said

about everything. He

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

the door and

stood in the hallway with a professional

nodded once toward Shang and stepped into the study. "I will be back

eyebrow as he looked at the smiling

here?" the Lightning

we are keeping the warrior alive?" he

yes!" the Lightning Emperor said with two nods. "Shang is quite a peculiar person. When I first investigated him, I misread him a

rose further. "Misread?" he

accurate, but after talking with him, I found more information. You can