Sword God in a World of Magic

After everyone stepped through the gates, they entered the gigantic dome.

Surprisingly, there were not many decorations, and the place looked more like a metallic cave, not like a place where a human would live in.

Shang had expected plenty of decorations, paintings, and expensive items on display.

However, there was just nothing.

It simply looked like a metallic cave.

"Does the Council also reside here?" Shang asked Duke Whirlwind.

When Duke Whirlwind heard that Shang dared to say something inside King Skythunder's place, his heart nearly stopped, but after he heard Shang's entire question, he calmed down.

'Quite courageous of him to speak up,' Duke Whirlwind thought.

"No," Duke Whirlwind answered.

Shang nodded. "I thought so."

Duke Whirlwind wanted to ask why Shang thought that, but he didn't want to goad Shang into speaking more.

Everyone traveled down the long hallway in silence. There were a couple of hallways that connected to this one, but they all only followed the biggest hallway.

Since everyone was walking at normal speeds, they needed over five minutes to reach two black doors.

As they all approached the doors, they opened of their own volition, and the group could finally see the throne room.

It really didn't look like a throne room.

Just like the hallway, the throne room was absolutely barren. There were no chairs, decorations, tables, or anything that one would expect to find here.

It simply looked like a big cave, about a hundred meters wide, three hundred meters long, and a hundred meters high.

Right now, there were seven people present, except for the group of warriors.

On the left side of the throne room were five people, and they were all emanating a terrifying amount of Mana.

There were three women and two men, all wearing differently colored, extremely expensive and ostentatious robes.

Their robes almost seemed too big with all the added accessories and layers.

Just the tiniest earring gave off a terrifying amount of Mana that rivaled the amount of Mana the Exploding Mountain Turtle had given off.

But there was one person among them that emanated even more Mana.

It was an older woman with pitch-black hair and red eyes, and Shang was quite surprised when he felt the kind of Mana her body was giving off.

'Darkness Mana?' Shang thought.

Shang quickly realized who that woman was since she gave off more Mana than the other four.

'She must be the Council Head,' Shang thought. 'She gives off even more Mana than Duke Whirlwind.'

'Although,' Shang thought as he glanced at the other four, 'the other four give off just as much Mana as Duke Whirlwind. I guess that means that Duke Whirlwind is a Late High Mage. No wonder the Exploding Mountain Turtle hadn't stood a chance.'

As the group glanced at the Council, the Council looked back.

"ARGH!"

Suddenly, the other warriors in the group shouted out in pain and grabbed their heads as they averted their gaze.

Meanwhile, Shang only got a slightly painful headache.

It definitely hurt quite a bit, but Shang could deal with it.

Of course, Shang felt just as much pain as the others, but due to his high resistance to pain, he didn't react as extremely.

But Shang still looked away.

Angering the Council was not something he wanted to do right now.

"Don't blaspheme the Council with your abominable eyes," the Council Head said with a cold tone.

"I'm sorry! I- ARGH!"

One of the warriors wanted to say sorry, but he was immediately thrown to the side and lost consciousness.

Silence.

"You will address the Council when we want you to address us," the Council Head stated coldly.

"Don't make this longer than it needs to be. I have somewhere to be."

Shang looked to the right of the throne room, where he saw one lone person standing.

She had been the one that had just spoken up.

She looked rather young, and she had pure white hair. In comparison to the Council members, she also wore expensive but relatively normal-looking robes. They looked about as expensive as the robes Duke Whirlwind wore.

However, the amount of Mana she gave off rivaled the black-haired woman, the Council Head, which meant that she also was a Peak High Mage.

'Then this is probably the Archduke,' Shang thought. 'Ironically, she gives off Light Mana. Seems like the Council Head and Archduke have contradicting Affinities.'

The Dean and Duke Whirlwind didn't look at the Council or the Archduke.

Instead, their eyes fully focused on the end of the throne room.

Shang also looked forward, and he came face to face with King Skythunder.

This was the most powerful human Shang had ever seen, except for the God.

He represented the peak of human power.

At the end of the throne room were a couple of black stairs, and they all led to a rather large throne made of unknown silver material.

There weren't any decorations on the throne. It was rather big but very spartan, just like the entire castle.

On the throne sat a man with silver hair who looked to be in his early thirties.

Surprisingly, he only wore white pants.

His upper body was bare.

Whatever Shang had expected the King to look like, it wasn't this!

The King's body was bulky and chiseled. Surprisingly, his skin was also tanned quite a bit.

Usually, only farmers and warriors had tanned skin since they were training outside most of the time. Oftentimes, warriors also trained without a shirt.

Mages, on the other hand, didn't need physical training, and they always wore their equipment, which gathered additional Mana for their training.

But based on King Skythunder's tanned skin, it was obvious that he also liked to train outside without wearing a shirt.

Together with his chiseled body, it was almost like King Skythunder was a powerful warrior, not a Mage.

"We will start the meeting now," King Skythunder said in his deep voice.

The Council and Archduke immediately quietened down and looked to the front in a dignified manner.

The group of warriors remembered what Duke Whirlwind had said and bowed with genuine respect.

The Dean did the same.

Duke Whirlwind didn't bow. For him, bowing would equate to showing unnecessary respect. The King and Duke Whirlwind knew each other, and Duke Whirlwind didn't need to show his respect.

After all, he had shown his respect enough times in the past.

And Shang?

Surprisingly, Shang didn't bow.

But why?

Did Shang have some kind of stupid, inherent pride that he couldn't suppress?

No, nothing like that.

In fact, Shang had wanted to bow, just like everyone else.

But something stopped him.

The King's eyes.

As soon as King Skythunder had announced that the meeting had started, his eyes had focused on Shang's eyes with interest.

Under King Skythunder's penetrating, powerful gaze, Shang couldn't move.

He could only look back with nervousness.

Had he done something wrong?

Why was King Skythunder focusing on him?

Duke Whirlwind had noticed that Shang hadn't bowed, but when he saw King Skythunder's eyes, he realized why.

It was difficult to move under the gaze of someone that was so overwhelmingly powerful.

Additionally, King Skythunder had ended an uncountable number of lives.

If prey looked into the eyes of a predator so powerful that every action was useless, the prey would either play dead or freeze.

This was an incredibly powerful Archmage.

And under his gaze, nobody in this room had the ability to resist.

"You, approach," King Skythunder ordered while looking at Shang.