Sword God in a World of Magic

What after that?

At that moment, Shang's thoughts began to turn more and more abstract.

He was trying to think of something, but all his thoughts somehow stopped making sense.

He was thinking of something, but he had no idea what he was thinking about.

It was just a weird and indiscernible mess.

Shang was just sitting there, not moving.

He was just thinking.

Wait, what was he thinking about?

He didn't remember.

'Can't be that important if I forgot,' Shang thought. 'Anyway, it's interesting to know what led me down to my current Path.'

'Killing the God, huh?'

'Sure, I can do that.'

'Then, I will get rid of the Abominations as long as it doesn't require me to sacrifice myself or something like that. And finally, I will find a way to become even more powerful.'

'I refuse to believe that becoming a God is the end.'

"You haven't answered my question yet," the Lightning Emperor suddenly said.

Shang was pulled out of his thoughts and returned to reality.

He had completely forgotten that he was sitting in front of the Lightning Emperor just now.

"What was the question?" Shang asked.

"Why do you want to become a God?" the Lightning Emperor asked.

Shang didn't immediately answer because he realized that he was now in a troublesome situation.

Earlier, he could have answered that question with no problems.

Because he wanted to become more powerful.

But now, Shang had remembered the original reason for wanting to become so powerful.

Shang knew that the Lightning Emperor could tell the truth from lies, and he also knew that he most likely couldn't deceive the Lightning Emperor with ambiguous language.

So, what was he supposed to answer?

"There is a specific reason why I once wanted to become a God, but that reason is no longer important," Shang said.

"Oh?" the Lightning Emperor uttered with some interest. "Please, tell me the reason."

"It's not important since that isn't my reason anymore," Shang said. "I want to become a God because I want to become even more powerful. I want to go as far as I can."

Everything Shang said was the truth.

"I understand," the Lightning Emperor said with a nod. "Nevertheless, I want to hear your original reason."

"I don't want to tell you," Shang said.

The Lightning Emperor's friendly smile slowly vanished, and a polite but strict expression replaced it.

"I am currently deciding on what to do with you," he said. "You are free to refuse to answer, but in that case, I will assume the worst possible reason and base my judgment on that. In this case, I am assuming you want to subjugate the entire world and rule it."

"If you are a God, you would have already killed nearly all Emperors anyway."

"Let me be honest with you, Shang Sword," the Lightning Emperor said. "Nearly every other Emperor has been my personal friend for a very long time. We traveled together, trained together, fought together, and lived together."

"They are my lifelong friends."

"By saying that you want to become a God, you have essentially told me that you want to kill all of my friends."

"I can come to terms with the reason that everyone deserves a shot at becoming powerful and realizing their destiny, but is that still true when that person has directly told you that they are planning on killing all your friends?"

Silence.

"Now, you are free to answer me," the Lightning Emperor said, "or I can just directly eliminate you. You are not here because I want to find a reason to kill you. This is a chance for you to defend yourself and convince me not to kill you."

"Make use of it," the Lightning Emperor said.

Silence.

Shang felt a strong feeling of déjà vu.

It was like he had been here before.

And then, he remembered his last conversation with Jerald.

This situation was basically identical.

Yet, there were still some differences.

First, the Lightning Emperor wasn't Shang's friend.

Second, Shang didn't have the power to kill the Lightning Emperor.

Third, the Lightning Emperor didn't know that Shang was the Child of Calamity.

"So, what was your original reason for wanting to become a God?" the Lightning Emperor asked again.

Silence.

"I wanted to kill someone," Shang said.

"One person or several?" the Lightning Emperor asked.

"Only one," Shang answered.

The Lightning Emperor.

Only wanting to kill one person wasn't that bad.

"Who is that person?" the Lightning Emperor asked.

"You don't know him. I'm certain of that," Shang said.

The Lightning Emperor raised an eyebrow as he looked at Shang.

He was certain of that?

How could this warrior be certain of whom the Lightning Emperor knew and not?

"What makes you so certain?" the Lightning Emperor asked.

"Because he doesn't want to be known, and if he doesn't show himself, no one will know that he exists," Shang answered.

"Oh?" the Lightning Emperor uttered as he leaned forward a bit. "And who is that?"

Silence.

"The God."

The Lightning Emperor's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

He almost couldn't believe that this had actually created a resonance with the world.

This meant that Shang honestly believed this to be true.

Now, it was important to know that knowing that something was true didn't necessarily mean that it was true.

If one person saw another person enter a building, they would be certain that they had seen that person enter that building.

When they told everyone that they saw that other person entering that building, they were not lying.

Even if that person had been a third person disguised as the other person, it didn't matter.

As long as the first person didn't know that, they were still telling their truth.

The resonance of the world only happened when someone believed something to be true. It didn't matter whether that thing was objectively true or not.

And right now, Shang believed that he was speaking the truth.

Did the Lightning Emperor believe him?

Not really.

There was a higher chance of Shang having once been the victim of a powerful illusion or delusion than there actually being some sort of God.

Unless…

"Are you referring to the Mage God?" he asked.

"No," Shang answered.

This made Shang's claims even less believable.

If there were a God, it would be Lucius.

Most likely, Shang was suffering from delusions.

However, was that any better?

A sane person could be predicted, but predicting an insane one was nearly impossible.

So, if Shang was insane, did it even matter what he would say?

His words weren't trustworthy anyway.