Ch. 1011..1020
Chapter 1011 1011 - True Shang
The laugh echoed throughout the world.
The next moment, the earth split apart, and a body came out of it.
It was Shang!
And he had fully recovered!
At this moment, even the Archivist became nervous.
They had all needed to attack Shang together to destroy him!
And now, they were back at the beginning, but with one difference.
The Archivist's Horn was gone!
Without his Horn, the Archivist's defense wouldn't be nearly as solid.
If Shang began to attack again, the Archivist might very quickly run out of Mana unless he decided to use two of his artifacts to defend himself.
Now, the Archivist needed the five Emperors!
Without the five of them, the Archivist would most likely not be able to win against Shang!
The Archivist turned to Kali, Abaddon, and Gregorio with a warning gaze.
They were not allowed to interfere this time!
The other five Emperors nodded with conviction toward each other and readied for another battle with Shang.
This one would be much more difficult, but it wasn't impossible to win!
And this time, they would make sure that Shang would die!
"Hahahahaha!"
The eyes of the Emperors opened in shock as another laugh came from below the ground.
The next moment, another spot in the ground broke apart, and what the Emperors saw made them believe that they had entered a nightmare.
A third Shang had appeared!
"Hahahaha!"
A fourth one!
Even the Archivist's eyes were filled with terror now.
With the Archivist's knowledge and experience, he could tell that all of these bodies were real!
All of Shang's bodies began to grin at the same time.
Then, they chuckled a bit as something new was revealed.
A huge black tendril came out of their backs and vanished into the ground.
The next moment, the tendrils waved around a bit, and the different Shangs flopped around like puppets.
The Emperors couldn't come to terms with what they were seeing.
They had been fighting a puppet?!
A mere puppet?!
Another tendril came out of the ground, but this one didn't have a puppet at the end.
The tendril was quite damaged, and based on what they could see, the Emperors could tell that this had been the tendril of the Shang puppet they had killed.
And then, a new Shang grew out of the tendril, who just echoed the chuckles of his brethren.
The world seemed to stop.
The Emperors looked with horror at the Shangs.
The Archivist looked with horror at the Shangs.
Kali looked with horror at the Shangs.
Abaddon looked with horror at the Shangs.
Gregorio was the only one that showed no reaction.
From the very beginning, this had never been a fight.
"HOW?!" Brutus Cesar shouted in desperation and horror. "HOW ARE YOU THIS POWERFUL?!"
"Hahahaha!"
The Shangsjust laughed.
Then, the ground began to shake again, but this time, the shaking was even more intense.
CRACK!
Gigantic cracks and crevices appeared below them, and the minds of the Emperors stopped working.
The next moment, a black mass became visible through the cracks, and just a bit later, small black swords slowly rose from the crevices.
Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of different swords all rose from the crevices, each of them being swung by tendrils.
And then, the ground between them was turned into sand as some kind of grinding force rose upward.
One humongous black mass rose from the ground, and uncountable sharp blades were rapidly moving across its surface.
As the mass rose further, spots without sharp blades appeared.
The mass itself was already over ten kilometers wide, and the spots were over a hundred meters wide.
The spots were seemingly randomly scattered across the entirety of the mass.
Eventually, the black mass fully came out of the ground and hovered in the air.
It was round like a sphere.
The blades acted as a form of aggressive armor that destroyed everything that came near.
The tendrils came out from all over the sphere.
The next moment, the four Shangs changed shape.
Their tentacles, bodies, and swords vanished, and they transformed into four gigantic swords, all much bigger than the others.
One of the swords was over ten kilometers long and thin.
Another one had the shape of a saber and was of similar length.
Another one had two edges and was much wider and longer than the previous ones.
The last one was the biggest of them all, but it had only one cutting edge.
The Long Sword.
The Saber.
The Great Sword.
The Colossal Sword.
Silently, the gigantic mass of horror and bladesjust hovered in front of the Emperors.
The Emperors didn't do anything.
Right now, they were feeling something that they hadn't felt in an eternity.
Powerlessness.
Hopelessness.
They all knew that there was nothing they could do.
Just the sheer amount of Mana they were feeling was causing them despair.
This entire mass was at the Peak Eighth Realm.
However, that was considering the density of its Mana when one thought about a human.
This meant that every spot of this mass had the same Mana density as a Peak Mage King.
All the Mana of this thing added up would be able to rival a Mid Mage Emperor!
Earlier, Shang had managed to resist all of them with only about four Peak Mage Kings of Mana!
"Hahahaha!"
The cold laugh echoed throughout the world.
The next moment, the spots without blades started to tremble a little.
And then, they opened.
Eyes!
Hundreds of huge eyes!
And all of the eyes looked onto the Emperors and the Archivist!
This was Shang.
After realizing that his body was no longer confined to the rules of Aterium, he expanded it.
With more tentacles, Shang needed a wider torso, and a wider torso gave more space for more tentacles.
Controlling so many tentacles was straining the mind, which was why Shang had added more Entropy and Mana to his soul.
Shang's brain grew many times more.
But his head was now a weak point.
So, Shang pushed his mind and soul into his torso and got rid of his head.
However, Shang knew that he should still use his eyes to perceive his surroundings since there were abilities that could fool one's Spirit Sense, which was why he had created several eyes.
And things just continued like this.
More weapons, more power, more everything.
A vicious cycle.
Shang consumed more and more Abomination Kings, but instead of increasing the density of his Mana and Entropy, he just increased their volume.
Shang was essentially made of thousands of Abomination Kings that had all been fused together into one huge creature.
And this was what Shang had created after 22,000 years of experimenting.
And he was nowhere near done growing and becoming more powerful!
Chapter 1012 1012 - Judgment Day
Silence.
Horrified silence.
The Emperors couldn't understand what was happening.
This wasn't even an Abomination anymore.
What even was this?!
The eyes just looked at the Emperors.
BANG!
Suddenly, five gigantic black tears appeared in front of the Emperors.
In an instant, all their Mana Shields exploded!
The Emperors felt like they had been separated from the world around them, and with terror, they realized that the black tears were pulling them in.
Yet, they had no more Mana left to resist the pull.
"You've amused me enough," Shang's dark and all-encompassing voice echoed.
The next moment, a Domain of Entropy appeared around the five of them.
The five Emperors screamed in horror and pain as their skin and flesh started to turn into pure Mana.
WHOOOOOOM!
An apocalyptic storm of Neutral Mana.
Reality warped as the densest mass of Neutral Mana in history expanded across the world.
The Mage Kings and Beast Kings felt like they had woken from an illusion.
Everything had become so clear!
It was like they were color-blind people that could suddenly see color!
The Mana density of the world multiplied by over 50 times of what it normally was!
Peak Mage Lords who didn't know what was happening suddenly felt like there was enough Mana for them to become Mage Kings.
Beast Lords felt like they could become Beast Kings.
Within minutes of the five Emperors dying, over 50 Mage Kings and Beast Kings appeared across the world, and it would only become crazier with time.
Those 50 were just the ones who saw the opportunity and immediately took it.
At the same time, the natural forces became more powerful.
Winds became stronger.
Ice became colder.
Fire became hotter.
Metal became harder.
Even more, expensive Magic Circles stopped using up Mana Crystals.
Plants grew faster.
Animals became stronger.
Within ten hours, the Mana density dropped by over 90% again.
It was like the world had finally been able to take a breath after such a long time!
Everything was revitalized.
The future had been broken wide open!
It was like the world had woken up from a nightmare.
Yet, the true nightmare was still in the former Event Horizon Empire.
At this moment, Kali, Abaddon, and the Archivist looked at Shang with horror.
This was not what they had expected!
This was no man!
No beast!
No Abomination!
No God!
They didn't even know what this was!
Was this truly the injured warrior?!
Gregorio just sighed as he looked at the places where his former friends had just been.
They had once been a group of eleven.
Now, they were only two.
Gregorio and Kali.
Gregorio knew that the era of the Mages was over.
In fact, the era of humanity might even be over.
Gregorio just hoped that it wasn't the era of Aterium that was over.
He had done his best over the past 50,000 years.
He had supported Shang, and he had always asked him to spare Aterium and only kill the necessary people.
Now, there was no more way for Gregorio to influence Shang anymore.
Over 51,000 years, Shang's personality had been formed and solidified.
And now, it was time to see what decision Shang would make.
What would Shang do to the world?
Would Aterium survive?
Would Abaddon survive?
Would Kali survive?
Would Gregorio survive?
While Gregorio, Kali, and Abaddon looked at Shang with anticipation and dread, the Archivistjust looked at the world with a forlorn expression.
He had done his best.
At this moment, the Archivist was filled with regrets.
For the past 50,000 years, he hadn't paid much attention to the world.
After having been somewhat freed by Lucius back then, the Archivist had traveled the world, but eventually, he had returned to his home in the south again.
In the past, the Archivist had looked at Abaddon for a while, but then, he had simply waited.
Hejust wanted to see whether or not Abaddon would be able to become the next hegemon.
If only he had paid more attention to others.
If only he had looked at Shang.
He would have been able to notice that he was the Child of Calamity.
Yet, the Archivist had only focused on his own research.
And now, the world would vanish.
"You can leave."
The Archivist lifted his head and looked at the gigantic
black mass.
He could leave?
"You are the Archivist," the black mass spoke.
"It is your duty to witness the fate of the world."
"I don't want to keep you from your duty," the voice spoke in a ridiculing tone.
After a bit, the Archivist looked down again.
There was nothing he could do anymore.
Just like with all the other hegemons of the past, the Archivist could do nothing but watch.
Eventually, the Archivist left without saying anything.
Kali and Abaddon were not sure if Shang was looking at them or not since the eyes basically looked at everything at the same time.
"Abaddon," the dark voice spoke.
Abaddon took a deep breath and looked at Shang.
Abaddon had expected Shang to be powerful, but he hadn't expected anything remotely like this.
"You gave me the level five Concept of Death."
"You spoke up for me in the tournament."
"And most importantly, you told me what I could potentially become in the future, whether you envisioned this form or not."
"I am not going to kill you," Shang said.
For the first time in Abaddon's life, he felt genuine relief.
He hadn't even known that he could feel things like this.
"Kali," Shang said.
Kali looked at Shang with just the tiniest bit of nervousness.
"You supported Abaddon, and Abaddon supported me."
"If Abaddon wants you to die, he can do it himself."
"I will not kill you."
Kali wasn't sure if she felt relief or not.
"Gregorio," Shang said.
Gregorio just looked at Shang without any motivation.
"A deal's a deal."
"You helped me, and in exchange, I will bring you out of this world."
"Whether you are content or not with the price you've paid to leave is none of my concern."
"Take 1,000 years to say your goodbyes."
"In 1,000 years..."
"We will look at the level six Concepts of Life and Death."
Chapter 1013 1013 - Decision
So, this was it, huh?
This was the fate of the world.
As the most powerful being in the world, Shang had made hisjudgment.
The world would reset in a thousand years.
In a thousand years, everything that was alive would die.
The world would transform into a lifeless and dead planet.
By now, Abaddon had regained his usual confident calm, and he could only smile happily.
He would get what he had always wished for.
Abaddon had comprehended every single Concept in existence except for the level six Concepts of Life and Death.
With those two, Abaddon would finally know all of them.
He would know how all of Aterium worked.
Maybe, he could even build his own Aterium in the future?
Maybe, he could change how his own Aterium worked?
Now that Abaddon was at the cusp of understanding everything, he wanted to look further.
There had to be ways to increase the power of his own world.
But to find that answer, Abaddon needed to learn the two last Concepts first.
Kali had also calmed down by now, and she had accepted Shang's power.
Right now, she was only happy that she hadn't truly betrayed Shang.
Yes, during the fight, she had only involved herself very late, essentially dooming Shang.
However, that actually couldn't be considered a betrayal. After all, Shang had never asked for help, and he had even wanted to fight all the Emperors on his own.
Kali had simply done what Shang had wanted.
Naturally, Shang had realized what had been going through everyone's heads back then.
He knew that Kali wanted to use this opportunity to
get rid of him.
But that didn't matter, actually.
She hadn't gone against Shang's orders.
As for Gregorio, he had already known how the day would end.
He had witnessed Shang becoming more and more powerful over the past years, and he had known that no one could have possibly resisted him.
Now, Gregorio knew what his past choices amounted to.
All life in the world would end.
However, after that, new life would appear.
Even more, the Mana that had been reserved by the Mage Emperors would finally be freed.
Although...
Gregorio looked at Abaddon.
By now, it was clear that Abaddon would become the next God by absorbing the majority of Mana inside Aterium.
That was when Gregorio remembered the existence of the actual God.
Right, there was still one being remaining.
After thinking about the fate of the world for a bit, Gregorio's mind focused on the edge of the world.
What was beyond the silver wall?
Were there more worlds?
Gregorio wanted to know.
Shang had always been Gregorio's key to the outside world.
Sadly, Gregorio knew that Shang felt no feeling of kinship or friendship for him.
So, while Shang was a key, that was all he was.
As soon as the gate was unlocked, there was no more reason to keep the key.
Gregorio would just leave.
Yet, he also felt a bit alone.
He had always enjoyed going on adventures with friends.
So, Gregorio looked at Kali.
Kali and Gregorio had never seen eye to eye.
Kali had always looked down on Gregorio due to Lucius' constant praises, and Kali's animosity annoyed Gregorio.
But now?
Kali had essentially lost against Gregorio in a fight.
If Adam hadn't sacrificed himself, Kali would be dead.
Gregorio had proven his strength.
"When we leave this world," Gregorio transmitted to Kali, "I think it would be better to remain together for a while. We don't know how the outside world is."
"If it turns out that we don't need each other, we can still split later."
Surprisingly, Kali nodded without hesitation. "Reasonable. I agree."
Even though their entire dynamic had changed, it was still difficult for Gregorio to accept that Kali was this cooperative.
Gregorio focused on the world again, but now, his feelings were a bit different.
Maybe things didn't turn out so bad.
"I want you to become a Peak Mage Emperor before we try to leave the world," Shang's voice echoed as it addressed Abaddon.
"Of course," Abaddon answered with a smile.
"Good," Shang added.
A moment later, the gigantic nightmare that was Shang's true body started to become transparent, and eventually, it completely vanished.
Only Shang's normal human body remained.
In comparison to his true body, this Shang looked weak and unassuming.
"Shang."
Shang glanced at Gregorio. "Yes?'' he asked.
"Will you spare the world from the Abominations?" Gregorio asked.
"Spare the world...'I Shang repeated as he focused on Aterium.
Kali and Abaddon also looked at Shang.
Everything was up to him.
Shang truly felt nothing regarding Aterium.
He had no desire to let it survive.
But he also had no desire to destroy it.
It was just... there.
That was it.
"Maybe I'll need it again one day," Shang said after some seconds.
When the three heard that, a collective sigh of relief had been released.
Aterium would continue to exist.
"Then, Shang," Gregorio continued. "With all the Mage Emperors gone, it will become much more difficult to deal with the Abominations. Is there something you can do about them?"
Shang scratched his chin as he fell into thought.
That sounded like work.
He really didn't like doing that much work for no benefit.
And then, Shang got an idea.
A toothy grin appeared on Shang's face.
"Sure, why not," he said with a chuckle.
"I still need more power."
"I still need to perfect my body, and I need it to become bigger and stronger."
"Originally, I was planning on summoning more Abomination Kings, but that might not be necessary."
"Kali," Shang said.
Kali looked at Shang.
"Free all the Abominations we imprisoned."
When she heard that, even Kali showed a nervous reaction.
"I am going to absorb them," Shang said with a chuckle.
"I will call all the Abominations that appear across the world to me, and I will incorporate all of them into my body."
"Every Abomination will appear beside me from now on, and I will absorb them."
Shang turned to look at Gregorio with a confident smirk.
"That's what you want, right?"
Chapter 1014 - Sword Emperor
Gregorio knew that he couldn't ask for something better.
This was already the best-case scenario.
"Of course, Shang. I would be happy with that," Gregorio said with relief.
Maybe, Gregorio hadn't made a mistake.
Shang would let Aterium continue to exist.
Even more, maybe, when Shang was about to leave, Gregorio could convince him to create a permanent solution for the Abominations.
Shang was so incredibly powerful that he would most likely find a solution.
Shang was already absorbing all the Abominations that appeared in Aterium.
Maybe, he could absorb the entire world of the Abominations?
That would take care of the problem.
"How will you call the Abominations from across the world?" Abaddon suddenly asked. "Don't they need to be inside your Spirit Sense?"
Shang chuckled but didn't look at Abaddon.
"You are bound by what the world acknowledges as a Spirit Sense," Shang said.
"I'm not."
"My body is already no longer bound by the rules of the world."
"My mind is already made up of so much Mana and Entropy that the rules of the world won't be able to suppress my senses anymore."
"I can already feel how my Spirit Sense is trembling under the power of my might."
"The world is resisting."
"The rules of the world won't allow such a powerful Spirit Sense."
Shang grinned maliciously.
"But the rules of the world are weak!"
"I will soon reach the Ninth Realm, and when I do, my Spirit Sense will no longer be confined."
"I understand," Abaddon said with a polite nod.
While Abaddon didn't say anything more to Shang, he had a question for Gregorio, which he transmitted.
"What's Entropy?" he asked.
Kali had also heard Abaddon's question, and she also looked at Gregorio.
Gregorio threw a glance at Shang.
"Do we need to keep secrets from the two of them?" he asked.
"No," Shang answered.
"The time of secrets has passed."
"I've had enough of fleeing from my status as the Child of Calamity."
"You can tell them everything."
"Abominations, Entropy, the God, whatever."
"Okay," Gregorio answered.
As Gregorio transmitted everything he knew about the world to Abaddon and Kali, Shang smiled.
He had done it.
He no longer had to hide.
The world was his!
Now, only a single person stood in his way.
Shang could still remember the God's appearance.
'What do you feel right now?'
'Fear?'
'Or are you still confident in your power?'
'Maybe, you look forward to a battle.'
'You sent me into this world, and you were the one that played with my life again and again.'
'You probably hadn't thought that things would turn out this way.'
'Do you regret your decisions or not?'
'I honestly can't tell with you.'
'But it doesn't actually matter.'
'Your feelings won't change anything.'
The next moment, Shang's body suddenly vanished, and Shang's true body reappeared.
Shang's three followers looked over in surprise.
Why had Shang's true body reappeared?
And then, Shang's body began to vibrate.
CRK! CRK! CRK!
Slowly, Shang's monumental body began to shrink!
It was almost like it was being compressed!
The three followers weren't entirely sure what Shang was doing, but they realized when they saw the next thing.
WHOOOOM!
An incredible storm of Mana appeared around Shang, and all the Mana in the world seemingly flowed towards him.
Shang was compressing his Mana and Entropy to achieve the density of an Initial Mage Emperor!
This meant that Shang was officially advancing into the Ninth Realm!
As Shang's body was compressing, Mana still continued pouring into him.
BANG!
But then, a barrier appeared around Shang that stopped the Mana from entering his body.
Naturally, this was Shang's barrier. After all, he didn't want to feel more of this filthy Mana than necessary.
For his advancement, Shang didn't need to absorb any Entropy or Mana.
After all, his body already contained enough Mana and Entropy to produce a Mid Mage Emperor.
He simply needed to compress his body a bit. Shang's humongous body shrunk more and more.
The reality around Shang seemed to strain under his monumental power, but it managed to hold on.
Some minutes later, Shang's body shrunk to a size of only five kilometers, half the diameter of what it used to be.
That was when Shang's body stopped shrinking.
The shaking of the atmosphere around Shang became more and more intense.
It was almost like a malleable sheet of rubber was trying to contain an explosion.
Waves upon waves of pure power came out of Shang's body, but the reality held.
Then, Shang's many eyes opened.
"Hmph."
BOOOOOOOM!
The reality containing Shang's power broke apart, and waves upon waves of power washed all over the world.
Gregorio, Kali, and Abaddon suddenly felt like they had fallen into an eternal abyss.
They felt like the ever-present ground beneath their feet had suddenly given way.
Something they had relied on hadjust been broken.
The waves of power expanded across the entire world almost instantly.
Even the weakest beings felt like something fundamental had changed.
They felt like the end of the world was approaching.
And the more powerful one was, the more one felt like one was about to die.
Eventually, the waves bounced off the silver wall, and they washed back towards Shang.
It took several seconds, but eventually, the waves vanished.
The next moment, a deep voice appeared in every living being's mind.
"Aterium is mine!"
Almost everyone had no idea where this voice had come from, but the Mage Kings and many Mage Lords knew what this meant.
Did this mean that their Emperors were dead?
A moment later, Shang's human body returned, and he smirked.
"I can sense all of Aterium," he said.
"The entire world is within my grasp."
"I can see all!"
Shang laughed loudly.
There was nothing!
There was nothing left that could fight him except for the God!
Shang still remembered the God's palace, but he hadn't found it in Aterium, which meant that it had to be past the silver wall.
'For now, I can't look past the silver wall.'
'But eventually, even that won't stop me anymore.'
The next moment, Shang saw a new part inside his mind.
Funnily enough, Shang had already found that part when he had recreated his body.
Shang knew that this was the ninth question he had asked the God.
If he wanted, he could have unlocked it earlier.
But he wanted to play along.
Now, Shang had reached the Ninth Realm.
Shang was a Sword Emperor.
It was time to look at the ninth question.
The reason why Shang was the Child of Calamity.
Chapter 1015 - Ninth Question
Shang found himself in the God's palace again.
At this moment, a young man with blonde hair and a bit of a belly stood in front of the God.
'Alex,' Shang thought to himself with amusement.
At this moment, Alex was looking at the God with a bit of confusion.
He wasn't certain what he should ask.
He kind of had already asked everything he wanted to know.
Also, the chances were very low that he would ever hear the answer to this question.
After all, that would mean that he became one of the strongest humans in this mystical world, right?
In the end, Alex only shrugged.
"What's your name?" he asked.
When the God heard that question, he became interested and entertained.
However, Shang actually became interested.
That was an interesting question.
"Why would you care about my name?" the God asked with a smirk.
Alex just scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I don't really know what else to ask. I basically asked about everything already."
"Also, isn't it common courtesy to ask for someone's name when that someone helped you?"
"Helped you?" the God asked with a smirk. "Please elaborate."
"I mean," Alex added, "You've essentially saved me from an afterlife. On top of that, you are giving me a new body."
"You are allowing me to travel into some kind of fantasy world where I can become as strong as I want."
"I might be able to jump onto trees, fly, kick down mountains, and other things."
"It literally sounds like a dream come true."
"You are even helping me by giving me these gifts!"
Alex started to smile awkwardly.
"You might seem a bit aggressive from time to time, but I think, deep down, you might actually be a good guy."
"After all, you've helped me so much."
"And if I ever get strong enough to hear the answer to this question, I might be able to come into contact with you again and help."
"So, what's your name, and is there something I can do to help or support you?"
"You've done so much for me. A bit of courtesy and repayment would be the bare minimum on my part."
Then, Alex seemed like he remembered something.
The next moment, he slightly raised his right arm in a wave. "By the way, I know you know my name, but I still feel like I should introduce myself properly."
"Hi, I'm Alex. Who are you?" Alex asked with a warm smile.
The God just looked at Alex with an extremely wide smirk.
At the side, Shang looked with disgust and disdain at Alex.
"Hahahaha!"
The next moment, the God broke into laughter.
In fact, he continued laughing for quite a while, and Alex just awkwardly looked at the God.
Was what he said in any way funny?
This was just basic politeness, right?
"Ah, that'sjust too good," the God said as he slowly calmed down.
"Me, a good guy. Holy shit," he shouted as his laugh returned.
"I mean, it can't be that funny, right?" Alex asked with some annoyance.
The God just continued laughing when he heard Alex's annoyed tone.
This guy was hilarious!
"Oh, Alex," the God said as he leaned back on his throne again. "You're so naive."
"You're so nice."
"You're so innocent."
The next moment, the God's eyelid twitched, and his eyes narrowed immediately after.
"I HATE such people," he shouted with absolute volatility.
"Always only seeing the good in people."
"Always showing your back to them so that they can eventually take advantage of you."
"Always wasting time with friends and family."
I hate such weak and pathetic pushovers!"
By now, Alex looked with quite a bit of fear and uncertainty at the God.
That outburst was stronger than he had expected.
Yet, the next moment, a smirk appeared on the God's face.
"But you know what?" the God said as he chuckled a bit. "I just got a fun idea."
"You're such a nice and friendly guy, Alex."
"How about we change that?" the God asked with a foreboding smile.
Alex became nervous. "I don't think there's anything wrong with my conduct."
"No, there isn't," the God said. "And that's exactly why it's boring."
"I think I know what I will do to you."
"Such a nice guy."
"Such a friendly guy."
"You know what? I want to see you change."
"I don't want to forcibly change you. I want to see into what you will change when the entire world resents you."
"I want to see what you will become when you are the enemy of the entire world."
"I want to see what happens when your mere existence kills humans every single second!"
"When I force you to decide between killing yourself for the good of the world or your goal, I want to see what you choose."
"How much can an apathetic world change you?"
"How fucked in the head can you get?"
"I want to see you kill millions of innocent people without even thinking twice about it!"
"I want you to commit atrocities just for your selfish goals!"
"And most of all, I want to see you hate yourself for it!"
"I want to see your mind get destroyed by your own twisted desires!"
By now, Alex was shocked and terrified.
He knew that the God was quite volatile, but he hadn't expected him to become this cruel all of a sudden.
"Can we not?" Alex asked.
The God chuckled.
"You have no choice," he said with a smirk.
"You will most likely never regain the memory of this question, but if you actually manage to become an Emperor, I want to know how you will react to it."
"If you believe your old self to be naive and idiotic, I will have achieved my goal."
Then, the God seemed like he remembered something.
"Oh, I forgot about answering your actual question."
"You want to know what my name is?"
"My name is Lucius Volstad!"
Then, the God broke into laughter again.
That was when Alex's memories of the questions got deleted.
Chapter 1016 - Lucius, Not Lucius
In the real world, Shang opened his eyes with a neutral expression.
"Lucius Volstad," Shang said as he looked at the sky.
Shang remembered the blonde corpse that the God had kicked around in his palace.
That had been the Mage God, and the Mage God was Lucius Volstad.
Based on the appearance of the naked corpse, it really had been Lucius Volstad. The corpse had looked identical to what Gregorio had shown him, and it was also identical to the image in the Trial of Want.
Lastly, with Shang's current experience, he could tell that there were several signs of the body being real, and Shang could also tell that it had the Aura of an actual Mage.
Shang was 99% sure that the corpse had been real and that this had truly been Lucius Volstad's corpse.
But then, what about the God?
The God couldn'tjust randomly have the same name as the Mage God, right?
Lucius had definitely died.
Yet, Lucius was alive.
But the Lucius that was alive was extremely different from the Lucius that everybody knew.
At that moment, Shang remembered a couple of things.
Gregorio had told Shang that Lucius had seemed quite conflicted from time to time.
It was like he was at odds with himself.
Then, Shang thought about the God's strong reaction to Alex's question.
The God had seemed quite angry.
Too angry for such a question.
There was definitely some emotional tension to this topic.
Even more, the God had said that he hated naive and good people.
Yet, wasn't that exactly what Lucius had been?
Based on what Gregorio had told Shang, Lucius was a very kind man who didn't want to hurt people.
Lucius had even done his best to stop Abominations from appearing in Aterium, even though he didn't always succeed.
Lucius had also shown deep trust in his large group of friends.
And that was exactly what the God hated.
Then, Shang remembered another thing.
The Watcher's Record, the Archivist's book.
The God's descriptions of how Mana worked were almost identical to how the Archivist had described them.
On top of that, the God had only referenced Paths that had either existed when Lucius had been alive or had been in the Watcher's Record.
Back then, Shang had entertained the thought that the Archivist might be older than the God.
Yet, no one but Lucius had become a God in the Archivist's lifetime.
Of course, since Shang had believed that Lucius was dead, he hadn't entertained the thought that the God was actually Lucius.
It made no sense.
And yet, it was true.
Lucius was the God.
But the God was not the Lucius everybody knew.
'Wait, that sounds familiar,I Shang thought.
Shang thought of the words he had said after leaving Area 23.
"My name is Shang."
"But I am not Shang."
Shang, but not Shang.
Lucius, but not Lucius.
There were similarities, but there was still an important difference.
There was an actual corpse of Lucius.
'Although,' Shang thought as he actually looked at his true body. 'My current body also can't compare to my old one.'
'If I could create my old one, it would be like there had been two of me.'
The next moment, Shang looked at the silver wall again.
'Something monumental must have happened after Lucius became a God.'
'Obviously, since the God is Lucius, when Lucius had become a God, there had been no other God.'
'So, there should have been nothing that could have stopped Lucius from fulfilling his dream.'
'He wanted to get rid of the Abominations.'
'But instead of getting rid of them, something happened!
'Additionally, one Lucius must have died.'
'After all, the Abominations had become weak again, and all the Mana Lucius had absorbed had returned to the world. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been any Emperors except for the Archivist.'
'But then, what is the God?'
'If all the Mana of the world had returned, what is the God made of?'
'Entropy?'
'No, he would still need at least 30% Mana to retain his human mind, which means that there could only be like seven or eight Emperors max.'
'But there were eleven, including the Archivist.'
'The God is Lucius.'
'At least one Lucius is dead.'
'The living Lucius can't be fully made of Entropy.'
'The living Lucius has no or nearly no Mana in his being.'
'The living Lucius is still powerful enough to easily kill powerful Peak Mage Kings and maybe even Emperors.'
'Something must have happened that turned him into the mad God.'
'These are all the clues l have.'
Shang thought about these things for a while.
There were a couple of contradictions in these clues.
'Eh, who cares?' Shang thought with a smirk.
'So, you're Lucius Volstad, huh?' Shang thought as he looked at the sky.
'I wonder if you can still read my mind.'
'And if you can, I wonder how powerful you actually are.'
'From what Gregorio has told me, you are even weaker than Abaddon.'
'But maybe whatever has happened has changed you.'
'Maybe your power has actually increased?'
'How very interesting.'
The next moment, Shang turned around and threw a glance at Gregorio, whojust nervously looked at him.
Shang only grinned, but he didn't say anything, making Gregorio nervous.
'Oh, Gregorio. I'm not sure ifl should be happy or sad for you.'
'Lucius was your good friend, and you believed him to be dead.'
'But now, it turns out that he was actually still alive.'
'Yet, is the being that currently owns that name something you want to be friends with?'
Shang turned away from Gregorio again and chuckled.
'Whenever anyone said that the Mage God was the God of this world, I always looked down on them.'
'I thought them to be idiotic and na'ive.'
'And yet, haven't they always been right?'
'They haven't seen God.'
'l have seen God.'
'But in the end, I was the one in the wrong, and they had been the ones in the right.'
Shang chuckled a bit more.
'How amusing.'
Chapter 1017 1017 - Ants
Eventually, Shang stopped thinking about the whole Lucius thing.
For now, it didn't matter.
Shang would meet Lucius when he became a God anyway.
In a certain way, Shang looked forward even more to their meeting.
He wanted to know what must have happened that Lucius had changed this drastically.
"For the foreseeable future, I will be inhabiting the Judgment Palace since it's at the center of the world," Shang said.
Then, Shang turned to Kali with a smirk. "Since everyone in the Judgment Palace will die in a thousand years anyway, you probably don't mind, do you?"
"I don't," Kali said emotionlessly.
Shang turned to look towards the north again.
"Then, enjoy your last thousand years in the world."
"In a thousand years, we will reset it."
The three of them just nodded.
Shang slowly took the sky, and a moment later, he shot towards the north.
When Shang left, the three of them looked at each other.
"So, anyone wanna go sightseeing?" Abaddon asked with a friendly smile.
When Gregorio heard that, some nervousness appeared in his heart.
Yes, they were allies now, but that didn't mean that Abaddon had changed.
Abaddon was still the power-hungry psychopath who couldn't feel any emotions like happiness, sadness, orempathy.
Hearing him invite Gregorio to go sightseeing felt creepy and dangerous.
But after throwing a glance at Kali, Gregorio justaccepted his new surroundings.
Kali was a bit better, but not much.
'He won't try to kill me since that might make Shang kill him.'
'I guess these are my new friends from now on,' he thought.
"Sure," Gregorio said.
"Great!" Abaddon shouted with excitement before turning to his mother. "You want tojoin as well, mother?"
Kali wordlessly nodded.
Then, the three of them began to hover and flew towards the south.
Since they were already at the southernmost Empire, they decided to start theirjourney at the southern edge of the world.
Naturally, since there was no more pressure, Abaddon took his advancement slowly.
He would take his time.
While the three of them went sightseeing, Shang crossed the border between Empires.
Right now, Shang was in his human body, but his human body still didn't look very human.
After all, his legs and arms looked quite strange.
When Shang reached the border, he felt many Spirit Senses look at him.
Most of them were from Ancestral Mages and Mage Lords, but there were also three Mage Kings.
"Halt!" one of the Mage Kings shouted.
Shang didn't react and simply continued flying.
The next moment, the Mage King launched an attack on Shang.
Shang just smirked.
The attack exploded on Shang's body, but Shang wasn't injured.
SHence.
When they had seen Shang, he hadn't felt very powerful.
In fact, he had felt like an average Mage King.
But then, how had he survived this attack?!
The next moment, Shang just chuckled.
WHOOM!
A Domain of Entropy appeared around the Mage King that had attacked him.
The Mage King fell into a panic as he realized that his Mana was rapidly depleting.
He immediately tried to flee with Mana Step, but Mana Step didn't work!
After that, he tried to run out of the Domain, but it didn't matter where he ran to, the Domain just kept following him!
Over a couple of seconds of panic and terror, the Mage King slowly died.
WHOOOOM!
The next moment, the Mage King's Mana was being dispersed across the world.
No one could believe what they had just witnessed.
One of the remaining Mage Kings immediately contacted Kali.
Many kilometers away, Kali took out her Communication Crystal.
CRKSH!
And crushed it.
There was no reason to have a Communication Crystal anymore.
Everyone besides them would die soon anyway.
There was no point in doing anything for the Judgment Palace since it would also be destroyed.
People, talent, Magic, Mana, prestige, borders, buildings, weapons, technology, everything had lost all meaning.
Everything would be destroyed, and the world would turn into a lifeless landscape.
The Mage King almost couldn't believe what had just happened.
Just now, he had felt the Communication Crystal establish a connection with Kali, but then, it completely vanished!
It was almost like the Communication Crystal had suddenly been destroyed.
What was the meaning of this?!
Had something happened to the Empress of Death?!
Why was some unknown guy suddenly flying into the Judgment Palace?!
Meanwhile, Shang just kept advancing with a confident smirk.
No one could stop him.
The panicked Mage Lords and Mage Kings below him were nothing bigger than some panicking insects when a human walked through a meadow.
As Shang continued flying forward, more and more Mage Kings appeared in his perception.
The Mage Kings rapidly talked to each other and came up with a couple of plans to deal with Shang.
Eventually, they had all combined their powers and began to cast one unified Spell.
Shang was flying right towards the actual Judgment Palace, and they felt like they had to stop him before he arrived!
When Shang saw these cute little Mage Kings trying to stop him, he almost couldn't resist laughing.
BANG!
A humongous black tear appeared in the world.
In one strike, Shang had killed all of the Mage Kings that had just tried to attack him.
The Mage Lords that watched denied reality.
After some more chuckling, Shang continued flying forward, and eventually, he reached the actual Judgment Palace.
It was huge, beautiful, and imposing.
Even more, the lands of life and the pit of death also had a contrasting beauty.
It truly felt like some kind of holy land.
Eventually, Shang stopped above the Judgment Palace.
And then, he swung his arm from one side to another.
CRRRRRRRR!
It was like a black wave of destruction washed across the circular lands of life!
As the black wave passed, everything in its way was destroyed.
Animals, plants, insects, humans.
It didn't matter.
Everything was eradicated.
Even the Life Mana itself.
In less than a second, the lands of life had been emptied of life.
The few humans that were still present to witness Shang's actions felt terror assault their minds.
Then, Shang looked at the Judgment Palace below him.
And summoned his true body.
Chapter 1018 - Hill
As Shang's true body appeared above the Judgment Palace, the world seemed to stop.
The few Mages that were watching immediately felt like they had been plunged into a nightmare.
Fortunately, most of them realized that it wasn't the best idea to remain, and they rapidly began to flee.
The humongous ball of swirling black blades slowly lowered itself onto the Judgment Palace.
As it came closer, the tentacles of the ball expanded and tore everything they touched apart.
The Judgment Palace was protected by incredibly powerful barriers, but that didn't matter to Shang.
Shang's offensive power in this state was beyond compare.
One had to remember that Shang could launch an attack at any place within his Spirit Sense with whatever limb he wanted.
And he had a lot of limbs.
At any given moment, in any part of Aterium, Shang could launch thousands of simultaneous attacks with any or all of his limbs.
Naturally, the Judgment Palace's barriers couldn't even hope to withstand Shang's barrage of attacks.
CRK!
The barriers cracked nearly immediately, and the Mana they had been using was dispersed into the surroundings.
By now, Abaddon had also dispersed the Mana from Adam's Inheritor Sphere. After all, he had a better one already.
With all the dead Mage Kings, the world was once more bathed in Mana.
But this time, things were different.
As Shang slowly ground the Judgment Palace into dust, the few surviving Mages began to contact their friends and acquaintances, who then contacted their friends and acquaintances.
In less than a minute, every Mage at the Ancestral Mage Realm or higher knew about Shang.
Although, none of them knew that he was actually Shang.
Right now, Shang was unrecognizable.
Eventually, the entire Judgment Palace vanished, and Shang just lay on the ground.
As Shang's body relaxed, its shape changed from a sphere into something like a black blob.
At this moment, Shang just looked like a black hill made of rapidly moving black blades and eyes with tendrils growing out of it.
The few Mages that were around looked at Shang in nervousness and terror.
What would this monster do now?!
Would it just stay here?
Hopefully!
CRACK!
Suddenly, several explosions occurred across the entire world.
Yet, none of the people noticed initially.
After all, the explosions had all happened deep below the ground.
But the next moment, the world experienced something terrifying.
Abominations!
Abomination Lords and Abomination Kings were suddenly coming out from the ground all around the world!
The watching Mage Kings and Mage Lords immediately fell into terrified despair, but some of them still managed to realize where these Abominations had come from.
Hadn't these been the spots where the Empress of Death had placed her Magic Circles for getting rid of the Abomination Lords and Abomination Kings?
However, that genuinely wasn't important right now.
The important thing was that there were several Abomination Kings appearing and that there wasn't a single Emperor available that could deal with them!
On an isolated island, the Archivist watched what was going on.
The Archivist knew several places that could allow his Spirit Sense to appear in more distant places, which was why it wasn't difficult for him to see all of these things.
When the Archivist saw everything, he felt like the end of the world was approaching.
The Child of Calamity had attained supreme power, and that would most likely mean the end of the world.
As the Mage Kings saw the Abominations, they despaired.
However, most of them noticed that the Abominations were not even looking at them.
In fact, the Abominations were not even destroying the world around them.
The Abominations were all just facing the same direction without doing anything.
They were all facing the Judgment Palace.
While the Abominations were all facing the Judgment Palace, the black hill in the Judgment Palace had grown by a bit.
Earlier, Shang had turned all the prisons of the Abominations into Mana and Entropy, which he had then absorbed.
There was no more reason to let the Entropy Ore continue remaining.
lnjust a couple of seconds, every single piece of Entropy Ore in the entire world had been absorbed by Shang.
The Isolation Chambers, pylons, cages, collectibles, weapons, and so on.
All of it had been transformed and consumed by Shang.
Sadly, Shang's body had only grown by about 20% after absorbing all of this.
Eventually, all the Abominations started to fly towards the center of the world.
Shang could just absorb all of them from where they were, but that wouldn't be fun.
Some of the Mage Kings immediately attacked the Abominations when they saw them, but Shang simply killed them.
Once more, huge storms of Mana washed over the world.
Eventually, the powerful Mages all decided to stop attacking the Abominations.
After all, everyone that did would just die.
On top of that, the Abominations also weren't really doing anything at the moment.
After some minutes, all the Abominations arrived in front of Shang's gigantic body and threw themselves on it.
Whenever they touched Shang's rapidly moving blades, they were cut into particles, which then fused with Shang's body.
After absorbing over 2,000 Abomination Lords and 50 Abomination Kings, Shang's body barely changed in size.
SHING! SHING! SHING!
The next moment, one Abomination after the other appeared in random spots around Shang's body before getting cut into pieces and absorbed.
The Abominations were of all Realms.
These were all the Abominations that would be appearing around the world naturally.
Of course, Shang had redirected the location of where they would appear to his body.
Starting from this moment, the Empires would no longer be plagued by any Abominations in any Realm.
For the first time, the Abominations were not threatening the world.
For a while, the Mage Kings just watched.
They felt cold, terrified, and shocked.
The most powerful Mage Kings amongst them could win against one Abomination King.
But this huge thing was consuming them without pause and with nearly no change to its power.
They knew that they couldn't possibly stop this huge thing.
And then, a dark voice appeared in everyone's head.
"In 1,000 years, all life will cease to exist."
Chapter 1019 - The First Days
For a long time, the people of the world couldn't comprehend these words.
All life would cease to exist?
Everyone had at one point thought about something like this happening, but when the thought actually became a reality, people couldn't wrap their minds around it.
It sounded impossible.
It sounded like it wasn't real.
And yet, they didn't feel like the mysterious voice was lying.
Naturally, this mysterious voice had been Shang.
Shang had told everyone because he wanted to see what would happen.
What would happen to a world that knew that it would end on a specific date?
This single message was the last time Shang would verbally communicate with the world.
From now on, he would only communicate with people by killing them.
But for now, there was only one thing.
SHence.
After the revelation, not much had happened.
Most people just looked at other people close to them to confirm the validity of the reality they were experiencing at the moment.
Did that voice only appear in their head?
Sadly, everyone confirmed that they had also heard the voice.
The powerful Mages contacted the other powerful Mages, and they could only realize in horror that everyone across the entire world had heard the same word at the exact same time.
Since this was a living thing and since this thing was very powerful, it had to have a Spirit Sense.
And that was the horrifying part.
Didn't this mean that this thing's Spirit Sense encompassed the entire world?!
This was not the power of something at the Ninth Realm!
Only something in the legendary Tenth Realm could achieve such power.
But that was impossible!
The Mana was still there!
In fact, the density of Mana had increased by so much that it had become ridiculous.
So, how could this thing possibly have gained enough Mana to reach this level?!
Very quickly, the Mage Kings began to discuss and argue.
Some were sure that this thing was in the Tenth Realm.
Some were sure that it was simply an Abomination Emperor.
Some thought that it was a trick by some Emperor.
The following days were chaotic.
Without the presence of the Emperors, the Mage Kings of the different Empires started to lose their unity.
Additionally, due to the gravity of the situation, they also stopped giving orders to the Mage Lords. After all, more important things were going on right now.
At this moment, the Mage Kings were trying to come to terms with the new dynamic, the new world, and the new deadline.
While the Mage Kings were trying to reorganize basically everything, the Mage Lords kept themselves back.
The Mage Lords knew that they were not the ones in charge.
Instead, they simply waited until the Mage Kings got everything in order.
The Ancestral Mages became very uncertain and insecure.
Their superior Mage Lords were not telling them what to do. Instead, the Mage Lords looked unsure and indecisive. They almost seemed like they had no idea what to do.
Because of that, the Ancestral Mages constantly kept asking questions, and the Mage Lords could only answer in vague ways since they also had no idea what their superior Mage Kings were doing.
Of course, that was how it was for the Empires.
The vast majority of Ancestral Mages and almost all weaker Mages didn't belong to any of the Empires.
These people had no idea what was actually going on in the wider world.
They only knew that they had heard a voice saying that the end of the world was coming, but they didn't know any specifics.
The unaffiliated Mage Lords didn't do anything.
The unaffiliated Ancestral Mages also kept themselves in check for now.
However, things became more chaotic the weaker the people became.
Many Archmages took the opportunity to gain something out of other people.
Extortion, schemes, assassinations, and so on.
It was the most chaotic among the Archmages and their inferior High Mages.
But then, surprisingly, things became more orderly again.
The Apprentices, Adepts, and True Mages had an exciting day of chaos, but then, everything basically returned to normal.
All of this felt too distant.
Yes, the end of the world was coming, but these weak people didn't even know what a Mage Emperor or Mage King was.
Most of them didn't even know what an Abomination was.
From the viewpoint of an Empire, Abominations appeared across their borders almost constantly and everywhere.
But from the viewpoint of a True Mage, Abominations basically didn't exist.
A couple of weak Abominations appeared like once every couple of years, many kilometers away, in a place where the True Mage hadn't ever been, and these weak Abominations also died extremely quickly to a powerful beast thatjust happened to live there.
Almost no one had any idea of what was actually happening.
Some brave heroes in the True Mage and High Mage Realm left their kingdoms to search for the ancient evil that had doomed the world.
Naturally, these people had no idea about the size of the world or the power gap between them and this ancient evil.
When they had heard the voice, they had felt which direction it had been coming from.
As long as they kept traveling in that direction, they would meet this ancient evil at some point.
And then, they would defeat it and become legends!
This was what happened the first few days after Shang's announcement, and Shang kept looking at the world with interest as armies of Abominations threw themselves into his monumental body.
Seeing all these different facets of humanity interested Shang quite a bit.
'I think | get why Lucius is watching Aterium all the time,' Shang thought.
'Looking at one person's life is boring, but when you have quadrillions to choose from, you will always see at least one person going through something absolutely unreal and crazy at any given point.'
'The current times are unprecedented, and the world will act in an unprecedented manner.'
'I wonder how things will change in the coming years.'
Chapter 1020 - Research
After some days, more and more Mage Lords and Mage Kings appeared near Shang's body, but they also always left very quickly after appearing.
Whenever any of them saw Shang, they felt this deep feeling of absolute terror in their chests.
It was like Shang wasn't supposed to exist.
It was like Shang represented the end of the world.
Being anywhere close to him felt like suicide.
Shang didn't react to any of the Mage Lords or Mage King. The most he did was to look at some of them with one of his eyes.
After some weeks, the chaos amongst the Mage Kings had mostly calmed down.
All the Mage Kings had searched for their Emperors, but they couldn't find them.
Naturally, if Kali, Gregorio, and Abaddon didn't want to be seen, no Mage King would be able to see them.
Because of that, everyone believed that every Mage Emperor had died.
Coming to terms with this new reality had taken a long time.
Eventually, almost all the Mage Kings decided to work together.
For now, there were no longer any Empires.
At this moment, there were only many isolated areas with individual Mage Kings, which were all part of a mega alliance.
There was an unprecedented crisis, and the world had to unite to deal with it.
The Mage Kings started to come up with plans, but without enough information, no one was truly willing to go through with the plans.
By now, every Mage King knew where Shang was.
They also knew that Shang had to be related to the Abominations since all the Abominations in the world appeared around him andjumped into him.
There were two popular opinions on Shang.
First, Shang was an Abomination Emperor. No one had ever seen an Abomination Emperor, and this could very well be one.
Second, Shang was the Child of Calamity. Maybe the Child of Calamity had used the Abominations to kill all the Mage Emperors.
Naturally, the Child of Calamity thing was more logically sound, but the reason why not everyone believed in it was Shang's appearance.
They couldn't connect this terror with a former human
As more weeks passed, the Mages that appeared around Shang became more and more courageous.
Some of them even dared to get close enough to see Shang with their actual eyes.
After two full months, one of the Mage Lords even managed to stay several hours near Shang's body to witness what was going on.
The scene of seeing thousands and millions of Abominations throwing themselves into Shang's bod, and Shang's body barely growing sent a deep feeling of hopeless despair through the Mage Lord's soul.
This thing was growing more powerful by the second and rapidly so!
Slowly, more and more Mage Lords started to hover around Shang's body.
The things that were happening here were terrifying but also fascinating.
They had to learn about how Shang worked!
Only then could they find his weakness and stop the end of the world!
Six months after the announcement, hundreds of Mage Lords were hovering around Shang's body.
They were constantly doing tests on Shang and the Abominationsjumping into him.
By now, many of the Mage Lords and Mage Kings weren't even certain that Shang was actually intelligent.
Maybe someone else had sent them the message six months ago?
After all, they couldn't feel Shang's Spirit Sense or perception, and they also couldn't tell whether or not Shang was looking at them.
They only saw a gigantic hill of rapidly moving blades and eyes.
It looked otherworldly and terrifying, but as long as they didn't touch the blades, nothing happened to them.
Shang was almost like a scary environment.
He was like a poison swamp or the pit of death.
Was this hill actually conscious, or was itjust some kind of natural force that absorbed Abominations?
This hill obviously had the power to destroy the world. After all, there were so many Abominations inside of its body. If it detonated just 10% of its body, all life would cease to exist.
Yet, it didn't do that.
And it also never did anything to any of the Mage Kings and Mage Lords.
Some of the Mage Kings even attacked the hill.
Sadly, their attacks had no effect.
The fleshy hill was so incredibly durable that none of the Mage Kings managed to damage it in any way.
Naturally, Shang watched all of this with amusement and interest.
He wanted to see what the Mage Kings would be able to come up with in the next thousand years.
Many of the Mage Kings also started to kill the Abominations that were running into Shang's body.
This nightmare was growing more and more powerful by absorbing Abominations. If they ever wanted to have a chance at defeating it, they had to stop it from growing more powerful!
Shang found the Mage Kings' struggle amusing, and he let them have their fun.
The tide of Abominations was infinite.
One couldn't block infinity eternally.
Even more, the Mage Kings couldn't even block all of them.
They could block all the Ancestral Abomination and weaker, but blocking the Abomination Lords was difficult.
Sure, they got most of the Abomination Lords, but some of them were fast enough to jump into Shang's body before dying to the Mage Kings.
And then, there were the Abomination Kings.
About once per month, an Abomination King appeared.
Naturally, there was nothing the Mage Kings could do against the Abomination Kings.
Finally, one year after the announcement, something major happened.
A black silhouette of a human appeared near Shang's body.
The Mage Lords and Mage Kings immediately noticed it.
And when they did, they felt absolute terror.
Irresistible!
Uncontrollable!
Indestructible!
This was what they had felt from it.
Naturally, this was an Abomination Emperor.
Yet,just like all the other Abominations, the Abomination Emperor just jumped into Shang's body and got absorbed.
CRRRRR!
When the Abomination Emperor entered Shang's body, Shang's body suddenly expanded by 20%.
Some of the Mage Lords that had been close to Shang's body couldn't react in time and were turned into pure Mana by the rapidly moving blades. Silence.
The Mage Kings and Mage Lords hadjust witnessed something terrifying.
And it took quite a while to come to terms with it.