Shang took a deep breath after he finished the letter.
The contents of this letter were beyond shocking.
Then, Shang read the letter again to make sure that he hadn't missed anything crucial.
"If you are reading this, it means I am dead."
That was how the letter started.
"My name is Lucius Volstad, and I am the Mage God, formerly known as the Mage Emperor."
Shang remembered the corpse the God had kicked around the room.
This was a letter from this person.
This was a letter from a person that was on the same level as the God of this world.
"If you can read this, it means that you are the successor to my legacy."
"Just like you, I have been cursed with this Affinity that binds me to the Abominations. I have control over Fire, Ice, Light, and Darkness."
"You and I are known as the Children of Calamity in this world. The more powerful we become, the more powerful the Abominations become."
"Our rise to power is their rise to power."
"If we are weak, only Abominations up to the Third Realm appear, but if we are powerful, even Abominations of the Ninth Realm can appear."
"If a Child of Calamity in the Ninth Realm doesn't help the people of this world, an Abomination Emperor will destroy the world."
"As you probably already know, the Abominations are also our source of power, and we need them just as much as they need us."
"In the eyes of the world, we are the enemy. We are the very thing that threatens the existence of the very world we live in."
"The solution the world has come to is to keep the Children of Calamity as weak as possible for their entire lives. If a Child of Calamity is found, they will be given a home, plenty of wealth, freedom, longevity, and status."
"However, they are not allowed to become more powerful. For if they become more powerful, the world suffers."
"If a Child of Calamity dies, a new one will be born after a few seconds. The Children of Calamity can't be eradicated, or the world would have already done so."
"The only solution the world can come up with is to simply keep them alive and weak."
"However, that is not the solution I have in mind."
"The solution of the world will only delay the inevitable, while I want to stop the inevitable altogether."
"I believe that, if one of us were to reach Godhood, we would find a solution to the problem."
"There has to be a solution to this problem!"
"I refuse to watch the world I love crumble around me!"
"Sadly, since you are reading this letter now, it means that I have failed and that I am most likely dead."
"Since I am dead now, I am asking you to realize my dream."
"I want you to reach Godhood and achieve what I couldn't."
"I ask you to get rid of the debilitating disease this world is suffering from, the Abominations."
"I know it is a lot to ask, but I hope you love this world just as much as I do."
"And if you don't, that is also understandable. Being cursed with this Affinity forces us to sacrifice millions of innocent lives just to realize our own power."
"You might feel that your very existence makes you the enemy to the world."
Shang felt a little sting when he read that passage again.
"But that is not the case! I have a large group of close friends, and we have all worked and became powerful together. They would risk their lives for me, and I would risk my life for them."
"Sadly, they do not know of my secret. To them, I am only a very talented Mage."
"Again, I implore you to save the world! Please, become powerful and stop this rotting disease!"
Shang could tell that Lucius, the Mage Emperor, was basically pleading at this point.
Such a proud and powerful person was begging a True Path Stage warrior to do something they couldn't.
Shang could tell that Lucius loved the world a lot if he was even willing to beg an unfamiliar person.
Someone of such level had to have a lot of pride in their body, but he was willing to throw it away.
"I don't know if you will accept my wish or not, but I will assume you have accepted."
"I will now tell you how to achieve Godhood."
Shang took another deep breath.
When he read that sentence for the first time, his entire body shuddered.
"The world believes that achieving Godhood is impossible. They believe that it is simply impossible for a normal human to reach the legendary and elusive Tenth Realm."
"But the people at the very top, the Kings and Emperors, know the truth."
"There is a way to achieve Godhood, but it requires two things."
"The first thing is a perfect foundation and Path. Your foundation and Path have to be so powerful that not even a single person in the entire world can win against you in a one-on-one duel as long as they are on your level, and this trend has to continue for your entire journey."
"You can't allow yourself to fall from the peak even once. The very thing that will break your Path will leave an eternal stain on it unless you scrap the entire thing and begin anew."
"As of the time I am writing this letter, I am the only one alive with such a powerful Path."
"But there have been people before me with an equal Path, and I am certain that there will also be people after me with such a powerful Path."
"Yet, even though there have been people with such powerful Paths, not even one of them managed to achieve Godhood, and that's because of the second requirement."
"Fulfilling the second requirement is less a test of power, but a test of willpower."
"And it is the very thing that forced me to commit this atrocious war and genocide of the other Paths."
"Please know that I never wanted to kill all the other Paths. I never wanted that."
"But I had to."
"The reason will become clear very soon."
"The second requirement is Mana."
"As of the moment of writing this letter, the world barely has enough Mana to support a single person achieving Godhood, and over 90% of that Mana is stored in the form of living things."
"To achieve Godhood, you have to kill nearly every other Ninth Realm person and beast in the world."
"Only with this will you have enough Mana to achieve Godhood."
Shang took a deep breath.
It made a lot more sense now why the Mage Emperor had destroyed all the other Paths.
He didn't do it because he wanted to but because he had to.
90% of all people at the Ninth Realm.
Shang didn't know how many there were, but he guessed that there were maybe ten.
That would leave only one person in the Ninth Realm alive besides Lucius.
And that had probably been the only other Mage at the Ninth Realm.
And all the Ninth Realm experts from the other Paths?
Lucius had killed them.
