Shang knew that Sylvia couldn't be weak, but her Spells had been more powerful than he had expected.
Especially that last one.
Even without Shang, Sylvia would have probably been able to kill the Mage, but not before the Council arrived.
But now was not the time to think about such stuff.
Shang destroyed the body and collected the Focus and the Space Ring.
While running towards Sylvia, Shang fed Sword more ore, and when he arrived, Sword had already recovered to its Colossal Sword State.
Sword flew over to Sylvia, and she lightly jumped on top of it.
As Shang landed in front of her, he threw the Focus and Space Ring to Sylvia, who started to cast a couple of Spells.
Shang and Sword took to the skies. According to their estimates, the Council would arrive in, at most, a minute.
After a couple of seconds, Shang's Spirit Sense picked up a High Mage.
One of the Council members was rapidly charging towards the place where Shang and Sylvia had just fought, but the two of them were already 15 kilometers away.
The High Mage wouldn't be able to track them from such a distance.
At that moment, Sylvia threw the Focus and Space Ring back to Shang. "There was a tracking Magic Circle on the Space Ring, but I dealt with it."
Shang nodded and put the two things away.
Now, Shang trusted Sylvia.
This fight had been the best opportunity to backstab Shang and Jerald. Shang would have almost certainly died, and Sylvia would have thought that she would easily survive.
Yet, she hadn't betrayed them.
She had done exactly what had been asked of her, and she had helped Jerald and Shang eliminate a major threat.
There was no point in gaining their trust with this act for some act of betrayal later. This opportunity would have caused the most damage to Jerald.
This could only mean that Sylvia had truly joined their side without any scheme in mind.
Just as Shang and Sylvia entered the Cloud Serpent Zone, Shang's Communication Crystal rang.
"Are you done?" Jerald asked.
"Yes, the mission was a success," Shang answered.
Shang could hear a sigh from the other side. It seemed like Jerald had also had some worries regarding this mission.
"That's good," he said.
"How did it go on your end?" Shang asked.
"Everything went well," Jerald answered, and Shang could hear some satisfaction in his voice.
"You've waited a long time to do this, huh?" Shang asked with a small smirk.
"You have no idea," Jerald answered. "I'm so glad to finally be rid of that annoying pest."
As said previously, the Skythunder Kingdom had two Late High Mages that were not part of the Council.
Shang and Sylvia had dealt with one of them, Duke Blastfurnace.
And the other Late High Mage?
Well, it was none other than one of Shang's old 'acquaintances'.
Duke Mithril.
Shang still remembered all the trouble Duke Mithril had caused him and Jerald. Even when the Skythunder Kingdom had been relatively peaceful, Duke Mithril had still been a major pain in the ass.
He had sent traitors to Jerald's territory, and he had even set a high bounty on Shang's head.
All of this happened over 60 years ago.
And now, Duke Mithril had finally been killed.
Back then, Duke Mithril had been a Mid High Mage, but he had obviously made some progress over the last 60 years.
But that didn't matter anymore.
In comparison to Duke Blastfurnace, Duke Mithril had been stationed on the frontlines.
Jerald wasn't a big fan of attacking someone on the frontlines since the other Kingdoms were also his enemies, but his problems with Duke Mithril were personal.
He simply hated that guy.
"I noticed a Council member arriving with my Spirit Sense, but he didn't find us," Shang said.
"Makes sense," Jerald answered. "I'll meet you two back in the Empress Cobra Zone. I'm confident that the final battle will happen within the next 24 hours. The Council is on a timer, and they know that."
"I know," Shang answered. "We will be prepared."
"Hey, can you say hi to Jerald from me?" Sylvia asked from behind.
Shang's brows furrowed.
He didn't say anything for three seconds.
"Sylvia says hi," Shang said.
Silence.
Then, he noticed that the Communication Crystal had been deactivated for a while already.
When Shang had said that they would be prepared, Jerald had assumed that the conversation was over, and he had hung up.
Shang only looked forward with furrowed brows.
"He says hi back," Shang said.
"Count Sword, I can see if the Communication Crystal is active or not," Sylvia said with a giggle.
Shang slowly put the Communication Crystal away and only looked forward with an annoyed expression.
Sylvia only looked at him with amusement.
"Call me Shang."
"Hm?" Sylvia uttered.
"You've proven that you're trustworthy. You can call me by my name, Shang."
Sylvia only smiled. "Thank you, Shang."
Shang only nodded.
'That should take care of the awkwardness.'
Half a minute of silence passed.
"You're pretty powerful," Shang said.
"Thanks, Shang," Sylvia answered with a polite smile.
Another couple of seconds of silence passed.
"Sorry for being such an asshole earlier. I still didn't fully trust you," Shang said.
"Aw, that's nice to hear. Thanks, Shang," Sylvia said with a bright smile. "Mind if I ask you a question?"
"Go ahead," Shang said.
"How did you lose your eye, and can't you just recover it?" she asked.
Shang frowned.
"I fought an Abomination," Shang said.
Sylvia looked a bit uncomfortable. "I understand," she said with a sigh. "I've seen something similar before. I know of a True Mage that lost her left leg to an Abomination."
Shang didn't show it, but his interest was piqued.
"Is there a way to regrow such a lost part?" he asked.
If there were a way for Shang to regain his eye, he wouldn't say no.
Surprisingly, it wasn't that he missed his eye.
No, if he managed to regrow his eye, he would have something to sacrifice to Entropy again. He would only return to his current state, and he had gotten used to this state.
That could save Shang's life without severely impacting his future Battle-Strength.
Sylvia only shook her head. "No, we never found a way."
Shang took a deep breath, but he kept it hidden from Sylvia.
"But that doesn't mean that there is no way," Sylvia said. "After all, there is supposed to be an outside world, right? Maybe the Mages in the outside world found a way."
"Supposed to?" Shang asked.
"I mean, yeah. You and Jerald said so, right?" Sylvia added.
"You make it sound like you don't believe it," Shang answered.
Sylvia furrowed her brows. "It's not easy to simply accept something like this. If what you two said is true, it would mean that the entire world we know is only a weak, small part of the actual world."
"Think about it. After having reached the peak in power in the world and having believed yourself to be one of the strongest for maybe even centuries, it wouldn't be easy to accept that you have been wrong all this time."
"Most of the Council still believe that there has to be a different explanation. They refuse to believe that there is an outside world."
"The powerful Mage that beat the Storm Eagle could have been some powerful Mage that lived in seclusion and only comes out when the world is in danger."
"The same Mage could have also created the Star Map."
Shang's brows furrowed again.
"And the words of King Skythunder?" he asked.
"Well," Sylvia said as she trailed off. "King Skythunder is not the most trustworthy person. You saw him. It's likely that he would purposefully misrepresent the truth just to exhibit his power over us."
"It could also be that he and Jerald simply agreed on a lie before they met with the Council from back then regarding the Star Map. Also, I wasn't a member of the Council back then."
Shang looked back at Sylvia. "Is that why the Council believes that they still hold power over everything? They simply refuse to accept that they are not as powerful in the grand scheme of things as they believe they are?"
Sylvia raised an eyebrow. "Would you?"
"Yes," Shang said immediately.
Then, Shang looked forward again.
"That might actually not be such a bad thing."
