The Lightning Emperor sighed again, something he had been doing quite a lot in the past minutes.
"I assume you know about the lack of Mana?" he asked.
Shang nodded. "I was under the assumption that there was only enough Mana left to let one Mage Emperor survive if I want to become a God, and maybe not even that since the Abominations might have consumed even more Mana."
The Lightning Emperor nodded solemnly. "That's right, but that's only true when you are not willing to sacrifice a big group of people for your goal. Lucius was a kind man that wasn't the biggest fan of killing."
"I assume this isn't a problem for you?"
"It isn't," Shang answered emotionlessly.
"To become a God, you need to absorb ten Emperor's worth of Mana."
"In total, there are 16 Emperor's worth of Mana in the entirety of Aterium currently," the Lightning Emperor said.
"16?" Shang asked. "That's more than I expected."
The Lightning Emperor nodded. "There are eleven Emperors-"
"Wait, eleven?" Shang asked. "I thought there were only ten."
"There are nine Empires with ten Emperors, but there is one more Emperor who isn't very known. He was the only Emperor that Lucius left alive back then."
"His title is the Archivist, and he lives on one of the islands of the Beast Kings. He has dedicated his entire life to witnessing the progress of the world and archiving all the knowledge."
"He wanders the world from time to time, but he never kills anything or influences anyone. He just watches and documents. Not many people know that he exists, and he wants to keep it this way."
"Nevertheless, he is still an Emperor and a pretty strong one at that. I don't think any of us could win against him in a fair duel."
Shang nodded.
"So, there are eleven Emperors who make up eleven Emperor's worth of Mana."
"All the Mage Kings combined make up another two."
"If we were to convert all the water in the endless ocean into Mana, that would be another Emperor."
"The islands and Aterium itself make up another two."
"And all the remaining living beings and the atmosphere itself would barely make up around 70% of another Emperor."
"In total, that's a bit more than 16 Emperors in Mana."
"Since converting mass into pure Mana is extremely difficult, the three portions comprising the ocean and the continent are inaccessible to you."
"So, if you were willing to kill all the Mage Kings and a couple of Mage Lords, you could spare two additional Emperors, leaving you with a total of three survivors besides yourself."
Shang just nodded absentmindedly.
"I have no problems with fulfilling that request," Shang said. "You have the power to kill me, but instead of doing so, you are willing to support me."
"I might not care about many people, but I have no problems with agreements."
"I was with the Temple of Blood for centuries, and they knew a lot about me, but I don't have any desire to destroy them. It was a cooperation, nothing more."
"You invested in me today, and I will pay that investment back in the future," Shang said.
The Lightning Emperor smiled in a friendly manner and nodded.
The world has resonated with Shang's statement.
Shang might not be close to anyone else, but that didn't mean that it was impossible to work with him.
Shang made the Temple of Blood a lot of money.
"Then, we have an agreement," the Lightning Emperor said.
"We do," Shang said with a nod.
"I'm going to inform Wester about everything. He will inform you about everything."
Shang took the cue and stood up from his chair. "Thank you," he said as he turned around to walk towards the door.
Shang opened the door and walked out.
The Custodian stood in the hallway with a professional expression.
He nodded once toward Shang and stepped into the study. "I will be back shortly," he told Shang before closing the door.
Inside the study, Wester raised an eyebrow as he looked at the smiling Lightning Emperor.
"Oh, Wester, what brings you here?" the Lightning Emperor asked with a smile.
"I assume we are keeping the warrior alive?" he asked.
"Oh, yes, yes!" the Lightning Emperor said with two nods. "Shang is quite a peculiar person. When I first investigated him, I misread him a little bit."
Wester's raised eyebrow rose further. "Misread?" he asked skeptically.
"Well, not really misread," the Lightning Emperor said. "I was accurate, but after talking with him, I found more information. You can view it like gaining context regarding his personality."
"Context?" Wester asked with a flat voice.
"Yep," the Lightning Emperor said. "He actually isn't that bad. While that kid doesn't seem human at all, Shang actually has a human core and human desires. Additionally, he keeps to his word as long as you don't betray him first."
"I think having him as an additional King shouldn't be that big of a risk, while his power and existence will severely restrict that kid's ambition and power."
"If we can get Shang to become a King, he can fight that kid, and if he wins, we can argue against that kid becoming an Emperor," the Lightning Emperor said with a bright smile.
"So," Wester said slowly, "you decided to use him against King Sanctified Death after all?"
The Lightning Emperor nodded. "They both have a sixfold Spirit Sense."
"What if they become allies instead?" Wester asked.
"Won't happen," the Lightning Emperor said with a chuckle.
"Are you sure?" Wester asked.
"Yep," the Lightning Emperor answered.
After that, the Lightning Emperor gave Wester instructions on what to do with Shang in the immediate future.
Eventually, Wester left.
After Wester left, the Lightning Emperor just smiled brightly as he closed his eyes.
"New worlds," he muttered.
"New adventures."
"Lucius might no longer be here, but there's still more to discover out there."
"I hope he manages to pull it off."
"I finally want to get out of this grey prison and have more adventures!"
