Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory

Ethan twisted his body immediately, trying to find an angle—any angle—where the giant dragon might be vulnerable enough to launch an attack.

But the space outside the cage was still rotating.

The dragon’s body still had no end.

And the Stellar Core had already cleared the bars, closing in. It hadn’t even reached them yet, and the pressure leaking out of it had already spread across the entire cage.

Seraphina’s wings sank under the weight.

Everyone’s breathing got pinned to their chests.

The stench of death smothered them whole.

Seraphina beat her wings hard. Her massive dragon body whipped around inside the prison, carrying everyone on her back as she tried to dodge the Stellar Core’s original trajectory.

Each wingbeat churned the stagnant air into violent turbulence. But no matter which direction she fled, the distant space shifted with her—as if the cage itself were sliding. The hyper-compressed Stellar Core stayed locked onto them, steadily tracking from behind.

Seraphine raised both hands.

Golden light spread from her palms to either side, sweeping over Seraphina’s horns and wings until it formed a shield around everyone. The Stellar Core still hadn’t arrived, yet its pressure slammed into the barrier first, sending ripples across the gold like water struck by a stone.

And Ethan vanished.

All that remained on Seraphina’s back were a few black particles that hadn’t fully dispersed.

The next instant, those particles regrouped in front of the Stellar Core, sketching Ethan’s body back into existence.

He hovered directly in its path and studied it at close range.

The Stellar Core’s outer layer was wrapped in compressed light, smooth and flawless—no cracks visible. Inside, energy rotated at terrifying density. Each flow tugged at nearby space; even the corner of Ethan’s robe was pulled toward it by that gravitational drag.

For them...

This kind of energy body was almost perfect.

Ethan raised a hand. White lightning shot from his palm.

The current didn’t smash against the shell. It slipped into the constantly shrinking "seams" of energy around it, threading inside. White light pierced the outer layer, scattering through the sphere and racing along the internal flows, hunting for whatever core kept it running.

Ethan closed his eyes, reading every tiny change fed back through the lightning.

Nothing.

The Stellar Core held an absurd amount of power, but there was no fixed core—no independent source inside it at all. Everything was maintained from the outside, energy layers squeezing and spinning against each other until they formed this ultra-condensed sphere.

Ethan opened his eyes and looked up beyond the bars.

If the Stellar Core had a "source," then there was only one answer left—

—the dragon watching them with its head lowered.

"So big."

Ethan looked along the dragon’s head and to both sides, and still couldn’t see the end of Vhalrath’s body.

"How’d it pick us? Did we ever piss it off? Or is it just bored out of its mind?"

Vhalrath, the Starfall Void Dragon.

A creature that lived within space itself, roaming year-round through layers of overlapping dimensions. It loved watching strange new life... and it loved toying with, and devouring, anything that caught its interest.

Right now, the people in the cage were clearly its newest toys.

Ethan pulled his gaze back and stared coldly at the Stellar Core as it kept bearing down.

He didn’t dodge.

The outer gravity touched him first, tugging at his hair and clothes. Then the Stellar Core arrived with warped space wrapped around it, and that massive energy slammed straight into his chest.

Darkness and light rose at the same time around Ethan.

Two shields—one inner, one outer—formed over him. The dark power clung tight to his body, while the light expanded outward, meeting the Stellar Core’s pressure head-on.

A blinding flare erupted at the point of impact.

Ethan was forced backward, sliding through the air—but he stayed right in front of the sphere instead of being blown away.

Ataneya instantly spread her huge fox tails.

Several tails shot out from Seraphina’s back, pushing past the golden shield as they tried to wrap around Ethan and yank him out of the Stellar Core’s line.

Seraphina stopped running.

She forced herself to turn in midair, wings spreading wide. Compared to this Stellar Core, any "escape route" behind them didn’t matter anymore.

What mattered was Ethan.

She let out an urgent dragon cry and drove her massive body into the gravity, charging toward him.

Outside the cage, Vhalrath watched their reaction. The interest in its eye slowly turned into weary annoyance.

It muttered a few curses, its huge voice rumbling through the prison and making the bars tremble faintly.

What was wrong with these creatures?

Couldn’t they just let it play for a bit?

"You ants... you really want to die that badly?"

Vhalrath pressed its head closer to the cage. The airflow from its breath forced through the bars and detonated into a storm inside.

"Let me play with you properly. Let you die without pain. Isn’t that better?"

As it spoke, a new power spilled from its claw.

It didn’t strike them directly. It crossed the cage, followed the connection between Vhalrath and the Stellar Core, and poured into the sphere.

The energy that had been stabilizing surged again.

Light on the Stellar Core’s surface pulled inward. Space around it twisted harder, tighter.

Ethan, pinned in front of it, felt that change—and at last, a flicker of delight cut through his eyes.

That’s what I was waiting for.

Good. Nice and obedient.

The white lightning hidden inside the Stellar Core moved instantly.

Currents that had been scattered throughout the sphere converged on a single point. They didn’t try to swallow the sphere’s existing power. Instead, they wrapped around the new energy Vhalrath had just fed in, then stitched it into the Stellar Core’s original structure.

A tiny pop sounded from inside the sphere.

So soft it was almost drowned out by the crushing wind pressure.

But a heartbeat later, a crack appeared on the Stellar Core’s surface.

It started where the white lightning had gathered, then raced across the shell. With the casing no longer intact, the ultra-compressed energy inside immediately collapsed toward the fracture.

A savage gravitational pull erupted from the crack.

Ethan was the closest. His body was yanked toward the sphere first. Seraphina, Ataneya, and everyone under the shield couldn’t avoid it either—everyone was dragged toward the Stellar Core.

There was nothing to brace against.

Their bodies slid forward through the air inside the cage. Even Seraphine’s spread wings were pulled inward, bending toward the sphere.

Just a little longer.

Almost there.

Ethan closed his eyes. He extended his left arm straight out, five fingers aimed at the cracking Stellar Core. His right hand clamped down on his left forearm, stabilizing himself against the tug.

Inside the sphere, the white lightning orbs began to split.

One became two.

Two peeled off in different directions, following the internal currents until they reached various points throughout the Stellar Core.

Ethan curled his fingers.

The split lightning orbs detonated at the same time.

Electric light blasted outward from inside the sphere. The single crack instantly multiplied into dozens. The Stellar Core’s internal energy lost balance, and the collapsing gravity began lurching, jerking from one direction to another.

Seraphina finally reached Ethan.

She didn’t try to grab him with a claw. She simply threw her enormous dragon body between Ethan and the Stellar Core. Her wings folded inward, wrapping him completely against her, shielding him in her embrace.

Gravity scraped across her scales with dense, harsh friction—like metal grinding on stone.