Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory

Ethan stepped into the middle of the group, his gaze sweeping over every face.

"You guys okay?"

The worry in his voice was obvious.

"Do you feel like there’s... anything extra inside you? Anything off?"

His eyes lingered on Feylora a little longer than the others.

She was their core support—the one who’d been healing and refilling everyone nonstop—and she’d also burned through the most. If that brain had gotten into her, everything they did next would turn dangerous fast.

Feylora checked the life energy inside her and shook her head gently.

The others looked each other over too, confirming their minds, their power, and their bodies all felt normal.

After a short discussion, they reached an agreement quickly.

Cross the desert.

Move out immediately.

But once they actually started walking, they realized it wasn’t that simple.

Supplies mattered in a desert.

Food could be improvised if they had to, but water couldn’t. The brutal sun kept draining their stamina, and even the air felt like it was burning.

So they weren’t really "crossing" the desert so much as scrambling around trying to find water.

They asked around where they could, read the terrain, hunted for scattered traces that suggested people might live nearby. After a long search, the outline of a large cluster of buildings finally appeared ahead.

Ethan lifted a hand to block the glare and squinted.

The first thing that came into view was a massive sphinx.

Half-buried in yellow sand, its huge head faced the distance, its surface worn down by endless wind and grit. Behind it, pyramids rose from the dunes.

Big, small, tall, squat.

So many it was like building them had cost nothing at all.

Ethan glanced around.

"So is this a village..."

His eyes slid back to the dense field of pointed structures.

"...or a whole pyramid complex?"

No one answered.

Because the nearest pyramid was already moving.

A heavy stone door began to open along the ground.

Stone scraped against stone, a low grinding sound rolling across the desert. There weren’t any residents waiting behind it to welcome guests—

Just a tide of gold, writhing in the dark.

Countless small snakes crawled out.

They poured together in a dense mass, their scales reflecting the sun until every one of them looked like a strip of flowing metal. They spilled down the steps and onto the sand, spreading until the area around the entrance was carpeted in living gold.

The group watched, and... there wasn’t much fear in their eyes.

Snakes.

Alive.

Full of moisture.

To people who were running out of water, these weren’t monsters.

This was a field of treasure.

Ethan was just about to step forward when a burst of flame lit up in the middle of the snake swarm.

The fire clung to one golden snake first—then raced outward.

Scales flared bright under the burn. Huge sections of the swarm twisted in the flames, and the air filled with the sharp stink of scorching.

The blaze swelled.

Only when it looked like the center of the swarm was about to be wiped out did Ethan react—snapping his head around toward the people behind him.

The flames stopped.

All that was left in the center was a patch of blackened sand. The snakes there were already gone. Luckily, the outer swarm hadn’t been exposed for long—most of them were still alive.

Good.

At least they hadn’t all been cooked.

Andona unfolded ten pairs of wings.

Golden feathers spread wide under the sun, her radiance so bright it nearly outshone the sky itself. She rose into the air beside them, and Light Force spilled downward from her wings like a gentle rain.

Holy power sank into every golden snake with precision.

At first the swarm still writhed and struggled, but as the golden light continued to seep in, impurities—and poison—were drawn out from beneath their scales. Some snakes spat out black liquid onto the sand, and it quickly lost its foul stench.

Their bodies were strong enough.

Even if the snakes were venomous, they could probably handle it.

But if they could drink something clean... why drink something poisonous?

Andona-brand purifier: officially online.

With the water problem temporarily handled, nobody wanted to keep standing under the blazing sun.

There was no village. No oasis.

Just sand, the sphinx, and pyramids as far as they could see.

So the obvious choice was to go inside one and cool off.

From high above, you’d see it clearly: they were standing near the center of the entire desert.

This was the Kaserita Desert.

And the pyramid they entered was the largest one in Kaserita.

After the last soldier passed through the entrance, the heavy stone door rumbled shut.

At the same time, the smaller pyramids scattered around the outskirts began to move. There was no violent shaking—just a steady glide across the sand toward the center, inching closer and closer to the largest pyramid.

Inside, it was much cooler.

They walked down a wide corridor. The walls were stacked from enormous stone blocks, and every so often a faint line of light seeped through gaps in the masonry.

Ethan led from the front. His boot suddenly bumped something hard.

He looked down and kicked at it twice.

A gust from deeper in the corridor swept away the sand on top, revealing a sign stuck into the ground at an angle.

Large, clear characters were carved across the top.

—Ascension Pyramid.

Below it was a warning:

To those who come after:

Do not enter. Do not take anything inside. And absolutely do not take this sign.

Remember! Remember! Remember!

Important things get said three times!

Ethan finished reading, then glanced back at the stone door behind them—now completely sealed.

This desert was barren as hell.

What could possibly happen inside an empty pyramid?

It wasn’t like there’d suddenly be guns and artillery and they’d get blasted back outside, right?

Probably not.

Auri was perched on top of Feylora’s head.

The two of them looked at Ethan with the exact same exhausted, please shut up expression.

The others quietly sped up, too.

They really didn’t want to listen to Ethan’s jinxing any longer.

Turns out, there really weren’t any guns ahead.

What appeared around the corridor’s next bend was a gnoll.

It had a thick, muscular humanoid body, but its head was unmistakably canine—broad muzzle, sharp teeth showing at the sides, rough armor strapped across its frame.

And the most eye-catching part was the weapon in its hands.

The thing was weirdly built—neither a normal blade nor a spear. Several pieces of metal were bolted together at odd angles, and when it moved, the parts knocked into each other with a crisp, clinking rattle.