Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory

And inside Vhalrath’s body, Ethan’s own problem still hadn’t been solved.

The one blocking his path... was himself.

A gray-black shadow stood in front of him.

It had Ethan’s exact build and outline, down to the smallest proportions—but there was no face. Its "skin" was nothing but dark, flowing patterns, like ink drifting under glass.

When Ethan first stepped into this space made entirely of doors, a beam of light had shone down from above.

That light swept over his body—and threw his shadow onto the ground.

The next instant, the shadow that had been lying flat on the floor stood up.

It didn’t give Ethan even a heartbeat to study it. Both hands shot out and clamped around his throat. Gray-black fingers tightened without mercy, crushing his windpipe. Ethan’s breathing was cut off almost immediately.

His feet lifted off the ground, and under the shadow’s pressure his body started to go limp, strength draining fast.

If Auri, Idra, Nysera, and Anya hadn’t released energy inside him at the same time—blasting the shadow’s hands apart—Ethan would’ve likely been strangled to death by his own shadow.

"What the hell is this thing?"

Ethan rubbed his neck, which still throbbed with pain.

"Just getting hit by a light makes a copy that can block me?"

The gray-black shadow didn’t answer.

It raised a hand. The same white lightning Ethan used sparked into existence in its palm—only the instant the arc formed, the color shifted.

The pure white thunderlight was stained into a violent, raging red.

Red lightning snapped up its arm, crackling with sharp, piercing detonations. It could imitate Ethan’s power, but unlike Ethan, it didn’t turn its body into black particles.

Ethan lowered his gaze to check himself.

The shadow hadn’t been touching him for long, but a patch of gray-black had already appeared across his chest. The mark was spreading outward over his skin. Wherever it passed, flesh and energy alike lost their original color.

He could feel it—his body was being assimilated.

If he let it keep going, he might end up becoming part of that shadow.

Ethan immediately formed an energy sphere in his palm.

He didn’t throw it at the enemy.

He slammed it straight into his own chest.

Boom!

The energy detonated on contact.

White lightning drilled inward along the gray-black mark, and at the same time Ethan shifted into his black particle state. The particle form made the assimilated area temporarily lose its fixed structure—and the dark mark collapsed and scattered.

When Ethan re-formed his body, his chest was back to normal.

"What are you?"

He stared at the shadow as he spoke.

The gray-black shadow still didn’t answer.

It copied what Ethan had just done—condensing a savage red energy sphere in its palm, then without hesitation smashing it into its own chest.

Red light exploded.

Its body was blown apart on the spot, shattered by its own power. Gray-black fragments sprayed outward and slammed into door after door, all tightly closed.

But not long after, those fragments started pulling back toward the center.

The gray-black body assembled again.

Ethan stood off to the side, his expression... complicated.

He had no desire to learn that kind of self-destruction trick. But after entering his gene-transformation state, his body was still instinctively recording every change the shadow made.

And because of that, he noticed something he’d missed before.

Inside the shadow’s body, there was a bright red crystal orb.

It sat in the center of its chest, wrapped in gray-black substance. Every so often it would contract, then expand again—steady, rhythmic, like a human heart.

It was way too obvious.

Noticing Ethan had stopped moving, the shadow lifted both hands again.

A violent red crystal orb formed in its left hand. In its right, a Stellar Core appeared. Two completely different energies rose together—then it hurled both toward particle-form Ethan.

The red crystal orb detonated first.

Right after, the Stellar Core released its space-compressing force.

But against Ethan’s black particle state, the attack didn’t land in any meaningful way. The energies passed through the gaps between particles. The explosion blew apart several nearby doors, but it didn’t hit anything you could call a "body."

As Ethan slipped past the attack, a thought sparked in his mind.

If he absorbed this shadow... would its power become his power too?

Once the idea took hold, he didn’t hesitate.

If he was going to do it, he was going to do it now.

White lightning gathered at Ethan’s chest.

Instead of releasing outward, the arcs compressed into the center of his body. Then an outer layer of energy formed around the white lightning like a shell, stabilizing it.

The shadow didn’t wait either.

It smashed its newly formed Stellar Core toward Ethan.

As for the red energy sphere in its other hand, it had clearly judged that it couldn’t hurt a particle body—so it opened its mouth and swallowed it whole.

After the red sphere entered the shadow, it didn’t explode like before.

A long, drawn-out hum vibrated from its chest.

Then the Stellar Core’s power fully expanded around it. Space was sliced into crisp, layered segments, and the gray-black body stood in the middle of those staggered planes like it belonged there.

The shadow raised a hand.

Spatial force condensed in its palm into a blade.

The moment the edge appeared, the surrounding space itself retreated to either side. Nothing with structure dared remain in its path.

The space blade slashed horizontally.

Doorframes and spatial barriers were cut open with ease. There were no fragments at the break—just smooth, black gaps, clean as a void.

But Ethan, in his gene-data state, wasn’t something you could cut apart that easily.

The blade passed through the black particles again and again.

The spatial barrier couldn’t withstand that power, but Ethan’s particle body didn’t take real damage. The particles were shoved aside by each strike—then quickly flowed back together.

After watching a few exchanges, Ethan’s judgment solidified.

This shadow was a lot like Maelor from earlier.

Its dodges and movement were nearly flawless, and it was hard as hell to catch—but its attacks weren’t strong enough to outright suppress him. Calling it "trouble" was fair. Calling it "simple" wasn’t wrong either—if you found the right way in, it was still solvable.

All he needed was a little cleverness.

Ethan deliberately exited his black particle form.

The tiny particles gathered back together in mid-space, rebuilding into a human body. He didn’t raise a shield. He didn’t take a defensive stance. He just stood there in front of the shadow—wide open.

Then he spread his arms.

Like he was welcoming his own shadow in.

The gray-black shadow didn’t move right away.

It held position, the space blade still stretched across its front. The bright red crystal orb in its chest kept beating, steady and insistent—proof it didn’t fully trust Ethan’s sudden surrender.

Ethan didn’t rush it.

He slowly closed his eyes.

At his chest, the energy sphere wrapping his white lightning deliberately leaked a thin thread of presence. That power slipped past his skin and drifted toward the shadow, a blatant, unmistakable provocation.

The shadow’s chest orb contracted once.

The red glow intensified with it.

It was like it finally got angry.

Ethan didn’t go looking for it—Ethan was coming to pick a fight.

Then fine.

Cut him down.

The shadow loosened its grip on the space blade with both hands.

The blade, no longer controlled, hovered in place, still carving at the space around it. Meanwhile, the bright red core inside the shadow flared like a Stellar Core, light punching through its gray-black body until its entire torso was lit from within.

Both its arms began to change.

Its palms and fingers stretched forward. Gray-black energy spun at high speed around its wrists, tightening and shaping—until it became two sharp drill heads.

Red lightning danced across the drills’ surfaces, snapping and twitching nonstop.