Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory

Ethan frowned as he stared at the army that had appeared out of nowhere, his gaze flicking over their formation, their banners, and the energy surging off them in waves. It only took a moment for him to recognize the figure charging at the very front.

Korvath.

He’d actually brought people and cut his way in.

Ethan’s heart kicked—but he didn’t relax. Korvath’s forces were definitely allies, and they weren’t weak either. Especially the warriors in the front line: every time they slammed forward, they battered the enemy’s Powered Combat Armor hard enough to make it tilt back.

But Azrakar’s army... an army that kept regenerating under that Nirvana power... made everything Korvath was throwing out look thin. Too thin.

If this dragged on, Korvath’s people were going to get swallowed whole.

At this point, Ethan couldn’t afford to keep hiding behind the barrier and slowly grinding them down.

"Open the barrier!"

The moment the order went out, everyone in Emerald Castle moved. A breach snapped open at the front of the defensive shield. Sky Fortress rose first, lifting into the air as its cannons spat out the light they’d been holding back. Fallen Star Guard surged out from both flanks, Powered Combat Armor close behind. Every newly summoned unit was folded into the line as well, the entire formation pressing outward.

Violent energy erupted between heaven and earth.

The instant the barrier opened, the battlefield—already chaos—was torn apart again by Emerald Castle’s power. Transparent lightning, scarlet energy, golden runes, and the gleam of mineral-vein light all crashed into the enemy ranks at once. The surrounding space immediately spiderwebbed with dense cracks.

From the very first second, the fight hit boiling point.

Ethan went straight for Azrakar.

Azrakar hovered high in the sky, his entire body wrapped in newly formed Powered Combat Armor. The blue core in his abdomen pulsed nonstop. Nirvana energy coiled around him like an eternal flame of life that refused to go out. Every time his aura wavered even slightly, that blue core patched the gap, forcing his power back to its peak.

He only lifted a palm.

The space around him twisted instantly.

That pressure slammed down on Ethan like countless fine chains snapping tight around his limbs and spine at the same time. Ethan sucked in a breath and stepped back half a pace. Transparent lightning and Infernal Primordial Power poured out of him together, a tide that surged up to meet the crushing force head-on.

But from the start, he was on the losing end.

Azrakar’s reborn strength was too much. Even a stray ripple from him could warp the space nearby. Worse, that bizarre Nirvana energy clung to Ethan’s defenses like it was alive—slipping into the tiniest seams, trying to wrap him up completely.

Ethan’s breathing grew sharper, faster.

Transparent lightning kept detonating... only to be forced back against the surface of his body again and again. His bones ground with a faint, sickening rasp. The energy core he’d just swallowed was still feeding him power, but it was nowhere near enough to keep up with the pressure Azrakar was stacking on him.

At this rate...

He really might die here.

And then—suddenly—the world shook with a surge of power so overwhelming it felt like the sky itself flinched.

Snow-white lightning dropped from above.

Lily was already hovering over the battlefield, though Ethan hadn’t even seen her move. She stood between shattered clouds, pale thunderlight flowing around her in slow, steady currents. Her eyes were cold as she looked down at Azrakar.

The moment she appeared, the Nirvana energy around Azrakar stuttered—just for an instant.

Boom!

A terrifying presence poured out of Lily in an unbroken flood, pressing down like a whole new sky. The snow-white lightning didn’t simply strike Azrakar. It locked down the space around him first—

then squeezed in from every direction at once.

Azrakar didn’t even get the chance to counterattack before that force blasted him backward—dozens of steps through the air.

The blue core in his abdomen flickered violently. Fine cracks crawled across the surface of his newly formed Powered Combat Armor, and the Nirvana power that had been crushing Ethan a moment ago was forced to shrink back into his body.

Lily stared at him, her voice edged with ice-cold mockery.

"Never thought I’d see your species still crawling around in this world."

Her snow-white lightning spread across the sky like veins of light, sealing off every escape route around Azrakar inch by inch.

"I figured you’d been wiped out completely back then."

Azrakar’s eyes flew wide.

For the first time, real terror showed on his face.

Even when he’d been facing Ethan and Ataneya, he hadn’t looked like this. But the instant he heard Lily’s words, it was like he’d been nailed in place—so stiff even the flow of Nirvana energy around him turned chaotic.

The next moment, he retreated without hesitation.

At the same time, he forcibly reined in his power, shoving all that outward-spilling Nirvana energy back into the Powered Combat Armor, trying to erase his traces before Lily could lock onto him.

It didn’t matter.

Lily wasn’t going to let him run.

Snow-white lightning kept surging. In seconds it dropped from the heights and became a massive prison of thunder, swallowing Azrakar whole. Every time the cage tightened, another crack split open in his armor, and the blue core in his abdomen answered with an unstable, trembling hum.

Lily lifted a hand.

She was going to finish him.

Then—

Not far away, the sky rippled with a bizarre wave of energy.

It slammed in from the distance, carrying a Nirvana aura similar to Azrakar’s—only heavier, more tyrannical. It tore through the chaos of the battlefield, carving out a path as it shot straight toward Lily and Azrakar.

A towering figure appeared in the sky.

He was even larger than Azrakar, and the energy pouring off him felt like a weight pressing down on everything beneath. Nirvana power layered behind him into stacked, radiant flames. With every pulse, the surrounding space shuddered as if it were snapping back from the impact.

He looked at Lily, and his voice was naked with killing intent.

"I thought some big shot had shown up in this world."

He let out a cold laugh.

"Turns out it’s you."

His gaze clamped onto Lily like a vice.

"You damn woman. Let my man go—now. Otherwise today is your death day."

Lily’s expression didn’t shift even a fraction.

She only raised her palm.

Snow-white energy gathered in her hand—then detonated outward. The thunderlight came down like a flood pouring from the heavens, swallowing the sky as it roared toward the newly arrived giant.

The man narrowed his eyes.

His aura exploded outward. Nirvana power and something older—ancient, heavy—twined together behind him, rapidly condensing into a massive phoenix phantom.

The phoenix spread its wings. Its feathers were made of blue and red-gold flames, and a savage Nirvana presence burned thickly in its chest. It threw its head back in a silent scream—

then rammed straight into Lily’s snow-white lightning.

The two forces collided in midair.

White lightning shredded the phoenix’s wings. The phoenix answered by repairing the tears with Nirvana fire over and over. Each rip and reconstruction blew open huge fractures in the sky. The cracks multiplied and spread outward, so dense it looked like the whole world was about to be sliced into pieces.