Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory

Ethan walked to the second door.

Same result.

The moment it opened, the outside was still the same cage—only the exit point had shifted. He tried again and again. Every door sent him back into the cage. Not one of them actually led to Vhalrath’s core.

Ethan didn’t give up.

If these doors belonged to the space inside Vhalrath, then the real route had to be hidden in here too. He closed his eyes and spread his perception outward, feeling through layers of stacked space, searching for a passage that went deeper.

Before he could find it, a figure blocked his way.

At the same time, the battle outside had already detonated.

Kaelira shoved both hands forward. A purple-red fireball tore open space and hit Vhalrath’s position head-on. The flames compressed inside it burst free instantly, purple-red light spreading outward and warping the nearby space as it burned.

But when the fire cleared, Kaelira didn’t see that enormous dragon body.

Standing in front of her was a monster—roughly the size of Maelor’s humanoid form.

Vhalrath’s shrunken body kept a humanoid outline, but its limbs and torso were still covered in deep blue scales. Stranger still, it had no normal head.

A Stellar Core had replaced it.

Deep blue energy rotated slowly inside the sphere, the compressed light within it occasionally pulling inward like it was breathing. It had no eyes. No mouth. And yet its voice came straight from inside the Stellar Core.

The moment Kaelira saw it clearly, she stalled in midair.

A wave of nausea rolled up from her gut.

She forced it down, but the purple-red light in her eyes only burned hotter for it. Power poured out through her arms, and the flames crossed the gap between her and Catheryn, merging with the darkness Catheryn released.

"Ugly as hell, and you still have the nerve to come out and cause trouble?"

Kaelira stared at Vhalrath’s Stellar Core "head," the disgust in her voice so thick it almost had weight.

"Could you at least make yourself look better?"

Vhalrath lowered its gaze, examining its own body.

It clearly hadn’t expected the creatures fighting it to care about the enemy’s appearance.

And besides—this humanoid aesthetic was something it had picked up from another dragon.

"Don’t you think it’s a surprise?"

Vhalrath lifted its scaled hands and turned once in place, showing itself off.

"I think that dragon was right. I look... pretty decent like this, don’t I?"

Catheryn’s expression didn’t change.

A strand of black mist rose beside her and covered her eyes, blocking Vhalrath’s appearance entirely.

If she couldn’t see it, it was fine.

Kaelira didn’t have that kind of calm.

The savage power inside her erupted outward. The phoenix projection behind her beat its wings violently, flames climbing higher and higher along them in layered surges.

"Can’t you just die already?!"

Kaelira pointed at Vhalrath, purple-red fire gathering nonstop at her fingertip.

"Which dead dragon gave you this idea? I swear I’ll chop it up!"

Vhalrath’s Stellar Core head turned slightly.

A new interest sparked.

"You want to fight it?"

Space power spread from its shoulders, forming a ring of deep blue ripples at its side.

"Sure."

Vhalrath whispered, almost laughing.

"I’ll allow it."

Teal scales surfaced inside the ripple.

First came dragon claws—then scaled arms, a torso, wings. A gust of wild wind burst from the spatial tear, pushing the purple-red flames outward.

A teal giant dragon re-formed beside Vhalrath.

Its eyes glowed red, horns curved back, and every structure of its body matched the Maelor dragon form from before.

Maelor.

Kaelira recognized it instantly.

"So you’re the one who came up with that trash idea?"

Her power snapped into her hands. A huge purple-red energy sphere formed in front of her, flames spinning around it at high speed, burning dense cracks into the space around it.

Kaelira swung her arms forward.

The sphere broke the sound barrier, dragging a circular shock ring as it blasted toward Maelor.

"Let’s see if I cut you or not—just watch!"

The red glow in Maelor’s eyes spiked.

Its body jerked violently, and the space power wrapped around it fell into brief disorder. The teal claw stretched forward, space tightening near the tips as a pulse gathered along the arm.

Then the gale hit Kaelira head-on.

Wind and spatial force overlapped, forming a constantly twisting attack path. The purple-red flames along the route got split apart and whipped to both sides.

Catheryn caught the wrongness fast.

Maelor looked like it was struggling against Vhalrath’s control, but every movement still carried an unnaturally neat rhythm. Raising its claw. Gathering power. Releasing the strike. None of it felt like true will.

Catheryn turned her head toward Vhalrath.

That Stellar Core head was aimed straight at Kaelira.

Even without a face, Catheryn could feel it grinning.

Maelor was still being directly controlled by Vhalrath.

"Kaelira!"

Catheryn’s darkness shot out toward her partner.

"Get away from there!"

Kaelira turned her head, confused.

She didn’t understand why Catheryn suddenly stopped her, suspicion written plain in her eyes. But they’d fought side by side for too long for her to ignore the warning completely.

Kaelira halted her advance.

At the same time, she flicked another purple-red energy sphere at Vhalrath from her fingertips.

That single hesitation—and the time it took to throw the attack—made her miss her best window to retreat.

Vhalrath tilted its Stellar Core head slightly, like it couldn’t understand why Kaelira had suddenly stopped.

Then it looked toward Catheryn hidden in the darkness.

But the force controlling Maelor never broke.

Deep blue light ignited inside the teal dragon’s body.

Space power spread outward along every scale, and the stable structure of Maelor’s body began to collapse from the inside.

Catheryn’s pupils tightened.

"Kaelira—"

Boom!

Maelor’s dragon body exploded right in front of her.

Teal scales and deep blue shards blasted outward, eerily similar to the fragments of a shattered Stellar Core. Every piece carried spatial force. As they passed Kaelira, they vanished again in an instant—leaving nothing solid to block, nothing to grab.

The blast wave hit Kaelira head-on.

She got flipped by the impact, losing balance and tumbling repeatedly through the air. Vhalrath’s spatial power rode the explosion straight into her body, tearing through her energy channels like it owned the place.

Kaelira was launched out of the center of the fight, slammed all the way toward the outer barrier.

Bang!

Her back struck the shield. Purple-red light spilled outward from the contact point. She stuck to it for a brief instant—then slid down.

Blood spilled from her mouth.

Catheryn’s body dissolved into black mist immediately.

The deep black aura crossed the lingering spatial turbulence and re-formed beside Kaelira. Catheryn caught her, darkness spreading across Kaelira’s skin, trying to suppress the spatial power still ripping through her from the inside.

In the distance, Vhalrath chuckled softly.

It started walking, strolling through layered space like it had nowhere better to be. With each step, a deep blue platform appeared under its foot—existing just long enough to support its weight.

After a few steps, a spatial throne formed behind it.

Vhalrath leaned back into it, arms resting on both sides.

It didn’t attack again.

It simply waited—quietly—for the rest of those "ants" to come rushing over to rescue their own.

Catheryn’s power, though, didn’t settle.

One hand held Kaelira up. The other reached outward. The darkness inside the cage responded to her pull, closing in on her from every direction.

Deep black streams flowed past her arm and poured into the core inside her body.