Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 1019: Not Enough to Win

Ethan's breathing sped up instantly.

He could feel it clearly—this wasn't a normal energy attack. It was a higher-order, rule-based strike. If those transparent pillars were allowed to fully come down, the defense network over the main city would get ripped apart in no time.

He adjusted his breathing at once, compressing and slicing the transparent lightning in his hands into dozens—then hundreds—of spinning Energy Discs, and whipped them out hard. The disc-shaped lightning blades dragged nearly invisible trails, spreading toward Kelaric like a massive hunter's net.

But the outcome was nowhere near as optimistic as Ethan had hoped.

Kelaric's power was suppressing him—obviously, brutally.

Countless transparent pillars crisscrossed the sky, dropping, twisting, and reforming. Energy poured out of Kelaric without end, and new fractures kept opening in the air as the entire heavens broke apart piece by piece.

Ethan's Energy Discs could slice through some of the pillars, but they couldn't stop the overall, crushing momentum behind the attack.

Very quickly, Ethan found himself forced backward again and again.

He'd already pushed his internal output to the limit. Transparent lightning layered in front of him, detonating in stacked bursts—yet he still couldn't truly halt Kelaric's advance.

This guy—

was absurdly strong.

Just as the situation was about to spiral out of control, two figures shot up from within the main city.

Dense, overwhelming auras erupted at the same time.

Desert Queen Kaelira and Queen Seraphine—one left, one right—charged into the sky. Without a single word exchanged, they struck together. Purple-red sovereign power collided with another force that was razor-sharp and pure, and the combined eruption forced Kelaric back several steps.

Ethan seized the opening immediately and withdrew fast.

He didn't try to show off. He used the gap to stabilize his breathing and rapidly repair the turbulence in his power structure after being suppressed head-on.

On the other side, Kelaric's expression darkened for the first time.

He stared coldly at the two queens who'd intervened, his voice now carrying clear irritation.

"Just now, he and I exchanged the rites of combat," he said slowly. "That was a one-on-one duel."

His gaze moved from Kaelira to Seraphine, eyes like ice.

"Outsiders do not interfere. You two stepping in—what is that supposed to mean? Are you looking to die?"

But the two queens didn't bother answering him.

No arguing. No wasted words.

They only continued pressing their power forward. Kaelira's purple-red imperial force and Seraphine's razor-edged battle aura meshed tightly. On their own, neither of them could truly suppress Kelaric—but together, they managed to barely grind it into a rough stalemate.

Still, Ethan knew—

that balance wouldn't last.

Kelaric was clearly still holding back. Kaelira and Seraphine were strong, but they didn't have a real advantage. If this dragged on, the side that would bleed first was probably his.

So Ethan's eyes flicked, calculating fast.

The next second, he turned and dropped onto the city wall.

Without the slightest hesitation, he sent a signal and called Idra, Auri, and Nysera over. Three small figures landed at his side in an instant, and Ethan didn't waste even a breath explaining before he fused with them directly.

A violent surge of power erupted from the wall.

This wasn't a simple boost in output anymore. It was a structural expansion that seemed to cover the entire sky. Transparent lightning, fused energies, and the unique power inside the three girls overlapped at once, forming wave after wave that pushed outward.

The aura was so strong—

that even the three people fighting in the sky all turned to look at the same time.

A short while later, Ethan rose back into the sky.

And this time, the power he was giving off made even Kelaric narrow his eyes.

"Didn't expect you to be hiding a card like that."

Up in the air, Kelaric's gaze locked onto Ethan. The mockery and playful contempt on his face finally disappeared completely. His voice wasn't lazy anymore—it sank into something low and dangerous, like real battle intent had finally been lit.

"In that case—there's no point in me holding back either."

The instant he finished speaking, the aura inside him abruptly changed.

This wasn't a simple increase in output.

It was closer to a shift in lifeform.

The first thing to change was his skeletal structure. A teeth-grinding twisting sound came from both sides of his shoulders and back. Then huge, pale bone spines thrust out from beneath his flesh, extending outward at high speed until they unfolded behind him into a pair of massive, savage skeletal wings.

At the same time, his body swelled rapidly.

Muscle, frame, energy density—everything climbed at once. That pressure that had already been dangerous now spread in an almost out-of-control surge, pushing in all directions. Even the sky around them trembled faintly, like it couldn't bear the sudden increase.

Ethan let out a slow breath and took half a step back.

The exaggerated transformation didn't rattle him. If anything, it snapped him into an even colder calm.

Near-transparent lightning flowed out of him in a steady, quiet stream, spreading along his arms, shoulders, and spine, weaving into an expanding thunder domain around his body.

The next second, both of them moved.

No probing. No extra setup. Almost in the same instant, their power collided head-on in the open sky.

Kelaric's origin force, carrying that oppressive sense of order, crashed into Ethan's almost transparent—but absurdly sharp—lightning. A harsh, deep roar detonated between them.

The entire sky shook.

Spatial cracks blew open layer after layer—then expanded again with the next collision.

Mountains, clouds, the silhouettes of distant defense towers, even the energy dome over Emerald Castle's main city—all of it flickered under the repeated shockwaves, like it could be flipped inside out at any moment.

No one knew how many direct clashes they traded before the two were finally blasted apart.

For a brief moment, the sky fell into a tense pause.

Ethan steadied himself, his chest rising and falling, his breathing noticeably heavier. He could feel it—his fused power was already being driven to the limit. And even so, he was only barely keeping things even.

This guy from Elysion was ridiculously strong.

Ethan was just about to wring even more out of himself and force another round of explosion—

when Kelaric suddenly pulled his aura back.

Those enormous bone wings slowly folded in. The surging energy around him calmed as well, as if the fight that had nearly shattered the sky had been nothing more than a warm-up he'd done on a whim.

"Man, that was satisfying." Kelaric looked at Ethan, something like appreciative excitement in his eyes. "I seriously didn't expect there'd be a place this interesting outside of Elysion."

As he spoke, he turned his body slightly, like he really was about to leave.

"But I'm on a schedule this time. I won't play with you any longer."

He lifted his chin, his gaze sweeping slowly over the Emerald Castle main city below, possession naked in his eyes.

"Next time I come back—this place will be my private property."

As soon as the words fell, Kelaric turned and left.

There was no hesitation, no dragging it out. In just a few steps, his figure became a streak of fast-moving light and vanished at the edge of the spatial turbulence on the horizon, leaving only a few lingering threads of otherworldly aura behind.