Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 1023: Into the Oblivion Sea

At the same time—

over on Emerald Castle's side, it was just as frantic and blazing with momentum.

Massive warships and Sky Fortresses hovered high overhead, energy patterns on their hulls flashing constantly. Smaller fortresses and ships wove back and forth in numbers too great to count.

The main city looked more like a gigantic machine built for war than ever before. Every passage, every platform, every tower was running at high speed.

Ethan stood on the enormous deck of the flagship.

Wind howled past at that altitude. It whipped at the edges of his clothes and churned the surging currents of energy around them. He wasn't deliberately releasing his aura, yet the natural pressure rolling off him still gave people nearby the illusion of a king surveying his domain.

He looked at the army assembled and ready ahead, his voice not loud—but it landed precisely in every ear.

"We're going to conquer another world."

He paused slightly, letting his gaze sweep over the faces lifting toward him.

"Some of you might not come back."

His voice stayed steady.

"Are you afraid?"

What answered him wasn't hesitation—it was a near-explosive roar of cheers.

"We're not afraid!"

"Anyone in our way is an ant!"

"Master, give the order—we've been waiting!"

"Charge in! Make that world Emerald Castle's loot too!"

In an instant, the deck and surrounding platforms boiled with shouting. It wasn't just adrenaline. It was a hunger for war—fully ignited by repeated victories, expansion, and plunder.

Watching it, Ethan's eyes finally held a trace of satisfaction.

This time, Emerald Castle was almost fully mobilized. Aside from Cicero—who had to stay behind—Ethan had pulled out nearly every main combat unit he could.

Following the coordinates they'd locked down earlier, the fleet surged forward in a grand, rolling advance. Before long, they left familiar territory and sailed into an ocean that felt profoundly wrong.

The Oblivion Sea.

The moment they entered, everyone sensed the difference.

The magnetic field, the "tides," the energy fluctuations—none of it matched the outside world.

Those massive warships that could normally hover freely in the sky, stabilized by energy fields, seemed to have their center of gravity forcibly pressed down the instant they crossed in. They could no longer truly hold position in the air, only skim low over the sea and through the near-surface sky.

And the smaller Sky Fortresses and light ships had it even worse.

They couldn't maintain independent flight at all in this environment. One after another, they were forced to dock back inside the motherships.

Ethan stood at the very front of the deck, staring at the dim, heaving water ahead. For once, there was a hint of worry in his eyes. He kept the system open, scanning the surrounding energy structures nonstop, while also watching the fleet's condition out of the corner of his eye.

"You really are getting stronger and stronger."

Desert Queen Kaelira walked over, her voice carrying a faint laugh, though her gaze was fixed on the distant sea as well.

"The first time I met you, Emerald Castle was just a low-tier Plane World." She stopped beside him, something hard to put into words passing through her eyes. "And now you actually dare to take an entire fleet and go on an expedition to Elysion."

Ethan laughed, pulled a chair over, and leaned back.

"If I want to live in this world, I have to get stronger." He said it calmly, like it was the only natural truth. "Elysion's a world out of legend. The energy, resources, and origin structures there are definitely stronger than what Emerald Castle has right now."

He tilted his head, looking at the rolling sea ahead.

"If I can take it—"

"Then ruling the entire world might not be impossible."

Kaelira didn't answer right away. She only smiled faintly, then turned and leaned on the railing, like she was about to say something—or like she just wanted to watch the water.

But before she could speak, the sea not far ahead suddenly surged into a towering wave.

It came with no warning.

The surface—stable just a moment ago—was abruptly lifted by an upward force from below. A massive wall of water rolled up and over, like a deep-sea fortress rushing toward them.

"Danger!"

Kaelira reacted instantly.

She raised her hand at the same time, a purple-red sphere of energy condensing in her palm. It had barely formed before the air around it started warping violently—one push and she could fire it out.

But just as she was about to strike, Ethan suddenly lifted his hand and stopped her.

"Don't."

His eyes never left the churning wave.

"That's not an enemy."

Kaelira froze, and the power in her hand didn't dissipate right away.

Ethan spoke slowly, his tone more cautious than usual.

"That's just a whale from this sea. It doesn't mean us harm—at least not right now." His eyes stayed locked on the approaching energy fluctuation. "If you hit it, it'll probably call the rest of its kind."

He glanced at Kaelira.

"And if that happens—"

"Our whole fleet could get dragged to death out here."

Kaelira's expression shifted.

She was still tense, still wary—but she finally let the purple-red sphere in her palm disperse, bit by bit.

And the moment she pulled back, that massive whale truly entered everyone's view.

It glided beneath the surface, its body so huge it looked like a moving mountain. The scariest part wasn't the size—it was the energy rolling off it: heavy, ancient, vast, like the entire ocean was breathing through it.

Just from drawing near the flagship, the fleet's defensive shields began to shake violently.

If the fleet hadn't been reinforced again and again, with a defense system tough enough to take it, that one approach alone would've been enough to shatter the protective layer of a normal flagship.

The soldiers responsible for defense tightened instantly.

Weapons systems came online in a rush. Barrels rotated. Targeting arrays activated. Everyone braced to fire the next second.

But the whale didn't come any closer.

It simply let its energy drift slowly through the gaps between ships—like it was "confirming" the presence of these intruders.

Then it swung its enormous tailfin and swam toward deeper waters, dragging that suffocating pressure with it.

Only when it vanished completely did the people on deck finally let out the breath they'd been holding.

More than a few pairs of eyes turned toward Ethan.

This Oblivion Sea was too damn strange. A whale just passing by could cause that kind of terrifying disturbance.

If they kept pushing deeper, they were bound to run into something worse.

So what they needed right now wasn't just firepower—it was a genuinely safe route.

Ethan didn't speak immediately.

He walked to the railing, leaned forward slightly, reopened the system interface, and began scanning more carefully—every energy fluctuation, every current track, every subtle change in flow.

The Oblivion Sea was even more complicated than he'd expected. The layers of power hanging over the surface were chaotic and violent, and in certain regions, the system couldn't even return a clear analysis for the energy composition.

And then—

the sea ahead suddenly exploded again.

A figure burst up from the deep and stopped in midair. It wasn't a normal sea beast. It looked more like a "demon creature" crudely stitched together from deep-sea energy, shredded flesh, and some grotesque internal structure that shouldn't have been able to exist.

The moment it appeared, berserk power sprayed out of it nonstop, almost instantly occupying the entire sky around them.

This time, Ethan didn't calmly observe like he had with the whale.

The instant he confirmed what it was, he snatched up a spear mounted nearby and hurled it backhanded with brutal force.

"That's a seabed fiend!"

His voice dropped hard, urgent and absolute.

"It has no intelligence—only slaughter. Everyone, concentrate fire and kill it!"

The fleet snapped into motion. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Weapon systems across the ships lit up almost simultaneously. The energy environment here was too warped—they couldn't launch into the sky for a normal large-scale aerial battle. They could only rely on the fleet's own armaments and erase it head-on.

In seconds, violent power erupted from warship after warship.

Light cannons, energy lances, shock beams, and focused artillery tore through the air together, swallowing the seabed fiend at the center in a storm of fire.

The barrage detonated the moment it hit, blasting straight into its body. Explosive force stacked and rolled outward in layers, shaking the sea hard enough to kick up wave walls dozens of feet high, one after another.