Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 1026: The Moment It Broke

Ethan forced his breathing steady.

The enormous energy sphere falling from the sky had closed to a distance that made your scalp prickle. The pressure hit the air first, and the whole region answered with a deep, grinding tremor.

Half the light above the fleet was swallowed by that mass of power. When people on deck looked up, all they saw was a shadow that kept swelling larger and larger.

He didn't back down.

The patterns across the Powered Combat Armor lit up inch by inch. The power inside him was yanked out fast, amplified, then driven through the armor's structure as it spread outward like wildfire.

White current raced over his body. The air crackled with nonstop detonations. Then that boosted energy gathered in front of him—compressed tighter and tighter, brighter and brighter—until it, too, condensed into a sphere suspended between sea and sky.

Two energy spheres met head-on.

The instant they touched, no one could hear anything else. Blinding light burst outward first, and only then came the boom—so deep it felt like it was shaking bones.

The two forces crushed into each other in midair. From the collision point, shockwaves rolled outward in ring after ring. The air nearby twisted and warped as it was torn apart. Even space itself couldn't take it—fine cracks split across it in dense webs.

The cracks weren't big, but they spread insanely fast.

Like glass being slowly, relentlessly crushed by an invisible weight.

On the ships below, some people instinctively ducked. Others clamped both hands around the rails so hard the veins on their hands stood out.

It was only the aftershock, and their chests already felt stuffed full. Breathing turned difficult.

Up in the air, Ethan's face had gone hard.

He'd stopped the hit—but only barely.

The power on the other side was too heavy. It drove numbness into his arms, and even the bones across his shoulders and back kept creaking under the strain.

He knew exactly what was happening: he wasn't holding this with his own strength alone. If the Powered Combat Armor hadn't forcibly multiplied his output several times over, he never would've been able to meet that kind of frontal impact. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

It wouldn't even take a second strike.

Just this one would've cracked his body apart first.

The thought flashed through him. He didn't let it linger.

Ethan adjusted his breathing again, forcing down the surging blood in his chest. Then he took a step back, pulling himself out of that near-deadlock where he'd been bracing to the bitter end, buying a sliver of space.

As he retreated, his energy spilled out once more.

White electricity crawled along the armor's edges. The air was still full of chaotic turbulence from the collision—burnt, scorched stink everywhere, and that sharp, needling pain that came with shattered space. Ethan stared at the monster, his focus locked in with zero slack.

But the monster had no intention of stopping.

It lifted its shark-like head and let out a savage roar. The sound crushed the sea wind, crushed the fading echoes of the explosion—so hard even the restless energy currents around them stuttered for a beat. Right after that, power began to gather toward it.

Not drifting. Being yanked.

Energy from high above, ripples off the sea, the leftover shockwaves in the air—everything seemed to find its "rightful place" and streamed into its grasp, compressing without pause. The monster raised one hand and clenched its fingers.

The gathered power stretched, solidified. Heavy bands of glowing patterns surfaced along it in layered rings.

In moments, a gigantic energy spear took shape.

The spearhead pointed straight forward. Compressed power shuddered at the tip, and the air couldn't handle it—ripping noises came in rapid bursts. Light flowed along the shaft, and the shadow it cast was big enough to cover a chunk of the fleet below.

Ethan's pupils tightened.

At this point, he couldn't afford to count the cost. He couldn't afford to weigh whether it was worth it. He lifted a hand, compressed power hard in his palm, forcibly forming a glowing orb—then hurled it at the monster.

The orb's path was razor-clear.

It streaked through the air with crackling arcs, flying straight into the oncoming spear.

But the moment they met, the gap was obvious. The orb Ethan had condensed couldn't hold against that spear at all. Its surface shook violently—then the entire sphere shattered on the spot, exploding into scattered motes of light.

The backlash slammed back along the direction of the collapse.

Ethan's whole body jolted. The backlash slammed into him and forced him back in the air, his chest going tight and heavy. Even the white lightning around him scattered, the arcs turning ragged.

And that spear still kept driving forward.

Faces on deck changed instantly.

Right as that terrifying pressure was about to crash all the way in, a figure shot out from the flagship.

It was so fast most people only caught a blur slicing past. Then purple-red power unfurled across the sky in a sudden spread—layer after layer of energy overlapping and stacking until, between sea and heaven, it condensed into a massive rose.

The petals weren't still.

Every single one was forged from solidified power, edges razor-sharp. As they curled and rolled over each other, they kicked up violent energy storms.

That rose hung squarely in the spear's path. Purple-red light braced open an entire stretch of air, stopping the pressure that had been bearing down on the fleet and forcing it to halt.

The one who'd moved was Desert Queen Kaelira.

And she didn't just block.

The instant she halted the energy spear, the gigantic rose pressed forward as well.

Petals closed, then opened again. Power inside the bloom advanced in layered surges, rolling back toward the monster's attack like a tide reversing.

The two forces locked together in midair. The spear's sharp, concentrated edge and the rose's expanding crush ground against each other without giving an inch. The space at the point of contact first twisted violently—then collapsed outright, revealing jagged patches of black裂-zones where the void showed through.

The wind lost its direction.

The sea below churned under the aftershock, rising and falling in unstable swells.

Ethan used that sliver of breathing room to drift off to the side. He didn't charge in blindly again. Instead, he snapped open the system interface and swept his gaze over the monster's status panel.

The information filled in fast.

He only needed a few lines before his brow knotted tighter.

The power stored inside that thing… was the Oblivion Sea's Primordial Force.

The moment that clicked, the situation in front of him sharpened. Kaelira was holding the attack head-on, sure—but if this turned into a grind, she was the one who'd get bled dry.

They were already near the edge of the Oblivion Sea, and the monster controlled a force linked directly to this area's origin. The longer they dragged it out, the worse it got for them.

Ethan's mind raced.

He kept one eye on the two clashing powers in front of him while he searched for an angle—some place he could cut in and actually help, instead of taking another brutal frontal hit.

Then the battlefield shifted again.

A figure rocketed up from below.

So fast even the monster didn't react right away. By the time it sensed the surge of power behind it, it was already too late.

Namyanna.

Somehow, she'd circled around to its back. She shot up from underneath, her energy spilling out without restraint.

That power carried a clear ocean signature, but it was denser than the waves themselves—heavier, more real. Up in the sky, it came down like a blanket of crushing force, its target unmistakable: the monster's chest.

The impact hit—clean and decisive.