Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 898: Where the Map Ends

Ethan's eyes were cold and distant.

He simply lifted a finger and tapped the air.

The massive energy sphere—still spinning violently, packed with destructive force—was struck dead center by an invisible force. Its core destabilized instantly.

The next second—

The entire structure unraveled, dissolving into countless shards of light that quietly vanished in midair.

There wasn't even an explosion.

And then Ethan was gone.

The air split with a sharp tear as a blur streaked across the sky.

BOOM—!

A dull, thunderous impact echoed high above.

Drake barely had time to register the crushing pressure—like a mountain slamming into his chest. His mind went blank for a split second.

Every instinct in his body screamed danger.

He didn't dare stay another moment. Space energy surged violently around him, and his figure vanished into a ripple of distorted light.

The threat, for now, had passed.

Ethan didn't pursue.

He hovered in the air, letting the lingering bone-white energy ripple through the sky like a fading echo. The air still carried its chill, like the aftertaste of something ancient and absolute.

That power wasn't his.

He knew it better than anyone.

Moments later, the white aura began to recede like a tide.

Control of his body returned.

Deep within his consciousness, Lily slipped back into dormancy—having absorbed a massive amount of energy, she now needed time to digest and stabilize.

Ethan's breathing hitched, uneven for a moment.

Only now did the full weight of what had just happened hit him—that eerie, helpless feeling of being used like a vessel.

It wasn't just a loss of control.

It was a clash of sovereignty.

If Lily ever fully awakened…

He forced the thought down.

Phoenix Queen Ignara floated up to him, her expression unreadable, eyes sharp with something between awe and calculation.

"My lord," she said, her voice softer than usual. "I didn't expect you to wield power of that magnitude."

She paused, then slowly bowed her head.

"In that case, my earlier promise stands. From this moment on, I pledge myself to Emerald Castle. I'll follow your command."

Ethan's mouth twitched slightly.

If that power actually belonged to him, her words might've been reassuring.

But the truth was—

He had no control over it at all.

Before he could explain, a burst of light footsteps echoed through the air.

Feylora came bounding out from behind a nearby archway, wings fluttering, her face lit up with excitement.

"Master!" she chirped. "We just found a new spatial passage nearby!"

"It looks like it connects to an unknown realm—and it's right in the middle of that energy fluctuation zone deep in the forest!"

That got Ethan's attention immediately.

That forest had always been a partially unexplored resource zone. If they could establish a stable link…

The strategic value would be massive.

"Show me," he said without hesitation.

The troops regrouped quickly and moved out, following Feylora's lead.

Ignara followed silently, her expression once again composed and reserved.

Before long, they arrived at a narrow fissure in the mountainside.

At first glance, it looked like any ordinary cave—rough stone walls, low wind, damp air drifting lazily from within.

But as they got closer, Ethan felt it—a faint ripple in the air, like a thin membrane breathing in and out, just beyond perception.

Light bent slightly at the cave's edge, creating a momentary visual distortion.

A telltale sign of unstable spatial structure.

"These kinds of entrances only appear under specific energy conditions," Feylora explained quietly. "Most creatures wouldn't even notice them."

"But we Fairies are extremely sensitive to spatial shifts."

She reached out, tracing her fingertip through the air.

A faint line of light shimmered briefly—then vanished.

"This passage is new. Not fully stabilized yet," she said, looking up at Ethan. "But it's safe enough. We can go in."

A new, unknown realm was opening before them.

Ethan stood at the narrow cave entrance, eyes closed, quietly attuning himself to the spatial ripples in the air.

The energy was faint—barely there—but it pulsed with a steady, rhythmic beat.

Hum.

Hum.

Hum.

Like something breathing deep beneath the rock.

He slowly released his own spatial energy, compressing and shaping it until it formed a small, unstable orb in his palm.

Inside the orb, tiny folds of space twisted and collapsed in on themselves, like a miniature vortex devouring itself.

Without hesitation, he tossed it into the depths of the cave.

For a moment, nothing.

Then the air around them shuddered.

The spatial structure warped like torn fabric—collapsing, folding, misaligning. The narrow cave mouth stretched unnaturally, pulled open by force until it widened into a growing rift.

Light bent and scattered across the edges. The distortion stabilized, forming a massive portal wide enough for an entire army to march through.

Ethan stepped in first. The others followed close behind.

Crossing through felt like being swept into an invisible current. Direction and time blurred, senses scrambled. Only when his boots touched solid ground again did the world begin to settle.

They had entered a self-contained micro Plane World.

The sky arched with a subtle distortion, the air thin but clean. The ambient energy wasn't particularly dense—but it was stable.

What stood out most was the crystal vein at the center of the realm.

Dozens of spatial crystals jutted from the ground like embedded shards of starlight, each one pulsing with a soft, steady glow.

These crystals were the heart of the realm—natural spatial anchors that made this place a nexus point.

Here, space was constantly stretching, folding, and reconfiguring, forming delicate links to several surrounding Plane Worlds.

Ethan approached the core of the crystal field and pressed his energy into the ground.

Boom.

The crystals resonated in unison.

One by one, spatial vortices began to form around them—like floating mirrors suspended in air. Each vortex shimmered with the outline of a different world beyond.

The largest one showed a dense canopy of green, treetops rising and falling like waves.

The unexplored jungle.

"You stay here. Keep the portal stable," Ethan ordered, voice clipped.

Then, without pause, he stepped into the vortex.

…

The jungle air wrapped around him instantly.

Thick, damp, and alive.

Elemental energy flowed freely here, weaving through the air like invisible veins. Every breath he took pulled vibrant, active energy into his body.

This wasn't what he'd expected.

It wasn't a dead zone or a hostile wasteland.

It was a massive, untouched reservoir of power—an energy-rich frontier waiting to be claimed.