Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 913: Beneath the Quiet Sea

As the full scene came into view, Ethan's brow furrowed instinctively.

Cracked earth. Rotting wounds. Eyes dulled by exhaustion and hopelessness.

This wasn't the imperial heartland he'd expected—it looked more like a forgotten labor camp.

After a brief pause, he led the group down to the coastline.

The warship's massive shadow swept over the land, and the workers below froze almost in unison. One by one, they looked up, faces filled with shock and unease.

They'd lived under The Nether Sea's rule for too long. None of them had ever seen a foreign warship, let alone one that dared to descend so boldly onto their shores.

"Who… who are you people?" a gaunt middle-aged man asked, voice trembling.

"Are you tired of living? This isn't a place outsiders can just walk into!"

More voices followed, hushed but urgent.

"You need to leave—now. Everyone here's been sent off to fight Emerald Castle. They'll be back any minute."

"If they find you here, you'll be slaughtered."

"That ship… they'll take it. No question."

There was no hostility in their words—only fear. Raw, instinctive fear.

They weren't trying to drive Ethan away.

They were trying to protect him.

Ethan listened quietly, not rushing to respond.

Then, without a word, he reached into his spatial storage and pulled out a transparent sphere. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed it into the air.

Light shimmered across its surface, and soon, vivid images began to unfold in midair.

Warships colliding. Energy tearing through the sky. The Kraken's collapse. Varaxis's death.

It was the battle that had just taken place above Emerald Castle—projected in full, like a living hologram.

Every explosion, every shockwave carried weight. Realness.

The slaves stood frozen, breath caught in their throats.

They couldn't believe it.

The invincible army of The Nether Sea—the force that had ruled their lives with an iron grip—was gone. Crushed.

And the man who had done it… was standing right in front of them.

For a long moment, no one moved.

Then someone slowly dropped to their knees, voice shaking with emotion.

"It was you… You killed that tyrant?"

"Does that mean… we're finally free?"

More and more followed, falling to their knees, eyes wide with something they hadn't felt in years—hope.

But just as the emotion threatened to boil over, Ethan stepped forward.

He didn't raise his voice.

But as his power slowly radiated outward, the air thickened like a storm front rolling in. The pressure was suffocating, freezing everyone in place.

"Freedom," Ethan said, his gaze sweeping across the crowd, "doesn't mean chaos."

His voice was calm. Measured. Unmistakably firm.

"From this moment on, The Nether Sea is under my control."

"You can choose to follow me—and become part of the new order."

"Or you can refuse. But that means leaving… or paying the price."

It wasn't a threat.

It was a fact.

The excitement on their faces began to fade, replaced by hesitation. Conflict. Fear of trading one master for another.

They wanted to be free—but they'd lived too long under power to not fear it.

Then—

A deep, rumbling sound rolled in from the sea.

Low. Endless.

Like something massive was stirring beneath the waves. Something ancient. Something waking up.

Ethan's expression sharpened instantly. He stepped forward, eyes locked on the churning sea.

He could feel it—an immense surge of energy rising fast from the ocean depths, thick with pressure and unmistakable hostility.

The next second, the water exploded upward.

BOOM—!

A figure slowly ascended from the deep.

It was humanoid in shape, but its body was covered in intricate, glowing blue-violet markings. Light pulsed through the patterns like veins of the sea itself, alive and shifting.

A wild, unfamiliar power radiated from him, warping the air around him with every breath.

Ethan's brow furrowed.

It wasn't just the merman's appearance that caught his attention—it was the strange undercurrent he could now sense bleeding out from the entire Nether Sea.

The energy wasn't violent, but it was everywhere—like a hidden undertow, woven into the air and moisture, subtle and hard to pin down.

He stepped to the edge of the shore and dipped his hand into the icy water.

A faint tremor ran up his arm.

Not just a flow of energy—but something deeper. A resonance. Like an echo from another layer of reality.

It felt as if beneath this sea, there was another world—one that overlapped with their own, yet remained sealed off. A deep realm, hidden and strange.

And the aura leaking from it was… wrong. Unfamiliar. Twisted.

Before Ethan could probe further—

The merman rose fully into the sky.

His scales flared open under the eerie blue light, each one sharp as a blade. They detached from his body and spun together midair, forming a massive greatsword of glimmering scales. Power surged from him in waves, and the air buzzed with a low, constant hum.

"You bastards have some nerve," the merman growled, voice low and laced with venom.

"Coming here like you own the place? You're not leaving alive."

Before the last word even finished, the scale greatsword came crashing down from the sky—like a falling curtain of death.

Ethan's pupils contracted.

That strike was far stronger than he'd anticipated.

He moved to intercept—

But a blinding white light burst out from the side.

Andona had already launched forward.

The holy radiance of her Angelic Sword cut through the darkness like a blade of pure dawn, slamming head-on into the incoming wave of Nethora Power. The moment the two forces collided, the merman's energy shattered—melting away like frost under fire.

The merman's expression twisted in shock.

Fear flashed in his eyes—raw and instinctive.

He didn't hesitate.

He yanked his power back, spun midair, and bolted toward the distant sea, vanishing into the swirling mist without a word.

Ethan blinked, caught off guard.

From what he'd sensed, the merman's energy level was clearly higher than Andona's. On paper, he should've had the advantage.

But the moment they clashed, it hadn't even been close.

Ethan quickly pulled up his system interface and ran a scan.

The data came back fast.

The merman's Nethora Power was chaotic—unstable, and heavily contaminated with death-type energy.

And Andona?

She wielded the power of the Angel King.

Holy authority versus corrupted death energy.

A direct counter.

No matter how much raw power he had, the suppression was absolute.