Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 914: The Sea Blinked First

Ethan let out a low, cold chuckle, then shifted his focus back to the situation at hand.

Charging blindly into the depths of the Nether Sea without understanding how this place operated would be reckless. He knew better.

So he quickly selected a small island near the coast and established a temporary base—something stable to serve as a forward outpost for exploration and resupply.

Feylora led a mobile squad into the surrounding regions, scouting for clues about the secrets hidden beneath the sea’s surface.

Meanwhile, Ethan spent nearly every day studying the seawater itself.

He tried countless methods to extract the latent energy within, hoping to isolate the true structure of Nethora Power. But no matter how he adjusted the parameters or techniques, the results were always the same—

Energy fluctuations were detectable, but impossible to stabilize or extract.

It was as if the power didn’t exist on the material plane at all—always hovering just beyond reach, like a mirage at the edge of perception.

Today, Ethan was holding a fresh vial of seawater, carefully analyzing the strange reactions inside.

Then—

The sea in the distance began to churn unnaturally.

A foreign, powerful presence was rapidly approaching.

Ethan’s head snapped up instantly.

He could feel it—this energy was resonating with the Nethora Power buried deep beneath the sea. Something was responding.

The water around them began to boil and surge, low, guttural rumbles echoing across the waves. It felt like the entire ocean was making way for something massive.

A towering figure slowly emerged from beneath the surface.

Its outline sharpened as it rose, and in its hand, a dense, oppressive energy condensed into the shape of a massive spear.

Ethan’s pupils contracted.

He hadn’t sensed anything like this before—this thing had been hiding in the depths, and it wasn’t here to talk.

No warning. No hesitation.

The moment it surfaced, it hurled the spear straight at him.

The weapon tore through the air, wrapped in a strange, suffocating aura. Even the shockwaves trailing behind it warped the space around them, folding the air into jagged ripples.

Ethan didn’t flinch.

He instantly formed a high-density energy sphere in his palm and launched it forward to intercept.

BOOM—!

The two forces collided midair, blinding light swallowing the sky. The shockwave blasted outward, raising towering walls of seawater and shaking the heavens like a thunderclap.

"Who the hell are you? Why attack without a word?" Ethan shouted, forcing down the churn in his chest as he formed another energy sphere at his side, ready to strike again.

The figure didn’t answer.

It just let out a low, guttural roar.

Then, behind it, a massive phantom began to take shape—

A silhouette eerily similar to Kraken.

Enormous tendrils flickered in and out of view, coiling through the air with a pressure that made the skin crawl. It felt like the will of the entire sea was gathering behind this thing.

Ethan’s expression darkened.

Judging by its energy signature, this wasn’t some outsider. It was a native—something that had lived in the deep layers of the Nether Sea for a long time. It had fused with the sea itself, forming a kind of symbiotic bond.

But now wasn’t the time to analyze it.

If this thing kept attacking at full force, the temporary base—and the entire coastline—would be wiped out.

Ethan didn’t hesitate.

He activated every weapon module on his Powered Combat Armor. Energy circuits lit up across the suit’s surface, and his body lifted into the air, aura surging to its peak.

In the next instant, a massive Energy Disc formed in front of his palm.

It was everything he could channel in one shot.

He didn’t wait.

He hurled the disc straight at the enemy.

The spinning blade of light tore through the sky, ripping the air apart in its path. The sea split beneath it, revealing a glimpse of the deep ocean floor as twin walls of water surged upward in its wake.

But the enemy didn’t retreat.

It hovered in place, unmoving, as its energy continued to climb.

Then came a deep, resonant pulse.

Behind it, a massive spectral bird took shape—wings spread wide, its form shimmering with power.

The creature seemed to resonate with the tides of the Nether Sea itself. As it beat its wings, torrents of deep-blue Nethora water surged upward, spiraling into a storm that wrapped the sky and sea in a vortex of eerie, unstable power.

That energy—

It was twisted. Alien.

And dangerously alive.

Ethan could feel it—just brushing against that energy was enough to corrode his body.

Instinct kicked in. He yanked himself back at full speed.

A split second later—

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Explosions of energy tore through the air in rapid succession. Light and water collided mid-sky, shockwaves rippling outward in all directions. For a moment, the world itself seemed to lose balance.

And the enemy’s power was still climbing.

More and more spectral forms began to manifest around him—massive sea beasts, twisted schools of alien fish, deep-sea creatures with unrecognizable shapes. It was like the entire ocean was being projected into the sky, summoned by force.

Layer upon layer of violent energy stacked atop one another, quickly blanketing the heavens.

Ethan’s frown deepened.

He pulled up his system interface and ran multiple scans, cross-analyzing the target from every angle, hunting for any exploitable weakness.

But the results were nearly identical every time—

The interface flickered erratically. Core parameters refused to lock. It was as if the enemy didn’t fully exist within the current rules of reality.

That alone set off alarms in Ethan’s mind.

When the system fails, it’s never a good sign.

Just as he was about to abandon the analysis, a tiny anomaly caught his eye.

Embedded in the enemy’s chest was a dark, murky gemstone.

Every time the creature unleashed a burst of energy, the gem would glow. And after each release, it would dim—just for a heartbeat, but always in the same rhythm.

Like it was breathing.

Ethan instinctively slowed his own breathing, eyes locked on the gem’s pulse.

Once.

Twice.

On the third cycle, the energy around it visibly dipped—just for a blink, but enough to register.

"...Got you."

The moment the pattern clicked, Ethan’s eyes lit up.

He didn’t hesitate.

In a flash, he launched forward like a bolt of lightning, tearing through the air straight at the enemy.

"Hah! Foolish!" the creature roared with laughter. "You think charging in will save you?"

To him, Ethan’s move looked suicidal.

The energy barrier around him expanded again, layers of Nethora waves swirling like a storm wall—impenetrable, absolute.

But just as he prepared to unleash another attack—

The gem dimmed.

Ethan pushed his propulsion to the limit, forcing his body through the narrow gap in the collapsing energy field.

Pain hit instantly—burning, tearing, crushing.

But he didn’t stop.

In the next instant, his hand clamped down hard on the gemstone.

CRACK—!

A violent shockwave exploded in his palm.

White-hot light and dense energy surged outward. Cracks spiderwebbed across the gem’s surface, and then—

It shattered.

The enemy’s laughter cut off mid-breath.

The storm of power around him collapsed in an instant. His body lost all structural integrity, energy pouring out like a dam burst. His form shriveled rapidly, deflating before Ethan’s eyes.