Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 928: Which Makes This Easy

Ethan shifted his weight—one quick sidestep—and the staff strike whooshed past him.

At the same time, energy surged within his core. It roared to his palm and condensed there, a growing, pulsing orb of light expanding between his fingers.

His eyes locked onto the blood-red gem set into the warrior’s chest.

And he smiled—just a little.

"The gemstones on your body..." Ethan said, voice casual, almost impressed.

"They’re beautiful."

He paused just long enough for the threat to land.

"Good thing I plan on taking them with me."

The warrior’s pupils blew wide.

He knew exactly what those words meant.

The gems weren’t just for show—they were his power, his life. If someone took that core...

His body, his mind—they’d unravel. Instantly.

"Dream on!!"

The man roared.

He charged, staff raised high. The runes carved into the wood lit up, glowing a sickly color that shimmered wrong in the eye—like parts of it belonged to a different reality.

Ethan caught flashes of the structure—symbols linked in a tightly woven grid, not just decoration but a spelled lattice, deliberately plotted.

A powerful artifact.

But he didn’t care.

He was already done analyzing.

With a flick of his wrist, Ethan hurled the energy orb.

It whistled through the air in a tight spiral, straight and unrelenting—

And slammed dead-center into the warrior’s chest gem.

CRACK—!

A sharp snap echoed through the cave.

Tiny fractures webbed across the gem’s surface instantly. Blinding red light spilled out like a bleeding wound, fierce and unstable.

Ethan blinked.

That... was easier than expected.

He’d assumed the gem could take more punishment.

But one hit?

And it was already coming apart?

"Uu... Ura... Ura-Ura..."

The warrior stumbled backward. His staff trembled in both hands as he clutched it close to his chest, eyes wide enough to split.

He began chanting—fast, panicked, in some ancient tongue.

Words poured out like a breakdown.

The staff shuddered violently.

Runes peeled off the wood’s surface in writhing patterns, pulling free into midair like living things. Stretching. Warping.

And then—

CRAAK-K-BOOM—!!

The staff burst apart.

Black scales erupted from the shattered core, growing at insane speed, coiling and twisting until—

A massive black serpent filled the cave.

Its body was made of scales and sigils—runes embedded between armored plates like bones etched in scripture.

It was long.

Heavy.

Coiled muscle wrapped in living magic.

The air turned cold.

Ethan instinctively took a step back. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

He hadn’t seen that coming.

That staff hadn’t looked like some ancient beast-summoning relic. But here it was—some nightmare hybrid of spell and flesh.

The serpent flicked its tongue just once.

And the cave trembled.

Stone cracked, chunks falling from the ceiling.

This wasn’t just a warning display. The weight behind that one movement was enough to flatten a mountain.

Ethan forced himself to breathe. Forced calm through his limbs.

Then channeled power into his hand—quick, clean—shaping a spinning Energy Blade and sent it flying.

It sliced through the air and slammed into the serpent’s side.

Result?

Barely a white scratch.

Not even deep enough to nick the scale.

The serpent bared its fangs.

Its eyes flared.

The power flowing through its runes turned molten black—like magma liquefied by void. It surged through the armor plates, building pressure in waves.

Ethan felt the heat hit his chest like a wave crashing down.

This thing wasn’t just some summoned creature—

Ethan realized it instantly—

The serpent was charging up for an attack.

Sure enough, the black monstrosity opened its jaws.

Inside its throat, a sphere of compressed energy began spinning fast, shrinking and pulsing with lethal force. Black as void, dense as collapsing star matter.

Just as the serpent reared back to fire—

Ethan vanished.

The snake froze on the spot.

Its head twitched, jaw trembling around the unstable orb in its throat, searching for a target that no longer stood in front of it. The charge built and whined, dangerous and directionless.

Then—

Ethan reappeared.

Across the cave. Behind the Gemward warrior.

Dead silent.

His energy blade was already pressed against the man’s throat.

"Well," Ethan murmured, just loud enough for the other to hear, "that explains it."

He finally understood.

"That thing’s not independent."

The warrior stiffened.

"You’re controlling it," Ethan continued, voice even, almost calm. "That serpent’s power isn’t a summon. It’s an extension of you."

"And as long as you’re alive... it’ll keep fighting."

A pause. The tension dropped like a knife.

"Which makes this easy."

The moment he finished speaking, the energy blade flared to life.

A flash of cold white light—

And the man’s head dropped from his shoulders.

No scream. No time.

At the exact same moment, every gem in the man’s body dimmed at once—like someone had yanked the power cord straight out of his soul.

The serpent shrieked.

A raw, inhuman cry tore from its throat as its massive body convulsed, then slammed lifelessly to the stone floor of the cave.

Its scales split open along their edges, and the glowing runes inside began leaking out like vapor—

Until they pooled in the air above, swirling into a translucent black silhouette.

Its face...

Was identical to the headless man now crumpled on the ground.

Ethan saw it clearly.

That wasn’t just a phantom.

It was a soul imprint—the man’s essence embedded inside the beast, bound as a living anchor.

No hesitation.

Ethan raised a hand and fired a searing bolt of energy straight through it.

The silhouette shattered, scattering into flickers of dark light before disintegrating completely.

The serpent’s body collapsed next.

Its massive form shrank rapidly, flesh twisting in reverse like someone rewound the summoning. It compressed, crushed inwards—

Until only a wooden staff remained.

It hit the ground with a sharp clunk. Silence followed.

The cave was still again.

Ethan stepped forward and picked the staff up.

The runes on it hadn’t faded.

In fact, they were even clearer now—burning with a sharper luminescence, as if no longer resisting the world’s laws.

A strange new energy leaked from the carvings, unfamiliar yet inviting.

Ethan’s eyes lit up.

He gripped the staff tighter.

At once, the runes peeled off the wood like slivers of light, liquid and alive, flowing into his body. They raced along his skin, burrowing inward—and they didn’t resist him.

They merged.

Locked into place alongside the power he already wielded.

BOOM—!

The force erupted.

A massive pressure wave blasted outward from him, shaking the cave like an earthquake. The mountain groaned.

And that energy kept spreading—racing through the stone, surging outward, pulsing into the surrounding cave systems like veins pumping life into a corpse.

Almost immediately—

Figures began to emerge.

From every corner of the cliffs, from hidden tunnels, from steep crevices that lined the sheer rock wall like scars.

Gemward Tribe survivors.

Dozens of them.

Then hundreds.

They strode across the vertical cliffs like it was flat ground, boots barely touching the stone, weightless yet precise.

This wasn’t simple movement.