Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 936: Just an Envoy from Purgatory

Then—

RUMMMMMBLE—

The world groaned around them.

Lily stood at the edge of that massive rift tearing through sky and sea.

Gales howled, waves thrashed.

The Infernal Essence pouring out from the depths of the rift whipped through the storm, merging into an invisible torrent that surged straight into her body.

Her aura skyrocketed—fast enough to watch with the naked eye, layer after layer stacking in real time.

"Not bad," Lily murmured, though clear disappointment laced her voice.

"But this amount of Infernal energy… still not enough."

Her eyes narrowed slightly, gaze cutting straight through the churning ocean like it wasn't even there.

"Kardamon."

"You've already hoarded the majority of the Infernal Essence in this region."

"In that case—"

"Don't blame me for coming to take it myself."

The moment the words left her lips—

A massive pale-white greatsword materialized in her hand.

No charge-up. No buildup.

She simply swung it down.

And the ocean split.

Not waves. Not spray.

The entire sea surface tore open—sliced straight through to the abyss below, leaving a chasm so deep it swallowed light.

From that rift rose a foul, twisted aura—thick with fear, greed, and something far worse.

Then—

A shape was dragged up from the depths, forced into view.

It couldn't be described as humanoid.

Its body was a tangle of mismatched limbs and stretched proportions. Scales peeled into raw flesh, armor fused with skin. Its eyes still wide with fresh panic.

"You… what the hell are you?!"

Its voice cracked with fear.

"How do you have that kind of power?!"

Lily didn't respond.

She simply raised her hand.

That pale-white force erupted outward, expanding like a cage of light—silent, flawless, unbreakable.

It swallowed the creature whole.

Kardamon's body locked up instantly.

And in that crushing stillness, the horror hit him.

He couldn't move.

At all.

It made no sense.

He'd remained in the deepest corner of the Nether Sea for ages—devoured every trace of Infernal Essence he could find.

The great sea beasts? All drained dry.

At this point, he should've been unstoppable.

In this world, he was a monster—a force that could bury nations.

But this woman—

She just lifted a hand.

And froze his body, mind, and power in a single breath.

True fear shattered his composure.

Panic surged.

Kardamon suddenly jammed his claw-like hand into his own chest.

With a sickening tear—

He ripped out a blood-red gem, cracking muscle and bone to free it.

The moment it hit open air, the world recoiled.

Reality warped.

A darker, deeper force exploded from within the crystal—wild, chaotic, far more ancient than anything on the surface.

This wasn't just Infernal Essence anymore.

This was—

Power from the Infernal Abyss itself.

BOOM—

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Like a colossal heartbeat, the impact rattled sky and sea.

Waves of power slammed into Lily's radiant cage, disabling it one pulse at a time.

Fractures spiderwebbed across the barrier.

It was close to shattering.

Kardamon's eyes flared with desperate hope.

He didn't hesitate.

With his free hand, he drew a long sword from within his own torso and slashed—aiming not to fight—

But to flee.

Straight through the gap in the broken ocean, he tried to slip away while the rift held.

Just as Kardamon's blade was about to tear open an escape route through the rift—

Lily closed her hand.

No shout.

No warning.

Just a single, effortless motion.

And the world dropped.

That massive rip in the sea—the one she'd carved open—snapped shut like someone had slammed a door from the other side. Reality collapsed inward, folding tight.

The fractured barrier around them didn't just hold—it compressed, imploded, then rebounded as a solid, impenetrable cage, sealing Kardamon and every thread of his power inside.

BOOM—

CRACK, WHOOSH—

The shockwave rocked the ocean.

Kardamon's expression froze.

All trace of hope, of victory, erased in an instant.

Because he felt it—

Something was being pulled from inside him.

And not just strength.

Not just energy.

It went deeper than that.

His soul.

His sense of self.

His entire existence began to peel away. His flesh unraveled, bones creaked and groaned under unseen pressure.

That was when true fear took hold.

"W-Wait—please—!"

Kardamon's voice cracked, desperate and raw.

"I—I know where the gate is! I can lead you to Purgatory's entrance!"

"The power there… all of it, it's yours! Just—just let me live!"

"Spare me—I—!"

Lily never answered.

Her aura soared.

Not in rage.

But as if she no longer needed to hold anything back.

The suffocating pressure sank through space like gravity multiplied a thousandfold, pinning Kardamon in place.

Then Lily raised her hand again.

The crimson gem—the one Kardamon had torn from his own chest—ripped free of his grip, as if snatched by an invisible force. It dropped into her palm.

And in that instant—

What was left of Kardamon exploded.

Flesh, bone, and the last tainted sparks of Infernal energy shattered all at once.

Not even a scream remained.

Just silence.

Lily looked down at the gem, eyes flat.

Her voice carried open disdain.

"Just an envoy… from Purgatory."

"And he dared call himself a king here?"

Her words landed like a hammer in Ethan's chest.

He froze.

Because… Kardamon—that thing—had terrified him.

And yet Lily called him "just an envoy."

Which meant… there were worse.

Far worse.

Ethan didn't let himself keep thinking. He couldn't.

The overwhelming Infernal Essence that had soaked the air just moments ago began to dissipate rapidly.

The ocean calmed.

The sky cleared.

As if none of it had happened.

Only then did Ethan move—floating slowly to Lily's side.

"…That thing."

"You knew him?"

Lily gave a small nod.

"This world," she said quietly, "isn't as simple as you thought."

Her gaze drifted outward, past the sea, past the sky.

For the first time, her tone felt… still. Measured.

"The Nether Sea looks distant from Emerald Castle," she continued.

"But it's not its own Plane World."

"It's just a part… of this world."

She paused.

Then—

"And that part's true origin—"

"Lies on the other side."

"In Purgatory."

Ethan frowned.

He understood part of what Lily had said… but something didn't sit right.

To him, this world had always been part of a progression—a stage to clear. A massive zone, sure. Dangerous, yes. But still just another checkpoint in the campaign.

Strong enemies, high-level threats—defeat them, conquer the region, move on.

There wasn't supposed to be this kind of scale involved.

This much depth.

This much... implication.

He cleared his throat quietly, keeping most of that to himself. Whatever was going on here wasn't something he could solve just by pressing harder.

So, he shifted focus.

He raised a hand.

Energy surged through his core, racing outward until it bloomed above him in the open sky—a strange and haunting Black Rose.

The petals unfurled slowly, absorbing every trace of Infernal Essence that hadn't yet dispersed.

As if drawn by instinct, the residual demonic energy tore free from the air and dove toward the rose, spinning into it in dark, endless spirals.

In a matter of seconds, the rose had grown several times larger—swollen with corrosive essence, every petal gleaming like obsidian soaked in starlight.