Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 937: Let You See What a Real World Looks Like

Ethan didn't hesitate.

He grabbed the Black Rose with one hand—and slammed it straight into his chest.

Agony ripped through him instantly.

That infernal energy was still as violent and hostile as ever—every fiber of it rejecting his presence. His body convulsed during the first few seconds, almost seizing up completely.

But as the torment dragged on—

He adjusted.

He learned.

He started filtering the chaos, drawing out threads of power that truly resonated with him—energy he could claim as his own.

Idra and Auri were shifting too—their auras moving in sync with his. Both of them absorbing, evolving alongside him.

And soon—

Ethan's presence climbed.

Not incrementally.

Skyrocketed.

His aura burst outward like a storm detonating in all directions. The entire sky trembled beneath the weight of it.

For the first time, Lily's expression changed.

Surprise—clear and sharp—broke across her face.

Because she could see it:

Ethan wasn't just surviving the Infernal Essence.

He was absorbing it.

And that shouldn't have been possible.

No being, no matter how gifted, could take in that much raw Infernal energy in one go without breaking. Without being hollowed out from within.

"What are you doing?" she asked, frown tightening, voice low and unusually serious.

Ethan rolled his neck, stretching like he was testing fresh wiring in a rebuilt machine. Then he looked up—toward the rift still hanging in the sky, not yet fully closed.

Inside that tear, red light twisted slowly—rising and falling like something breathing in the dark.

Maybe even watching.

"If I had to guess…" Ethan's voice was calm. Steady. But with a thread of stubborn determination that cut clean through every word.

"Going in through there—"

"Should land us right in Purgatory."

He grinned.

Wide. Unapologetic.

"No way I'm just gonna watch something that interesting from the outside."

Lily blinked.

Then let out a quiet laugh.

Not mocking. Not cold.

Genuine surprise, maybe even approval, threaded into it.

"You really don't care about dying, do you," she said, casting him a sidelong glance. Her tone was casual, but a glint of something sharper flickered beneath it.

"Well, if you're that eager to charge in," she added, "I'm not gonna stop you."

"Besides—"

"I was heading in anyway."

Her gaze drifted back to the rift.

"Might as well bring you along," she murmured. "Let you see what a real world looks like."

Ethan didn't say another word.

He stepped once—

—and launched straight upward, a sharp streak of motion slicing through the sky.

In the next blink—

He vanished into the rift.

Lily's lips curled at the corner, the faintest smile forming.

Then she stepped forward, and disappeared in after him.

…

The world lost all shape in an instant.

When Ethan's senses finally returned, he found himself suspended in a strange, otherworldly space.

It felt like a forgotten void—no sky, no ground, just emptiness stretching forever in every direction.

All around him floated countless masses of blood-red energy. Their forms shifted constantly, as if they were shadows that had been ripped free from bodies long gone.

Each one hummed with an eerie, soul-level pressure that made his skin itch.

Almost on instinct, Ethan summoned a defensive barrier around himself.

But a beat later, he realized—

The masses weren't even paying attention to him.

They drifted past, slow and weightless, never colliding, never reacting. It was like they didn't even understand what "hostile" meant.

"Relax," Lily's voice came from ahead.

"These things aren't conscious. They're just ambient residue—Infernal energy that's naturally congealed into fragments under the local rules."

She glanced back at him, her voice laced with her usual dry sarcasm.

"Besides, this still isn't real Purgatory."

"At best…" She gave a small shrug. "It's just a low-tier transition Plane World. A buffer zone."

Ethan dropped the shield with a sheepish flick of his hand and quickened his pace to catch up.

It didn't take long before the two of them exited the void.

And the moment they stepped past the threshold—

Ethan's breath hitched hard.

It was like gravity had tripled.

No—like the fabric of the world itself had slammed down on him.

The space they entered stretched incomprehensibly far in all directions… and yet, visibility was crushed down to barely thirty feet. Beyond that, only a thick, rippling fog of dark red churned in slow, suffocating surges.

The air was dense, boiling with wild, chaotic force—raw and unfiltered.

This wasn't Infernal Essence anymore.

It was something older. More primal. Brutal.

The moment Ethan planted his feet, his entire body seized up.

Agony screamed through every inch of muscle, every nerve ending, like invisible claws were trying to gut him from the inside out. The pressure in this space wasn't just overwhelming—it was actively invasive.

If Lily hadn't been standing right beside him—

He would've been obliterated in seconds.

"Hold your ground," she said, reaching over to absorb the brunt of the ambient pressure lashing at him.

She cast a sidelong look his way, voice calm but blunt.

"Your body's still too weak."

"The energy here—it's inherently violent. Unstable. Even existing inside it requires resistance on a fundamental level."

"If you can't adapt…"

She paused.

"You won't last fifteen minutes."

Her eyes weren't being cruel—they were assessing him, honestly and without sugarcoating.

"I'd suggest leaving now."

"This isn't the kind of place you just 'gut through.'"

But Ethan didn't flinch.

He knew better than to stand there taking punishment passively. That would only wear him down and grind him to dust.

So in the next breath, he opened his system interface.

Light and data surged across his vision—numbers and status fields updating in real time, rebuilding his perception of the space.

But he wasn't using it to measure strength.

He was filtering.

Scanning.

Using every point of data to map out the energy tides around him—to sort what might kill him instantly… and what he could maybe, just barely, digest.

Ethan didn't let greed touch his decisions.

He moved carefully—deliberately—drawing in only the energies that his body showed the highest compatibility with.

Just the ones that matched his internal structure on a molecular, soul-deep level.

Every bit of absorption felt like walking barefoot over blades.

One mistake—one misaligned current—and it would rip him apart from the inside.

But he never lost control.

He adjusted in real time, tuning his absorption down to a science of survival. And once the internal strain eased—once his system stopped flaring danger warnings—he started testing the rest.

Slower.

Always calculated.

Strict order. Tight rhythm.

This wasn't devouring.

This wasn't brute forcing his way through the pain.

It was filtering. Enduring. Repurposing.

Energy that had once felt like it would tear reality apart inch by inch was now being pulled into a usable hierarchy.

Bit by bit, minute by minute—Ethan tamed it.

The oppressive pressure that had made existing a death sentence... gradually dulled.

Still heavy. Still brutal. But no longer impossible.

That raw, chaotic force—the constant shudder in the air that had tried to claw him open—was beginning to bend.