Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 953: You Belong to Me Now

"Then we fight together," Ethan said.

Primordial Force erupted out of him.

At the same time, Thalorien's ocean energy spread in a rolling surge.

Two powers—

and instead of clashing, they resonated.

They gave their orders in the same breath.

The goblin legion charged.

The War Machines rumbled forward.

Thalaryn's troops swung in from the flank to encircle.

The Sky Fortress opened fire.

The battlefield went off the rails in an instant.

For the first time, the mechanoid formation showed real disorder.

And right then, Ethan caught something off.

At the center of the battlefield…

a mechanoid hovered there in silence.

It didn't move.

But the other mechanoids moved around it, orbiting like satellites around a star.

In its chest—

a blood-red core was embedded.

Across the core's surface, golden runes rotated slowly.

[WARNING]

[High Command Unit Detected]

[Threat Level: EXTREME]

Ethan's pupils contracted.

A commander.

Not a standard unit.

Ethan locked his gaze on the mechanoid with the blood-red core.

Instinct screamed at him.

This thing—

was the nerve center of the entire army.

If he destroyed it…

the whole battle would flip.

No hesitation.

Primordial Force gathered fast in his palm.

The air warped.

Light compressed.

A massive sphere of energy formed in seconds, destruction churning inside it.

Ethan snapped his hand forward.

The energy sphere tore through the sky, shooting straight for the blood-red core in the mechanoid's chest.

BOOM!!!

The explosion swallowed the target.

But the very next second, Ethan's eyes tightened.

As the smoke cleared—

the mechanoid was still there.

In front of its body, a heavy energy barrier floated in place.

Complex runes flowed across its surface.

That attack—

had been completely blocked.

Ethan immediately initiated a system scan.

[Scanning…]

[Target Classification: Nexaris Command Unit]

[Power Signature Analysis: Hybrid Structure]

[Detected Attributes: 8]

[Warning: Target possesses multi-layered dimensional protection]

Ethan's breathing sank a notch.

Eight attributes.

That was way beyond a normal mechanoid.

Then the system chimed again:

[Additional Core Detected]

[Location: Internal Structure]

Ethan's gaze sharpened.

An internal core.

Meaning—

even if he shattered the outer core, it wouldn't truly die.

Ethan got it now.

Conventional attacks were pointless.

He had to destroy it from the inside.

The thought had barely finished forming when the two runes inside him—

Darkness Rune.

Light Rune.

—flared at the same time.

And a brand-new ability surfaced in his awareness.

Ethan didn't use it right away.

Because the system had warned him before.

This ability—

was insanely risky.

If he failed…

his consciousness might be permanently trapped inside the target.

But now…

he didn't have a choice.

Ethan drew in a slow breath.

Then—

he released his physical structure.

His body began to collapse.

Not shatter.

Transform.

Turning into countless black particles.

Every single particle carried his awareness.

Everyone on the battlefield froze, because Ethan—

was gone.

In his place floated a storm of black grit, hanging in the air.

Across from him, the mechanoid clearly sensed something was wrong.

Its core flickered, trying to scan.

But it was already too late.

The black particles ignored the energy barrier and passed straight through.

Not physically.

As "information."

They slipped into its structure.

In the next instant, Ethan saw it.

Not with eyes—

with consciousness.

He saw the mechanoid's interior.

Energy circuits.

Control nodes.

Core architecture.

And—

another consciousness.

Cold.

Pure.

Mechanical.

It noticed Ethan immediately.

[INTRUSION DETECTED]

[Initiating Purge Protocol]

The entire internal space shuddered.

Energy surged, trying to erase Ethan.

But Ethan didn't retreat.

His black particles spread faster.

Linked.

Synchronized.

Corroded.

The Darkness Rune began devouring control permissions.

The Light Rune began rewriting structural logic.

This was war.

Not a physical war—

a war of consciousness.

The mechanoid's system counterattacked like it was possessed, trying to expel him.

But Ethan had already seized the critical nodes.

He cut off its energy supply.

Shut down its defense protocols.

And finally—

he found it.

The core control hub.

Ethan's consciousness poured over it.

In an instant…

all resistance stopped.

Outside.

That mechanoid suddenly went rigid.

Its core stopped flickering.

Then it lit again.

But this time—

the glow

didn't belong to Nexaris.

It belonged to Ethan.

Ethan condensed back into a solid body, standing where he'd been.

He could feel it.

That mechanoid—

was answering his will.

Like it was his own body now.

Absolute obedience.

Ethan slowly raised his hand.

The mechanoid raised its hand too.

Perfectly synced.

Ethan smiled.

This was the first time—

he'd truly taken control of a war unit from another civilization.

He said softly, "Now."

"You belong to me."

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Brutal energy erupted from the mechanoid Ethan now controlled.

Its core burned brighter than before.

More stable.

More dangerous.

Ethan wasn't just driving its body anymore.

He was using its authority.

Power gathered fast.

In the mechanoid's palm.

Compressing.

Spinning.

A huge energy sphere took shape in seconds.

The air warped.

Space itself trembled.

Then Ethan swung his hand.

The energy sphere ripped through the sky and slammed into the mechanoid ranks.

BOOM!!!

The blast swallowed everything.

Five mechanoids were thrown back like toys.

Their armor split apart.

Their cores flickered.

The battlefield went quiet for a heartbeat.

Because everyone realized—

that attack hadn't come from Emerald Castle.

Not from the Thalaryn.

But—

from Nexaris's own command unit.

Thalorien hovered in the distance, his pupils tightening.

He could feel it clearly.

That mechanoid's core structure had changed.

That wasn't Nexaris's energy frequency anymore.

It was—

Ethan.

Ethan's voice came through the mechanoid's vocal system, cold and amplified:

"Your command authority."

"Belongs to me now."

The entire mechanoid legion stalled for a split second.

Because the Nexaris army wasn't just an army.

It was a network.

Every unit—

linked to the command core.

And now…

that command core had been taken over by Ethan.

Ethan didn't stop.

He kept expanding his control.

He triggered the black-particle state again, releasing it from the commander unit's body.

They weren't matter.

They were carriers of information.

Every particle held Ethan's control signal.

They spread.

Made contact.

Invaded.

The nearby mechanoids sensed the anomaly immediately.

Their cores flickered, trying to resist.

[WARNING]

[Command Override Attempt Detected]

[Initiating Countermeasure]

But what they were facing wasn't some ordinary intrusion.

It was a control signal backed by commander-level authority.

Their defense systems—

couldn't refuse orders from "highest clearance."

One.

Two.

Ten.

Dozens.

Their cores dimmed, one after another.

Then they lit up again.

Only this time—

the glow turned a deep, pitch-black.

They turned slowly.

No longer facing Emerald Castle.

But facing—

the Nexaris legion.

Then they attacked.

BOOM!!!

The first mechanoid was ripped apart.

The second was punched through by concentrated energy.

The third had its core destroyed outright.

The battlefield descended into total chaos.

And worse—

the remaining mechanoids didn't fight back.

Because their systems were colliding with themselves.

Their friend-or-foe identification was crashing.

Their IFF screamed that these units were "allies."

They couldn't attack.

But reality—

those "allies" were tearing them to pieces.

That logical contradiction made them seize up for precious seconds.

Thalorien spotted the opening instantly.

His voice rolled across the Thalaryn ranks.

"Attack!"

The Thalaryn army surged forward at once.

Ocean energy swept the battlefield.

The Sky Fortress opened fire in tandem.

War Machines crashed into the enemy line.

And the entire Nexaris legion began to collapse.