Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 956: Don’t destroy her

Ethan’s breathing hitched.

This thing’s defenses were already beyond common sense.

His attacks.

Thalorien’s Worldheart Crystal.

Even the spatial shockwaves—

none of it had actually hurt it.

This wasn’t just "hard."

It was some deeper protective mechanism, something built into its existence.

Ethan pulled up the system immediately.

[Re-scanning target...]

The interface unfolded in a flash.

The monster’s structure appeared in his vision as layers of energy: bone, muscle, bloodline flow—everything laid bare.

Then, the next second—

the system flagged an anomaly.

Location—

its mouth.

Ethan’s pupils tightened.

That wasn’t a normal wound.

It was an extremely unstable energy fault line.

Like some force was pushing outward from inside, warping the body from within—

making the spatial structure misalign.

It wasn’t "cracked."

It was—

connected to the inside.

"Found you," Ethan muttered.

He steadied his breathing.

Dropped his center of gravity.

Power gathered inside him again—

then burst.

Boom!

His body turned into a bolt of lightning, shooting straight for the monster’s mouth.

The beast seemed to sense the danger.

It snapped its jaws shut.

Too late.

Ethan slammed directly into that energy fault line.

The instant he made contact—

everything around him changed.

Not swallowed.

Transferred.

A heartbeat later, he was standing in a space he’d never seen before.

No flesh.

No bones.

No organs.

Just space.

Space stretching out endlessly.

Dark red energy drifted everywhere like slow-burning mist.

And the space itself seemed to breathe.

Ethan understood immediately.

This wasn’t the monster’s "stomach."

This was its core space.

Right then—

Thalorien and the other Thalaryn warriors surged in through the rupture as well.

They froze too.

"This is..." Thalorien’s voice came out tight with shock.

"A spatial container," he said softly.

"This monster... is just a shell."

Ethan didn’t answer.

Because he’d already seen it.

At the very center of the space—

a figure hovered.

A little girl.

She looked around ten years old at most.

Her long hair floated in the energy.

Her eyes were shut.

Around her body, countless purple-red strands of energy coiled like threads.

That power kept spreading outward—

and then—

held the entire space together.

Ethan’s heart slammed once, hard.

Soulforce.

He recognized it instantly.

This was something more fundamental than ordinary energy.

It didn’t just strengthen the body—

it reached straight into reality and rewrote it.

If it went out of control—

the entire undersea world would collapse.

And then—

the girl’s eyes slowly opened.

That wasn’t a child’s gaze.

It was the kind of look that felt like it had crossed endless ages.

She looked at Ethan.

No anger.

No fear.

Only pure instinct.

The next instant—

her power fully unleashed.

BOOM!!!

Purple-red Soulforce erupted outward like a star going supernova.

Behind her, energy condensed at terrifying speed.

Forming a gigantic phantom.

A phoenix.

Wings spread wide enough to blanket the entire space.

Flames burned between its feathers.

Not ordinary fire.

Undying flame—

a kind of existence that simply would not go out.

Ethan’s body took a step back on instinct.

Not because he wanted to retreat—

but because his soul was screaming at him to.

That was undying flame.

Phoenix fire.

The moment that Soulforce-forged phoenix spread its wings, the temperature in the entire space spiked.

The flames weren’t burning the air.

They were burning reality itself.

Ethan’s breathing turned heavy.

And in his mind, an old image surfaced—distant, but sharp enough to hurt.

Phoenix Queen Ignara.

The first time she unleashed phoenix flame...

the whole sky burned.

Mountains melted.

Oceans boiled away.

And he’d been forced to stand far off, watching.

Unable to get close.

Unable to resist.

That wasn’t a gap in strength.

It was a gap in essence.

Phoenix flame was undying.

It couldn’t be extinguished.

Couldn’t be destroyed.

It could only be—matched.

Ethan shoved the instinctive fear down by force.

His hand slid into his storage space.

Then—

he pulled out a gemstone.

Gold-blue, its surface laced with fine frost-like patterns.

The instant it appeared—

the air congealed.

Not because it got colder.

Because it stopped moving.

Thalorien’s pupils contracted hard.

He could feel it.

Inside that gem was an extreme, primal source of ice.

Ethan said quietly, "I found this at the polar core of a Plane World."

"Frozen World Core."

He didn’t explain further.

There wasn’t time.

Phoenix flame was already surging in to swallow him.

Ethan slammed the gemstone against his chest.

The next instant—

it sank into his body.

BOOM!!!

An unimaginable cold detonated inside him.

His blood began to freeze.

Frost crawled over his bones.

His breath came out in white fog.

Agony tore through him in a single wave.

But Ethan didn’t stop.

Because he knew—

only if he became ice itself...

could he touch phoenix flame.

The cold spread fast.

Covering his chest.

His shoulders.

His arms.

Until a full suit of crystalline ice armor formed over him.

Phoenix fire lunged again.

This time—

it didn’t devour him.

The instant it touched the ice crystals—

it froze.

The little girl’s pupils snapped tight.

"That’s impossible..." she whispered.

"Phoenix flame... can’t be frozen..."

Ethan didn’t answer.

Because his body was right on the edge of collapse.

If he kept this up—

he and that gem would end up as a real ice statue.

He could only gamble.

Gamble that this one strike—

would end everything.

Ethan burst forward.

Phoenix fire raged around him.

Ice and flame clashed violently.

Space cracked, then iced over, again and again.

And finally—

he broke through the fire.

He appeared right in front of the girl.

Reached out—

and grabbed her shoulder.

Cold spread instantly.

The girl’s body began to freeze.

For the first time, fear flickered in her eyes.

"You..."

"What are you, exactly?"

She couldn’t understand it.

How could an ordinary lifeform control ice at this level?

A slow curve touched Ethan’s mouth.

It wasn’t a victor’s smile.

It was the kind you wore when you’d just won a coin-flip with your life on the line.

He released every last shred of ice power in his body.

BOOM!!!

The cold erupted completely.

The girl was sealed in solid frost.

Behind her, the phoenix phantom let out a silent, wordless wail—

and then—

froze.

The entire core space fell into dead silence.

Ethan’s breathing was heavy.

Ice still coated his arm.

And the little girl was frozen through and through.

The phoenix phantom had solidified behind her, like an ancient statue.

It looked like it was over.

Ethan stepped forward, slow and deliberate.

He was ready to finish it.

Then—

a voice sounded from inside him.

Not through his ears.

It appeared directly in the depths of his consciousness.

"Don’t destroy her."

The voice was low, steady, and unmistakably clear.