Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 958: He Absorbed the Curse

Ethan frowned.

He didn’t retreat.

Instead, he closed his eyes.

Then he slowly released his own power—

letting it extend outward.

Touch.

Brush.

Make contact with the sphere.

One second.

Two.

And then—

resonance.

The blood-red sphere suddenly began to shake violently, as if answering his existence.

Right then—

a splash sounded behind him.

Thalorien rushed in with several Thalaryn warriors.

The moment they saw the blood-red sphere—

everyone’s faces went sheet-white.

Thalorien surged forward and seized Ethan by the shoulder.

"Don’t touch it!"

His voice carried a fear Ethan had never heard from him before.

"That’s a Demon Pearl."

The air seemed to freeze solid.

Thalorien stared at the sphere like it might lunge at him.

"In our legends, it isn’t power."

"It’s a curse."

"Everyone who tries to control it—"

"gets devoured by it."

Ethan looked at the sphere in silence.

It was still pulsing slowly.

Still responding to him.

Responding to his power.

There was no fear in his eyes.

Only calm.

And—want.

He said softly, "That’s only because they weren’t strong enough."

Ethan didn’t hesitate again.

He stepped forward hard and grabbed the floating Demon Pearl with both hands.

The instant his fingers closed—

it felt like he’d seized the core of a real star.

Heavy.

Scorching.

And so cold it burned.

Two completely opposite temperatures slammed into his palms at the same time, surging in like a frenzy.

"Ethan—!"

Thalorien had just opened his mouth, but it was already too late to stop him.

Ethan drove the sphere into his chest.

The next second—

BOOM!

A pallid, bone-white power detonated outward.

It wasn’t ordinary light.

It felt like energy from a higher tier of existence—almost sacred, yet so terrifying it triggered fear on instinct—

spreading from inside Ethan’s body.

The air warped.

The seawater beneath his feet slid away in absolute silence, as if it was afraid of something.

Every Thalaryn present went stiff.

They’d never seen anyone—

dare to absorb a core at this level with their own body.

And then—

Ethan’s body gave a slight tremor.

His back bent subtly, and for the briefest moment his shoulders seemed to soften, his whole outline changing just a fraction.

It was so fast it could’ve been a trick of the light.

But Ethan felt it.

Deep in his consciousness—

something had been awakened.

"...Ethan..."

A voice, incredibly faint.

Familiar.

And distant.

Ethan’s pupils snapped tight.

Lily.

It was Lily.

She was awake.

Only for an instant.

That bone-white power surged away from the depths of his body, flowing in another direction—as if a higher-authority existence had taken control.

Most of it was taken by her.

And then it sank back into silence.

Ethan’s breathing turned ragged.

His chest rose and fell hard.

He could feel it clearly—

what remained in him was only a small portion.

But even so... 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

that portion was completely different now.

No rampage.

No chaos.

Instead, it carried a unity he’d never felt before.

The energies inside him that had come from different sources—crystal core power, evolution power, deep-sea power—

began to fuse.

No longer repelling each other.

They rotated slowly,

forming a stable core.

At the same time—

the massive shark-beast suddenly started convulsing.

Its enormous body began to contract in a jerky, unnatural way.

Like it had lost the very source that held it together.

Muscle collapsed inward.

Bones gave off dull, snapping fractures.

Flesh withered fast.

Like an empty shell drained of every last trace of life.

Ethan lifted his head.

His gaze had changed completely.

Cold.

Steady.

Not a trace of hesitation.

Slowly, he raised his right hand.

That newly fused power gathered in his palm. The air let out a deep, thrumming hum.

The next second—

BOOM!

A beam of energy, compressed to the absolute limit, erupted in an instant.

It punched straight through the shark monster’s back, tearing open a massive gash.

"Move," Ethan said, voice low.

He led the Thalaryn out of the creature’s body at top speed.

When they burst back into the open sea—

everyone stopped.

That monster that had towered like a mountain—

had shriveled completely.

It was more than ten times smaller now, floating there...

withered.

twisted.

like a dried-up corpse abandoned for centuries.

"It’s over..." Ethan murmured.

But he didn’t let his guard down.

He raised both hands.

The new energy core inside him spun up fast.

Power in the surrounding waters began to converge.

A huge sphere of energy took shape above his head—

spinning.

compressing.

growing more and more unstable.

Then—

he chopped his arm down.

BOOOOM!!!

The energy sphere slammed into the shark’s corpse.

It shattered instantly, exploding into countless fragments—

destroyed so thoroughly it had no chance of reforming.

Only then did Ethan finally let out a real breath.

He turned, ready to enter the Thalaryn energy barrier with Thalorien.

And then—

the sky suddenly lit up.

Not with ordinary light.

With something far more dangerous.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Dull explosions rolled down from high above.

The air began to vibrate.

Far away, ripples spread across the ocean’s surface in unnatural rings.

The next instant—

a bolt of lightning fell from the sky.

But it wasn’t normal lightning.

It wasn’t a single color.

It was braided blue, purple, gold, and silver—

like living energy.

And at the center of that lightning—

someone hovered.

A young man.

Handsome features.

A calm expression.

Like he belonged to the sky.

A blue gemstone hung at his neck.

It rotated slowly.

Each turn released fresh lightning—

as if he himself was the source of the storm.

Ethan’s whole body tightened.

He stared up at the figure wrapped in thunder and slipped into combat mode on instinct.

He was starting to understand something—

this deep sea was far more dangerous than he’d assumed.

In a short span of time,

two monsters had appeared back-to-back—each one capable of wiping out all of Thalaryn.

And now—

a third.

And this one felt even worse than the first two.

It wasn’t a monster.

It was—

a real person who commanded thunder.

The energy in the air turned restless.

Ethan’s breathing slowed, measured.

But his muscles were primed to explode at any moment.

Then a hand pressed down on his shoulder.

"Don’t move," Thalorien said under his breath.

Ethan glanced sideways.

Thalorien’s face was serious, but there was no hostility in it.

"He’s not an enemy," Thalorien continued. "He’s one of ours."