Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 966: Something Was Lost

Ethan’s heart sank.

This was the first time the system couldn’t fully dissect a target’s structure. Which meant the power this guy controlled had already crossed—at least partly—outside the system’s parsing range.

And then the man’s body trembled faintly.

Something even stranger manifested behind him.

A worm.

But it wasn’t anything you could call a "creature" in the normal sense.

Its body was made of pure energy, its surface layered with complex, ancient patterns. Every time it squirmed, space cracked a little, like the world couldn’t handle the friction of it existing.

Just a trace of energy leaking off it made the air scream with a sharp, grating hum.

Ethan could feel it clearly—

that worm’s energy level had already pushed past the critical edge of Tier 33.

The man lifted his hand slowly.

"Since this place has already lost its original value," he said, voice turning glacial, "there’s no reason for it to keep existing."

He gave a casual flick of his fingers.

The worm erupted with blinding golden light.

The next second, annihilating energy poured down like a flood, blanketing the entire sky.

Ethan’s pupils snapped tight.

He didn’t retreat.

Heavenly Demon Lightning detonated inside him. The Powered Combat Armor’s core spun to its limit, and white lightning tore outward along his body in a frenzy.

He thrust up a hand, compressing everything he had into his palm, and met the golden torrent head-on.

BOOM—!!!

The two forces collided.

The shockwave swept the space like a storm.

The sky split with a massive gash. The spatial framework shrieked with cracking, tearing noise.

And yet—

Ethan was still being pushed back.

The pressure in that golden energy was far beyond what he’d anticipated.

Right then, Thalorien stormed into the battle with the Emerald Castle fighters. Their energy barriers unfolded instantly, layering over Ethan’s output, trying to brace against the incoming destruction.

Even so, the force kept driving down.

The gap in level— 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

was too big.

The air started to collapse.

Space began to lose coherence.

And just as the line was about to shatter—

a small hand pressed gently against Ethan’s back.

Ethan jolted.

He felt it with absolute clarity: a familiar, pure white lightning flowed from the little girl into him.

Not intrusion.

Fusion.

Two currents of Heavenly Demon Lightning clicked together in that instant, forming a complete cycle.

Ethan’s vision sharpened like a fog had been ripped away.

He could sense it—this wasn’t just energy anymore.

It was something higher.

Infernal Primordial Power.

White lightning converged fast.

Between the two of them, it compressed into a massive sphere of power.

"Now," Ethan murmured.

The next second, he shoved the sphere forward with everything he had.

White lightning pierced the sky.

For the first time, the man’s eyes changed.

He retreated fast—

but the blast still grazed him.

The air convulsed.

He stabilized himself, gaze locking onto Ethan and the girl like a blade.

"Didn’t expect this," he said, voice dropping even lower. "For this power... to appear again."

He lifted his hand.

The worm flared with dazzling light once more.

"Since that’s the case..."

His presence fully unleashed.

The entire world started to shake.

"...then you two especially can’t be allowed to live."

Just as the man was about to unleash the full might of that energy-worm behind him, Ethan’s senses snapped onto something critical.

Not the man’s head. Not the worm that was dumping out annihilation like it was free.

Deeper.

Right at the center of his chest—where the energy cycles were densest, a node that wasn’t just a gathering point, but something far more stable. More central.

The system’s earlier partial scan flashed back through Ethan’s mind.

That spot...

was the source of everything.

Ethan didn’t hesitate again.

Heavenly Demon Lightning responded instantly. White lightning raced along the engraved lines of his Powered Combat Armor, popping with a harsh, ear-splitting crackle.

His figure vanished midair—

and in the next instant he was right in front of the man, moving so fast the space around them stuttered, like reality skipped a frame.

The man’s pupils shrank hard.

Too late.

A pure-white bolt—like it had its own will—punched straight through the center of his chest.

BOOM—!

The instant it connected, the air convulsed. A destructive shockwave blasted outward.

The defensive energy at the man’s chest didn’t explode on contact.

It was peeled open.

Like that lightning carried a stripping property, not just brute destruction.

Ethan’s hand drove into the exposed core region.

He could feel it clearly—something stable and scorching, thrashing like mad.

A true energy core.

The density inside it was beyond what a normal Tier life-form could withstand.

Heavenly Demon Lightning poured down Ethan’s arm nonstop, collapsing every defensive layer around the core until they came apart like rotten scaffolding.

With a low, ugly tearing sound, Ethan yanked.

A blood-red energy core was ripped out of the man’s body by force.

The man froze.

The stable energy loops inside him collapsed the instant the core was gone. Behind him, the energy-worm shuddered in silence, then rapidly dimmed, like it had lost the support that allowed it to exist at all.

Ethan pulled back, eyes dropping to the core in his hand.

It throbbed in his palm like a living heart. Every pulse sent out a violent wave of power. He could feel it trying, on instinct, to merge into his body—

and Heavenly Demon Lightning even answered it, humming in resonance as Ethan’s energy level began to climb, slowly but unmistakably.

He didn’t even have time to fully analyze its structure.

A figure moved at his side.

The little girl was suddenly there—so fast it shocked him.

Her gaze was locked on the core, like something deep inside her had grabbed the steering wheel. She reached out and snatched it straight from Ethan’s hand.

"Wait—"

Ethan barely got the word out.

Too late.

Without the slightest hesitation, the girl swallowed the core—whole—despite the violent energy still rolling off it.

The air went dead.

Ethan’s pupils snapped tight.

He stepped forward on instinct, but the next second the girl’s body had already begun to change.

Her eyes turned blood-red.

Not just a color shift—an overhaul at the level of her energy. Heavenly Demon Lightning spread outward from inside her, actively merging with the core’s power and forming a brand-new circulating structure.

BOOM—!

The first shockwave burst out of her.

Then a second.

A third.

The air trembled. Space gave off faint cracking sounds. The energy density around her rocketed upward, warping into a visible distortion field.

And yet her appearance... became even more delicate.

Her skin smoothed until it looked like polished porcelain. The energy stopped being chaotic and began to settle into a stable framework. She lifted off the air, as if some higher force was holding her up.

But her eyes went empty.

No anger.

No fear.

No memory.

Ethan flashed in front of her and grabbed her shoulders hard, pushing Heavenly Demon Lightning into her body to stabilize the runaway structure.

White lightning resonated instantly with what was inside her. The violently shaking space began to settle, bit by bit, until the distortion eased.

She lowered her head and looked at Ethan.

Pure unfamiliarity in her gaze.

"Who are you?" she asked softly.

There wasn’t a trace of her past in that voice.

"And... who am I?" she continued.

Her eyes were confused, but not afraid.

"I remember... I think I had a brother."

She paused, then looked at Ethan again.

"The power on you feels like mine."

Her voice dropped, almost fragile.

"Then... are you my brother?"

She reached out and gently caught the edge of Ethan’s clothes again.

"Can I follow you?"