Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 983: The Machine in the Sky

Ethan’s head snapped up.

And the next second, he saw it.

A colossal mechanoid was rising slowly from deep within the fleet. It was bigger than an ordinary warship, its entire body wrapped in metal plating, exposed mechanical structures flashing with cold light as it climbed.

What made Ethan’s skin crawl was its weapons array.

Where its eyes should’ve been, two massive ultimate annihilation cannons were mounted like a predator’s gaze. And its shoulders, back, chest, and arms were packed with dense banks of energy weapons—layer after layer of barrels and emitters.

If all of that lit up at once—

It wouldn’t be a battle. It would be a massacre.

Ethan’s expression hardened.

The most dangerous enemy wasn’t always the strongest individual. It was something built for large-scale killing. If that thing entered the fight, Emerald Castle’s forces wouldn’t be able to withstand it.

He didn’t hesitate.

Ethan vanished.

A heartbeat later, he was right in front of the mechanoid.

Thunder gathered fast in his palm.

A huge energy sphere compressed into shape in an instant.

He swung his arm.

The sphere slammed into the mechanoid’s chest—and at the same time, Heavenly Demon Lightning erupted out of Ethan like a storm, flooding forward and swallowing the space between them.

Boom!

The explosion blossomed in midair.

But the mechanoid didn’t retreat even an inch.

Its mechanical face stayed blank, but its posture radiated something almost fanatical—pure battle intent. It slowly spread its arms, and the armor over its chest split apart to either side.

A crystal-clear gemstone emerged from within.

It shone with a noble, mysterious light, like a star frozen solid.

The next instant—

The gem was released.

And the moment it touched Ethan’s power, something bizarre happened.

A violently berserk force detonated from inside the gemstone, like a triggered reaction device. The energy flipped on itself, forming a massive energy field that wrapped Ethan inside it.

Space started to shake.

Ethan roared.

Everything in his body ignited at once.

White lightning exploded outward, crashing head-on into the gemstone’s field. The two forces tangled and ground against each other, the air filled with shrieking current and razor-edged pressure.

Space began to split.

Fine cracks spread outward in every direction.

The clash destabilized the sky itself.

Ethan’s Tier was lower than this mechanoid’s, but he fought like water—flexible, opportunistic. And while he fought, the system ran at full speed, tearing through the mechanoid’s structure with frantic analysis.

The data refreshed again and again.

Then it caught something.

Ethan’s eyes snapped to the mechanoid’s waist-abdomen section.

Every so often, a faint electrical sound leaked from there.

Zzz—

Zzzzt—

So small it would’ve been nothing without the system amplifying it into a clear warning.

The corner of Ethan’s mouth slowly lifted.

So it wasn’t flawless after all.

The instant the system locked onto that anomaly, Ethan moved without the slightest delay.

The massive mechanoid still hovered high overhead, its chest core blasting out scorching light. Around it, its weapons systems continued unfolding, one annihilation muzzle after another charging up, the air trembling with the kind of power that made your heart stutter.

But within that dense, stable energy structure, the waist area kept showing that tiny, persistent discord.

A weakness.

Ethan disappeared again.

In the next instant, he reappeared less than six feet from the mechanoid’s waist. White lightning swarmed around his fist, compressing again and again until it formed a nearly solid sheath of power.

No pause.

He drove his punch down.

BOOM—!

The impact cracked the air.

The armor that had looked unbreakable a moment ago caved in under that single hit, a rupture blasted open by brute force. Metal shards and energetic sparks burst outward together, raining down like a brief meteor shower.

The mechanoid’s gigantic body jolted hard.

The energy structure at its waist instantly lost balance. Cracks raced along the armor seams, spreading fast. Inside, damaged energy lines started to pop and detonate, spitting out harsh, screeching electrical noise.

Zzzzt—Zzz—Zzzzt—!

Ethan’s eyes lit up.

"Knew it was here."

He didn’t give it a single second to self-repair.

Heavenly Demon Lightning erupted again. His figure blurred through the air, and his fists hammered down—over and over—into the exact same spot. Every impact widened the fractures. Thunder ripped deeper into the metal, tearing the internal structure apart like it was rotting from the inside.

After dozens of consecutive blows—

Crack.

A huge breaking sound rang out.

The massive mechanoid was snapped in half at the waist. Its body split into two sections in midair.

The upper half—its weapon systems thrown off balance—tilted slightly, while the lower half fell toward the ground.

But Ethan didn’t relax.

Because he knew—

Nexaris tech was never that simple.

Sure enough, even with its body in two pieces, the mechanoid’s weapon systems were still running. The shoulder annihilation cannons began charging. Missile arrays along its back slowly opened. Dozens of attack modules locked onto targets at the same time.

Ethan snorted.

"Still trying?"

He pulled up the system scan.

A flood of data ripped across his vision. Hidden energy cores inside the mechanoid were tagged one after another—distributed across different weapon modules, each operating independently.

Ethan moved again.

He became a streak of white lightning weaving through the mechanoid’s wreckage. Every time he reached a marked point, he simply reached in and tore the local core out by force.

One.

Two.

Three.

Each extraction came with a violent tremor of energy. Weapon systems died in sequence. Cannon ports dimmed. Mechanical structures slowed, then froze.

A few minutes later—

He ripped the final core from the chest assembly.

At last, the massive mechanoid went completely dead. The wreckage drifted downward, falling in slow arcs until it crashed into a pile of useless scrap.

Ethan exhaled.

No time to stand around.

He turned and shot back into the battlefield.

Nexaris’s army was still thick. The sky was packed with energy blasts and warship barrages, the roar of fire never letting up. Every soldier down there carried an oppressive aura—combat strength far beyond a normal army.

If they kept attacking without restraint, Emerald Castle’s line would eventually get crushed.

Ethan stopped holding back.

White lightning exploded out of him, expanding into a massive thunder domain. He plunged straight into the enemy formation, and every sweep of his hand unleashed wide-area thunder shocks, harvesting lives in huge swaths.

The sky blazed with lightning.

But farther out, another fight was only getting more brutal.

Lily versus The Nexaris Overlord Xarathos had entered its final stage.

Their power carved out an independent battle zone of its own. White thunder and blood-red energy slammed into each other nonstop, the air twisting under the pressure. No one dared get close.

Xarathos drifted backward.

The long fight had finally made his aura waver, but his gaze stayed sharp.

He stared at Lily, then spoke.

"You really are strong."

His voice was low, slow.

"If you’re willing to join Nexaris, I can make you someone who stands above all but one—above ten thousand others."

There was a hint of temptation in his eyes.

"Even... I can help you find the entrance to The Infernal Abyss."

The air seemed to go quiet for a beat.

Xarathos had clearly judged, through fighting her, where Lily’s power came from. He knew that beings at this level often carried an obsession with their place of origin.