Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 995: The Black Rose Blooms

The instant he heard that name, the corner of Ethan’s mouth ticked up.

He’d been curious about the Dark Abyss since earlier. Back when he first arrived in this world, the system’s scan had already made one thing clear—some force had split Nexaris into two completely opposing regions.

And the Dark Abyss was the most mysterious side of all.

Ethan still didn’t know how that division had formed, but he could feel it. Down there was a kind of savage energy—violent, dense, and hungry.

If the abyss really held that much power...

Then once he took it, the energy he could gain would be far beyond what anyone could imagine.

Ethan let out a couple low laughs, light and casual, like the earthshaking battle from a moment ago had been nothing more than a warm-up.

He dropped to the ground. His expression softened abruptly—almost gentle, even friendly in a way that made people relax.

Then he reached out and helped the kneeling Stone Golem to its feet. The motion was smooth and natural, like he was steadying a servant who’d been scared out of its mind.

"Relax," Ethan said easily, that half-smile still hanging on his lips. "Staying alive with me is actually pretty simple. You just do what I tell you to do."

He dipped his head slightly, eyes landing on the Stone Golem’s energy core, while his tone stayed conversational.

"Now. Take me to the Dark Abyss. Immediately."

The Stone Golem had clearly been shattered by what it had seen. Its rocky body was trembling faintly.

After hearing Ethan, it didn’t hesitate at all. It pulled a holographic projection device from a storage structure near its chest.

With a pulse of energy, a floating 3D map unfolded in the air.

The terrain was complicated—mountains, ravines, underground passages, all laid out in layered detail. And in the deepest part of the map, a region covered in dark energy shimmered faintly.

The entry zone to the Dark Abyss.

Ethan glanced at the map, then turned his gaze toward Ataneya not far away.

She stood at the edge of the battlefield, the air around her still rippling with leftover energy from the fight.

"Come here," Ethan said.

Ataneya walked over immediately.

Ethan lifted his hand and pointed toward the area where the energy hadn’t fully dispersed yet. His voice slid back into that calm, crisp command tone.

"You stay behind," he said. "Use the residual energy here to establish a stable spatial resonance with The Nether Sea, then build a spatial corridor."

He paused, eyes cutting toward the distant sky.

"If you can, pull Emerald Castle’s main force straight over here."

Ataneya didn’t hesitate for a second. She nodded hard.

She understood exactly why he was setting it up like this.

They’d thought Nexaris’s forces were already wiped out—that only scattered enemies would remain. But reality had just slapped them. This world was far more complicated than they’d assumed.

On the other side of this region was an entirely different world—the Dark Abyss.

And the power sleeping in that abyss was obviously just as dangerous.

Without enough backup, charging in blindly would be suicide.

Ethan gave a few more quick instructions, then waved a hand, signaling the team to move out.

Soon, the group left the battlefield under the Stone Golem’s guidance, heading for the direction marked on the map. They pushed through rough mountain terrain, and the landscape grew more barren and dim with every mile. An uneasy feeling began to seep into the air.

No one knew how much time passed before the terrain ahead suddenly changed.

They reached a hidden ravine entrance.

The cliffs on both sides were steep and towering, like something had split the mountain open with a single, brutal strike. The inside was drowned in thick shadow. From deep within, low waves of energy pulsed out, pressing down on the nerves.

But just as the group came to a stop, the Stone Golem leading them changed.

The obedient, head-lowered posture vanished. Its body jolted hard.

Then it bolted into the ravine like it had lost its mind, letting out a shrill roar as it ran.

"Enemies are here! Enemies are here! All units—prepare for combat!"

The shout echoed through the ravine again and again.

Ethan’s pupils snapped tight.

He hadn’t expected the Stone Golem—this thing that looked terrified to the bone—to turn around and bite at the very last second.

"So it’s a traitor," Ethan said under his breath.

But there wasn’t time to settle accounts.

He adjusted his breathing in one smooth motion. Power inside him reignited instantly.

In the next second, a violent force burst out of him. The air shook. Fine white arcs spread over his body like a living web.

The lightning gathered, climbing upward, condensing above his head into a huge spherical structure—

A lightning orb made of pure thunder.

Electric light raged across its surface, a continuous, heavy crackling rolling out. Heat and current tore at the air, and the entire ravine was lit up by that searing glow.

Right then—

The darkness deep in the ravine... started to move.

A figure stepped out of the shadows of the Dark Abyss.

He was a middle-aged man with a slightly small frame, looking almost delicate against the towering rock walls. His movements were elegant and unhurried, carrying a soft, almost feminine grace.

If not for the fine ring of beard stubble around his mouth, it would’ve been hard to tell his gender at first glance.

He lifted his head slowly, eyes settling on Ethan with a cold, dismissive contempt.

"Well, this is a surprise..." he said softly, the tone like he was mocking a few bugs that had wandered into someone’s garden. "Someone actually dared to come knocking."

His voice wasn’t loud, but it echoed clearly through the ravine.

"Looks like you’re all tired of living."

The instant he finished speaking, his power erupted.

The air seemed to compress under an invisible force. Heavy, black energy poured out of him and gathered in the open air like a rolling dark tide.

It spun and condensed, tightening layer by layer—

Until an enormous, eerie flower formed in midair.

A Black Rose.

Pitch-black petals unfurled in overlapping layers, each petal seemingly forged from pure abyss energy. The bloom rotated slowly, radiating a suffocating pressure.

The moment the Black Rose fully opened—

Ethan’s heart gave a violent jolt.

A fear he’d never felt before surged up from the deepest part of his mind. It was the sensation of something ancient and lethal waking up right in front of him. Even the power flowing inside Ethan—normally steady—trembled slightly.

Ethan drew a sharp breath.

He crushed the instinctive panic down hard, forcing his mind back into a stable, controlled state. Energy inside him surged again, and under his command, white lightning gathered wildly.

The thunder sphere above his head began spinning faster and faster.

Current compressed inside it, shrieking with harsh crackles.

Then Ethan swung his hand.

The massive white lightning orb shot forward like a falling star, smashing straight toward the Black Rose hanging in the air.

The two forces collided head-on.

The shock of impact made the entire ravine quake. Electric light and abyss darkness twisted together violently, and the air tore with a piercing screech.

The cliff walls began to collapse.

Huge boulders broke loose from both sides and crashed down. The ground split open with deep, bottomless fissures. Worse—space itself filled with dense cracks, like glass that had taken a sledgehammer.

Like the next second—

The entire space might collapse.

Above the ravine, the clash only intensified.

White thunder and the Black Rose wrapped around each other, lightning and abyss energy weaving into a warped storm. The two forces tore at each other, devouring and shredding. Explosive ripping sounds rang out nonstop, as if the world itself was being pulled apart thread by thread.