Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory

Chapter 1196: The Crimson Oath

The Abyssal Empress looked at him, the contempt in her eyes deepening.

"Hmph."

She lifted her palm and gave it a lazy little sway in midair.

"You want to fight?"

The bell at her wrist chimed as it moved.

Ding-ding-ding...

The instant that clear, crisp sound spread, terrifying energy rushed in from every direction at once. Power was drawn out of spatial cracks, the battlefield’s lingering aftermath, the Infernal Abyss aura in the air, even the world’s own source—pulled together and compressed in her palm until it took shape as a gigantic bird.

The bird unfurled its wings. Countless elemental forces flowed through its feathers.

Lightning, water, flame, shadow, chaos, demonic power—everything intertwined. And at the core lurked the Infernal Abyss’s unique, overbearing presence, heavy enough to make the sky feel bruised.

"Looking to die," the Abyssal Empress said coolly.

Her palm pushed forward, almost gentle.

The enormous bird tore open the sky and shot straight at the energy sphere Ethan had formed.

The two forces collided in midair.

And in the next instant, world-ending power erupted.

Ethan’s eyes went wide.

His massive energy sphere had only just met the bird when it was crushed head-on. The bird—woven from mixed elements and Infernal Abyss aura—spread its wings, and the very edges of those wings skimmed across the sphere’s surface. Transparent lightning, snow-white thunder, Primordial Core power—layer after layer shattered like brittle glass.

In only a few breaths, the sphere was blasted into fragments.

Ethan’s heart sank.

Their Tiers were close, but the moment they truly clashed, he realized the gap between them wasn’t something numbers could bridge. Every strand of the Abyssal Empress’s energy was absurdly pure, able to dismantle the structure of his power with surgical precision. Meanwhile, Ethan’s body held Idra, Auri, Nysera, and Lily’s strength—but it was still just brute-forced together, twisted into one bundle, nowhere near true unity.

By now, there was no retreat.

Ethan flashed upward, rocketing into the high sky. Every force inside him ignited along his meridians. Transparent lightning tore the air at the outer layer, snow-white thunder sank deeper, while Infernal Abyss aura and Primordial Core energy spun violently at his chest like twin vortices.

"I don’t care where you came from," Ethan’s voice rang down from above, sharp enough to cut.

"Or what kind of power you think you’re holding."

"Since you’re here..."

"Then the only thing you’re leaving behind is a corpse."

Behind him, a colossal dragon phantom took shape.

It was condensed from that chaotic, fused energy. When its wings opened, huge sections of the sky buckled and sank. Between its scales flowed transparent lightning, snow-white thunder, and the dark, deep Infernal Abyss presence. It coiled behind Ethan, and as Ethan raised his hand, the dragon’s massive head lowered too—locking onto the Abyssal Empress below.

Endless power erupted.

At the same time, the war across the sky had already hit a boiling point.

With Emerald Castle’s main force arriving, they immediately launched an all-out charge. Sky Fortress bombardment kept tearing open the enemy formations. Fallen Star Guard slipped through the ruptures like blades, carving deeper. Powered combat armor warriors smashed straight into the enemy’s armored troops head-on. Bodies rained from the sky—some enemy, some Emerald Castle.

Different powers tangled together in the air—colliding, detonating, exploding into storms of light.

Spatial rifts opened one after another, like black wounds slashed across the heavens. Every time one widened, the figures nearby were yanked into the violent turbulence. They didn’t even have time to scream before they were shredded into pieces.

Korvath stood at the edge of the battlefield, completely stunned.

He’d never seen war on this scale.

In this world, the natives fought over mineral veins. They went to war, sure—but at most they’d pick an open stretch of ground, fight it out, and then redraw the lines once the winner was decided. A battle like this—army crashing into army, powerhouses slamming into powerhouses, the entire sky looking like it might break apart—had never happened in his memory.

While Korvath was still dazed for that brief moment, a swarm of figures appeared in the sky not far away.

They came in from multiple directions, each group bringing the fighting strength of their own city. Their auras weren’t as outrageous as Emerald Castle’s army or the enemy’s, but they weren’t weak either. When Korvath got a good look at them, something shifted in his eyes.

Most of them were friends.

In fact, before Korvath had rushed over, he’d already sent the word out—calling on the lords and powerhouses he knew to come help. Back then, he’d assumed most of them wouldn’t show.

He hadn’t expected they’d actually make it.

But the moment they truly saw the battlefield in front of them, every single person froze in midair.

"Korvath!"

A man who’d arrived with an entire city’s worth of warriors had a face gone livid, his voice cracking.

"This is what you called a small favor? I brought every fighting force I have. Are you trying to get my whole city wiped out in one war?"

Another person stared at the bodies raining down from the sky and swallowed hard.

"This is insane. There’s no way we can win. We need to retreat—now."

"I told you we shouldn’t have come."

Someone was already backing away.

"Leave. If we don’t leave right now, we won’t be able to leave at all."

Voices piled over each other, panicked and sharp, and more than a few squads had already started turning around. Faced with a war at this level, fear was the most honest response. They might be willing to do Korvath a favor—but that didn’t mean they were willing to throw everything they owned into a meat grinder.

Korvath didn’t stop them.

He only lowered his head and pulled out a blood-red gem.

The instant it appeared, the expressions of several nearby powerhouses changed.

This was Korvath’s Primordial Core power.

Once he drove it into his body, it meant his life had entered a countdown. Unless the battle ended, he would never be able to stop—never be able to pull out.

Korvath didn’t say a word.

He lifted his hand and pressed that blood-red gem into his chest.

Boom!

Crimson light exploded from inside him, spreading across his skin and leaking out through the seams of his armor. Korvath’s aura surged violently in an instant, and his eyes were dyed through with blood-colored radiance.

Then he moved.

He drove his power to the limit and shot straight toward the center of the battlefield.

That single action stunned everyone.

The people who’d been complaining, hesitating, shrinking back—every one of them stopped. They knew exactly what Korvath had done, and they knew exactly what it meant.

This wasn’t "joining the fight."

This was betting his life.

After a brief silence, several of the strongest exchanged looks.

They all understood it now: a battle at this level wasn’t something any one city could sit out. If the Abyssal Empress and those enemies really tore through this world, nobody would get away.

If the end was death either way...

Then they might as well go down swinging.

The first man pulled out his own Primordial Core.

Then the second. The third.

More and more blood-red gems were driven into chests. Powerful auras erupted across the sky in waves, and the units that had started to withdraw abruptly turned back, charging after Korvath as they plunged into the war.

With their arrival, the forces between heaven and earth became even more savage.

The whole world began to sway on the edge of collapse. Mountains split. The ground cracked open. The spatial rifts in the sky widened again and again—like the world itself was about to fail under the weight of this war.