Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory

Chapter 1202: He Refuses the Abyss

Off in the distance, the Abyssal Empress watched him with open amusement.

She didn’t rush to strike. She simply stood at the edge of the chaos, her own energy slowly rising—calm, patient. As it spread, it became something like a higher-order shadow, draping over the battlefield until it felt like the entire world had been swallowed under her presence.

She studied Ethan, the interest in her eyes impossible to hide.

"The power on you really is... special."

Her voice cut straight through the battlefield, landing clearly in Ethan’s ears.

"If you’re willing, I can grant you the strongest Infernal Abyss origin."

The Abyssal Empress lifted a hand slightly. At her fingertips, abyssal aura coiled so thick it looked almost tangible.

"I’ll make you the supreme being of this world."

Her lips curved.

"You could even rule the Infernal Abyss."

Ethan panted hard. The energy sphere in his chest spun like it was about to tear free, and the rising power inside him was so violent it felt like it would burst his meridians apart. Transparent lightning crawled over his skin. The leftover energy from that fire-red crystal sank deep into his flesh. And deeper still, the girls’ power twisted together, barely holding his body together—like hands bracing a frame that wanted to rip itself apart.

He lifted his head and looked at the Abyssal Empress, his gaze sharp enough to cut.

"What the hell are you supposed to be?"

Ethan’s voice rang above the battlefield, crushing the distant explosions beneath it.

"And you think I’d be your lapdog?"

The moment he said it, the energy around him went eerily still.

Ethan understood it perfectly: the war had hit a deadlock. The Emerald Castle army, the local forces Korvath had brought, and the ghost legion Mournvale Abyss had sent out were all tangled together in a grinding meat grinder. Soldiers died by the second. The sky kept cracking. Neither side had truly overwhelmed the other.

What came next depended on one thing.

Which leader won.

If he surrendered, Emerald Castle would collapse. Everyone he’d brought here would be crushed into dust. At this point, there was no retreat left for him.

Dragging a body already pushed past its limits, Ethan detonated everything he had.

Blinding light blasted from the sphere in his chest. Transparent lightning, abyssal aura, Primordial Core energy, the residual power of the fire-red crystal, and the girls’ power—he forcibly compressed it all into his palms. In seconds, a massive sphere of energy took shape between heaven and earth.

He raised his arm and hurled it straight at the Abyssal Empress.

The Abyssal Empress’s eyes shifted.

She genuinely hadn’t expected Ethan to still dare attack her head-on at this point.

In truth, Ethan’s insides were already a mess. The girls fused within him could all feel the pressure coming off the Abyssal Empress. This wasn’t the kind of threat you got from a strong enemy—it was rank suppression from the depths of the Infernal Abyss, a crushing difference in status that made their power shrink back on instinct.

They didn’t dare clash with this woman directly.

And because of that, the power they could give Ethan was being suppressed, unable to reach its usual output. Ethan had a vast reservoir—but it was like invisible chains had wrapped his arms and legs, keeping him from truly letting loose.

The Abyssal Empress looked down on him with pure disdain.

She lifted her palm and flicked it casually.

The energy sphere Ethan had thrown froze in midair. Cracks raced across its surface in an instant. Then it exploded—shattering into a storm of broken light as she brushed the scattered power aside like it was dust.

And then her figure snapped into motion—lightning-fast—appearing right in front of Ethan.

She swung her fist straight for his face.

Ethan’s teeth ground so hard they clicked.

He didn’t retreat.

With a single motion, he produced over a hundred energy cores—and drove them directly into his own body.

Boom!

All those cores entering at once hit like a cataclysm. Violent power detonated through his meridians, and Ethan’s internal energy pathways ignited on the spot. Ripping, tearing pain flared from deep in his flesh. If an ordinary powerhouse tried something like this, their body would’ve disintegrated instantly.

Cracks split open across Ethan’s skin.

From the seams poured searing light, like he might blow apart from the inside at any second.

Inside him, the girls all went still, stunned by how far he was willing to go.

The fear the Abyssal Empress inspired was still there—heavy, choking—but Ethan didn’t take a single step back. Even as his body neared collapse, he forced himself forward, swallowing all the pain and carrying it alone.

Idra moved first.

Deep inside Ethan’s core, she slammed a fist into her own chest. In the next instant, she released everything—every last drop of her power—and spat out a mouthful of divine dragon essence-blood.

That essence-blood turned into a stream of gold-red light and surged into Ethan’s meridians.

The others followed her lead.

Auri, Nysera, and Lily released their power one after another, pouring the deepest reserves they had into Ethan’s body. The power that had been suppressed by fear erupted again in the same moment. Several forces collided, tore at each other—then the energy sphere in Ethan’s chest seized them and dragged them into a single, brutal current.

Ethan’s aura climbed again.

Tier 38, early stage.

Tier 38, mid stage.

When that level finally stabilized, the entire sky over the battlefield sank a visible notch under the pressure of his presence.

For the first time, the Abyssal Empress showed a trace of shock.

She retreated several steps in a row, her own power spilling out as she formed a massive barrier between heaven and earth. Abyssal aura flowed across its surface in layered currents, wrapping her inside it like a fortress.

But Ethan was already there.

He drove a punch down.

Transparent lightning and the gold-red force of dragon essence-blood erupted from his fist. At the same moment, the energy sphere in his chest released a compressed impact pushed to the absolute limit. His punch landed on the barrier—its surface caved inward first, then fractures burst outward from the center like a spiderweb.

A heartbeat later, the barrier shattered.

Ethan tore through the broken curtain of light and closed in on the Abyssal Empress.

"In my eyes," Ethan said, killing intent boiling in his gaze, "you’re the bottom-tier one."

"You’ve got the nerve to come here and do whatever you want."

He lifted his hand again.

"Today, you’re going to pay for it."

The shock in the Abyssal Empress’s eyes deepened. She immediately condensed an even thicker barrier around herself, abyssal aura flooding in from all directions to block Ethan’s follow-up.

Her power was still terrifying.

The shield formed in an instant, forcing Ethan’s frontal assault to stop—yet the violent energy riding his fists still punched through the defense, rattling her so hard her body lurched. She staggered backward several steps, unable to fully control it.

Ethan clenched his jaw, rage burning hot in his eyes.

He didn’t give her space.

Power kept erupting from him in relentless waves, one layer after another slamming into her. Transparent lightning tore at the barrier. Dragon essence-blood burned inside the cracks. Lily’s pale-white thunderlight pierced out from deep within, pressing down until the Abyssal Empress’s defense shook nonstop.

Boom!

The Abyssal Empress was blasted back, forcibly knocked flying.

Ethan flickered and chased her down.

He raised his hand—violent energy surging together—and smashed down again.

What was happening in the sky made everyone on both sides go wide-eyed.

No one had expected Ethan to explode with power this brutally in such a short time. Even less—no one had expected him to suppress the Abyssal Empress in a direct fight.

The people of Emerald Castle saw it, and their eyes lit up instantly.

Their lord hadn’t backed down.

Even facing the suffocating Abyssal Empress of the Infernal Abyss, Ethan had forced the situation back with a nearly suicidal kind of resolve.

That desperation—no, that refusal—hit the entire Emerald Castle army like a spark.

The Fallen Star Guard roared and charged back into the enemy ranks. Powered Combat Armor warriors shoved their remaining energy output to the limit. The Sky Fortress barrage grew even denser. Even the newly summoned units—still fresh to the battlefield—started fighting with a ferocity they’d never shown before.

Before long, the enemy army was forced down—pressed back hard, inch by inch.