Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory

Morvane didn’t look at Ethan.

He kept staring down at the sea snake—now a towering python—like he genuinely regretted an unfinished piece of work.

"So you noticed," Morvane sighed softly.

"I was just about to—"

He didn’t get to finish.

The energy sphere Ethan had rebuilt punched through the damaged barrier and slammed straight into Morvane.

Boom!

White lightning detonated across Morvane’s chest.

The impact hurled him away. Sword and body vanished into the blood-colored cloud haze, carving a straight streak through the air.

Ethan held position, breathing hard.

He glanced down first, making sure the giant python hadn’t immediately charged into the shield, then snapped his eyes back toward the direction Morvane had been blasted.

Only a few seconds passed before the sound of a blade cutting air screamed overhead.

A greatsword chopped down out of the blood fog.

Ethan couldn’t dodge in time. He forced power together in front of him, shaping a white shield.

The blade hit dead center.

Crack!

The white shield split from the point of contact, fractures racing outward.

The force smashed Ethan back into the ground. His boots crushed into mud as his body sank, driven down in a sliding collapse. If his defense had been even a fraction slower, that sword would’ve split him from crown to spine.

Morvane hovered in the air.

He crouched slightly, studying Ethan stuck in the crater, and shook his head like he was disappointed.

Then he straightened, turned away, and stopped paying attention—as if this opponent was already finished.

Bang.

A purplish-red energy sphere slammed in from the side and hit Morvane head-on.

Smoke and fire swallowed the sky.

When the violet-red blaze thinned, Morvane was still there. His sword stood vertically in front of him, its broad blade blocking Kaelira’s blast. Only a little energy sprayed off to either side.

He flicked the blade, shaking the leftover violet flame away.

The sword tip angled back down toward the group.

His head, however, turned toward Ethan behind him.

"Still going to struggle?"

Ethan lifted his head out of the mud.

Morvane had early 36-Tier power—close to the peak of that stage.

A straight brawl would be a pain.

Another energy sphere formed in Ethan’s hands.

This time, the white lightning didn’t spill outward. It kept pouring in—along his forearms and shoulders—feeding into the sphere. More and more arcs began to orbit both Ethan and the ball, batting the blood rain away as it fell.

Morvane didn’t stop him.

He watched with open curiosity, eyes narrowing at the growing sphere.

His greatsword floated behind him on its own, spinning to intercept the long-range attacks Kaelira, Ataneya, and the others kept throwing in.

"That energy sphere of yours..." Morvane’s eyes tightened.

"Interesting."

He studied the lightning compressing inside.

"Really interesting."

Then his tone flipped—cold, final.

"But I’m done being entertained."

The sword behind him shot higher.

The blade inverted, pointing straight down at Ethan’s head—then plunged out of the blood rain like a falling guillotine.

Morvane vanished from where he stood.

When Ethan caught him again, Morvane was already in front of him. The king’s right fist was cocked at his waist, black fog and blood-red force pouring into his arm. The punch was aimed directly at Ethan’s face.

Ethan glanced at his half-finished sphere.

Still short of the limit.

But there wasn’t time.

The falling sword struck first.

Ethan’s white shield was pierced like paper. The blade was already closing on his skull.

He threw the energy sphere forward.

In the same instant, Morvane’s fist smashed into Ethan’s face.

Bang!

Ethan was launched.

He flew over the forest canopy, splintering dead branches as he went, only managing to twist midair and stop when he was nearly back at the beach.

The descending sword lost its target.

Morvane reached up and caught the hilt.

But Ethan’s thrown sphere had already arrived in front of him.

Inside it, white lightning hammered the shell, pressure cracking the surrounding space with fine, rapid pops.

Morvane spun his greatsword in a full circle.

He didn’t step back.

A king didn’t retreat from a ball.

So—

he’d cut it apart.

The greatsword met the white sphere head-on.

Blinding light flooded the sky.

Arcs crawled up the blade and onto Morvane’s arm. White power burst outward from the impact point. In response, thick black smoke surged from Morvane’s body from every direction, wrapping the sphere layer by layer, sealing in the lightning and the glare.

The black fog tightened.

The white light kept slamming from inside.

Thump.

After a dull, heavy concussion, the brightness started getting swallowed.

The sphere’s pressure weakened. Space around them steadied.

When the black fog finally loosened, Morvane was still standing there.

A clean notch had been bitten out of his sword.

The hand holding it trembled slightly.

Morvane glanced down once—then, without hesitation, swung and severed his own wrist.

The cut-off hand dropped.

Black smoke boiled from the stump, condensing into a brand-new palm. Morvane flexed the new fingers, patted his chest, and looked toward the distant Ethan with satisfaction.

He hadn’t truly destroyed Ethan’s sphere.

He’d used darkness to assimilate it—

and swallowed it into himself.

That was exactly what Ethan had been waiting for.

That sphere contained a huge amount of white lightning.

The moment that lightning entered Morvane’s body, everything after would get a lot easier.

Morvane felt the "new" power inside him and gripped his sword, casually slashing a sword wave at Ethan.

Blood-and-black edge tore the air, cutting straight across the battlefield.

But just before it reached Ethan—

Morvane’s knees suddenly gave out.

He dropped to one knee in midair.

The greatsword slipped from his fingers, spinning as it fell.

For a heartbeat, the whole battlefield stuttered.

Allies and enemies alike stared at the king kneeling in the sky like they’d lost their minds.

Lopsy had just emerged from space again.

She immediately drove the scissor shards together into a wide metal plate and flew it under Morvane, trying to prop him up.

But Morvane knelt perfectly steady.

From the outside, it didn’t look like he was being forced down.

It looked like he’d chosen to kneel.

While Lopsy was still frozen in confusion, Morvane rose slowly.

Then—under his own horrified stare—he lifted a hand and slapped Lopsy across the face.

Smack!

Lopsy was sent flying. Her patchwork body tumbled through the air, snapping a dead tree before she finally crashed into the mud and stopped.

Only then did Morvane understand.

That wasn’t what he’d meant to do.

His eyes cut over his shoulder, locking onto Ethan in the distance.

Ethan had both hands raised toward Morvane.

His fingers trembled with the strain of control. White lightning flashed up and down his arms in rapid pulses. The power inside Morvane was interfering with his body, forcing his limbs to move against his will.

Another energy sphere condensed beside Ethan.

This time the lightning inside was even denser.

The instant Morvane saw it, danger screamed through him.

But the white sphere had already left Ethan’s side and was rushing toward him.

And Lopsy—crawling up from the ground—looked even worse now.

Half the cloth on her face had been torn apart, stuffing leaking steadily from the split.