Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 1004: Something Woke

Ethan didn't wait to see how it landed.

He flashed forward, already in front of Zerathrax. In the next instant, his body broke apart again—countless fine black particles exploding out of him, pouring into the wound like a black storm.

It happened too fast.

Even Lily was caught off guard for half a beat.

But she reacted immediately. Instead of pressing her attack blindly, she retreated a step.

At the same time, the white lightning around her surged, swelling into layer after layer of coiling thunder chains that wrapped around Zerathrax and sealed him in the center.

She knew exactly what was happening: Ethan was inside him.

If she let loose without restraint right now, the first one to get caught in the blast might be Ethan.

So she didn't bombard. She chose the safest option—lock Zerathrax in place inside a thunder domain and buy Ethan the cleanest window possible.

Up in the shattered sky, Zerathrax's aura quickly started to turn… wrong.

His once-complete, violent Dark Abyss power was being torn apart from the inside by something unfamiliar.

Black seeped from all over his body—not just energy leaking out, but like a deeper structure was being forcibly corroded and eaten away.

For the first time, Zerathrax felt real fear.

He drove his power madly, trying to forcibly expel Ethan from his body. The pitch-black gemstone trembled nonstop. Channels in his chest and abdomen roared at full output, Dark Abyss energy rampaging through him like a flood.

It didn't matter how hard he fought.

Nothing worked.

Because Ethan had already followed the energy pathways straight into the deepest core.

It was a region protected by layer upon layer of abyssal power.

In that core-space—like a deep well at the center of an organ—Zerathrax's true energy core floated in the middle, black and red light intertwined and pulsing, like a heart built out of hatred and destruction.

Ethan didn't hesitate.

He reformed his body inside that core-space, then shot his hand out and grabbed the violently trembling core.

The instant he touched it, a savage force surged up through his palm—so brutal it felt like it could rip his soul apart. It was like someone had stuffed an entire burning abyss into his flesh. Even his consciousness wavered for a moment.

But Ethan clenched his teeth and ripped it free anyway.

As soon as the core was pulled out, everything propping Zerathrax up collapsed.

This body wasn't fundamentally different from the Stone Golems or the mechanoids. Once the core was gone, all power, will, and movement would crumble in a very short time.

High above, Zerathrax stiffened like he'd been struck dead. The eerie black-red light in his eyes faded rapidly over just a few seconds.

Then his gaze went empty.

That huge body went slack, like a hollow shell that had been drained out.

The next moment, Ethan burst back out, a black-red energy core clenched tight in his hand.

This one was heavier than anything he'd taken before—more violent, more oppressive. Just hovering above his palm, it made fine cracks flicker through the space around it.

Even Ethan couldn't fully suppress it.

He glanced down at Zerathrax's falling body, a clear, undisguised sneer tugging at his mouth.

"So that's all you were," he said coldly. His voice carried through the high air, sharp and unmistakable.

"Turns out your body's built about the same as a cockroach."

With that, he stowed the black-red core into his spatial gear. Then he released every last trace of his remaining aura without holding back.

Terrifying power swelled around him, expanding until a massive energy phantom took shape in the sky—so heavy it made the already-broken world feel like it sank another inch.

He stood in the center of that collapsing high altitude and looked down at the remaining enemy forces.

"From this moment on—"

Ethan's voice wasn't loud, but it carried the kind of pressure that could crush a person's will.

"I am the supreme existence in this world."

He lifted a hand slightly.

"You will all kneel at my feet."

Below, the remnants of Nexaris's army fell into dead silence.

Whether it was the living troops or the mechanoids that still hadn't been fully destroyed—after watching Zerathrax have his core ripped out in public, they'd lost whatever courage they had left.

One by one, figures dropped to their knees—stiff, terrified motions. Some trembled so hard they could barely move.

None of them dared to lift their heads and look at him.

Only now did Ethan finally let out a slow breath.

By his judgment, if Zerathrax was dead, then Nexaris had been uprooted at the root. The leftovers—troops already scared out of their minds—weren't worth worrying about.

But before that breath was even fully out—

Behind him, a terrifying fluctuation erupted.

It wasn't a normal energy reaction.

It was a life signature—something that should've been completely gone—flaring back up in an instant, like embers snapping into flame.

Ethan's spine went tight. He turned on pure instinct.

And he saw the one thing that shouldn't have been possible.

Zerathrax.

The body that had already fallen. Already lost its core. Already been judged dead beyond doubt—

Was surging with vitality again.

Violent Dark Abyss power awakened from deep inside the corpse. Black-red light spread fast through flesh and carapace, as if some deeper existence was borrowing that dead shell to resurrect itself.

Ethan's breathing quickened.

He couldn't wrap his head around it—someone who was clearly, definitively dead standing back up like this…

And the power coming off him wasn't just back.

It was stranger. Sharper. More dangerous than before.

In a blink, Zerathrax rose and hovered in midair again.

That eerie black-red light burned in his eyes, and deep in his pupils it felt like there was a whole abyssal well—bottomless, watching.

The aura wasn't merely strong anymore. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

It carried something fundamentally wrong, something that made your instincts recoil—like the thing floating there wasn't the Zerathrax from a minute ago.

"I—"

His voice had changed.

Low. Warped. Cold as an echo clawed up from the deepest layer of the abyss.

"Am the true overlord of this world."

Black-red energy kept bleeding outward. The space that had only just stabilized began to twist again.

"You insignificant, weak insects… in front of me, you only have one choice."

"Kneel. Submit."

He slowly lifted a hand. That uniquely extreme Dark Abyss power erupted without restraint, rolling out like a black-and-crimson tide and swallowing the surroundings.

"Since you dared to fight me for it—"

His gaze locked onto Ethan.

"Then be ready to be erased until not even ash remains."

Ethan's heart sank hard.

He could feel it clearly: the power Zerathrax was releasing now wasn't on the same level as before.

This wasn't a simple revival.

It was like some hidden, deeper "true source" had fully awakened.

But at this point, Ethan had no road left to retreat down.

In the next second, he activated his black-particle form again.

His body collapsed into countless black motes, surging forward like a pitch-dark storm. He went for what he did best—invade the enemy from the inside and seize control at the core.

But this time—

Everything went wrong.

The moment those black particles got close to Zerathrax's body, an invisible yet brutally domineering force burst outward from his surface. It wasn't ordinary defense.

It was rejection—on a higher level.

All the black particles slammed into an unseen wall.