Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 1011: When Kings Collide

Ethan activated the Powered Combat Armor almost at the exact same time.

Cold, heavy metal unfolded across the surface of his body, locking into place layer after layer. In the blink of an eye, it sealed him inside completely.

The armor's weapon modules spun up to their limit. Dense energy tracery flared along the plating in frantic pulses, like a full war machine finally waking up.

The next second, every gun came online.

All the firepower converged at once. Brutal force compressed and stacked between muzzles and energy nodes, finally condensing into a thick, nearly blinding bolt of white lightning that slammed into Ant King Threxus with an air-tearing boom. The shot was so fast it dragged a brief distortion through the space around it.

On impact, Ant King Threxus' massive body was blasted backward.

The gigantic phantom behind it—reinforced by layered elements and metallic energy—shuddered violently under the hit, like it might collapse on the spot.

Deep in the valley, a chain of muffled thunderclaps detonated. Shattered stone and energy debris sprayed outward in every direction.

But when the glare thinned, Ethan's expression didn't ease.

Threxus had been forced back, sure—but there wasn't even a visible wound on it. That thick carapace was still intact. Its presence hadn't meaningfully weakened, and its energy circulation hadn't even been thrown off rhythm.

This thing's defense… is insane, Ethan muttered to himself.

And right then, Ant King Threxus' aura shifted again.

A bizarre energy rolled out from its body in layered waves, spreading wider and wider—until it condensed into a dazzling, multicolored gemstone right in the center of its forehead.

The gem wasn't large, but it felt like it contained the source of countless elements. Fire, ice, lightning, stormwind, and metallic sheen flowed across its surface in constant rotation.

Threxus drew a low, harsh breath. The killing intent in its eyes was almost tangible.

"Damn humans… damn invaders." Its voice echoed through the valley, rage teetering on the edge of control. "Today, this is where you die!"

As the words fell, the multicolored gem flared.

A tyrannical pressure spread instantly, like an invisible curtain dropping over the entire world.

Then the enormous ant phantom—formed from multiple elements and infernal power—came crashing down from the sky with suffocating force.

Ethan's scalp practically went numb.

He could see it perfectly: the power inside that shadow was far beyond anything he could take head-on. It wasn't just a "strong attack." It felt like an entire elemental world had been forcibly compressed into a falling mass of destruction.

He immediately started draining every scrap of remaining energy in the Powered Combat Armor, trying to build the strongest defense it could manage.

But at that moment—

A purplish-red light shot up from the other end of the battlefield.

It came fast, and it came brutal. In less than a blink it condensed into a huge barrier in the sky, planting itself directly between Ethan and the descending ant phantom.

"Boom—!"

The collision cracked across heaven and earth.

Before the shockwave even fully spread, Ethan saw who it was.

Desert Queen Kaelira.

Somehow she'd already reached the center of the battlefield. Her hands spread slowly, fingers moving in subtle patterns as purplish-red power surged out like an endless tide.

That energy quickly formed a gigantic phoenix phantom behind her. Wings spread wide, it carried a pressure that felt almost imperial as it smashed head-on into Ant King Threxus' elemental ant.

The two forces tore at each other midair, biting and devouring.

After nonstop gains over this stretch, Desert Queen Kaelira's level had stabilized at the peak of 33 Tier—but the combat power she showed clearly wasn't just "high level."

That purplish-red energy wasn't only raw destruction. It carried a natural, domineering authority, like any energy that came near her would instinctively bow.

Even Ant King Threxus froze for a beat.

It clearly hadn't expected a 33 Tier peak to be able to stop its full-power core strike head-on—much less keep pushing back.

What unsettled it even more was that, as the clash dragged on, Kaelira's momentum only grew.

The chaotic energy fluctuations in the surrounding world—once they neared her—acted like they'd finally found their rightful owner, pouring into her without end.

With every bit she absorbed, the purplish-red glow around her thickened, and the phoenix phantom behind her became more and more solid.

Ant King Threxus' pupils blew wide.

Its enormous body kept retreating in midair. Fine cracks began to spider across the surface of what had looked like an unbreakable carapace. It wasn't simple physical damage—it was the sign of an elemental structure collapsing after being suppressed head-on.

At the same time, the element power inside it—once overwhelmingly strong—was clearly weakening.

Desert Queen Kaelira's strength already carried a razor edge that felt capable of tearing the world apart. And that true, literal "royal aura" of hers put most enemies at a natural disadvantage in any direct clash. For ordinary powerhouses, just standing on the same "line" as her was impossible.

Even someone as absurdly strong as Ant King Threxus couldn't escape the fate of being pushed down, inch by inch.

Before long, the energy between heaven and earth had turned violent to the extreme.

Ant King Threxus retreated again and again, its aura growing more chaotic, while Desert Queen Kaelira pressed forward step by step.

She wasn't flailing or throwing attacks at random. Every strike was aimed with surgical precision at the multicolored gemstone on Ant King Threxus' forehead.

That—

Was its energy core.

If she could rip that multicolored gem off, it would lose the ability to keep fighting on the spot.

The problem was, Ant King Threxus obviously knew that too. It guarded its core with almost obsessive intensity.

No matter how Kaelira closed in, layers of elemental shields would always form around the gem at the last possible second. Even with her pushing her own potential to the limit, she was still always one step short of that final breakthrough.

So the fight between them rapidly boiled into a true white-hot stalemate.

Energy collisions detonated again and again between them. Shockwaves rippled outward, and the sky—already webbed with cracks—split open with fresh fissures. Purplish-red light and rainbow elemental torrents twisted together, making the whole canyon flash bright, then dim, then bright again.

But Ethan wasn't too worried about that side.

He knew perfectly well that with the power Kaelira was showing right now, killing Ant King Threxus was only a matter of time.

What actually made his jaw tighten was the ant on the other side of the battlefield—the one wrapped head to toe in white lightning.

That thing was clearly beyond a normal commander-tier. It felt like a lord-level existence.

Its aura was violently unstable, and unlike the other ants, it carried an unusually dense scent of The Infernal Abyss inside it.

That white lightning wasn't anywhere near as pure as Lily's, but it had a twitchy, almost sick kind of agitation to it—like the instant it touched you, it would burn straight through flesh and willpower alike.

Ethan adjusted his breathing once, then snapped his full attention onto it.

The next second, white lightning exploded off his body. He became a blazing streak of light and shot straight at it.

Two nearly identical bands of white lightning crashed together in midair.

At the moment of impact, the air screamed with a sharp detonation. Thunder devoured thunder, tearing and swallowing at each other, and the entire area was dragged into a white-hot storm of chaotic energy.

At first, their lightning force was almost evenly matched—so close that even the aura leaking out after each collision felt nearly identical.

But as the fight went on, the difference started to show, bit by bit.

Ethan was still stronger.

His white lightning was denser, steadier, and carried heavier suppression. It didn't take long before the ant started losing ground. The lightning around its body was forced back again and again, and even its carapace was blasted open with several charred, black cracks.