Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory

Chapter 1040: Clash of Heavy Powers

A lot of people on Emerald Castle’s side had only just stopped what they were doing when they felt their chests tighten, a dull pressure building.

The other side was coming in hard.

And they weren’t here to talk.

Before everyone could even fully make out the formation of that army, a furious voice crushed down first.

"Never thought you low-grade crawling trash would have the guts to come here?!"

As the sound rolled across the air, it carried brutal penetration. It shook the defensive barrier around the ruins until fine ripples spread across it.

Then the voice abruptly rose even higher.

"If I don’t slaughter every last one of you today, I’ll never swallow this hatred!"

The instant the words fell, violent power began to overflow from the newcomer in an endless surge.

That might spread outward like a breached flood, and wherever it passed, even the atmosphere that had only just stabilized was pressed back into disorder.

In this moment, the pressure above the entire ruin—

Was terrifying to the extreme.

Ethan slowly forced down a breath, then swept a hand and led the army out to meet them.

The open plains around the ruins trembled faintly under the momentum of both formations advancing.

Emerald Castle’s ships, the newly summoned troops, and the powerhouses of every race all pushed forward together, their lines spreading fast. Even so, the moment Ethan truly saw the figure at the front, his heart sank slightly.

This guy’s pressure was absurd.

He stood there like the center of gravity for the entire region.

Energy gathered toward him nonstop. The air above him layered into distortions. Even the shattered stones underfoot quivered under that invisible force.

They hadn’t even exchanged blows yet, but just the aura he leaked while standing still was enough to make bodies tense on instinct.

Ethan was just about to raise a hand—

When Desert Queen Kaelira stepped out of the crowd first.

She didn’t walk quickly. But with every step she took forward, the heavy air—pressed down by the enemy—began to stir instead, turning restless.

Then her energy erupted outward. Vast violet-crimson power rose from her body and rapidly condensed in the high sky, forming the outline of a gigantic phoenix.

It hadn’t even truly dived yet, but when its wings spread, the waves it kicked up made the space ahead shake without pause.

Kaelira raised her fist and hammered her chest three times.

"Emerald Castle—Kaelira!"

The man across from her narrowed his eyes. He didn’t retreat or dodge. He simply raised his own fist and struck his chest three times as well, steady and heavy.

"Elysion—Central Warfront. Commander of the Central Legion... Varex!"

The instant name and rank fell into place, Kaelira attacked.

No extra words. In a single beat, her power climbed to its peak. The huge phoenix hanging in the sky gave off a deep, muffled cry—and then the entire field of power pressed forward.

Violet-crimson energy surged like a tide, swallowing Varex’s entire zone in a blink.

Varex didn’t hesitate either.

He lifted a hand, slowly curling his fingers in midair. The savage power inside him surged up his arm and burst out.

The energy in the high sky was dragged, compressed, and forged—until it condensed in front of his palm into an enormous Energy Greatsword.

The moment that giant blade formed, space itself shuddered.

In the next instant, Varex chopped down.

The Energy Greatsword carried an overwhelmingly heavy arc as it slammed straight into Kaelira’s phoenix power.

At the moment the two forces touched, a rolling boom shook the entire world.

It was like the sky took a full-force punch. Countless cracks spread from the collision point, and from the shattered space, thick waves of void power immediately surged out.

Ethan’s eyes lit up on the spot.

He almost instinctively locked onto the power that had just surged out of those cracks.

That familiar, heavy fluctuation made heat slam into his chest. At this point, he couldn’t spare attention for anything else. He flashed upward, shot straight into the high sky, and spread his power wide, starting to collect the void energy that had just spilled free.

But he’d barely begun when Varex noticed.

Varex only lifted a palm and gave a casual wave in Ethan’s direction.

The motion didn’t look like much—yet in the next second, pressure that blanketed heaven and earth dropped instantly. It wasn’t a single attack. It was as if all the power overhead moved with that wave, crushing down on Ethan together.

THUD!

Then came a chain of rumbling spatial booms.

Ethan’s heart jolted. He knew something was wrong immediately.

He didn’t dare stay where he was. He retreated hard—but even after he pulled back, that descending force was still terrifyingly fast. It caught up in a blink, trapping him along with the surrounding space inside it.

In that moment, the might between heaven and earth reached a brutal extreme.

Ethan felt everything closing in at once—air, energy, space—squeezing down on him from all sides.

A rapid crackle erupted across his body, like bones and armor were both being forced to bear an unbearable weight.

He sucked in a deep breath. He didn’t dare hold anything back anymore. He yanked out an energy sphere and smashed it forward.

The instant it flew out, it detonated ahead. A small vortex was blasted open by force.

Ethan seized that sliver of opening and jumped through the torn seam, barely slipping free of the region covered by Varex’s power.

And the moment Ethan got out—

Kaelira moved.

After confirming Ethan was safe, her energy gathered again.

Power linked to the earth poured into her in a steady stream. She brought both hands together, condensing an energy sphere compressed to the absolute limit in front of her palms—then hurled it at Varex without the slightest hesitation.

Varex took it in a rush.

He hadn’t expected Kaelira to land such a precise follow-up at this moment. He could only brace and take it head-on.

When the sphere struck his body, there was a dense, muffled boom—then the blast’s shock spread outward along his frame, jolting him into a rapid retreat.

Even so, he stabilized quickly.

Right after that, Varex formed a new energy sphere in his hand, its presence terrifying, and smashed it straight toward Kaelira. Kaelira didn’t dodge. Her power surged forward as well, meeting it head-on.

Their forces detonated in the high sky again.

And after this exchange, the expression on Varex’s face finally changed completely.

He truly hadn’t expected Desert Queen Kaelira to be able to erupt with this kind of strength. This wasn’t ordinary resistance anymore—it was a pressure that, in repeated frontal clashes, was starting to push him back.

Realizing something was wrong, Varex panicked and drew up all his power, condensing a thick energy barrier around himself.

Layer on layer compressed together, so heavy it was almost like a solid wall.

But Kaelira’s power was heavier than he’d expected.

In the span of a blink, cracks appeared across that thick barrier.

Then they spread at speed. Under the continuous impact, the entire defense shattered. Huge chunks of broken energy blasted outward, and Kaelira’s violent might surged straight in through the opening—swallowing Varex whole.