Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory

Chapter 1141: Ash and Nothing Else

He didn’t get to finish.

Ethan had already run out of patience.

Transparent lightning drove down from Ethan’s palm into the golden man’s body, then spread through his limbs and into every last inch of him. The man convulsed violently. A tight chain of crackling pops burst from inside him—dense, rapid, like something detonating under his skin.

That layer of golden light was torn apart piece by piece. Flesh split under the pressure, collapsing as the power crushed through it.

Ethan closed his hand.

The golden man’s body shattered on the spot.

Mangling scraps of meat and fragments of golden energy rained down from midair. They didn’t even get the chance to hit the ground—transparent lightning burned them into ash before they could fall.

Feylora stood a short distance away, watching without much surprise. She knew Ethan had never forgotten that golden power from the battle in Elysion.

Now a self-proclaimed Solaryn had come looking for him on his own.

From the beginning, the ending had been written.

Ethan lifted his head, his gaze cutting past the distant mountain ranges.

Not far away, a castle glowing with golden light stood before a mine. Its walls were taller than Holda’s, and the structures within looked more like energy amplification arrays than ordinary buildings.

The entire stronghold was drowned in golden fog. Within it, that same golden aura kept rising—identical to what had wrapped the man Ethan had just crushed.

Ethan’s eyes went fully cold.

"Feylora!"

Feylora stepped forward at once.

"Yes, Master."

Ethan pointed straight at the golden castle. There was no negotiation in his voice.

"Gather our people. Now. I want this civilization wiped out—ash and nothing else."

Feylora didn’t hesitate for even a second.

She pulled out a communications device and transmitted the coordinates and the order back to the Emerald Castle expeditionary force waiting outside the hidden entrance. The message rode the pre-set energy marks, slipped through the midair gateway, and reached the Sky Fortress and the troops on standby beyond.

Not long after, dense energy fluctuations rolled in from the direction of the entrance.

Squad after squad of Emerald Castle soldiers crossed through, pouring into the hidden world.

Powered Combat Armor dropped in clusters. Goblin engineering teams dragged in temporary rigs. The Fallen Star Guard advanced in tight formation. Overhead, support markers began blinking into existence—signals from the Sky Fortress as it prepared drops and coverage.

An army nearing ten thousand closed in on the golden castle fast.

Inside, the golden castle sensed the threat.

Defensive installations along the walls lit up one after another. Golden energy rose from towers across the fortress, forming shield after shield outside the walls—layering into a thick, gleaming barricade.

Solaryn elites lifted off from within the city in waves, each wrapped in that same eerie gold light. They hung in the air, staring down the approaching Emerald Castle host.

Ethan stood at the very front of the formation.

Transparent lightning flowed slowly along his Powered Combat Armor. Under his boots, the ground was pressed into thin, spiderweb cracks by the sheer electrical pressure.

He looked at the golden castle with no trace of hesitation.

Ethan’s stare was ice as he took in the towering fortress that stabbed into the sky.

Its walls looked like a single slab of polished golden stone, stretching across the mine’s approach. Spires speared into the clouds, their tips constantly shedding fine threads of golden light.

Those threads crossed and knitted together, laying down a heavy shield around the castle—covering the walls, the mining zone, and the mountain range behind it.

That golden power...

It was the exact same stench as the battlefield in Elysion.

The chill in Ethan’s eyes deepened.

He raised his palm. Transparent lightning poured from the palm-core of his Powered Combat Armor and compressed forward.

At first it was only a fist-sized cluster of electric light. Then more and more energy packed into it, swelling fast—until it became a massive sphere.

The surface spun like a grinding wheel. Layer upon layer of clear lightning coiled inside it. The air around it was squeezed into a shallow depression, and loose stones on the ground trembled faintly, as if they could feel what was coming.

The next second, Ethan hurled the sphere downrange.

It ripped across open sky, dragging a clean, transparent scar of electricity behind it, and slammed straight into the castle’s outer golden barrier. The instant it made contact, every golden rune on the shield flared—like a huge net trying to disperse the impact across the entire dome.

The transparent lightning didn’t give it time.

It drilled along those glowing lines and invaded the barrier from the inside.

Boom!

Terrifying force detonated across the shield’s surface.

The golden light curtain shook violently. Several spires above the wall rocked at the same time. A裂like裂—one brutal fracture—was smashed open in the center, then stretched outward to both sides, like a black wound ripping through an otherwise flawless golden defense.

The whole castle answered with a heavy, grinding roar. Inside, structures lit up one after another as internal defenses kicked in.

Instant chaos.

Golden figures shot out from deep within the fortress, punching through the inner lines and rising into the air.

Every one of them radiated powerful golden energy. Light streamed off their shoulders and the edges of their arms, spreading in concentric waves of pressure that shoved at the space around them.

Ethan’s eyes swept over them, then locked onto their foreheads.

Each person had a pale pink gemstone set there.

It wasn’t large, but it kept flashing as they drew on their power. Every pulse made their golden energy condense harder, turning denser and sharper. Watching it, the killing intent in Ethan’s chest didn’t flare—it settled, cold and certain.

No mistake.

These Solaryn... had the same source as the golden figures from the Elysion battlefield.

Transparent lightning spread out from Ethan, covering the nearby sky. It didn’t strike yet, but it hung there like an invisible weight—parked above every Solaryn head.

The faces of the newly arrived golden figures started to change. They’d come out furious, ready to crush whoever dared hit their walls—until they actually felt Ethan’s pressure. One after another, their auras wavered.

The leading golden figure stepped forward.

The gold light around him was thicker than anyone else’s, and the pale pink gem in his forehead shone brighter. That power condensed behind him into a faint halo. He didn’t even fully release it, but it was enough to make several nearby Solaryn instinctively drift back.

He stared at Ethan, confusion in his eyes—along with an anxiety he was trying hard to smother.

"I am Emperor Solvarion of the Solaryn."

His voice carried through the gold light, forcing itself into authority.

"What grievance is between us?" he demanded. "Why bring an army to attack? And you— you don’t seem like someone from this world. Where did you come from?"