Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 798: The Ones Who Stood Between Worlds

No one knew how long had passed—seconds, minutes, hours—before it finally happened.

A clean, jagged crack split across the surface of the barrier.

Ethan's eyes lit up. He was just about to give the order—full power, all units, break it open—

When something shifted.

From deep within the barrier, a second figure emerged.

This one didn't explode onto the scene like Leonidas. He simply appeared—calm, composed, and infinitely more dangerous.

His eyes gleamed with the cold precision of someone who didn't just understand space—he ruled it.

In each hand, he held a weapon shaped like a twin-pronged fork, their edges so sharp they seemed to slice the very air around them. The energy they radiated wasn't loud or showy—it was surgical. Lethal.

He didn't move. Didn't speak.

But his presence hit like a death sentence.

Ethan's instincts screamed.

He immediately pulled up the system scan.

The interface flickered, then locked onto the target.

[Name: Rafael Dukara]

[Affinities: Spatial Manipulation, Death Energy]

[Threat Level: Extremely Dangerous]

Ethan's eyes narrowed. His voice cut through the air like a blade.

"Rafael."

The man flinched—just slightly.

He didn't even have time to wonder how Ethan knew his name.

Because in the next instant, Ethan was already in motion.

He shot forward like a bolt of light, energy coalescing in his palm into a volatile sphere—unstable, overcharged, and aimed straight for Rafael's chest.

Rafael's arms moved in a blur.

The twin forks crossed in front of him, forming a barrier of death-infused energy that lashed outward in jagged arcs.

BOOM!!!

The impact detonated midair, a swirling vortex of power erupting between them. The shockwave tore through the surrounding space, and the barrier—already cracked—groaned under the strain, its structure beginning to unravel.

And then—

They came.

Figures began to drift out of the widening fissure in the barrier.

Dozens of them.

Each one marked with natural spatial runes etched into their skin, glowing faintly with every breath. The air around them shimmered, warped, bent—like reality itself was trying to avoid touching them.

Dukara.

True spatial manipulators.

And there weren't just a few.

Ethan's gaze swept across the sky, his expression darkening with every second.

Behind him, Kaelira and Leonidas were still locked in a brutal, thunderous duel—but the battlefield had changed.

This wasn't a pursuit anymore.

This was a formation.

A defense.

Dukara wasn't running—they were preparing to fight.

Ethan clenched his jaw so hard his molars clicked, the sound sharp in the charged air.

He knew exactly what this was.

These warriors weren't here to win.

They were here to stall.

To buy time.

The outer barrier was already fractured—he'd punched deep, and it was close to collapse. Just a little more, and the whole thing would come down.

And now, right on cue, the Dukara had swarmed in—forming a wall of living space-warpers between him and the breach.

A wall designed to hold.

"Stalling…" Ethan muttered, eyes narrowing. "They're buying time for something."

If Dukara was willing to risk a full-scale confrontation—knowing they were outnumbered, knowing the Emerald Castle's forces were already pressing in—then something critical had to be happening behind that barrier. Something they were desperate to protect.

Space magic was one of the most volatile, most difficult forces in existence.

Emerald Castle's army had learned to wield fragments of it through countless battles, but compared to the Dukara—who were born to it, who breathed it—their mastery was still crude.

Ethan inhaled slowly, steadying his breath as he gathered energy into his palm.

One by one, Energy Discs formed between his fingers—each one laced with spatial vibration, tuned to disrupt the very fabric of the air around them. As they spun, the air shimmered, warping faintly with each pulse.

He launched them.

But—

Snap.

The first disc shattered into motes of light before it even reached its target.

Rafael stood across from him, unmoving, calm as a still lake. But the space around him pulsed—subtle, alive—expanding and contracting like a living shield, absorbing every attack before it could land.

Ethan's brow furrowed.

Rafael's control over space… was far beyond what he'd anticipated.

Across the battlefield, Kaelira's fight had reached a fever pitch.

Her violet-pink energy howled around her like a sandstorm in a hurricane, each movement of her hands sending shockwaves through the air. Every strike forced Leonidas back, step by step.

But Ethan could see it—beneath the fury, Kaelira was burning through her power fast. Too fast.

Then it happened.

A different light burst from her body—thin, sharp, and impossibly fast. It wasn't fire or wind or raw force.

It was a blade of folded space.

No one had time to react.

Slick—

The beam pierced straight through Leonidas's chest.

His scream tore through the sky, raw and animal, as his body slammed into the barrier behind him with a sickening crunch. The impact sent a deep, resonant hum through the air, like the world itself recoiling.

Kaelira walked toward him, slow and deliberate, her eyes like blades of desert glass.

"Leonidas," she said, her voice no longer a roar but a queen's sentence. "You were never more than a parasite clinging to borrowed power."

She raised her hand.

Energy gathered in her palm, swirling like a storm caught in a bottle.

"Today, you pay for everything."

She released it.

The blast hit like a meteor, detonating against Leonidas's body with such force that the air itself ruptured.

His form—marked with spatial runes—shattered into a thousand fragments, torn apart by the violet-pink storm. The pieces flickered once, twice, then vanished completely, erased by the rippling shock of space distortion.

Silence fell.

Kaelira stood alone, chest heaving, but her eyes were cold. Not triumphant.

Resolved.

She hadn't killed for victory.

She'd killed to settle a debt.

Meanwhile, the sky above had become a second battlefield.

Ethan and Rafael's clash was no longer a duel—it was a storm.

BOOM.

BOOM.

BOOM—

Each collision of their power echoed like war drums across the heavens.

Then—

A massive sonic boom tore through the air between them, as if the sky itself had split open.

Ethan's energy was climbing fast.

Power spiraled around him, forming a vortex that bent the light, the wind, even the sound. He was building toward something—something bigger.

Energy Discs flew from his hands in rapid succession, silver blades slicing through the air too fast to track. Each one carried a ripple of spatial shock, slamming into Rafael's barrier with relentless force.

BOOM—

BOOM BOOM BOOM—

Cracks began to spider across Rafael's defense, the once-impenetrable shield groaning under the pressure.

Then—

CRACK.

With a final, blinding explosion, the barrier shattered.

Rafael's eyes went wide, pupils contracting in disbelief.

"This… this can't be!"

His voice cracked, hoarse with panic.

"My barrier was woven with spatial threads—how did you break it?!"

He didn't get an answer.

Because Ethan was already there.

A massive Energy Disc spun in his palm, so dense it warped the air around it, its edges gleaming like they could slice the sky in half.

"It's over."

He swung.

BOOM!!!

The disc cleaved through Rafael's body in a single, brutal arc.

His form twisted, convulsed—then unraveled, dissolving into smoke and light, scattered by the wind.

...