Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory

The moment the words left Ethan’s mouth, Idra had already dashed to the very front.

She shifted into a small dragon, tucked her wings, and dove straight down into the heart of the rainforest.

Seraphina had no choice but to carry everyone after her.

Nobody knew what Idra had spotted to make her move that fast.

As they neared the ground, a crumbling altar emerged between the trees.

At its center stood a massive dragon statue.

The sculpture was feral and imposing, claws bared, jaws open. The lines of its scales and horns were still sharp, like it had once been the object of real worship.

Standing on Seraphina’s back, Auri immediately remembered the damage Seraphina had done to the trees when they landed earlier.

Green fairy energy rose from Auri’s hands and flowed forward.

Branches and hanging vines along their flight path responded to the life force, bending aside and making room—clearing a corridor for Seraphina to pass through without tearing the forest apart.

Idra had already landed on the altar.

Seraphina accelerated and dove after her.

Just before hitting the ground, she shifted back into human form.

Andona instantly spread her wings.

A pale-gold halo expanded from behind her, catching everyone who’d lost their footing and lowering them gently to the ground.

Even with Auri trying to protect the trees, the shockwind from Seraphina’s dive still swept outward.

Leaves tore loose in clouds.

A few young trees bent sideways.

Auri hurried over, bracing trunks with green energy and feeding life back into damaged roots.

Meanwhile, Nysera and Anya had rushed to Idra’s side, faces tight with impatience.

The three little ones circled the dragon statue atop the altar, studying its structure like a puzzle box.

Then a strange sound came from beneath it.

Click.

A stone slab slowly split to either side.

A stairway leading underground appeared—its entrance directly beneath the dragon statue.

Idra hadn’t been able to reach the mechanism before.

So she’d grown a tiny pair of wings, flown up beside the statue, and gently pried at one section with her hand.

Just like that, the entrance opened.

Ethan watched the three girls clustered around the statue, helplessly amused. Then he turned and called out to Auri, who was still fussing over the trees.

"Don’t sulk."

"Want to blow off steam?"

He pointed at the stairway.

"Then get over here. This should be fun."

Auri nodded hard, still clearly annoyed.

She straightened one last sapling, then ran back to the group.

White lightning rose in her left hand. Green fairy energy flowed along her right.

The others weren’t about to be outdone.

White lightning crackled in Nysera’s palm as well.

Anya’s lightning gradually turned transparent—only the faint rippling distortion it caused in the air gave it away.

Idra didn’t use lightning.

Dragon horns, a dragon tail, and small wings all emerged on her body. She was still tiny, but the other three instinctively edged away from her anyway.

Out of the four, Idra’s pressure was the most obvious.

Auri charged in first.

She tossed a green light orb down the stairs to brighten the entrance with a soft glow. The white lightning in her left hand became a torch, held up beside her.

The other three followed close behind.

Ethan watched them head underground with way too much excitement and could only take everyone along after them.

The space beneath the altar was far larger than it looked.

The stairs kept spiraling downward.

They walked for a long time and still hadn’t reached the bottom. The walls on both sides were rough and cold. The dampness in the air slowly thinned until only their footsteps remained, echoing through the narrow space.

At last, a faint torchlight appeared in the distance.

But when they reached it, they realized it wasn’t an exit.

It was just a platform.

And beyond the platform... more stairs waiting.

They kept going.

Not long after, something felt wrong.

Idra folded her tiny wings and dove down the stairwell.

But after flying only a short distance, she suddenly dropped out of the space above them—smacking straight into Ethan’s back.

Ethan caught her quickly.

Everyone paused on the steps and looked downward.

At first, they thought a spatial wormhole was hidden ahead. Break the space structure and the loop would end.

But then... what about the walls?

They stayed at the exact same distance no matter how far they went.

And even the patterns in the stone repeated.

Ethan pulled Idra to his side.

He held her hand with one, and condensed white energy in his other palm. Then he slid his hand along the wall as they walked.

After only a few steps, he felt it.

Wrong.

Ethan yanked Idra closer and pressed white lightning against the wall, leaving a clear mark.

They continued down.

Before long, that lightning mark appeared again—right in front of them.

The stairs weren’t infinitely deep.

They were cycling the same section over and over.

Ethan stopped.

"Idra. Break it."

For Idra in her Dragon God form, that wasn’t hard.

She raised a small hand, white energy building in her palm, then blasted the wall straight ahead.

BAM!

Stone exploded backward.

The looping stair structure shattered, revealing a straight corridor behind the wall.

The boom echoed upward and startled the others resting above.

Ethan waved them over.

Everyone hurried down the steps and entered the newly opened passage.

It was pitch-black inside.

The stairs had already been dim, but this corridor had no torches at all. White lightning could only light a small patch nearby. Everything ahead was still swallowed by thick darkness.

Catheryn looked thrilled, for once.

An Umbral Servitor stepped out beside her and walked into the corridor as a token scout.

The shadow servant had barely taken one step when a small sound clicked underfoot.

Click.

Torches ignited all at once.

Flames ran along the walls into the distance, lighting the entire corridor clearly.

Catheryn’s joy vanished on the spot.

Sometimes happiness shows up fast.

And leaves even faster.

Ethan patted her shoulder.

A pale-white shield expanded from his side, wrapping everyone inside. Only after he confirmed the defense was stable did he lead them forward again.

Nysera wasn’t thrilled about always walking in the back.

She slipped past the others, trying to get ahead of Ethan.

But before she could catch up, a "little bug" hidden near a crack in the stone was crushed instantly by the Primordial Death Energy around her.

Nysera looked down at the remains and crouched with curiosity.

And that was enough.

The next mechanism triggered.

Dense skittering sounded from the wall cracks.

Swarms of small insects crawled out.

Their mouthparts were razor-sharp, and their claws latched tight onto the pale-white shield. The swarm quickly covered the nearby area, scraping and gnawing at the energy barrier with teeth and hooks.

Too bad the effect was pathetic.

Pure scratch damage.

Idra watched the bugs outside the shield, fascinated.

She stuck one small claw out past her personal defense, grabbed a bug, and crushed it with a gentle squeeze.

Ethan had expected these four to be trouble.

So beyond the large shield protecting everyone, he’d added a separate layer for each little girl.

Individual shield packages.

One per kid.

They were too curious, too playful—so if he didn’t want pointless accidents, he had to prepare ahead of time.

Ironically, the extra safety net just made them play even harder.

They darted up and down the corridor, white lightning and other energies flashing again and again, turning the walls bright as day.

Even so, they still couldn’t see the end of the passage.

The four girls dealt with the insect swarms as they went.

Dragon breath and Primordial Death Energy alternated in bursts, lighting up the dark like a rotating set of weapons.

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