Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 278: Regret

In the blink of an eye, Ethan and his team were pulled into the Soulbind Shackles’ hidden realm—Soulbind Nexus. Towering around them were the colossal, otherworldly forms of Deep Sea Leviathans.

And standing at the center of it all... was a Crimson Ultimate-tier Leviathan hero.

[Thal’Zar]

Level: 57

Race: Leviathan

Tier: Crimson Ultimate Hero

Class: Leviathan Sea Sage

Tier Level: 13

Attack: ???

Knowledge: ???

HP: 43,000

...

Overall Rating: D-Class Crimson Ultimate Hero

"Same as before... aside from the name and a few basic details, I still can’t get a read on his actual stats," Ethan muttered, eyes narrowing at the string of question marks floating in front of him. He couldn’t help but feel a twinge of frustration. If he could just see Thal’Zar’s real attributes, this fight would be a hell of a lot easier.

Know your enemy, win a hundred battles—that’s how the saying goes.

"But whatever. We’ve come this far. No way I’m backing down now..."

His fists clenched tight, knuckles whitening. His whole body trembled—not just from adrenaline, but from fear too. A Crimson Ultimate hero, awakened a second time... a being said to rival the gods themselves.

This was the first time Ethan had ever faced an enemy of this caliber.

To say he wasn’t scared?

Yeah, that’d be a lie.

But fear wasn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes, pressure was the spark that lit the fire. And once that fire was burning, miracles could happen.

He exhaled slowly, crouched slightly, and bit down on his lip. His eyes flared with determination as he barked out, "Alright, everyone—just like we planned. Let’s do this!"

"RAAAHHH!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Charge! For glory!"

"Take them down! We win this fight, no matter what!"

The air exploded with battle cries as Cicero, Seraphina, and the rest of the heroes roared in unison, their spirits blazing.

The sky itself seemed to tremble under the deafening chorus of dragon howls, Kirin shrieks, and Behemoth bellows.

Their fury surged upward like a tidal wave, shaking the heavens, as if their voices alone could tear the sky apart.

Ethan felt the surge of their energy, their unshakable will to fight—and he didn’t hesitate for a second longer.

"Go!" he shouted. "Take them out!"

BOOOOOOM—

In that instant, Seraphina transformed—her body expanding into a titanic dragon over ten thousand feet long, launching herself straight at the Deep Sea Leviathan.

Sure, size wasn’t everything when it came to Crimson Ultimate heroes. But still—

That kind of scale?

Just looking at her was enough to make your chest tighten, like the air itself was being crushed under the sheer weight of her presence.

It was overwhelming. Suffocating. The kind of pressure that made your blood boil and your heart feel like it might explode.

Terrifying didn’t even begin to cover it.

"ROOOAAARRR!"

Seraphina slammed into Thal’Zar, locking him in a brutal clash. And in that moment, a terrifying surge of domain energy erupted from her body—

A force so immense, it swallowed the entire battlefield in an instant, engulfing the massive, second-awakened Crimson Ultimate Leviathan hero in a storm of raw, unrelenting power.

BOOOOOOMMMMM—

The wind howled like a beast unleashed, and in that moment, the storm Seraphina summoned crashed down with the fury of a god’s wrath. It tore through the air, a cataclysmic force slamming into the Deep Sea Leviathan with unstoppable violence.

The impact was immediate.

"AAAAAARRRGHHH!"

A shriek ripped from the Leviathan’s throat—so loud, so piercing, it shook the entire Soulbind Nexus to its core. The very space around them trembled, as if the dimension itself couldn’t withstand the sound.

"Yes!" Ethan’s eyes lit up, a grin breaking across his face. "That’s what I’m talking about!"

He’d been worried—hell, terrified—that even with Seraphina and Cicero, their two strongest fighters, they might not be able to hold their own against a second-awakened Crimson Ultimate Leviathan hero. The odds had looked grim.

But this?

This was a game-changer.

It was clear now—being trapped inside the Soulbind Shackles’ special dimension had seriously nerfed Thal’Zar’s power. Before, Seraphina probably wouldn’t have even been able to get close, not with all those massive Leviathan tentacles blocking her path. But now? She’d not only closed the distance—she’d made him scream.

That was huge.

But just as Ethan was starting to feel a flicker of hope—

Something changed.

"Shhhk! Shhhk! Shhhk!"

A sudden, sharp sound sliced through the air.

In the next instant, Thal’Zar’s monstrous tentacles—dozens, hundreds of them—erupted outward like a swarm of abyssal demons breaking free from hell.

They came crashing down toward Seraphina in a tidal wave of flesh and fury.

Each one was massive—easily over a thousand feet thick. Just one of those things could crush a mountain. And there were hundreds of them.

Maybe even more.

It was impossible to count. They filled the sky, the ground, the space between—everywhere.

It was like watching a living apocalypse unfold.

And the worst part?

They were fast.

So fast that even Seraphina, in her massive dragon form, didn’t have time to dodge.

"ROOOAAARRR!"

In a blink, the tentacles wrapped around her, coiling and twisting, swallowing her whole in a writhing mass of muscle and madness. It was like she’d been dragged into a living nightmare—a sphere of squirming, pulsing limbs that closed in around her like a prison made of flesh.

From deep within that grotesque ball of tentacles, a scream tore out—raw, agonized, and inhuman.

It was Seraphina.

And she was in pain.

"Shit!" Ethan’s face twisted, his expression darkening in an instant.

Rage—raw, unfiltered, and almost feral—flashed across his features. His jaw clenched so tight it looked like it might snap. But beneath the fury, there was something else too.

Regret.

Deep, gut-wrenching regret.

To him, Seraphina, Cicero, Elynn—they weren’t just teammates. They were irreplaceable. Family. And if Seraphina ended up getting hurt—really hurt—because of a miscalculation on his part, because he’d rushed in without thinking it through...

He’d never forgive himself.

BOOM!

BOOOOOOMMMMM— ƒгeewёbnovel.com

Without another second of hesitation, Ethan gritted his teeth and activated his Incomplete Level 4 Strategic Artifact—Holy Armament. A radiant surge of energy exploded around him, and massive wings of light burst from his back, flaring wide with a thunderous snap.

He didn’t wait.

Didn’t think.

He launched himself forward, wings slicing through the air, heading straight for the writhing mass of tentacles that had swallowed Seraphina whole.

He was supposed to be handling the regular Leviathan troops—the 13-Tier ones, the 14-Tier Deep Sea variants. That had been the plan. Clear the field, keep the pressure off the others.

But screw the plan.

Right now, none of that mattered.

All he could think about was Seraphina, trapped and screaming inside that nightmare of flesh. The guilt clawed at his chest like a vice, and the only thing louder than the roar of battle was the voice in his head screaming Move! Faster!

He didn’t care if it meant blowing the whole mission.

He didn’t care if they failed.

If Seraphina got hurt—if any of them got hurt—because he hesitated?

That was his line.

And he wasn’t about to cross it.

...