Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 817: Something That Erases Civilizations

Ethan let out a long breath.

Alaric's presence had completely vanished. The lingering energy across the battlefield was slowly settling.

It was over.

The war was finally over.

He raised his hand, ready to reclaim the scattered energy drifting through the air—

Then suddenly—

The sky changed.

Not a tremor.

A distortion.

Far off, the clouds twisted unnaturally, as if wrung by invisible hands. A slow-spinning vortex unfurled high above, silent and ominous.

The next second—

A torrent of indescribable power poured out from its depths.

The air turned heavy in an instant. Light dimmed. Even breathing became a struggle.

This wasn't just an energy surge.

It felt like something that didn't belong to this world was forcing its way in.

Ethan's pupils shrank.

That power—

Overwhelming. Chaotic. Utterly alien.

But what truly made his heart clench was the strange undercurrent woven into the storm.

It wasn't death.

It wasn't destruction.

It was—devouring.

"…No," Ethan muttered, voice low.

Right then, Kaelira sucked in a sharp breath.

Her face went pale in an instant.

"That's—Raimondrex."

She spat the name like it burned her tongue.

"Move!"

"Evacuate everyone from the battlefield—now!"

Ethan froze.

It was the first time he'd ever seen Kaelira like this.

Not angry. Not battle-ready.

But afraid.

And the vortex above, growing larger by the second, gave him the answer.

If that power fully descended—

Even he wouldn't survive it.

"All units, retreat!"

Ethan didn't hesitate. His voice shot through the command network, echoing across the battlefield.

Emerald Castle's forces reacted instantly, almost on reflex.

Formations collapsed inward. Escape routes opened. Core units moved to cover the rear. Every motion was sharp, practiced, fast.

On the other side—

The Crocaster Empire's army, now leaderless, fell into chaos.

No orders.

No coordination.

Some mistook Emerald Castle's retreat for a rout and gave chase.

Others stood frozen, confused.

A few thought the battle was over and began regrouping.

Only a handful looked up.

Only a few saw what was coming.

And by the time they understood—

It was already too late.

In just a few breaths, Emerald Castle's forces had cleared the edge of the battlefield.

And the moment the last unit crossed the threshold—

The sky collapsed.

BOOM—!!!

An unthinkable force poured down from the heart of the vortex, like a gaping maw swallowing the world.

No explosion.

No shockwave.

Just erasure.

The Crocaster Empire's army was engulfed.

Bodies, armor, energy, defenses—everything vanished the instant it touched that power.

Not even a scream made it out.

"Raimondrex—!!"

Someone managed a final, desperate cry.

But it was swallowed whole.

Moments later—

Silence.

The vortex vanished.

The storm of energy faded like it had never been.

And the battlefield was left in a hollow, lifeless void.

Ethan stood at a distance, throat tight.

If he'd hesitated even a second longer with that evacuation order—

It wouldn't have been the Crocaster Empire wiped out just now.

It would've been all of Emerald Castle.

"…Raimondrex."

He repeated the name under his breath.

"What the hell is it?"

His voice trembled—so subtly he didn't even notice it himself.

Kaelira was silent for a moment before she finally spoke.

"No one knows what it really is."

"Some call it a calamity. Others, divine punishment… and there are those who believe it's the world correcting a mistake."

She looked up at the sky, now calm and clear again.

"But one thing is certain."

"Wherever Raimondrex appears—"

"Civilization doesn't survive."

Ethan's heart sank.

"The desert outside Sol'Rakka…"

The realization hit him like a punch.

Kaelira nodded, her voice low.

"There used to be a powerful empire there."

"Until Raimondrex came."

"And then… everything vanished."

Ethan stood frozen, speechless.

He'd been to Sol'Rakka.

He'd seen that endless sea of sand with his own eyes.

But he'd never imagined—

It wasn't natural.

It was the scar of annihilation.

Dazed, he looked back up at the sky.

There was nothing there now.

Raimondrex, as if it had never existed.

There was no relief on Ethan's face.

Even after the vortex vanished and the battlefield fell silent again, the feeling of being watched by something far beyond this world still lingered.

If they'd been even a moment slower—

It wouldn't have just been Crocaster Empire erased.

He waited until the last ripple of distortion in the sky faded completely before giving the order to begin battlefield cleanup and restore the outer energy barriers.

This time, no one complained that the orders were too cautious.

…

Emerald Castle — Main Hall.

The lights burned quietly. The air was heavy.

Ethan sat with one hand propped under his chin, eyes fixed on the empty floor, lost in thought.

"So…"

He finally spoke. "Raimondrex doesn't appear at fixed locations, and there's no set interval either, right?"

"Correct."

Kaelira slid a stack of organized charts across the table toward him.

"These are all the records I've managed to gather over the years."

"Appearance times, locations, energy signatures—it's all here."

Ethan immediately leaned in and started flipping through them.

The markings were dense, scattered across different regions and timelines, seemingly without pattern.

But he didn't stop.

He began isolating the time intervals, comparing them one by one.

And soon, something odd caught his eye.

"Wait…"

He muttered to himself.

The intervals looked chaotic at first glance—but they weren't entirely random.

In certain phases, the time between appearances doubled.

Then, after reaching a certain threshold, it suddenly began halving.

Ethan's eyes sharpened.

He quickly reorganized the data, aligning all the appearance points according to that logic.

Moments later—

A full oscillating pattern emerged, clear as day.

"It's not random."

Ethan looked up, voice steady and sure.

"It's a cycle. A wave."

"First exponential growth—then a mirrored decline."

He ran the numbers again, fingers pausing on the final result.

"If this model holds…"

"Raimondrex will appear again—in one month."

The air seemed to freeze.

Kaelira's brow furrowed slowly. "Where?"

Ethan didn't answer right away.

He stared at the charts, silent for a few seconds.

"…Emerald Castle."

And—

"According to historical records, it always appears twice in the same location."

This time, there was no excitement in his voice.

Because that meant only one thing.

Raimondrex wasn't passing through by chance.

It was confirming a target.

"With our current defenses…"

Ethan spoke quietly, each word heavy.

"We barely survived the first hit."

"The next one—"

"We won't."

...