Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory
Chapter 449: That’s just how Inferno fights

Chapter 449: That’s just how Inferno fights

Maybe for the native inhabitants of Glory Lords X, these special buildings could be explained away as divine blessings or ancient relics—mystical structures granted by the gods or formed by the will of the world itself. That kind of logic made sense from their perspective.

But for players like Ethan, who had access to the game system?

It was a whole different story.

They could see things more clearly—more objectively. They understood the mechanics behind the magic.

Setting aside the two near-mythical anomalies—The Creator Order Dragon Asha and The Destroyer Chaos Dragon Urghash—who were basically walking, talking conceptual glitches in the system, everything else in the world of Glory Lords X followed a pattern. The Six Dragon Gods, the Eternal Deities, the Primordial Deities... all of them were essentially manifestations of the world’s laws—avatars born from the fundamental forces that governed reality.

In other words, at their core, they weren’t that different from the six basic resources, creature dwellings, or special resource nodes. They were all just different forms of condensed world energy.

So by that logic...

Special buildings were no exception.

They were simply fixed quantities of world power, crystallized into a usable form. Once that power was fully consumed, the structure would collapse—disappearing as its core energy faded away.

Ethan had suspected this for a while.

That’s why he’d been so cautious. He hadn’t let any of his other Hero Units enter the Divine Colosseum to power up. He was worried that if they all shared the building’s energy, Seraphina’s gains would be diluted.

And that would’ve been a waste.

Now, looking at the results, he knew he’d made the right call.

If he’d let the others tap into the Colosseum’s power, Seraphina never would’ve reached 96% evolution progress. She wouldn’t have gotten anywhere near this close to breaking through her racial limit.

And that would’ve completely undermined his original goal.

When it came down to it, Ethan’s inner circle—the true core of his Emerald Castle—was still just a handful of people: Seraphina, Cicero, Elynn, Elyra, and Kyros.

If he had to prioritize, if he had to choose who got the best resources, the best chances to grow stronger... it was always going to be them.

But now, it was done. The Divine Colosseum had served its purpose. No point in overthinking it.

"Come on, Seraphina. Let’s head back," Ethan said with a smile.

"Yes, Master!" she replied, her voice bright and full of energy.

And with that, the two of them turned and left the now-fading ruins behind.

Back to Emerald Castle.

Back to the heart of their power.

...

"Master..."

Elynn appeared before Ethan, her expression tense and serious. "I think we’ve been targeted by the Inferno faction."

"Oh?" Ethan’s eyes narrowed slightly, a flicker of sharp light passing through them. "What makes you say that?"

"Since you left," Elynn said, her voice low but urgent, "there’ve been over a dozen skirmishes along the Sylvanwood border. And in at least three of those battles, the number of 13-Tier Inferno Devils and 14-Tier Inferno Arch Devils reached over 500 units."

"I think they’re testing Emerald Castle’s strength."

Her eyes gleamed with a mix of worry and calculation.

"Five hundred units?" Ethan’s brow arched, his expression darkening. "What were the results? Did we take heavy losses?"

"For now, it’s manageable," Elynn replied. "Vaelric, Oakenmaw, and Orryn led their clans and managed to hold the line. The damage wasn’t catastrophic. But if this keeps up..."

"We’ll be the ones bleeding out."

"They’re slowly chipping away at us. Every time they find an opening, we lose something. But when we try to strike back..." She shook her head, frustrated. "There’s nothing to hit. No clear target."

"Their spatial teleportation makes them nearly impossible to pin down. Unless we land a clean, lethal blow, they just vanish. Slip away like they were never there."

"Those damn Inferno Devils are like slippery eels—sneaky, treacherous, and impossible to catch off guard!" Elynn’s voice rose slightly, her frustration boiling over.

Ethan let out a slow breath and gave a resigned shake of his head. "That’s just how Inferno fights."

The Inferno faction had always been like this.

Slippery. Deceptive. Ruthless.

They didn’t fight fair. They didn’t fight clean. They didn’t even fight to win battles—they fought to win wars. Slowly. Strategically. They’d lure you in, bait you with false openings, and when you were deep enough in the trap, when you had no way out...

That’s when they struck. One clean, devastating blow to finish you off.

That was their style.

And that’s why, in most battles against Inferno, you wouldn’t suffer massive losses right away. They didn’t waste resources on pointless fights. They didn’t throw bodies at you like Dungeon factions did.

Dungeon factions were different.

When you fought Dungeon, it was a full-on brawl from the first second. No tricks. No games. Just raw, brutal combat. Every fight was a potential bloodbath. They didn’t hold back, didn’t care about casualties. They came at you hard, and they kept coming until someone was dead.

With Dungeon, it was simple: whoever survived, won.

But Inferno?

They played the long game.

They’d let you think you were winning. Let you feel safe. Then, when the battlefield was tilted just right in their favor, they’d strike with surgical precision—no mercy, no hesitation.

And the worst part?

They’d do it while barely losing anything themselves.

That was the Inferno way.

Just like now.

They called it a large-scale battle, but from the looks of it, this was clearly just the Inferno faction poking around—testing the waters, trying to gauge the true strength of Emerald Castle.

Because let’s be real—five hundred units of 13-Tier Legendary Devils and 14-Tier Mythic Arch Devils?

That’s not a skirmish. That’s a damn army.

If this had been the Dungeon faction instead of Inferno?

They wouldn’t have wasted time playing games.

They would’ve already kicked down the front gates.

No probing, no testing, no slow buildup. Just a full-force assault, straight to the throat. And forget about "minimal losses"—there wouldn’t have been anything left to lose.

Especially considering that after Ethan had left, the only real defenders left at Emerald Castle were Vaelric’s Storm Dragons, Orryn’s Green Dragons, Oakenmaw’s Ancient War Trees, and a few smaller units like the Arcane Colossi.

Were they strong?

Hell yeah, they were strong.

But let’s not kid ourselves—strong didn’t mean invincible.

That kind of force, as powerful as it was, still wasn’t enough to completely overpower a wave of 500 high-tier Inferno units. Not without taking serious damage in return.

Which meant, in a twisted way, they were lucky.

Lucky that it was Inferno knocking on their door and not Dungeon.

Because if it had been Dungeon?

That gap in defenses would’ve been all they needed.

And Emerald Castle would’ve been left in ruins.

...