Shadow Slave

Previously, Sunny had considered the living statues to be just that, monuments brought to life by evil spirits. There were a lot of revenants like that walking the streets of the cursed city.

Take the Black Knight, for example — Sunny was almost sure that the bastard was actually just a suit of armor with a vengeful wraith imprisoned within it. He had no proof that there was an actual body in that moving steel fortress, at least.

However, after watching the Stone Saint die right before his eyes, he wasn't so sure that she and the Black Knight were the same anymore. There certainly were similarities… even the design of their armors was somewhat similar, as though one had originated from the other. But the stone warrior's armor seemed much more… ancient.

And then there was the ruby dust that flowed from the stone creature's wounds instead of blood. Since when did statues have blood? It was almost like these strange creatures were designed to possess their own weird form of life. Come think about it, the stone warriors resembled artificial beings brought to life by some dark magic much more than they resembled undead creatures.

'Mysteries, mysteries, mysteries all around!'

Perhaps the runes describing the Stone Saint would provide him with some answers.

The Echo, meanwhile, was coming to life. Two magenta flames ignited in her gemstone eyes. The stone of her armor suddenly gleamed with subtle metal shine, the smooth surface of her granite skin turned slightly less rigid. Silently turning her head, the Saint gazed at Sunny through the narrow split of her helmet's visor.

"Let's see…"

He concentrated on the runes.

Echo: Stone Saint.

Echo Rank: Awakened.

Echo Class: Monster.

Echo Attributes: [Battle Master], [Stalwart], [Mark of Divinity].

the same as his original Attribute! What business did a Nightmare Creature have walking around with the traces of divinity left

with

Master Attribute Description: [Born on the battlefield, the Stone

Attribute Description: [The Stone Saint is highly resistant to all forms of damage,

literally a bunch of killing machines created

had created

gaze and read

child of the -unknown- had created them from stone to quell the fire burning in his resentful heart. However, that fire only grew hotter. Designed to bring peace, they were

In any case, that was before she was corrupted by… well. Whatever it was that had corrupted all the Nightmare Creatures, and especially those in the cursed city. Now even gods wouldn't be able to describe

mattered. A

to have come from their original creator, who was at least partially

Just like mysterious Weaver.

away from the runes, Sunny studied the motionless Echo with his altered eyes. What

the countless diamond strings that formed an infinitely complex pattern. Only in its case, the pattern was even more elaborate, dwarfing anything that Sunny

the Stone Saint's body, serving as anchors for the endless strings. One of them was situated in the place where her

closely. And there, behind the shining pattern of the diamond strings, he noticed another, much more primitive and crude system of

were much less ethereal. In fact, they were

makes sense. Wait, how

and the Echoes were created by the Spell. They were artificial. The Stone Saint, too, was artificial, but in a much more mundane sense.

was eerily similar to the technique that the Spell used, although it

the Spell itself had come

remotely believable. He needed to find out more, learn more, uncover more before even beginning to understand the true story that connected the Spell, the gods, the Unknown, and his

would be time

he had something equally as interesting right within his