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].

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

with these

battlefield, the Stone Saint is proficient in

forms of damage, as well as

They were literally a bunch of killing machines created to last as long and deal

who had created

Attributes alone, he lowered his gaze and read

[Deep in the cavernous halls of his dark domain, the last child of the -unknown- had created them from stone to quell the

or a descendant of one. In any case, that was before she was corrupted by… well. Whatever it was that had corrupted all the Nightmare Creatures, and especially those

that it mattered. A monster

warrior bore had to have come from their original creator, who was at least partially one of the Unknown. Which meant that the

Just like mysterious Weaver.

Echo with his

Memories, the true essence of the Echo was weaved from the countless diamond strings that formed an infinitely complex pattern. Only in its case, the pattern was even more elaborate, dwarfing anything

them was situated in the place where her heart should have been, the other in

there, behind the shining pattern of the diamond strings, he noticed another, much more primitive and crude system of adamantine threads. They pierced the

were much less ethereal. In fact, they were entirely

makes sense. Wait, how does

was artificial, but in a much more mundane sense. She was made by a child of the Unknown, just like her Echo was

the technique that had been used to create the Stone Saint was eerily similar to the technique that the Spell used,

that mean that the Spell itself had

He needed to

be time for it

something equally as interesting right within his