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].

blinked. Mark of Divinity? That was the same as his original Attribute! What business did a Nightmare Creature have walking around with the traces of divinity left in its evil,

what with

the

Saint is highly resistant to all forms of damage, as well

wonder these silent stone warriors were so deadly. They were literally a bunch of killing machines created to last as long and deal as much damage as possible on

had created

the Attributes alone, he lowered his gaze and read the

-unknown- had created them from stone to quell the fire burning in

rather, their children. It seemed like his theory was correct. The Stone Saint was either an artificial being 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,

mattered. A monster was a

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

Just like mysterious Weaver.

away from the runes, Sunny studied the motionless Echo with his altered eyes. What he saw made him smile

Echo was weaved from the countless diamond strings that formed an infinitely complex

them was situated in the place

noticed another, much more primitive and crude system of adamantine threads. They pierced

they were much less ethereal. In

Wait, how does it make

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

what? That the technique that had been used to create the Stone Saint was eerily similar

Spell itself had

it was a sound theory, there was too little information to actually consider it substantiated or even remotely believable. He needed to find out more, learn more, uncover more before even beginning

would be time for

equally as interesting right within