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].

a Nightmare Creature have walking around with the traces

what with

battlefield, the Stone Saint is proficient in

to all forms of damage, as well as being fully immune to mind and

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

had

lowered his gaze

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

was before she was corrupted by… well. Whatever it was that had corrupted all the Nightmare

mattered. A monster was

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

Just like mysterious Weaver.

away from the runes, Sunny studied the motionless Echo with

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

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

he noticed another, much more

made from diamond, but they were much less ethereal.

Wait, how does it make

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

was eerily similar to the technique

mean that the Spell itself had come from

No, no. Although 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 to understand the true story that connected the Spell, the gods, the Unknown, and

be time for it

he had something equally as interesting right within