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].

original Attribute! What business did a Nightmare Creature have walking

what with these other

[Born on the battlefield, the Stone Saint

to all forms of damage, as well as being fully

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

had

he lowered his gaze and

created them from stone to quell the fire burning in his resentful heart. However, that fire only grew hotter. Designed

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, and especially those in the cursed city. Now even gods wouldn't be able

it mattered. A

from their original creator, who was

Just like mysterious Weaver.

from the runes, Sunny studied the motionless Echo with his altered

formed an infinitely complex pattern. Only in its case, the pattern was even more

inside the Stone Saint's body, serving as anchors for the endless strings. One of them was situated in the place where her heart should have been, the other in the lower part of

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

also seemingly made from diamond, but they were much less ethereal. In fact, they

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

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

mean that the Spell itself had

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

would be

he had something equally as interesting right within