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].

as his original Attribute! What business did a Nightmare Creature have

what with these

the Stone Saint is proficient in

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

deadly. They were literally a bunch of

had

Attributes alone, he lowered his gaze and read the next

Description: [Deep in the cavernous halls of his dark domain, the last 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

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, and especially those in the cursed city. Now even gods wouldn't be able to describe what exactly she

that it mattered. A monster was a

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

Just like mysterious Weaver.

motionless Echo with his altered eyes. What he saw made

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 that Sunny

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

the diamond strings, he noticed another, much more

they were much less ethereal. In fact,

sense… that makes sense. Wait, how does

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

meant what? That the technique that had been used to create the Stone Saint was eerily similar to the technique that the Spell used, although it did

Spell itself had come from

grimaced and shook his head. 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,

would be

had something equally as interesting right