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 walking

with these

Description: [Born on the battlefield, the

of damage, as well

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

who had created

Attributes alone, he lowered his gaze and read the next line of

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.

the Unknown again. Or 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

A

the stone 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 and to divinity

Just like mysterious Weaver.

the motionless Echo with his altered eyes. What he saw made

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

embers were burning 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

the shining pattern of the diamond strings, he noticed another, much

from diamond, but they were much less ethereal. In fact, they were entirely

sense… that makes sense. Wait, how does it make

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

create the Stone Saint was eerily similar to the

that mean that the Spell itself had

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

be time

he had something equally as interesting