The Stranger felt wave after wave of dizziness. He lay on the ground with his eyes wide open, like a corpse.
The night sky was reddened by flames. Gargoyles let out shrill cries as they flew past like swarms of bats.
It was not that he had pretended to be dead to escape the attack. His limbs felt cold and numb, leaving him powerless.
--Besides, pretending to be dead beneath his beloved creations would never have worked anyway.
The gargoyles' shells were creations of the Amber Artisan. In essence, they were no different from hellhounds, their insides filled with familiar spirits. The anti-magic gargoyles forged by the Amber Artisan were simply sturdier and more reliable than that rusted scrap iron.
Whether based on the Path of Twilight or the Path of Transcendence, both were exceptionally skilled in manipulating souls. The gargoyles' target-seeking mode had been directed at souls from the very beginning, so invisibility, disguises, and even faking death were useless.
Now that the Stranger lay here, there was a hint of giving up on himself in his state.
His mind was a complete mess... If the gargoyles simply swept him to death with gunfire, perhaps that would not be such a bad thing.
Strangely, however, the gargoyles did not attack him.
They merely circled overhead, constantly emitting shrill monkey-like cries. Alchemy Bombs were hurled down, erupting in a continuous series of explosions.
One explosion even landed right beside him. The blast sent dirt flying, and it fell across his body. Perhaps because of the explosions, or perhaps for some other reason, the Stranger only felt ringing in his ears, while the dizziness in his head grew increasingly intense.
In his daze, he seemed to have passed out, yet also seemed to remain conscious. It felt as though a long