Though the Rain-Seeking Golem's appearance had not changed, the moment the Demon's power clung to it, an inexplicable sense of strangeness and immense malice filled the hearts of everyone watching the battle.
Other than Shade, Guardian Mr. Fleming, and a handful of Cultists, no one knew what this change meant. As stone spikes spread across the golem's face from Shade's "Vision Demon" perspective, its mouth—which had originally been nothing more than a horizontal line, incapable of opening—actually opened.
More precisely, its entire square jaw slid downward, revealing a hollow opening in its face.
Pitch-black energy gathered. The next moment, a beam punched straight through the stone statue's chest. As the two people standing on the statue's shoulders lost their footing, stone spikes crawled over the golem's back, causing two more black stone arms to grow from it. Those arms wrapped around the stone statue's body at astonishing speed, pinning it in place.
Energy gathered in its mouth once more. This time, the black beam vaporized the stone statue's left and right hands. Then the golem's right hand swatted at the two people and one ghost on the statue's shoulders as though swatting flies.
"The Demon's main body hasn't arrived. It's testing me."
As Mr. Fleming spoke, an unknown thaumaturgy formed an earthy yellow hemispherical shield around the three of them, blocking the giant stone palm. But then the golem's left hand came crashing down as well. Under the tremendous force, the spherical shield nearly shattered, while dense cracks appeared across the armless stone statue's surface.
The shield was covered in spiderweb-like cracks. If Mr. Fleming had not continued maintaining the spell, the Witch's summoned creature would already have shattered. Even so, his spirit body had become far more transparent, yet he still held the Holy Grail in hand.
"Stone Osenfott