In some ancient age long unknown, people struggling to survive in the darkness found their last settlement in a desert. But before long, monsters that hunted the souls of the living followed close behind.
It did not directly slaughter the people there. Instead, it kept them penned up, demanding that the settlement's inhabitants offer flesh and souls as sacrifices at regular intervals while ensuring the population could continue to grow.
This continued for a long time, until a knight from afar gathered the settlement's last remaining resistance and charged at that "devil."
The battle lasted a long time. When the elderly and children of the settlement finally dared to approach the battlefield, all they saw were corpses strewn across the ground, the gravely wounded devil, and a knight on the verge of death.
Shade pressed one hand against the coffin lid and read out the story's ending:
"The knight said he was a believer of an ancient earth deity. Even after the Earth Mother God departed, he still followed the traditions of Old Days and traveled the earth on his own two feet.
"He had only one last breath left, so he resolved to use the Earth Mother God Church's—and the lost Earth Cult's—most fundamental divine art, 'Earth Power All Things.' At the cost of turning his own soul and flesh into a stone statue, he would permanently alter the shape and nature of this land and use it to seal that devil."
Ms. Knight listened intently.
"This was a true knight."
Shade nodded.
"Thus, supported by the people, the knight rose to his feet and turned into a stone statue with one hand raised in farewell. Following his last wishes, the people built a church to house the sealed devil and the knight's personal belongings. The knight's statue has