As the desert sun crossed the highest point in the sky, the shadows of the cityscape began to change direction. The horizon was littered with decrepit skyscrapers and the reflected glare of their broken glass windows. The quiet serenity of this deserted urban area had remained undisturbed for centuries, until earlier today. The ground began to shake again, and a skyscraper toppled over, filling the air with a cloud of dust.

Beside the cracked asphalt of a nearby intersection, a young man was pressed against the side of a building, hiding in its shadow. He'd been running for almost an hour already, and knew it was just a matter of time before his body succumbed to the desert heat. Still, the short earthquakes continued coming in bursts, and that was the only concern weighing on his mind.

He slowly peered around the corner of the building, looking in the direction he came from. There it was, still following relentlessly, with every step of its massive stone feet causing another tremor. It appeared to be a statue carved entirely from stone, depicting some sort of angel, with enormous stone wings extending from its back. The entire thing must have stood at least 60 meters tall, and was somehow moving around, as though possessed by some spirit.

All this might not have posed a problem on its own, except the colossal statue's movements weren't random; for the last hour, it had been intently coming after him. Worse, it was using some strange weapon to destroy everything around it: an ancient moss-covered stone, even more massive than the monstrosity's feet, attached to a thick cable of some kind. The creature was holding the cable between his fingers, and using it to spin the stone around at high speed, turning every building it touched into little more than debris.

As the thing continued to approach, with the ground shaking ever more violently, the young man knew he'd need to take a risk if he wanted any chance of surviving. Taking a deep breath, he stepped out on the road in front of his pursuer. Its eyes locked on him immediately, and it started to change the angle of its spinning weapon in response.

However, as the man dropped something on the ground, a large cloud of smoke suddenly enveloped him, rapidly expanding to hide the area. The stone angel, unfazed, brought the gigantic spinning stone crashing down on the exact spot where the man had been standing.

As the creature lifted the ancient weapon from the street, the billows of smoke followed it upwards. A cavity in the side of the stone, large enough for the living statue to have fit its foot inside, appeared to be the new source of smoke. As the air at ground level started to clear up, it was evident that the dropped canister was no longer there, crushed or otherwise.

In response, the colossal statue took the stone in its hand, and turned it so the smoke-producing cavity faced downwards toward the palm of its other hand. The source of the smoke, whatever it was, fell out; the billowing cloud was now on the creature's outstretched hand. And then, just as quickly, it was moving up its arm at a rapid pace.

As the smoke thinned out, the canister from before was dropped again, this time on the enormous stone creature's upper arm. Also emerging from the cloud was the young man, moving in a full sprint towards the statue's head. As its other hand began to close the distance on him, apparently intending to crush him, the man pulled out a second canister and threw it without hesitation at the creature's face.

Landing within the gap between the statue's lips, the canister rolled in easily. A moment later, there was a loud bang echoing from within the stone creature, and its entire body froze immediately. Smoke billowed out from its mouth, and an extremely unnatural gnashing sound accompanied it, welling up from somewhere deep within the creature.

As it began to collapse to the ground, its shoulder grazed the edge of a building, and the young man leapt off and landed on the nearby roof. He turned to watch as the angelic statue hit the asphalt, creating an incredible trench beneath it, and then the city was once again overcome by silence. Breathing a heavy sigh of relief, he looked to the horizon, where a range of distant mountains caught his eye. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he couldn't help but wonder what obstacles might be waiting for him from here.