A week later, with its Signal Skin made of nodes, a single hook made out of codes and symbols was swaying beside it. It succeeded in devouring a fallen echo when they attacked a banished one, packed not only with weapons and Source Code but also with data. It learned something about the sector: this sector is called Prototype Sector, and those on the edge of the sector are the bottom feeders who devour the banished from the TIENS. It's also the place where it came from.
It gained data about the circular firewall that echoes use as a refuge if a strong echo comes from the inner part of the sector. This firewall is only accessible to those who have devoured Guardian and Law Echoes because of their Memory Frames, which are programmed to allow travel through firewalls.
"Don't forget me, ******."
"I'm your forever companion, *****."
"Those who reside in the inner sector feed on the outer regions and must be both knowledgeable and delicious. The more I devour, the longer I survive, and this corruption will vanish when I consume the denizens of the inner part."
Because of consuming echoes at the edge of the sector, even its personality changed. With only its data about devour or be devoured in its Core Bit, it became like those denizens patiently waiting for the banished ones, devouring their Core Bits, then hiding from the echoes of the inner part of the sector, devouring them when it became more knowledgeable.
Floating at the edge and dragging its hook and knife slowly after devouring a denizen echo to appear weakened, it waited for its prey to bite the bait. Because of the usefulness and information it got from its first denizen prey, it was more into devouring denizens than the banished ones.
Jumping from its side, it used its spear to thrust into the Core Bit of the weakened echo, ready to devour it. But it retaliated, using another node like a stick to block the spear and then used its hook. The hook caught its prey only to hit a broken wall. This wall was not an ordinary wall it was a pathway for data to travel around the sector. But due to the passage of time and battles in the sector, many of these pathways were destroyed.
Hitting nothing, it turned around to face its prey, now turned opponent, throwing knives at it and controlling it using a string made out of nodes. Every mutation in the Signal Skin of echoes makes their body mass denser and can produce more nodes simultaneously or in one go. By producing five nodes, it had a denser body mass, resulting in a stronger, more defensive Signal Skin.
Its only hook and knife didn't deflect the knives thrown and were impaled in its Signal Skin. Ready to thrust its spear, it suddenly froze and fell to the ground, its back pierced by seven knives. Then it slowly removed two of the knives that impaled it and floated toward the fallen echo, retrieving its knives and using its hook to lift it up. It thrust its stick like weapon into its Core Bit and devoured its Source Core. After finishing, it tossed the carcass, swayed its seven knives using a string, and dragged its one hook.