They are, I believe, the mages' souls are somehow glued to the magic tools. Those words uttered by the demonoids are their traumas uttered to them by the officers, for example the sand boots uttered "don't run in the hallways". This further confirms when the lamp officer says something along the lines of bringing something worthwhile, which pertains to Nona becoming a magic tool.
I mean the mages' souls are somehow transferred or glued to an item which makes the items "magic tools".
Did you just drop a crazy spoiler at the end like it was nothing or did I just not understand your message?
It's more of an observation and speculation. This is an original manga, so there's no other sources to look into for spoilers. Sorry, that statement really do sound definite, what I meant at the end is the officer who uses the lamp intends to make Nona's magic as a magic tool since Nona's needle and thread magic is flexible and he sees value in it, and it is implied that the demonoids who resides within the magic tools are the dead souls of the mages.
I also believe the same. It might be certain since everytime they deactivate the magic tool, a skull appears. I started to think that maybe the magic tool is the mage themselves and that there might be a crazy mage with the ability to make tools using other mages' essence or something... Maybe we will get an arc where we find out that Nona's mom is turned into a combing tool or something. That would be devastating...
Indeed, that would be so devastating, specially since the author doesn't hesitate to side characters. Hopefully not tho, the story still gave hope that Nona's mom may be one of the mages rescued by quovelat.
What if the monsters/artificacts are mages/pieces of mages that were experimented on