The cane itself was an ordinary cane, but the vines twined around it were the Wood Spirit.
Previously, Angel had always carried the Wood Spirit with him. Later, he had put it away before going to the Mirror Realm. However, the Wood Spirit did not want to stay inside the bracelet, because Dangros was in there.
After giving it some thought, Angel simply had the Wood Spirit follow Ermi down into his shadow.
It was not that the Wood Spirit was unafraid of Ermi. It was merely choosing the lesser of two evils. It feared Dangros, and it feared Ermi too, but it was not afraid of the Blue Lantern Flower atop Ermi's head. It even felt very close to it.
The Wood Spirit could not tell that the Blue Lantern Flower was actually Ermi. It only felt that the flower was filled with a familiar aura, and that staying near it gave it an overwhelming sense of security, as if... it had arrived at a safe harbor.
Since its birth, the Wood Spirit had lived in a constant state of fear and anxiety. Its cowardice stemmed from its belief that nowhere was safe, that everything around it would harm it.
Though this unhealthy state had let it survive until now, it had also tormented it for hundreds of years.
Thus, when it discovered that being near the Blue Lantern Flower gave it a powerful sense of security, it naturally chose to remain with it.
Even when Angel sent it down into the boundless, pitch-black sea of shadows, as long as the Blue Lantern Flower still gave off its faint glow, it felt utterly at ease, as though it were inside a safe house forged from steel and iron, with no need to worry about anything outside.
Others might not