Brilliant trails of light cleaved through the darkness visible to Emilia as though parting the sea. Even the protruding humanoid shapes on the walls seemed to fear the moonlight, retreating with the fading darkness to the lower floors. Even the cracks they had caused in the walls vanished.
As an Angel Level Relic, the Night Watchman naturally restrained the Corpse in the Wall. That was why Shade had been able to drive it back with a single strike.
But as he lowered the sword and caught his breath, he knew that his current strength was still insufficient to completely defeat the relic. Thus, after slashing out once, he immediately turned to look at Emilia.
The red-eyed Elf Girl did not even have time to speak to Shade before she embraced the sword he handed her. Then, with both hands free, Shade bent down and tucked Emilia beneath one arm. With a lift of his right hand, he hoisted Little Unicorn onto his shoulder, then raced up the stairs two at a time.
The darkness below the stairs had only been temporarily repelled. As the moonlight and the Night Watchman's power faded while Shade continued upward, the surging darkness resumed its pursuit of the fleeing group.
Shade's senses were far sharper than Emilia's. Thus, the "protruding humanoid shapes" and "wall cracks" she saw were merely the Corpse in the Wall's outward manifestations. What he could sense was an unknown entity truly existing within the walls and slowly moving upward.
Those corpse-like humanoid protrusions in the walls, and even the rising darkness, were merely relic effects naturally produced because the object serving as the relic's core had appeared within this Clock Tower's walls. Its main body, slowly climbing upward, was the truly dangerous thing—the Angel Level Relic in the truest sense.
Emilia