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Klein ran in a zigzag, holding Groselle's Travels over his head and adjusting his course now and then according to his premonitions of danger.
The book blocked the lightning shooting wildly about, caught raindrops that could corrode stone, and shielded him from terrifying gazes, helping Klein make his way out of the lifeless woods to the edge of the cliff.
Just then, his surroundings abruptly darkened. It was neither the darkness before a downpour nor that of a moonless, starless night. It was deathly still and permeated with the stench of decay.
Murmurs rang out intermittently, near and far, high and low, while something breathed slowly in midair.
Klein, who was afraid of the dark, trembled. He did not dare look at what was happening overhead. Only when lightning flashed did he notice several white feathers stained with pale yellow grease spiraling down nearby.
He stepped forward with his right foot, charged off the cliff, then plummeted straight down, falling out of the darkness and seeing light.
Then he fell into a huge mouth that seemed to have been waiting for a long time.
The toothless mouth snapped shut and sank to the seabed, swimming swiftly toward a reef outside Blue Mountain Island as previously agreed.
It was a gigantic undersea creature with sixteen fins on its back.
In the lightless darkness, Klein, whom Death Knell had given the weakness of being afraid of the dark, instinctively wanted to curl up and tremble helplessly. Still, he barely managed to restrain those feelings and took out the Priest of Light Beyonder Characteristic he had prepared in advance to deal with the Wraith.
It came from the one who had previously been in the glove.
Pure light radiated from the transparent, stone-like object, dispelling Klein's fear.
Just as he was about