Chapter 2259: Chase

Chapter 2259: Chapter 2259: Chase

The brilliant light trace shattered the darkness visible to Emilia like parting the sea, even the humanoid protrusions on the wall seemed to fear this moonlight, retreating voluntarily with the fading darkness to lower floors, causing the cracks they made in the wall to disappear.

Being both Angel-Level, the "Night Watchman" naturally restrains the "Body in the Wall," allowing Shard to repel the foe in a single strike.

But as he lowered the sword to catch his breath, he knew his current power couldn’t completely vanquish that relic, so he merely swung the longsword then immediately turned to look at Emilia.

The elf girl with reddened eyes didn’t even have time to speak with Shard before she clutched the longsword he handed over. Then, Shard, unarmed, bent down, clamped Emilia to his side, lifted the Little Unicorn onto his shoulder, and ran three steps as two toward higher stairs.

The darkness below the stairs was only temporarily repelled; as the moonlight and the "Night Watchman"’s power faded with Shard’s upward ascent, the resurgent darkness continued to chase the fleeing people.

Shard’s perception was far stronger than Emilia’s; thus, what Emilia saw as "protrusion humanoid" and "wall cracks" were mere manifestations of the "Body in the Wall" to him. What he perceived was that a genuine unknown entity inside the wall was slowly ascending.

Those wall protrusions resembling corpses and even the ascending darkness were mere relic effects naturally occurring from the relic core appearing in the bell tower walls. Its slowly rising essence was the most dangerous thing, something truly of Angel-Level relic.

Emilia didn’t know what Shard was thinking; she only felt she was steadily rotating upward. Maybe it was because she was holding the "Night Watchman" that the bright yellow runes on the silver blade reflected into her green eyes, and Emilia gradually came to her senses.

"Shard~"

She called softly, but Shard, striving to climb the stairs with Emilia and the Little Unicorn, had no time to respond.

The Ancient Rune "My heart is pure, sword cuts demons" was in Ancient Elvish Language, given this longsword was forged using elf forging in the Third Era. Emilia recognized those runes, unconsciously murmuring them in her heart, and felt the relic’s influence vanish completely.

She felt as if she had returned to that night running through the woodland hand-in-hand with Shard. But unlike last time, this time they faced true danger. Similar to last time was that once again, Shard protected her:

"I can’t do anything..."

"No, that thing ascends the stairs faster than I do!"

Thinking to herself, Shard stumbled, just like Emilia and the Little Unicorn earlier, misfortune causing him to trip. The voice of "her" laughed softly:

[Outlander, you’ve perceived the attack of "Misfortune."]

"That damned crow!"

Yet Shard didn’t fall; he merely stumbled forward and found his balance. Thus, he resolutely adjusted his posture, first lowering the Little Unicorn off his shoulder, then grabbed the "Night Watchman" sword hilt from Emilia’s hand, turned her back towards him, and wrapped her in his embrace. Shard’s hands grasped Emilia’s hands, then together they plunged the longsword into the stone stair ground:

"Arcane Technique - Moonlight Thorns!"

The sharp longsword pierced the stone ground smoothly, then from the ground cracks of the stairs rapidly grew dense silver moonlight thorns, sealing off the stairwell like a spider web before the surging darkness could emerge.

The humanoid protrusions in the wall that moved swiftly were the first to touch the net; then even inside the wall, thorn-shaped marks appeared. The thorns pierced through the humanoids and grew out from the wall cracks they caused, weaving the net even tighter. ℴℴ𝘮

"Hurry!"

Having done all this, Shard, carrying Emilia, turned to continue upward; the elf girl was swept along without finding a chance to speak. Meanwhile, the recovered Little Unicorn ran ahead of them; its horn emitted a glimmer that touched Shard, making his movement increasingly fluid.

It proved that in such a confined space, "Moonlight Thorns" augmented by the "Night Watchman" were far more effective than any other abilities. Shard, together with the Little Unicorn, ran upward for at least twenty seconds before sensing his released thorns were forcefully destroyed.

By then, they were nearly at the bell tower’s top; although Belindel Big Bell was the city’s tallest structure, for Shard’s pace, it was merely a warm-up.

"Shard, you’ve come to save me again."

It was only then he heard Emilia’s voice once more; Emilia was still cradled in his single arm, conveniently running, while the "Night Watchman" was still in her hands.

"I promised I would ensure you safely pass this challenge, so of course, I’d come to rescue you."

He spoke as he adjusted his breathing, simultaneously perceiving the space; the stair’s end was near.

"If, I’m saying if we encounter a problem that even you can’t handle, Shard, you can let me go and I’ll..."

"What silly talk is that."

The little unicorn that was running ahead leapt out of the stairway entrance, entering the repair personnel’s passage of the top-floor bell tower room, and continued charging forward towards the door that connected the mechanical room of the bell tower to the observation deck. You could directly reach the observation deck by elevator from the bottom of the bell tower, but if you take the stairs, you have to pass through the mechanical room.

Shard hurriedly followed behind, with no time to observe the interconnecting gears and shafts behind the face of the bell tower next to him. He followed the unicorn and saw that the door blocking their way was locked. Yet the little beast didn’t even give Shard a chance to act; it lowered its head slightly and charged forward, smashing the door with its horn, allowing it to enter the open viewing platform first.

The sound of pouring rain and the cold wind rushed inside at once. Usually, the roof of this observation platform is opened to prevent water accumulation on rainy days, but as per Shard’s request, Miss Belindel had retracted the automatic retractable roof ahead of time. Thus, when Shard also dashed through that door, they were immediately drenched by the pouring rain.

But no one had time to worry about the rain; he quickly turned around with the little unicorn and looked towards that ruined door. As a white lightning bolt streaked overhead, accompanied by a dull rumble, the entire bell tower began to vibrate. Countless black tendrils climbed out from the door onto the wall and extended into the rain, blocking the doorway with black mist so thoroughly that the interior of the bell tower corridor could no longer be seen.

Shard did not release [Moonlight Thorns] again but held Emilia as he and the little unicorn stepped back, trying to get as far away from the wall as possible.

Human-shaped protrusions emerged from the corridor walls into the outer walls, causing even more cracks to spread all over the wall. This time, they did not try to separate from the wall, merely solidifying inside it, but this only made them appear even more like corpses imprisoned within.

Blackness was tainting the walls, the sound of pouring rain unable to drown out the bell tower’s own "lamentation", Shard and the little unicorn didn’t dare to blink. After Shard set Emilia down, they stood together protecting the elf girl with the pointed ears, while they awaited the thing that served as the relic core to come here.

"Yggdrasil’s Staff."

[Night Watchman] was already back in Shard’s hand, Emilia pressed her lips looking at Shard, suddenly hearing his soft whisper.

"Yggdrasil?"

The pointed ears twitched; she felt she had heard this word somewhere before. As Shard pulled off the key hanging on his chest, the key tightly clutched in his palm began to emit a white light through the gaps between his fingers.

This light extended to both sides, transforming into the familiar black long staff Emilia had seen before, evoking a familiar sensation.

Of course, this was the item Iluna had entrusted her to help investigate.

Right hand holding a sword and left hand holding a staff, Shard held his breath, even with his eyes closed he could feel the most terrifying thing had drifted from the wall to the corridor at the top of the bell tower.

It’s coming.

Meanwhile—

The pouring rain was blown by the wind past the side of Belindel Big Bell, subsequently crashing onto the ground of the square below.

In the square below the bell tower, a man looking up at the Belindel Big Bell Tower, half of which was dyed filthy black, sighed and said to his companion behind him:

"Has Mr. Joshua Brooklyn, the ’Radiant Hand’ of the Dawn Church, not arrived yet?"

The Five-Ring Sorcerer also from the Church of Creation shook his head:

"That gentleman went to investigate ruins in the north of the city this morning and has not returned yet. However, the Thirteen Rings ’Beast Hunter’ gentleman from the Church of Nature who arrived locally yesterday should be here soon."

The Belindel Big Bell, strangely discolored and emitting a strong Whisper Element, was naturally discovered first by the monitoring ritual centered around five cathedrals in Moon Bay City. During the time Shard, Emilia, and the little unicorn were climbing the tower, the team from the Church of Creation nearest to the Belindel Big Bell had arrived first.

Yet the twenty-person team that had reached there didn’t even dare to touch the outer wall of the bell tower, instead observing from different angles to determine what was happening there.

"Isn’t this somewhat too exaggerated?"

Soon after, sorcerers from the Dawn Church and Peace Church appeared together, the white-haired Twelve Rings old gentleman leading the Dawn Church team looked up at the bell tower in the rain, couldn’t help but sigh:

"This scale... an Angel-Level relic?"