After hesitating for a bit Niel held tightly onto his sword and steeled himself. If he were to leave this creature alone without anything it wouldn't solve Manami's problem. Niel knew that he needed to do something right now, or it might be too late. 

Niel looked at his equipment, he still had four of those immobilization paper talismans and one healing paper talisman. There was also the Kampilan of Lam-ang which was his main weapon. 

'Alright, it's now or never.' 

The banging on the door intensified and Niel unconsciously flinched. Niel then gritted his teeth grasped his sword tightly and opened the door. The moment the door was opened there seemed to be a cold breeze that passed through his body. Niel tensed up his eyes wide open wanting to see this so called shadow, yet no matter how hard he looked he could not see anything unusual. 

Niel then turned around and looked at Manami she was no longer looking at him and instead had her eyes closed. Niel came closer to the sleeping Manami and saw her lips moving. Niel couldn't hear a word coming out of Manami but he was sure that she was telling him something. Niel observed Manami's lips closely trying to figure out what she was saying. 

"E ind o? Be ind o?" Niel finally understood what Manami was trying to say and he felt a shiver down his spine. The sound of the ticking clock in his room echoed in his ears. He could hear his heart beating to the same rhythm as the ticking clock. The hair on his hands stood in attention, even the fear he felt fighting against the Kushisake-onna could not compare to this. 

Niel's hands started to tremble, as his breathing became faster. Niel gnashes his teeth and steeled his resolve as he grasped the hilt of his sword even more tightly than before. Niel quickly turned around ready to attack whatever was behind him, but he saw nothing. 

There was nothing there, Niel did not let his guard down and looked around but found no one. Still, the feeling of dread was there. As Niel was thinking of what to do next a chilling voice whispered in his ear. 

"Leave us, she's mine." The voice was that of a young man, it was filled with anger, obsession, and insanity. Niel could feel the killing intent fill the air. 

"Heh, yours? I don't know who or what you are, all I know is that you're not something this girl wants or needs." 

"I told you to leave!" The voice suddenly shouted, the sudden burst was like an explosion making Niel take a step back. The lights in the room turned off, and what was left was the moonlight shining into the room through the window. 

Ever since the beginning of mankind, we always had an instinctive fear of the darkness, which was why fire was our greatest weapon and ally. Right now the fear of darkness was tripled for Niel, still, he remained by Manami's side. The poor girl had trusted him to protect her, to save her, even if this wasn't a quest given by the System, Niel would never abandon such a girl. 

As Niel's body tensed up someone suddenly grabbed his shirt, he then reacted instinctively and jumped to the side. Niel then saw that the person who had grabbed him was the sleeping Manami. He saw that Manami was once again telling him something, but before he could figure out what she was trying to say Niel looked at the door to his room and he saw a being that made his skin crawl. 

Niel finally saw the Shadow Manami was talking about, and true to what she said it was truly just a Shadow.

The Shadow was in the shape of a person, it one had a pair of glowing red eyes that sparkled, other than that, it looked like pure darkness that took shape. Niel no longer hesitated as he quickly dashed towards the Shadow and slashed at it. 

The moment Niel's sword made contact with the Shadow, the slash simply created a white mark on the Shadow which was quickly engulfed back into the darkness. Niel did not stop and continued to attack the Shadow, but no matter how much he hacked at the Shadow it did nothing to it. 

After a while, the Shadow started walking forward, but for some reason, it was avoiding the brighter parts of the moonlight. Still, Niel had no time to bother with that as the Shadow was getting close to Manami. At that very second, as he was running toward Manami, Niel's concentration was heightened as he started to think of his next move. 

'Should I use the Ability Card? No, that won't work even if I gain powerful swordsmanship my weapon doesn't even harm this thing.' 

While Niel was thinking about the next move the Shadow was inches away from Manami, who was still sleeping but had tears flowing down her eyes. Niel took out an immobilizing paper talisman and slapped it onto the Shadow stopping its movements. 

Once the Shadow was paralyzed Niel carried Manami and darted towards the stairs. He went down to the first floor were the shop was. Niel quickly took some Warding Paper Talismans as it proved to work on the Shadow. 

"GIVE HER BACK TO ME!" 

The Shadow shouted which made Niel run even faster towards the storage room. Once he was inside he quickly stuck the Warding Paper Talisman onto the door. The Storage room was very dark as there were no windows in the room. Niel could not see anything so he was forced to let go of his sword for a while so that he could take out his phone and use its flashlight. 

"GIVE HER TO ME! GIVE HER TO ME!" The Shadow kept on shouting outside, but Niel did not bother with it and placed Manami on the floor. 

'Okay, what to do now?... Should I wake up, Manami?"