That... is not even remotely shadows. The Darkness doesn't inspire the same panic that the first encounter with Bezaliel's shadows did but the similarity to the Void is still disturbing. He won't get time to dwell on it, though, not when the darkness is lanced by through by red — if only in his own vision — as iron tears through feathers and flesh.

Childermass screams or, more aptly, caws wildly in pain, seeing how he's still a giant bird at this point. This is worse than the brand by far and it's a kindness that the blow to his head throws him to the ground and away from the iron. Down there, he grasps for the only exit he can thing of.

He can't vanish through his own shadow but he can madly snatch up every bit of shadow around him, all but Bezaliel's, and explode them out into dozens of escaping shadow crows. It's in those that he tries to escape the same way, forcing his form back down into a normal crow's and taking off for the treeline. It isn't something he'll be able to hold for long, though, not with how much blood he's going to be losing.