I stared at the torii gates for a few long seconds.

Then I lifted my eyes toward the sky.

My eyes stung immediately.

The "God" above us was moving again.

The hammer it used was larger than last time. It was now big enough to crush three mountains at once.

I did the calculations in my head.

'By the time we got another chance to repeat the escape condition, that hammer would be big enough to crush the entire domain.'

That meant this was our last chance of escape.

And we failed it.

I took a slow breath and ran through the possibilities in my mind.

What could I have done better?

The simplest answer was not getting caught in this domain to begin with.

But that wasn't useful anymore.

Maybe I should've tried bringing headless Valen here?

I shook my head at the thought.

Valen couldn't think.

He had no head, no brain, and no ability to understand commands.

By the time I managed to get him to attack the torii gate, the timing would've already passed.

He wasn't an asset in this state.

"Lord of Shadows…" Yuna called softly.

I looked her way and gave a slight nod.

She was correct. There was no point dwelling on failure.

We didn't have the luxury for that. Thinking about what went wrong would only slow us down. We needed to look at the next step.

And the next step wasn't escape.

Escaping was impossible now.

That meant our only option was to exorcise this domain.

The God would attack as soon as we showed even a slight chance of exorcising this domain, but….

If I focused only on my own survival, then I could survive. The possibility was there.

My gaze sharpened.

I didn't like the idea of losing Saint Maverick here. He was useful.

But my own survival mattered more.

These people were not family, or allies bound by trust.

They were temporary companions.

I wasn't going to die for them.

I opened my mouth to speak. "Alright, the escape failed, so we should—"

I couldn't finish.

The large Exorcist turned into a blur of shadows and rushed straight toward me.

At the same time, the second Exorcist lunged at Saint Maverick.

The man had overloaded his body earlier, so he had no strength left to defend himself.

The first sword-wielder crewmate reacted instantly.

He flickered forward, blocking the large Exorcist and kicking him away with one clean strike.

"What're ye doin', pretty face!? Tryin' to stab me captain while he's thinkin'!?" he shouted.

The second Exorcist's attack landed squarely on Saint Maverick.

Something inside his cyborg frame burst.

The sound wasn't loud, but it was sharp enough to tell us something important had broken.

Judy immediately began scanning him.

"Protect Saint Maverick too!" I called out.

The gunner crewmate aimed, but before he could pull the trigger, the large Exorcist grabbed the second Exorcist and sank into the shadow beneath them.

They slipped away in seconds.

"Blasted cowards!" the second sword-wielder yelled in frustration.

He took a step forward to chase, but I stopped him.

"Don't follow them."

"Why not, Captain? He turned on us while our backs were down! Let me stick me blade in 'im once!" the first sword-wielder said in a growl.

"We don't have time for that. He knows it too. That's why he attacked. His goal is to waste our time," I said.

Saint Maverick's voice came next, strained but steady. "Caelum is correct. Time is against us."

Judy hovered beside him, small sparks jumping across her surface as she continued repairing his circuits.

The inngirl remained close to me.

She was far calmer than the others.

She'd probably seen too many brawls back at her inn to be shaken easily.

"What's the big deal? We can just wait for the next blackout, yeah?" she asked.

"We can't," Saint Maverick answered. "The hammer from the sky will kill us before the next blackout. We need to exorcise this Cursed Spirit. That's why the New Order attacked. They don't want us doing that."

The first sword-wielder crewmate swung his blade through the air in irritation. "Why're those sorry dogs blockin' us from sinkin' this cursed beast when it's the one who struck first!?"

Saint Maverick hesitated for a moment. "Because… that's how they are."

I wasn't going to sugarcoat it like he did.

"They're idiots," I said plainly. "They'd rather die here with us than exorcise this Cursed Spirit. In their eyes, dying to protect a 'brother' of theirs who hasn't touched the 'truth' is some kind of noble sacrifice."

The inngirl frowned. "So they're just guardin' this place? Givin' themselves to the curse for free? That's madness."

I shrugged.

The New Order was a Cursed Spirit supremacy faction.

Still, not every member of theirs would sacrifice themselves for a Cursed Spirit they just met.

We had the worst luck meeting one of their extremists here.

Saving the Rank 4 Cursed Spirit—the Blackout Priest—would result in us dying.

Not just us, but my crewmates and the inngirl as well.

The Exorcists didn't know the inngirl couldn't die, but it didn't matter to them.

So why were they protecting the Priest and not the crewmates who were also Cursed Spirits?

Because the Blackout Priest housed countless Cursed Spirits inside its domain. It was a full powerhouse.

The crewmates and the inngirl were only six individuals.

The New Order was sacrificing fewer "people" to protect more.

I turned to Saint Maverick. "Do you have any idea how to exorcise this Cursed Spirit?"

He nodded once.

Behind Judy, a compartment opened in her metallic frame.

She reached inside with a tiny mechanical arm and pulled out a small folder.

Her other arm continued repairing Saint Maverick as she handed me the document.

I took it.

It was surprisingly clean despite everything happening around us. I opened it and skimmed through the pages quickly.

Inside was a detailed field report along with several photos of a shrine.

Saint Maverick explained, "One of Judy's drones found a broken shrine on top of a mountain about five kilometers from here.

"Based on our reports, it resembles the shrine where the priest performed his ritual.

"So we need to go there and complete the ritual the priest failed to finish."

I nodded.

The idea made sense, but there were four major problems.

Ghouls.

Exorcists from New Order.

The God in the sky.

And the ritual itself.

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