Five minutes.

That was all Dante could buy me.

I exhaled slowly.

'He doesn't have his "Stronger" ability. If he did, the hammer wouldn't be moving at all,' I noted.

Still, five minutes was already the best-case scenario.

In five minutes, another hammer would fall.

And after that, the Cursed Spirit God would stop holding back.

It would use more than one hammer at once.

Dante wouldn't be able to stop that, even if he was stronger. His current form had only two hands and could stop one hammer.

Which meant these five minutes were everything.

I moved immediately.

I drew alchemical runes on the ground, my fingers moving with practiced speed.

The lines were clean, precise, and unadorned.

As I chanted, light gathered, shaping itself into fabric.

White ceremonial robes formed in front of me. The kind worn by shrine priests in Japan. The details had to be exact. The length. The folds. The way the sleeves hung.

I put them on and adjusted them carefully.

Then I created a thin thread and tied the Recollection Ring to it.

The ring was a reward I had after exorcising Area 51.

I slipped the thread over my head and tucked the ring beneath the robes, hiding it against my chest.

Only then did I begin setting up the ceremony.

The exorcism of this Cursed Spirit, the Blackout Priest, had three steps.

The first was gathering information.

Understanding how the domain worked, how the ceremony had to be performed, and what chants were required.

That step should have taken everyone else a long time.

For me, it had been easy.

I already knew all of it.

The second step was securing the lantern and surviving the hammers falling from the sky.

As long as you had a Rank 5 Exorcist, that step could be maintained for a few hours.

At least until the hammers grew so large that even a Rank 5 would be crushed under their weight.

The third step was the real challenge.

It was harder than the first two combined.

And it had nothing to do with combat.

When I finished arranging the final piece of the setup, I straightened and looked around the temple grounds.

"Lord of Shadows, don't you need the lantern? It's with the Cursed Spirits from New Order, right?"

"Yes," I replied.

I turned my gaze back to Dante.

Through my Hollow Eyes, I could see three versions of him at once.

One was the form visible to me without Hollow Eyes.

One was the form the Cursed Spirit God in the sky saw. The massive, mud-like giant holding back the hammer.

And the third—

The third form was for someone else.

Yuna was hidden by the System, so Dante's ability did not affect her. Dante had no assigned form for her.

Which meant the third form was meant for someone who was here.

Someone who could see Dante, and was hiding.

I narrowed my eyes.

"Where is he hiding, Dante?" I asked.

Dante's massive form continued holding the hammer above the temple.

His other form shifted slightly.

The third form raised an arm and pointed.

At a shadow.

It lay beneath a tree near the edge of the temple grounds.

The shadow was darker than it should have been, stretching too far, clinging to the ground like a stain.

It quivered.

I smiled.

"Come out. You know you've been caught," I said calmly.

The shadow trembled again.

Whoever was hiding there could see Dante's third form. The only version of Dante they could perceive.

And that form was pointing directly at them.

There was no reason to keep hiding anymore.

The shadow peeled itself off the ground.

It stretched, thinned, and then pulled together, and the taller Exorcist from New Order stepped out.

He held the lantern in his hand.

The soft light spilled across the stone floor of the temple, and the runes I had already prepared reacted instantly.

Lines glowed faintly.

The air grew heavier, as if something unseen had leaned closer.

"Oh?" I said, tilting my head slightly. "So you were the one who had the lantern. I was wondering if your friend found it, or if it was you."

It didn't really matter who had found it.

I already knew this man would bring it here.

The other Exorcist wasn't as stubborn about saving this cursed domain.

This one was.

The Exorcist stayed silent.

I smiled and continued, "Did your partner not come with you? I could've played with both of you if he was here."

That part wasn't entirely a lie.

I was confused.

Dante seemed to be the one giving directions, and if that was the case, the second Exorcist should have been dragged along.

But confusion didn't change anything.

I had already committed.

"The spears," the Exorcist finally said.

His voice was low, and strained.

"The people from the System Church must've succeeded in establishing contact the Vampire Prince. But they wouldn't save us. They had no reason to. And yet they did."

He looked at me.

Or at least, his face turned in my direction.

His form was too blurry and looking at it made my head hurt, so I could tell if his eyes were staring at me.

"Were you the one who told them to save us?"

"Yes," I replied without hesitation.

"Why?"

"Because you guys had the lantern," I shrugged.

His grip tightened around it.

"And how did you know I would bring it here?" he asked.

I didn't answer immediately.

I took a step forward, then another, stopping just short of the circle where the ritual was forming.

"I knew. Because you're a coward, or maybe kind is what you would like to call yourself?" I sneered.

The words came out like a spat.

His body stiffened.

"You are trying to save this Cursed Spirit that is going to kill us, and in exchange you are ready to kill all of us, even other cursed spirits.

"I knew that someone as 'kind' as you, if you saw I was ready to die to save you, you would come here."

The Exorcist must've seen the spears in the sky that took down the hammers.

He knew there were only a few spears.

And instead of saving myself, I had asked Saint Maverick to save him and his partner.

Of course, I had Dante, but Dante clearly could not stop the hammer completely. So I was risking my neck for these people.

"You're not kind. You're indecisive. You can't decide whether you want to save everyone or save this cursed spirit. And when you saw my 'kindness', you felt guilty. That guilt brought you here."

His hands trembled.

"I knew you would bring the lantern because even now, you're not sure you're willing to kill everyone for this Cursed Spirit.

Someone as 'kind' as you would keep on questioning yourself if you should save others.

"So, unable to decide anything, you brought the lantern here.

"If you decided to help, you would give the lantern. If not, you would leave with the lantern."

The Exorcist clenched his fists.

He was glaring at me.

Or maybe not.

I couldn't see his face clearly.

I didn't care either way.

To me, he was just another tool.

A necessary piece to end this damned Cursed Spirit that had tried to crush me along with everyone else.

"Oh," I added casually with a sneer, acting in like with my arrogant persona, "one more thing. If you throw the lantern away, I'll tell my partner to let go of the hammer."

I glanced up.

"It'll fall. And it'll crush me instantly."

The Exorcist trembled.

I ignored his reaction and began to sing.

It was a prayer.

One that had the same tone as the Shinto flute, that signaled the arrival of blackouts.

My voice was steady, and controlled.

Each note fell into place exactly where it needed to be.

As I sang, I began to move.

The dance was simple.

It was a folkloric pattern passed down for a very specific purpose.

"Stop this!" the Exorcist shouted. "If you don't, I will kill you!"

I didn't stop.

The ritual had already begun the moment the lantern's light touched the temple.

Even if the lantern remained in his hand, the process would continue.

I sang.

I moved.

My feet traced the runes I had drawn earlier.

"Caelum, j-just trust me!" the Exorcist shouted again. "The second Exorcist who came with me is strong. Stronger than you think.

"If I call him, he can keep us alive until the rescue team arrives. Then we can leave this domain without killing anyone!"

Was he telling the truth?

I thought back to the second Exorcist.

From what I had seen, he didn't look particularly impressive.

But this 'man' wasn't a liar.

Given his personality I had observed, he wasn't fabricating something like that to manipulate me.

So it was probably true.

I still didn't care.

Until now, that Exorcist hasn't saved us. What made him think he would now?

I was not put my life on the line and trusting someone else to make the right call.

"Caelum, stop!" he shouted. "Or I will kill you!"

He didn't throw the lantern.

Because he couldn't.

I had already told him what would happen.

If he interrupted the ritual, I would lose my last option.

With no other way to survive, I would do a suicide.

That's what I told him.

Would I really do it?

He didn't know.

'No, even if he thinks I wouldn't kill myself, he is too kind to take the risk.'

My innards twisted.

He was so kind that he would let everyone and himself die at the hands of the Cursed Spirit instead of killing it.

Yet, he was kind to the point he did not want me to die.

He had no hatred for me; after seeing I treated Cursed Spirits as normal humans.

'Oh, how kind.'

Kind?

No, he was indecisive.

He was the type of person I loathed.

They died themselves and caused the death of everyone because of their stupid thoughts.

Even now, he couldn't bring himself to kill me.

He was throwing daggers of shadows that cut my clothes and muscles, but he never made a lethal strike.

Because he had seen me being kind to cursed spirits.

Because in his eyes I was a good person.

'How laughable.'

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