After all, they aren’t idiots, not those brainless villains who toss fodder like straw before a scythe.

They know a host of soldiers is reeds before a Dark Deity with Authority Power.

Surround me, and I’d reap them with an area‑of‑effect spell like a storming sickle, even their ace.

Lucimia laid it out to Desty, voice steady as flint under wind.

I think they don’t care if the Cross gets smashed; two altars already lie broken like toppled stones.

They’d rather feed the furnace and pay blood to erase me, like stoking a kiln to the limit.

To lay a Purification Magic Array over the whole valley takes a mountain of energy and a river of time.

So their aim is delay, weaving nets so we can’t slip like fish through reeds.

Desty blinked, surprise blooming like frost under sun at Lucimia’s insight.

Her tone cooled like dusk on a ridge; something still grates.

Before Desty could ask, Lucimia continued, words threading like smoke.

Our job is to break the Cross, then leave; our clock is shorter than a valley‑wide Purification Magic Array.

What can they use to stall that long—soldiers, or a fog ring?

That won’t stretch like old leather, because I have Authority Power.

Even if I hate spending energy, at death’s door I won’t clutch coins.

If white mist cages us, I just Devour it with my Devouring Authority like a tide eating sand.

Even if they pre‑laid a Purification Magic Array to trim setup time, and kept feeding it Authority Power, Devouring turns hard, like chewing iron, and costs hours.

But if they truly pin me, I won’t spare energy; I’ll fight like a cornered tiger to break out.

Wouldn’t they foresee that? Isn’t it strange?

Ment and Vosh aren’t fools; they know Dark Deities and the Devouring Authority better than most.

They won’t play novel villains and send small fry like leaves against a fire.

Desty stared at Lucimia’s words, lost as a boat in fog.

She hadn’t really followed; it felt like Lucimia mapped their layout, then blew it away like chalk dust.

She could only murmur, soft as a moth, “So what are you saying?”

Lucimia cleared her throat, a pebble dropped in still water.

My take: their endgame is to kill me, but on the road they set aside blunt force.

They chose attrition, grinding me down like water over stone.

She looked to Desty, eyes like twin moons, and asked, “When would I, at the brink, not use Devouring Authority?”

Desty flinched like a hare and said, “Uh… no energy?”

Right—without energy, I can’t even wager my life, and when do I run dry?

Desty whispered, “Too much spent?”

Yes, Lucimia nodded, her chin tipping like a reed in wind.

I think I see their true plan.

They want to make a dead end and force me to use Authority to break it, bleeding my well dry.

“This… I kind of get it, but if that’s true, we destroy the Cross, then you Devour the smoke holding us.”

“Energy will burn, but not to ashes, right?”

Lucimia’s gaze softened like warm tea. “Not bad—you can analyze on your own now. That’s what I was about to say.”

She halted, tugged Desty into a clump of grass like a green cave, and whispered.

“As you said, on that path, we can still get out, and energy won’t drain too much.”

“But if you thought of it, would Vosh and Ment not?”

“If they’d already set the Purification Magic Array, they wouldn’t scatter soldiers elsewhere.”

“They’d ring me and drag the clock; the fights would crash fast, like thunder.”

“We wouldn’t even have time for this chat.”

“Since they didn’t, only one road remains: they haven’t finished the Purification Magic Array.”

“So they station soldiers everywhere like stakes.”

“Their force should be top‑tier short of Authority Power.”

“Plus Blessings or other gifts, all to herd the me‑who‑refuses‑Authority into a dead end, forcing me to use it.”

“And when would I abandon wrecking the Cross and bolt through the smoke, fleeing to another sector?”

“Simple—the upstream has no Cross, or is a baited trap.”

“If we go, Ment’s curse‑traps will spring like hidden fangs.”

Desty reeled, shock bursting like a struck gong.

She marveled at Lucimia’s logic, and at where Ment hid the Cross.

“What do we do?! If we can’t find it, do we drop the search, break the valley, then Reversion?”

“No.” Her voice cooled like night water. “Same thought—they’ll foresee it… wait!”

Lucimia’s pupils pinched like ice; her face darkened like a storm front.

“Huh? What is it?”

“I get it… so that’s it…” Her tone fell, a shadow crossing the moon.

“What’s wrong?” Desty asked, puzzled as a sparrow.

Lucimia turned to Desty, gaze tangled like briars.

She held silence for a few breaths, then said, grave as stone, “I’ll be blunt. My Reversion has a problem.”

“What?!”

So Lucimia told her what changed after that plant‑beast swallowed Desty, and she used Reversion.

Reversion took longer to start, like a millstone slow to turn.

Her head swam and ached, the world flipping like a boat in a squall.

Her eyes pricked with thorns, and nausea rose like a sour tide.

Desty panicked, her worry fluttering like trapped birds.

“What now? Even if Reversion changed, it should still work, right?”

“I don’t know.” Lucimia shook her head like a willow in wind.

“Even with Reversion, it’s hard to solve this.”

“We haven’t found the Cross; after we go back, we have less than a day to find it.”

“If we fail, the rat swarm and the pursuers still come, and today repeats like a cursed loop.”

“Do we keep Reverting? No one knows the price.”

“Besides, Reversion consumes energy too.”

“Maybe I run short because I carry too many abilities, too many blades on one belt.”

That could explain why wielders of the Devouring Authority fall to pollution more easily, and lose themselves like rivers in flood.

“I thought it was rule‑side effects, a tax of the ability.”

“But now I think it might be Ment’s curse… yet how did he lay it on me?”

As she thought, a picture flashed in her head, bright as lightning.

Before leaving Wasan Village, she had a last look at Aili.

Small white bones lay like snow, a hairpin beside them like a fallen petal.

Moved by a soft impulse, she left the hairpin, and didn’t take it back.

She understood. She knew how Ment cursed her.