Chapter 60: [FOCUS AND NEGLECT]

Eli’s throat locked up the instant his gaze caught the priest’s.

Those eyes—those molten, burning eyes—weren’t just watching. They were digging into him. Stripping away flesh, thought, soul. Like it knew. Like it understood what he was.

Danger Detection detonated inside his skull, pressure spiking so sharp it made his vision swim.

“Caelen—MOVE!”

He didn’t need to say it twice.

Caelen’s grip clamped down on his waist, his body coiling like a drawn bow before unleashing raw power.

The ground split under the force of his takeoff, and the world whirled violently as Eli was yanked into the air with him.

A split-second later, the priest’s rosary beads obliterated the floor where they’d been. The impact cracked the chamber like thunder, stone erupting upward in a storm of shards that whistled past Eli’s ears. His teeth rattled from the sheer force, breath tearing ragged from his lungs.

But even mid-leap, Caelen’s eyes didn’t waver. His head turned, golden fractures blazing hotter, locked like a predator’s snarl onto the gargoyle swarm below. He wasn’t giving them a chance to move.

They hit ground hard, boots crushing through loose rubble, a cloud of choking dust billowing around them. Caelen’s arm never slackened; Eli was still held off the ground, positioned, forced to keep his line of sight on the snarling stone beasts just inches from breaking free.

“What did you do?” Caelen’s voice sliced through the chaos, sharp, suspicious, edged with command. “Why the fuck did it come for you? That thing doesn’t move unless I’m on it—”

“That’s… right.” Eli’s words stumbled, breath ragged, his chest heaving. “It—it usually just waits for you to attack. But earlier… it came for me. Just now—it went straight for me again.”

His heart throttled, pulse punching at his temples as his mind scrambled.

’What was I doing? I wasn’t fighting. I wasn’t moving. I was—’

Looking.

He was just looking or…

’…No. Wait. The last time it attacked me, I wasn’t even looking. I was just—thinking. Focusing on it. Every detail. Every move.’

The thought hit like ice water in his veins. And instantly—Danger Detection howled.

“Caelen, MOVE!”

The air screamed.

The priest’s free hand lashed out, a wall of stone moving with terrifying speed, palm big enough to crush him whole.

Caelen cursed, boots detonating against fractured ground as he launched them sideways again. The strike smashed down where they’d been, the shockwave rolling through Eli’s ribs like an explosion.

But for that fraction of a second—Caelen’s gaze had torn from the gargoyles.

They lunged.

Claws scraped stone, wings snapped open, jaws wide—

And then—

CRRRRRUNCH!

The priest’s swing didn’t stop. Its colossal arm plowed straight through the gargoyles mid-flight, pulverizing three of them in one brutal sweep.

Stone wings shattered, jaws splintered, rubble rained like a hailstorm. The sound of their destruction echoed like a cathedral collapsing.

Eli’s eyes blew wide, his chest seizing. “…It—it hit them.”

Even Caelen faltered. His boots scraped back against the stone, golden cracks burning hotter, brighter, molten light bleeding into the air around him.

His glare flicked from the priest’s arm to the crushed gargoyles—and then down to Eli.

“You planned that?” His voice was low, edged with disbelief.

Eli blinked, sweat streaming down his temple, lungs heaving against the weight in his chest. “…No.” His lips trembled—but then curled, not in fear, but in sharp realization.

“But—” He swallowed hard, gaze narrowing on the towering priest. “—I think I just got us a plan.”

Caelen raised an eyebrow, tone dark and incredulous. “All of a sudden?”

Eli’s nod was sharp, his voice steadier now, conviction cutting through the ragged edges.

“The priest… it’s the complete opposite of the gargoyles.”

“Opposite?”

“It only moves when you fight it—when you’re focused on it. And me—when I think too much about it. That’s when it strikes.” His eyes locked on the frozen gargoyles again, jaw set, sweat dripping down his chin. “In contrast to them. The gargoyles only move when we don’t pay attention to them.”

One enemy that punishes focus. One that punishes neglect.

Thinking about it now, it did make sense.

The murals they’d passed earlier—the carvings etched deep into the dungeon’s stone walls—they weren’t just decoration. They were warnings.

Or worse, instructions.

A towering priestly figure, arms spread in mock benediction. Behind it, the twisted shapes of worshipers, their spines warped, heads bowed, bodies disfigured in eternal reverence.

Eli’s gaze flicked to the gargoyles now. Each one hunched low, massive shoulders curved inward, necks bent. Ugly stone mockeries of men, jaws pulled into grotesque snarls—yet always angled down toward the priest.

Bowing.

Always bowing.

And then the priest itself. Unmoving unless provoked. Head lifted high, eyes ever-watchful.

The carvings… the gargoyles… the priest.

They were the same.

’The worshipers who never raised their heads. The priest who only looked back when they were acknowledged. They’re linked.’

A chill slid down Eli’s spine, his Danger Detection flaring faintly at the thought.

Caelen’s voice broke through the haze, calm but edged, his brows drawn tight now instead of amused. “That does make sense. But I’m still not hearing a plan.”

Eli’s face dropped flat. ’The attitude really is insane.’ He exhaled hard through his nose, forcing himself not to snap, and jabbed a finger toward the shattered remains of the gargoyles the priest had accidentally crushed.

“Let’s position ourselves so that whenever the priest attacks, he hits the gargoyles. We use his own blows to thin them out. The fewer gargoyles, the less we have to divide our attention—then we can focus everything on the priest.”

Caelen’s golden-cracked form shifted, his glowing gaze narrowing. “Doesn’t that seem a bit too easy?”

“Easy?” Eli scoffed, heat flashing in his voice.

“The plan’s simple,” Caelen said evenly, rolling a shoulder, golden light pulsing faintly from his fractures. “But we’ve been struggling since the start.”

Eli’s lips pulled tight. He didn’t argue—not immediately. Because Caelen wasn’t wrong. They had been struggling. Every second so far had been life and death.

But still—he set his jaw, eyes hard. “We’ve been struggling because we didn’t know. We weren’t sure if the priest would retaliate if we tried to destroy the gargoyles, or if the gargoyles would retaliate if they were struck. But now…” Eli’s chest heaved once, his eyes burning sharp with resolve. “Now, we don’t have to worry about any of that. The priest will do the attacking for us. We let it cull its own worshipers.”

His words snapped sharp against the silence of the chamber. The gargoyles still loomed at the edges of his vision, frozen but tense, wings trembling faintly with locked energy. The priest’s chain swayed lazily at its side, waiting, waiting…

“Once they’re gone,” Eli continued, voice lower but steady, “we can put everything on you. You unleash all the pain you’ve stored. Golden Aurora Drive—full burst. And we end this.”

Caelen hummed, a low sound that rumbled like iron sliding across stone.

For a heartbeat, the cracks across his frame pulsed brighter, as though his body itself was reacting to the words. His lips tugged upward, the faintest edge of a smirk curving there.

“Impressive, sweetheart. You’ve got a real brain in you. No wonder you beat that S-Class ogre.”

Eli’s eye twitched. ’Ugh. He really has the knack to ruin the mood.’

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