Raven's Shadow

Haatim conducts a brutally honest sustainability assessment: the team averages 4.3 hours of sleep, has ten days of ammunition and seven engagements of holy water remaining, and faces geometrically escalating demon attacks.

Three escalating demon attacks in twenty hours push Abigail's corruption to new thresholds: one low-tier demon at dawn, three mid-tier at noon, and four mid-tier at midnight. The midnight fight forces an uncontrolled wave of golden power that destroys all four at once.

Haatim and Dominick investigate a small town where Nida was recently sighted. Three witnesses describe Nida struggling against her possession, whispering a repeated mantra, and surfacing briefly to say "help" and beg them to tell her brother she was sorry.

A guerrilla operation successfully extracts a civilian from a low-tier demon. Post-mission, Haatim reviews six weeks of operations and Arthur warns that Belphegor's silence signals strategic regrouping.