The writing and pacing for the last three episodes has been pretty poor. It really feels like they are dragging things out to fill episodes. And not just the pacing of the plot as a whole but individual scenes. Monsters just appeared and started eating people yet you see various characters just standing around chatting casually. The students are face to face with one and it just sits there calmly while they discuss the situation. One character is given 10 seconds to use a magic arrow, then they discuss their plan for 15 seconds… no sense of urgency, danger, intensity, etc. no emotion.

(I think it would have helped if the show did more to build the students up, especially as individuals, and maybe that’s the case for the source, but for what should be a pivotal scene, I have no idea what that archer girls name is or why she matters.)

We get one cutaway to the demons for some reason, and rather than discuss something relevant to the current episode that would add to the intensity of the moment (e.g. something about the mutants or their plans for the city, or some foreshadowing about that) they discuss the rings we already knew they had and already assumed would be improved on but seemingly have no relevance to the current events.

Logically the rings would have then mattered in the focus story (e.g. being used to keep local authorities from using the goddesses blessing against the monsters), but no, that scene seems to only exist to tease the audience with the real plot while we are forced to sit though whatever this current mess is.