I assume that what we’re seeing lately is literal filler. They have a background plot going with this mysterious villain who’s spreading rumors of secret quests and apparently trying to get people to confront dark gods, and my guess is that they already have the culmination of all of that planned out, and ended up with two or three episodes they had to fill with something first.

The latest episode does have a bit of character growth, at least as measured on a relative scale (with someone as tsundere as Alina, a little goes a long way). But it’s still mostly biding time.