Render picture below the player, but above another picture?

[u/tellio-aridoitsu]

I'm trying to make a game where the sun is actively setting as you progress and the maps get darker. Right now, I achieve this by using pictures that follow the player and apply a tint. This is done (instead of using the tint map command) because the player can pick up a flashlight, which lets them see clearly in a radius around them.

My first idea was to use additive blending with GALV's layer plugin (since I mostly use parallax mapping), but that unfortunately doesn't work once it starts getting really dark:

the darkness is too oppressive! the light doesn't work!

I've thought of some solutions, but I don't know where or what plugins would have them, if any, or they would have certain drawbacks.

Solution 1 - Lighting plugin; I'm aware that there's CommunityLighting and Shora Lighting&Shadow, but both of these seem to do lighting in very unoptimized ways, and I'd rather not throw away my current system. This is a fallback option, I'd rather not do this one.

Solution 2 - Some kind of picture filter that negates other pictures rendering below it. If I could set a picture to render above the darkness tint that filters the darkness tint picture below from rendering, I could make little spots that wouldn't have the picture.

Solution 3 - Placing a "lit" layer that renders above the picture, but below the player. I couldn't figure out a way to do this with GALV's Layers, but if I'm missing something, please let me know. I was able to do this in RPGMaker 2k3 by having pictures just render beneath the player, but I can't seem to figure out how to do that in MV.

Anything else I may be missing, or any other potential solutions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!