Carl and Donut finish burning the trailer and prepare traps, worried they are first to face what comes after the memory timer ends. Carl hides the news about his half-brother Asher, fearing the dungeon might weaponize him. As combat begins, a single red dot appears and a stitched, nine-headed flesh “hydra” emerges from the flames, its heads resembling people from Carl’s life and one cat relative of Donut’s.

Judge Lucian is revealed as the keymaster head and deckmaster, immediately stripping Carl and Donut’s invisibility with an anti-magic effect that detonates their staged potions. The AI announces the fight as an “Ultimate Card Boss Showdown,” renames the monster the Reminiscence Hydra of Malicious Compliance, and admits it is skirting rules against using recognizable loved ones (including minors) by “changing one molecule.” The AI digresses into ominous lore about mantis breakthroughs in macro AI technology, suggesting increasing instability and rule-breaking behind the crawl.

Carl and Donut split roles: Donut plays card defense while Carl targets heads and necks, following Mordecai’s guidance that the body is near-indestructible and a key resistance must be removed by a clean decapitation and cauterization. Donut summons Jola and steals a card; Lucian counters with snares and totems. Enemy totems appear, including Alpha Male Carl and a kitten, King Croissant, which teleport and harass Donut’s summons while hydra heads fire lightning, acid, and a deadly dark ray. Donut summons and loses Geraldo, then brings in Shi Maria while Lucian steals Donut’s persistent staff totem with a snare effect.

With Alpha Male Carl returning and wounding Carl and Mongo with a shrapnel hob-lobber, Carl drinks invisibility and pushes through smoke to remove the hydra’s fire resistance. Carl identifies Bea’s mother as the likely fire head and uses a snap collar plus the shrink wand to decapitate her cleanly, then smashes a moonshine jug onto the wound to ignite it. The hydra’s health bar appears and the monster begins to burn in earnest; Carl is badly set on fire despite resistance and healing.

Shi Maria, immune to the flames, aggressively bites off multiple heads in rapid succession, including Asher’s, while speaking directly into Carl’s mind and implying a future debt. The remaining heads multiply death rays and, with Lucian’s stolen staff, kill Shi Maria, though she destroys the staff before timing out. Raul briefly sprays water at Carl, but Alpha Male Carl crushes Raul and taunts Carl before Mongo slams Alpha Carl away as the totem times out. The burning hydra collapses; Tami-Lynn’s head delivers a final, chilling line about “making sure” Asher didn’t suffer like Carl before the creature ruptures into gore. Combat ends with Carl and Donut victorious.