Carl wakes while Louis carries him through burning Havana as Donut rides Mongo. Mongo is alive but badly injured, missing his right wing and heavily burned, and Carl realizes he caused the damage while possessed. Donut explains that upgraded potions may regrow Mongo’s wing after Mordecai inspects them, and Katia—now transformed into a four-legged mantaur-like form—confirms she survived while carrying the unconscious, debuffed Tran. The group counts losses among allied NPCs, notes Li Jun lost an eye, and Carl discovers his own hair and eyebrows burned off.

Samantha abruptly declares she is leaving to return to her king, and Donut reveals she immediately ripped the Shi Maria card after the battle to prevent further harm. Donut also produces the Paz Lo card—now labeled “Paz Lo. The God Predator. Level 101 Former Crawler”—retrieved after the goddess died. Despite brief consideration of keeping Paz as their one carried card between floors, Carl refuses, remembering Paz’s misery at being turned into a card, and Donut rips the card to release him.

As the Sheol fire dies down, a system update announces “The Missing Piece. Part Two: Falling Up,” confirms the Vinegar Bitch is dead, and declares Amayon freed and preparing to ascend home through a portal. The update warns that when regional timers hit zero, the heavens open and everything is sucked upward; crawlers can survive by standing under an enclosed stairwell chamber so its walls teleport away on contact, exposing the stairwell as they are pulled up. Carl decides to force resolution of stalled Faction Wars politics before they leave and proposes an Emergency Action Item asking the AI to hand pending votes to viewers or decide them itself; the AI approves, and rapid audience votes begin deciding rules.

While action items resolve, Carl shepherds people back into safety and pushes Samantha inside for the next floor. Carl quietly feeds the Emberus shrine with blood and coins, notes Dong Quixote’s grief over a dead friend, and is stunned that crawler deaths are far lower than expected: 33,804 remain from 38,532 at floor opening. A major Princess Posse proposal passes—removing safety protections for faction sponsors—prompting Carl to threaten the sponsors with what the surviving crawlers will do in Faction Wars. Another vote creates an NPC “Home Team” in Larracos with co-warlords Juice Box and Sir Ferdinand.

With minutes left on the regional timer, Carl, Donut, and Imani position themselves under a marked spot beneath the stairwell chamber, sharing a tense, intimate moment about losses, loyalty, and fear—especially Donut’s dread of losing Katia to Huanxin Jinx’s promised escape route. Donut realizes the Shi Maria quest remains despite the card’s destruction, and Carl admits Shi Maria is still with him in another form. As the timer nears zero, Donut notices Carl’s jacket emblem glowing, and a voice in Carl’s mind warns he failed to diffuse lingering soul power from the Scavenger’s Daughter and must stay alive and sane.

The heavens open and the world is stripped upward; Carl, Donut, and Imani are sucked into the sky toward the portal as Cuba vanishes below. Carl silently vows to endure and avenge what was taken, thinking of Asher and the dead. System messages complete “Hell Comes to Crawler Town” and “The Missing Piece,” and the chapter ends with the announcement: “Welcome to Faction Wars.”