Carl and Princess Donut regroup in a wooded pocket of Havana after being hit by teleport traps, close enough to the city but far from both potential stairwell exits. Ren messages that her team’s entry area is a mess of triggered teleports and an alarm, and Carl warns Quan may be able to turn invisible. Carl tries to steady Donut’s panic, reminding her that even if they fail to stop Quan, Carl can still open a door with the bone key benefit, though both Carl and Donut distrust how that benefit works.

Carl confronts Samantha about her true capabilities, pressing her to admit what magic she can actually use. Samantha confesses she can fly and can unpredictably boost spells, but she can’t reliably cast offensive magic anymore and cannot teleport. While melting down about being “useless,” Samantha reveals she didn’t teleport to find MaeMae earlier; she accidentally hitchhiked on a train that left the map and flung her elsewhere. Samantha then suggests Carl use traps the way another crawler does, sparking Carl’s realization about two-part teleport traps.

Carl checks logistics with Mordecai and sends Florin to inspect a stairwell chamber. Florin confirms the chamber is outside the level boundaries for trap placement and the system blocks any traps being set there, crushing Carl’s hope of bypassing combat at the exit. Florin also mentions Lucia’s habit of buying teleport traps and alcohol and reports she has been eliminating squads without keys as the end approaches.

Accepting they can’t trap the stairwell itself, Carl pivots to deploying teleport anchors remotely. He loads multiple small spider automatons—each carrying an anchor half of a two-part teleport trap—into Samantha’s hollow body, trusting her claim that her acid only affects flesh. Carl lays out the trigger halves in their clearing, sets one to only trip for Carl, and argues with Mordecai about risking everything to save Imani and Ren’s team before resorting to the bone key. Carl also realizes a longer-term advantage: with automatons carrying anchors, Carl could send anchors to allies and teleport to them, even if stairwell chambers remain protected.

Ren then warns Quan has arrived at their location, likely invisible and cautiously testing defenses, with Chuluuna able to spot him. Carl immediately acts: he places one more anchor inside Samantha to keep in reserve, loads her into the head-tosser, and hurls her toward Ren’s distant position while Donut prepares to draw aggro from a swarm of duendes to keep a fight running and buy time. Samantha reports she has landed across the street and expelled the spider automatons, and Carl steps into the first teleport trap to jump toward the coming confrontation.