Several days earlier, Carl hides in the Blessed Sun Enchantments shop inside Club Vanquisher while mantaur guards pound on the door, accusing him of abusing shop rules. Inside, Pater Coal and a satyr jeweler offer a pricey fix for Carl’s “slug condition”: a special ring that costs one million gold.

Carl can’t pay, so the Temple of Emberus offers an “interest-free” loan if Carl puts 10,000 down and trades in a long-worn piece of jewelry. Carl reluctantly hands over his first dungeon ring (a strength ring) and accepts a 990,000 gold church debt, learning he cannot renounce Emberus while indebted and that losing the ring accelerates repayment.

The jeweler quickly re-forges the ring in a lava-like crucible, returning an item that still appears to be a strength ring to non-worshippers. To Emberus worshippers, it is revealed as an Enchanted Pauper’s Ring of the Steadfast Emberus that suppresses many health-seeping and disease-based debuffs without removing them, can overheat if overwhelmed, and becomes cursed if worn by non-worshippers—infecting them with nearby debuffs. Carl puts it on despite the risks.

Back in the present Survival Royale fight, Quan Ch arrives from above, enraged and now level 70, while the commentators Kevin and Magnificent Troy mock him on replay. Carl’s squad attempts to ally with Team Quiteria, but Quiteria chooses no allies, imposing a brief penalty that leaves Carl momentarily unable to move as zombies and demons swarm the battlefield.

Quan uses a “Peekaboo” mystic effect to see Donut’s and Sister Ines’s hands, then plays Force Play to auto-trigger Sister Ines’s Flee card, ejecting Team Quiteria and stripping their key; the summoned Paz vanishes as collateral. After Carl clears space with Protective Shell and Donut deploys Lazarus-a-Bang-Bang, Quan returns, swaps hands with Donut (giving her only Flee cards), and immediately Force Plays Carl’s squad into fleeing as well. Quan gains both keys and teleports away; Carl warns Imani and Ren to intercept Quan at the exits, banking on the Super Spreader slug debuff he landed on Quan, then orders Donut to rebuild her deck and start a card battle with nearby duendes to buy time.