Chapter 35

Carl and his companions arrive at Hungry Eyes Village, where the numbers of racers have noticeably thinned. Eris, the goddess of chaos, suddenly manifests in the village and presents Carl with a stark ultimatum involving a mysterious five-sided coin that threatens devastating consequences, while also offering him a path to power through her worship.

Carl enters Hungry Eyes Village with Donut and Olga, noting the depleted population of racers. He reunites with Elle, Imani, Florin, and others. Quemada, a fairy worshipper of Emberus, approaches Carl to reinforce their deadly mission to kill Hellik, raising her price because she anticipates they will die. Carl internally grapples with his impossible situation regarding the Emberus church: refusing the kill-quest results in a smite, completing it results in Emberus killing him, and leaving the church also brings divine punishment. As Carl contemplates this dilemma and briefly thinks of Eris, the goddess suddenly manifests in the village, freezing everyone except Carl. She appears with a tiny robot version of Uzi Jesus as a pet. Eris claims Carl summoned her through his thoughts and proposes a deal: he should make peace with Akuma's mage band to open the Pineapple Cabaret, which she claims is an escape route for his friends and a path to her power. In exchange, she demands true worship and offers to "score" the surface world before rebuilding it. She produces a five-sided coin with four catastrophic outcomes: Donut's death, Carl losing his feet, most of his friends dying, or Carl becoming a tortured worshipper. When robot Jesus prepares to flip the coin, Carl desperately grabs it mid-air, stopping the flip. Eris declares he has chosen a "fifth side"—chaos itself, meaning any combination or none of the four outcomes could occur. A swirl pattern tattoo appears on Carl's palm, and Eris kisses him before departing, promising he will become her favorite worshipper.