Chapter 54

Carl and Donut arrive at the clearing where Miriam and the frozen Prepotente are held. Miriam reveals the circumstances of how Prepotente became trapped in stasis with a Fragile debuff and a devastating curse-mark from the Ring of Divine Suffering, and requests that Carl kill her to end the vampirism plague and save the other infected crawlers. Carl refuses to kill her but makes a secret choice that binds him to her fate.

Carl and Donut battle through hordes of vampire bambiraptors to reach Miriam and the paralyzed Prepotente in a forest clearing. Miriam is visibly weakened from prolonged vampirism and explains her situation: she became the head vampire (Princess of Hell) when Prepotente attempted to transfer her infection to Viscount Fog using a Community Pool spell scroll. The spell bounced back and forth between Prepotente and Fog multiple times due to their matching Opposite Day rings, leaving both stunned and Prepotente with the Fragile debuff. Worse, during the magical chaos, Prepotente's newly acquired Ring of Divine Suffering activated, marking Miriam with the Left to Fester debuff that prevents her healing. Fog eventually died at sunset from a reversed curse that drained his health away from light. Miriam reveals that she is the progenitor of the vampirism plague on this floor and that killing her would cure all infected crawlers and allow Prepotente to heal, but the Get Out of Jail spell Miriam created cannot safely wake him while he remains Fragile. She asks Carl to kill her. Carl refuses to execute her, instead offering to stand watch until sunrise. However, as dawn breaks and Miriam begins dying in the sunlight, Carl secretly dons his own Ring of Divine Suffering and marks her, binding himself to her fate as she turns to dust.