Chapter 29

Carl returns to base with Rend to find the castle under coordinated attack from both air and ground forces. Enemy paratroopers breach the defenses through sabotage and infiltration, while a more insidious threat emerges: brain-worm-infected troops operating among their own soldiers, turning them into sleeper agents and causing devastating casualties from within.

Carl and Donut organize the mercenary reinforcements to travel overland to Shanty Town while Louis flies Party Planner back to base. Upon returning to their personal saferoom, Carl checks on the far-flung battalion positions across the map and discovers multiple fronts under stress. The northern defense is falling back against heavy assault. Minutes later, simultaneous attack notifications erupt: the anti-air battery is destroyed by sabotage, the hangar bay is destroyed, and paratroopers begin descending on the castle. Donut alerts Carl to a critical discovery—the enemy is using the bait shop saferoom door, the same infiltration method Carl had contemplated earlier. As Carl activates Ping to assess the enemy positions, he notices something impossible: Reid Gunn, a human mage listed as dead, is still showing as active among the defenders. Carl realizes the enemy has deployed Gondii worms—parasitic organisms that can control or replace dead bodies. When a brain-worm-infected dead mage enters the castle carrying the injured, Carl immediately kills him and discovers the worm emerging from the corpse. He broadcasts a warning to all troops to verify those around them against the casualty list, then issues an ominous final order: "Unleash Tina."