Chapter 69

Carl witnesses Donut casting You're Not Done Yet on the corpse field, animating fleshers that attack the ball containing two gods and enemy soldiers. War mages attempt to conscript the gods using potions, ejecting the goddess Eris from the ball. Carl realizes the war mages are trying to take control of a god to devastate the crawler forces and orders everyone toward Larracos as the city defenses near activation.

Carl stands outside the former Madness stronghold watching a massive rolling ball of flesh—containing two gods, thousands of crawlers, and enemy soldiers—approach the corpse field. A lava stream threatens Shanty Town while scattered team members fight war mage-generated creatures called zarogoths throughout Larracos. Carl coordinates with Donut to locate and destroy the antenna generating these creatures. He learns Li Na has disappeared from her tower and that multiple team members are under attack.

As the ball approaches, Carl realizes war mages have infiltrated the operation. Baroness Victory reveals that Agatha has been assigned as co-warlord alongside Akuma, an unexpected development. Deng Bao, a grixist adjutant, now works with the war mages to unravel the castle's underwater ruleset.

When Donut casts You're Not Done Yet, the corpses animate into fleshers—sentient animated skins—that crawl across the ball seeking enemy targets. Two meteors suddenly strike from Larracos; Bianca intercepts one but is injured in the explosion. The second meteor is revealed to be a war mage who successfully ejects Nami (the goddess's "influencer" driver) from the ball, causing her rejection and death.

Victory and Fopsy (the Dream's tripod adjutant) deduce the war mages are using potions to conscript gods into their army. They traded the Gate of the Feral Gods to acquire five potions from the Midnight Market. Samantha reports that a war mage successfully conscripted Yarilo with a potion, though the mage died from the spell's backlash. Carl realizes one of the two gods in the ball may now be under enemy control and orders Donut to steer it back toward Larracos before breaking it open. He rallies all free forces toward the city. Fopsy theorizes the residual controlling the war mages seeks to trigger the system's shutdown sequence to counter the spreading AI threat.

The ball begins rolling toward Larracos as Bianca follows. Fleshers left behind begin hunting across the field. Carl retreats toward the saferoom entrance with Rend and Dong as dozens of fleshers approach.