Carl finishes preparing the ambush in Astrid’s secret passage between the club floors. He places a smoke trap and anti-NPC claymores aimed at the closet where Astrid is expected to appear, then leaves Katia to move into position while Samantha creates a disturbance in the bar to force the crocodilian guards to summon Astrid.

On the top floor, Carl drops teleport trap beacons into a locked utility closet so any guards caught below will be displaced and delayed. He tries to warn four nearby crawlers to leave before the plan begins. Zeynep listens, but Emir, drunk and resentful, refuses, and Samantha escalates the disturbance faster than expected.

The plan breaks when Astrid ignores the secret route and flies down the main stairs. An emergency alarm announces a containment breach in the middle-level casino, revealing that Samantha has gone into the casino and drawn out Minge, a level-225 minor feral demon from the Nothing. Emir attacks Carl during the confusion, but Zeynep mutes Emir and pulls him away, while Carl realizes the assassination attempt has become a catastrophic club-wide disaster.

Carl orders Katia and Samantha to abort, but Katia refuses because she believes the chaos is their only remaining chance to kill Astrid and complete the quest before the demon does. Carl descends through the women’s-room secret passage and finds the middle floor in ruins: Minge is eating guards and NPCs, Samantha is taunting the demon while dragging Charles into the danger, and Astrid is in the kitchen coordinating a defense.

Rhino-like Sai guards and cretins charge Minge, while other guards rush into the trapped secret hallway, triggering Carl’s teleport traps and then his IED. In the kitchen, Astrid panics and explains that she has unleashed the vorpals because the Nothing has breached the casino. She also reveals that the Night Wyrm, Hamed, is her husband and asks Carl to tell him she acted to protect him and their children.

Katia enters the kitchen under invisibility and with her deck active, using totems and a monstrous shapeshifted form to attack Astrid. Astrid nearly stops Katia with a blood spell, but Carl tears off Astrid’s wings, breaking the spell. Katia’s crow totem blinds Astrid, and Katia kills the fairy with a spike through the head, then carries the body while pretending to be a monster so witnesses will not know crawlers performed the assassination.