Dungeon Crawler Carl, #6
The Eye of the Bedlam Bride
by Matt Dinniman
Contents
Chapter 55
Overview
Carl and Donut’s attempt to grab Sister Ines with Samantha goes catastrophically wrong, teleporting an entire charmed sea battlefield into their location and breaking Sister Ines’s control. The mistake frees multiple full-powered demons elsewhere in Cuba, unleashes a pre-zombified city boss, and turns the rescue mission into a live-announced multi-faction boss battle.
The chapter raises the stakes from stopping Quan and saving Imani to surviving a chaotic Demon Eviction disaster while keeping Sister Ines from being dragged into hell. The cliffhanger worsens when Quan Ch’s entry appears just as alliance choices lock and combat begins.
Summary
A note from Crawler Porthus explains that evicted demons inhabiting bodies are not ordinary possessions. Once a demon takes a shell, the shell is already doomed, and teleporting that shell away destroys the shell while freeing the demon in its true, far more dangerous form.
Carl explains that the intended plan was simple: Samantha would bite Sister Ines, Carl would summon them both with the xistera, and a controlled card battle would begin. Instead, Samantha’s enhancement of the teleportation effect pulls Sister Ines, the giant Madre de Aguas snake, thousands of seals, crabs, fish, zombies, corpses, and other sea creatures into the area around Carl and Donut. The teleportation breaks Sister Ines’s massive charm spell, leaving the former enemies and zombies awake, confused, and packed together.
Carl realizes the worst consequence when corpses appear with labels identifying them as former demon shells. Because demon-possessed shells cannot be safely teleported, several demons have been freed back at the beach in full power. Meanwhile, demon eviction is still ongoing, more zombies around Carl and Donut are beginning to become demon shells, and the level-125 Madre de Aguas boss has been bitten and marked with pre-zombism.
A live boss-battle broadcast begins, hosted by Kevin and Magnificent Troy. They explain that Carl’s earlier zombie turkey infected the ocean, that the AI counted crab sperm as mobs, and that these factors helped trigger an unusually early Demon Eviction event. They also explain that Sister Ines had used a patron-enhanced level-15 charm spell to control Madre de Aguas and the surrounding creatures, but Samantha’s teleportation shattered that control and created a chaotic multi-faction fight.
The system forces squad leaders to choose alliances before combat begins. Carl tells Donut to mark Sister Ines as an ally to avoid a card battle and escape together, but Sister Ines rants that the crawl is the work of the devil and that hell has opened. Carl tries to calm Sister Ines and convince her not to let the demons take her. Just before the fight starts, Carl’s Book of Voodoo updates with an entry for Quan Ch, and Donut notices another arrival as the battle commences.
Who Appears
- CarlUses Samantha to retrieve Ines, then tries to prevent a disastrous battle and save her.
- Princess DonutCoordinates with Carl, reacts to the broadcast, and chooses whether to ally with Ines.
- SamanthaBites Sister Ines and unintentionally enhances the teleportation into a massive battlefield transfer.
- Sister Ines QuiteriaCrawler nun whose powerful charm spell breaks; she believes the crawl is demonic damnation.
- Madre de AguasLevel-125 city boss snake, formerly charmed by Ines and now furious and pre-zombified.
- KevinLive battle announcer who explains the factions, demon eviction, and chaos surrounding the fight.
- Magnificent TroyDrunken orc co-announcer who comments on the disaster and helps frame the event.
- Quan ChHis voodoo entry updates at the cliffhanger, signaling his sudden presence as battle begins.
- Crawler PorthusAdds a warning note explaining why teleporting demon-possessed shells is catastrophic.