Elle reports that her team has taken the Blood Sultanate throne room, starting a six-hour hold timer that would capture the castle and defeat the Blood Sultanate if maintained. With the naga stronghold emptied of guards and remaining NPCs restrained, Louis begins gassing the exterior to prevent interference while Carl focuses on the separate raid into Club Vanquisher.

Carl explains that the team must enter Club Vanquisher through a Dagda temple, then reach the Temple of Khepri before Vinata and her family can leave under the Prospect spell’s one-hour restriction. Donut stays behind as part of a contingency at the naga stronghold in case any family member remains there or is sent back. Prepotente worries less about the succession and more about destroying the entire naga empire.

As Carl’s group approaches the Dagda temple, Prepotente casually reveals that Bianca, his mother, and he once acquired an interior map of Club Vanquisher from a guildmaster and escaped through a secret bathroom exit. Carl realizes this would have been useful earlier but asks Prepotente to guide them if needed. Carl and Prepotente drink Mordecai’s aura-blocking potions, protecting themselves from Blessings and Dreads for one hour while Li Na waits in an Extend Aura synergy tower connected by dangling wires, part of a planned exploit.

Inside the Dagda temple, a buff cleric guards a stew-filled shrine and ignores Carl’s group when they claim to be passing through to Club Vanquisher. Bautista enters behind them and distracts the cleric by pretending interest in worshiping Dagda, while Li Jun and Zhang trail wire through the temple and keep the door from fully closing. Carl warns Donut privately not to enter unsafe areas of the naga stronghold, and Donut points out that Carl is the one about to anger many gods.

At the Club Vanquisher vestibule, the ram cleric Mork immediately recognizes Prepotente as someone with a Holy Crusade bounty. Carl improvises a better plan, pretending that Prepotente is his prisoner and that Carl has come to collect the bounty. Prepotente overacts the part of a captured victim, while Mork tries to manipulate the bounty split in favor of Hellik and himself.

When Mork insults Emberus, Carl receives a new quest from Emberus to kill the blasphemer, with the reward depending on how entertaining the killing is. Carl accepts the setup, tells Mork they have a deal, and lets Mork call for guards. Carl then signals Katia to enter, beginning the next stage of the trap.