Carl stalls during the adjudication, asking for a simplified explanation while he tries to understand the wider pattern. Victory explains that Commander Stockade used an outside watcher to time a teleport request during Carl's attempted expulsion of Shi Maria, causing Carl to be split between two places. Panford shows that Mordecai realized Stockade was illegally observing him and pretended to brew a wake-up salve while actually making a potion meant to violently expel Shi Maria.

The replay shows Mordecai applying the potion at the same time Stockade casts his spell. Instead of killing Carl by tearing his soul apart, the collision forces Shi Maria into the Lemig ballroom, where she rampages in grief and confusion over Hapanzi. Shi Maria kills Lemig guards, opens the eye on Carl's chest, and spreads insanity through the room before collapsing back into Carl, proving that Mordecai's potion only worked temporarily.

Carl realizes Juice Box must have hidden spies in enemy courts and that she exposed assets early to save him. Panford announces that Stockade and Architect Houston appear to have colluded through secured outside communications, identifying Nurse Yugoslav of the Madness as the 18th-floor contact. Houston is not formally convicted because the evidence against him is circumstantial, but Stockade is found guilty; at Carl's urging, Ferdinand also pushes through an emergency live-feed blackout for everyone inside the dungeon.

As Panford prepares penalties, Stockade deteriorates from Shi Maria's delayed insanity effect. Stockade obsesses over Luke, smashes his own head against the floor, and dies before anyone can interfere. The Democratic Sortion is defeated by voluntary withdrawal, and its assets are awarded to the Madness, while the ruling strips Stockade's force and tech slots just before the consequences fully trigger.

Stockade's death activates a ceasefire acceleration rule, ending the ceasefire almost a day early. Architect Houston immediately attacks Carl with a rifle as Carl's return teleport begins, wounding him in the shoulder. Carl drops a bomb but escapes back to the Princess Posse field hospital, heals himself, and learns from sluggalos that armies are already moving to the fronts. A nearby detonation hits the shield, and the system declares that Faction Wars have officially begun.