Carl reflects on the system labeling Donut's War Crime spell an Atrocity and fears the moral cost of needing Donut to cast it. In the immediate aftermath of Gustavo's death, Donut confirms Mongo survived, while Lucia refuses to explain her warning about the children and is suddenly teleported away by admins for liaison questioning.

While Harpocrates beats Yarilo with the ball, Zev tells Carl that the situation with Lucia is worse than expected. Lucia cannot be administratively extracted, and about 120,000 children who tried to enter the dungeon may be tied to her survival; the Eulogist is another name for the AI in the center system. Carl realizes he nearly killed a living dead man's switch and tells Zev to keep Lucia safe, though Zev says that is out of her control.

Donut destroys the gale tower threatening Carl, and Carl runs back into the Nest despite knowing the main fight is elsewhere because Carl needs to be with Donut. Harpocrates kills Yarilo, removing Yarilo's benefit and angering the gods. Meanwhile, Li Na continues directing Harpocrates, Samantha reports that Louis is jailed in the Reaver castle, the castle appears otherwise abandoned except for robots, and a system message removes Agatha as warlord of the War Mage Rebellion, replacing her with Akuma.

Carl reaches Donut at the top of the badly damaged Nest and sees how hours of sniping have hardened and exhausted Donut, who has risen from level 65 to 74. Donut briefly seems distant, then recognizes Carl and joyfully reunites with him. Donut thanks Rend for saving Mongo, and Carl helps stabilize the Nest by destroying another attacking gale tower with a rocket launcher.

Carl attempts to use the Ring of Divine Suffering to identify whether Epitome Tagg and Warlord Fang are trapped in the ball, but the ring does not list enemies as valid targets. Carl uses Ping instead and confirms both Tagg and Fang are inside the ball, along with several unexpected unaffiliated outworlders. After Donut destroys the last tower firing on the Nest, Rosetta and Milk arrive with Edgar the tortoise, and Donut learns Lucia's net has finally dropped.

Rosetta explains that Donut needs a spell she does not have for the next phase, and that the spell must be at least level 8 to work with War Crime. Instead of a spellbook, Rosetta has brought Edgar's tattoo kit, revealing they intend to tattoo the spell onto Donut quickly before the final operation continues.