Carl, Donut, and their allies prepare to run through a graveyard swarming with ghommids to reach a temple. Carl has crafted a large stun bomb and outfitted Bomo with heavy, missile-laden armor designed to fragment. As they begin their run, Paz is immediately immobilized by a “Terrified” debuff, forcing Bomo to carry him. They fight through the horde using Carl’s bombs and Bomo’s missiles. Donut’s attempt to use a bard song to boost their speed fails when she can’t maintain the lyrics. Near the temple, they are attacked by a powerful donkey-headed ghommid that splits into multiple, more dangerous forms when damaged. Carl is also afflicted with the “Terrified” debuff but manages to flag the creature before it can kill him, acquiring a rare totem card named Skylar Spinach. The team finally reaches the temple, where the orisha Asojano is waiting beside his ruined shrine.

Inside the temple, the group discovers they are in a “Celestial Thorn Room” containing seven ruined shrines, though they can only repair one. Because Paz and Anton worship Ogun and failed to repair his shrine, they face a smite, a deadly blow. Simultaneously, other ethereal orishas appear, offering powerful boons if their own shrines are restored. Katia sends Carl an urgent, secret message revealing she has the Crown of the Sepsis Whore and that he must repair the shrine of the goddess Yemaya to save both her and Donut (received by Donut in the first book of the series, the powerful artefact was placed on Katia’s head in the fifth book, forcing the two into a condition where they cannot survive the dungeon together beyond the ninth floor). 

As Anton is charmed by the goddess Oshun, Carl initiates a plan. He has Donut cast a spell that explodes Bomo’s armor, sending dozens of possessed metal shards to attack Asojano while Carl points Bomo toward the blue-pieced shrine Katia identified as Yemaya’s. As the other gods try to influence them, Carl flags the dying Asojano, contracting a disease called Slugpox in the process. Once the possessed daggers place a magical gem on Yemaya’s shrine, the quest is completed, and the ghommids outside are cured. However, the god Ogun immediately appears to punish Paz and Anton.

Sister Ines attempts to defend Paz and Anton against Ogun but is instantly frozen by the deity. Ogun touches Paz’s face to temporarily halt his health drain, then withdraws, removes his grace, and curses Paz with an unhealable, slowly depleting health bar, declaring that when Paz dies he will find himself alone and without armor. Enraged, Carl confronts Ogun and casts a spell called Black Nimbus on Anton, hoping to sever the god’s connection and save him. Ogun states this only removed Anton from his protection and his mercy, not his wrath, and promptly crushes Anton’s head. Before vanishing, Ogun tells Carl to welcome Yemaya back.

As Paz is dying, he reveals a terrible secret: Sister Ines is a mass murderer who poisoned the sisters at her convent and possesses a subtle mind-control ability. He asks Carl not to harm her. In his final moments, Sister Ines uses a flag on Paz, trapping him as a common-rarity totem card. Immediately after, two new goddesses, Yemaya and Eileithyia, appear in the temple.

The siren-like goddess Yemaya and a six-eyed, hairy alien goddess named Eileithyia materialize. Yemaya rewards Donut with a mythical-rarity card, “The Thief,” and grants Bomo’s wish to be reunited with Sledge by teleporting him to the ninth floor. Eileithyia, who is sponsored by a powerful CEO named Huanxin Jinx, grants the party a floor-wide boon and gives Carl’s party a quest to kill five spiders a day.

Eileithyia then sends Carl a secret message, explaining the spider quest is a cover for the real deal she offers. If Carl agrees to Odette’s upcoming offer for her to be his Faction Wars adjutant, Eileithyia will ensure he gets the votes to turn off the game’s team protections. She also promises to resolve the Crown of the Sepsis Whore dilemma and guarantee that Carl, Katia, and Donut survive until the 12th floor, where they must help her win the Celestial Throne. Carl accepts by scratching his left arm as instructed, since the system can monitor typed responses. After the goddesses depart, he resolves to enter Club Vanquisher to cure his Slugpox.

In Club Vanquisher, a members-only establishment for worshippers of non-Desperado gods, Carl is immediately confronted by a hostile ram-headed cleric of Hellik named Potsy. Pater Coal, a small, human-like Hobbledehoy (resembling a hobbit) and high cleric of Emberus, intervenes and escorts Carl inside. Coal leads Carl to a secret Emberus temple that appears to exist on the surface of a sun. There, he performs a ritual foot-washing, explaining that the sacrament prevents other gods from eavesdropping.

During the ritual, the cleric—whom Carl suspects may be a direct conduit for the System AI—provides clues for Carl’s divine quest to find the murderer of Emberus’s son, Geyrun. He states that Katia’s crossbow and Donut’s oak bracelet are key to the mystery, and ends the ritual by putting Carl’s big toe in his mouth. Carl receives a new floor-wide boon from Emberus. He then pays 10,000 gold to have the healer cure his Slugpox, but is subsequently banned from the Vanquisher club for three days for a rule violation.

Back in the safe room, Katia reveals to the group that Eva placed the Crown of the Sepsis Whore on her head moments before dying, forcing her into a death-match against Donut on the next floor. Katia presents a celestial prize that she has kept secret: The “Engaged Lock Box of the Night Wyrm” (230). Inside is the “Orchid of Eileithyia’s Grace” (231), a flower that grants one of three permanent boons when eaten. Two of these boons offer a way to escape the crown’s curse: becoming a “Celestial Attendant” and being transported to the 12th floor as an NPC, or becoming pregnant and being ejected from the dungeon entirely.

To open the box, Katia must complete one final task: An assassination quest from the Guild of Suffering. She reveals that the guild’s hidden entrance is inside the first-floor Penis Parade strip club and that she already has the quest. They must kill Astrid, the powerful, level 125 assistant manager of the Desperado Club.

Carl and Donut travel south through the ghostly streets of Havana, searching for a Desperado Club and the now-missing Sister Ines. Donut is adamant they must kill Ines and destroy the card containing Paz, and reveals that she sent Ines a hostile message before Ines blocked her. After encountering several minor mobs, they find a safe room next to the Desperado Club. Before they can enter, Zev pulls them out of the dungeon for a pre-production meeting for the Faction Wars. She also informs them that Odette has arrived in Earth orbit and wants to conduct an on-air interview with them in a few days.

In the production facility, Zev holds a secure, off-the-record conversation with Carl and Donut. She warns them not to accept Odette’s forthcoming offer to be their Faction Wars adjutant—a neutral, referee-like position. Zev fears that Odette’s presence would provoke Mordecai into attacking her, which would get him ejected from the crawl (Mordecai blames Odette for his indentureship and the death of his brother in a previous crawl). 

At the subsequent Faction Wars meeting, Carl and Donut are joined by holographic representatives from the other teams, including Crown Prince Stalwart of the Skull Empire and Epitome Tagg of The Dream. The meeting quickly descends into chaos when the sentient NPC Juice Box appears, having killed the Viceroy team’s representative. She demands that the NPCs be recognized as their own official team with full protections. When the others refuse, she triggers a small explosion and disappears. Immediately after, Stalwart is killed by a magical arrow, and the meeting is abruptly terminated.

The allied crawlers gather at a restaurant inside the Desperado Club. Florin, a fellow crawler, gives Carl a unique totem card he can no longer control: “Uzi Jesus,” a powerful level 140 undead mob. The card brings their total to four of six totems. With a plan in place to assassinate Astrid, Carl prepares to enter the Penis Parade strip club to access the Guild of Suffering. Meanwhile, Donut arranges to have a powerful jeweler’s gem, which she received as a prize, installed into a new tiara.

Inside the club, carl finds Damascus Steel, an Ifrit dancer who shares the same spiderweb tattoo as Carl, signifying membership in a secret guild. Damascus understands Carl’s mission and leads Carl through a hidden portal in a private dance cubicle. They emerge into a secret hallway, and Carl enters the Guild of Suffering. Upon entry, he receives a lengthy achievement notification comparing Carl’s accessing the guild to the Molly Maguires, a 19th-century secret society of Irish-American coal miners who fought the exploitation of workers. However, the AI ultimately undercuts the comparison, clarifying the guild is simply a demigod’s operation rather than a genuine revolutionary force. Carl mutters in disbelief at the AI’s strange, sentient tone in this particular message.

Inside the Guild of Suffering, a disembodied voice offers Carl an assassination contract, which he declines. Instead, he asks for a map of the Desperado Club’s secret passageways. The guild agrees, and spiders swarm up Carl’s arm, mystically transferring a detailed map of hidden tunnels and rooms to his interface.

Meanwhile, Donut has her new gem installed, creating the “Enchanted Tiara of the Inebriated Dragonfly” (289). The tiara significantly reduces her potion cooldowns and grants her a limited Hover skill, with which she immediately begins practicing. Carl and Donut exit the club for now and continue south toward the coast to find Samantha, encountering a massive migration of large, hostile land crabs. This triggers an update for their “Chowder War” quest, forcing them to choose a side in the conflict between the crabs and the monk seals.