Chapter 7 of 26 · Book 2, Carl's Doomsday Scenario

Chapter 7 — The lion's heart

Book: Carl's Doomsday Scenario · Previous: Chapter 6 — Signet · Next: Chapter 8 — Water Lily · Floor: Floor 3 — The Over City · Series: the series

Opening

“What was your name again?

Summary

Six mold lions on the rooftops and a summoner who wants Carl's blood for her spell. Protective Shell wedges one lion against a wall; Carl punches through its chest and pulls out its heart; Donut raises it, raises the lion it kills, and triplicates that second zombie; her magic missile drops the last lion. Signet's tattoos stop swirling: her Blood Magic needed a sacrifice, and the sacrifice was supposed to be Carl.

She wants help attacking her former family and offers the story of Signet the Bastard and Grimaldi, the man she loved; Carl makes a date for the next night and does not intend to keep it. At the Pug, Mordecai explains Elites — printed, imprinted, nudged by writers, wrapped in plot armour, 'you're the extra' — and the recap shows Hekla as an Amazonian Shieldmaiden, a Primal from another season with angel wings facing a Divine Guardian on the twelfth floor, and Lucia Mar as a Lajabless with a goat leg. About 80% of crawlers stayed human; the announcement after counts almost 40,000 classes, opens early sponsor bids before the fourth floor, and sets the experience for killing citizens to zero.

Characters

• Tsarina Signet — The failed sacrifice; the invitation.
• Carl — Pulls a lion's heart out; plans to break the date.
• Princess Donut — Second Chance on a lion; 'WE NEED TO DITCH HER.'
• Mordecai — The Elites lecture; the Divine Guardian.
• Hekla — On the recap: Amazonian Shieldmaiden.
• Lucia Mar — On the recap: Lajabless, Black Inquisitor General.

Locations

• The Belly-Rubbed Pug — The recap and the lecture.
• Signet's house — The tall white building she points to, near the vine.

Motifs

• Elites — Defined: plot armour and writers who fight back.
• The playbook — Carl's first contingency, not yet explained to Donut.
• The gods — A Divine Guardian, a twelfth-floor Country Boss, guarding a fire gate.