Character · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin
Raul
A Red Maníseros Land Crab, Sun-Kissed Cloud Rank Warrior, level 70, flagged in a U-Haul while chanting to himself that he will never kowtow: a grovelling coward ('This worm grovels and kotows in your resplendent light') with a ranged Bris crush, used as a cudgel by Shi Maria, 'the spider lady's jinetera' — who snaps a wolf's head off, saves Carl from the ogre, and, over a pile of dead baby seals with Alpha Carl yelling at him, ascends past cloud rank and refills the world with souls. 'I'm ascending! No more kowtowing!'
Segment appearances
Arc
Donut's eighth-floor card, level 110 and mythic, summoned at last in the Nest: he tumbles down the Donkey Kong ramp tangled with Lucia — 'You dare challenge Daddy Carl?' — holds her up in his claws (ch. 71), and dies in smoke under the rottweiler's lightning (ch. 72). An action figure of him shouts 'Never kowtow!' at a fuel stop (epilogue).