Kay takes the Tunnels, but is almost defeated by the same goons from her very first fight before Charlie intervenes, currently on a Market-busting spree. After making a quick judgement call, he entrusts her with the Wildcard Jett had confiscated from her, condemning the rookie’s actions and directing Kay to Ridley. Kay convinces Ridley (back safely in the barracks) to produce her very own Gold card, one that rivals that of Lily’s, which she procured through extensive off-screen fighting (See the “Sunken Knight” Manifestation below).
Traveling through the forest outskirts, Kay is attacked by Lily herself, looking for a challenge. With their equal Gold cards, they teleport all across campus until landing straight inside the augmented AR dungeon that the wine cellar was mutated into by the Machine. There, they meet past Manifestations, including one taking the form of a horrifying, leviathan abomination based on the collective power, fear, and eldritch divinity of Skyber, calling itself SIR. SIR is implied to be the controller of the Machine’s Dungeons, and sends the girls back above ground, promising to “keep Lily company”, traumatizing Kay out of commission once again.
Upon returning to the Lodge, Suzy and Gyssabel find Kay having a panic attack over her recent encounter with Lily and SIR. After Suzy calms her down enough to tell them what’s wrong, Gyssabel gets the idea to have Suzy shoot her in the head with her ability to find out exactly where she’s been. Suzy reluctantly agrees, and retrieves a film roll of the Manifestation staring right back at them.
- The next morning, Suzy inquires more about last night’s events, leading her to launch an investigation as per Kay’s trusting her with a full report.
- Suzy goes to the garden that night and sees the dragon statue. She starts to have visions of Lily and “SIR” teasing her. Skyber finds and talks to Suzy later but frightens her because she thinks she caused the strange events. Eventually, Skyber explains what’s been happening, and presumes that because of the Machine’s ever-increasing power over her and the rest of campus, SIR will be making things much more difficult from here on out.
Preston runs into Penny, criticizing her bravado and flashy showmanship over simply getting the job done, and goads her into a cardless exhibition match, but halfway through both find that they share a common enemy, who is just leaving work.
- Pretty much his whole shift at work, Brown had been lecturing Nathaniel and Hugo about everything they missed that was right in front of them, but were too stupid to figure out, including their failed attempt to rescue Kay, though finds closure with Casti over their shared trauma with Karen and the Rock-a-Thon.
- Nathaniel finally admits to and apologizes for tampering with the Machine, thinking that his actions would save everyone from harm that wasn’t ever there in the first place. Casti and Brown effectively tell him to get over himself already.
- Hugo gets the idea from Brown to seek Nova for extra cards, seeing as they’re having such a hard time defending themselves.
Fat Guy joins Penny and Preston in jumping Brown – It takes all three of them to take him down and get him to talk about the Machine, the Wish, and Skyber, who shows up anyway to intimidate them and take Brown away. Preston tries to pull a fast one on Skyber, but she burns him to a crisp, making an example for the other two. He respawns, horrified.
Skyber ends up taking Brown to the bar and pub reserved for staff and security only, to celebrate Brown’s 2-year anniversary “birthday” of mysteriously appearing in ERA, which was the same day. She gives him a cupcake Artemis baked herself, causing him to break down crying. Gyssabel briefly appears as Skyber leaves to get a round of martinis, suggesting Brown ask Kay about SIR when she’s mentally better.
The reason Skyber was late to pick Brown up was due to Ernst infiltrating the casino in hopes of accessing the Wine Cellar and destroying the Machine himself. They engage in a battle of both strength and ego, with Ernst questioning Skyber’s approach that prolongs the violence, and Skyber blaming Ernst for corrupting the Tournament machine in the first place. She overwhelms the Doctor in sheer firepower. However, before his untimely defeat, the doctor is able to convince her to form a temporary alliance on the grounds of finding Sofia, the original creator of the machine, who has mysteriously disappeared without a trace.
Ravien calls Fat Guy to her secret hideout to debrief from Brown’s fight and discuss Skyber and her Golden Statue. He retrieves Penny and Preston so the group can figure out how to get more Gold cards from the Clover Team, who they suspect are trading among themselves. Ultimately, they decide Hugo might be their next best bet in the face of no other feasible leads. Preston finds Hugo in the halls, easily defeats him, and uses his phone to lure his friends into coming to meet him, while Penny and Fat Guy await their arrival.
Ever since Ernst and Skyber’s fight in an attempt to access the cellar, the Manifestations appear to grow more powerful and spawn more often:
- the Manifestation of War (based on Fat Guy) – a 50 foot tall brazen bull lights the forest outskirts ablaze, threatening to wipe out all of ERA in one stampede. It takes out Carrie, Tawny, and Casti, before Fynn arrives to evacuate the rather uncooperative students. He calls in backup, and Charlie, Joan, and Cyra (member of the fire squad) respond. Joan escorts the injured away from the arena while Charlie, Cyra, and Fynn (and a brief cameo from Suzy on a motorcycle with sexy saxophone music in the background) throw every explosive they have to blow it up from the inside. Fynn confiscates the Gold and later reports to Quetz, indicating they must hold a staff-wide meeting about their growing threat.
- a re-imagined Black (based on Brown), possesses the real Brown’s body while he’s sleeping. As Nova confides in Artemis their slowly weakening abilities, they get ambushed by Black’s clones, the gel of their bodies eventually strong enough to dissolve and deconstruct the dorm building to use against them. Nova’s nullification is only strong enough to nullify anything within immediate proximity, so as Ernst drops in to help, they and Artemis pincer and trap the Manifestation into Nova’s grasp until nothing but Brown remains. He wakes up, confused yet determined to end this emissary as soon as possible. Artemis banks the Gold with Nova.
- and Sunken Knight (based on both Clyde and Bob), attacks the real Clyde and Bob after Ravien tries (and fails) to reason with Clyde and bring them on her side. As Clyde wears himself thin, Ravien successfully manages to talk some sense into Bob at least, who is willing to form a brief truce amongst their rivalry among the Black Market pecking order, and defeat the Manifestation. However, Clyde steals the Gold won by Ravien, insisting she is not to be trusted.
This traps players in a negative feedback loop of pooling Machine data: winning against a Manifestation requires multiple people using multiple Wildcards, which adds more than enough data; losing against a Manifestation makes them grow stronger and harder to beat for the next group to encounter them. In other words, it is nearly impossible at this point to stop the spread of the Machine’s ever-growing power over the school, as evident in Nova’s shrinking nullification ability range. Ernst theorizes after helping Nova and Artemis defeat Black that all these data-collecting algorithms could have been embedded into the Machine by the Vitric to spy on ERA from the start. He goes on a search to find Sofia, the original creator of the Machine, who has mysteriously disappeared without a trace.
Artemis and Brown continue to plan for exacting revenge on Lily, but Artemis notices her roommate has become all but docile. When Ravien questions Lily, she responds that she simply lost enjoyment in fighting, since nobody is strong enough to challenge her. She is suddenly locked in a brief trance, in which SIR presumably speaks through her of a cryptic warning about “dawn rising soon”. Lily seems to have no recollection or acknowledgement of this, weirding out everyone in the room.
Ravien discusses the danger of the Manifestations to Penny, and advises her to take caution with both them and Lily. Penny assures her that she’s only in this for the sport and to “maintain order,” while planning to use Preston’s gambit to fight a 3v3 with Gold card users from the Clover Team and gain notoriety as their newly formed group, Big Top.
Meanwhile, Fat Guy invites Sybil to his dorm and simply asks for her Gold card. Cluelessly, Sybil betrays the Clover Team yet again and complies out of good faith, thinking he’s only borrowing for self-defense and unaware of his ulterior motives under Big Top.
The Clover Team continues to converse over SMS. Kay reveals to Brown that by accidentally breaking the game due to Ridley’s ability, she inadvertently alerted the attention of SIR and put everyone she knew under scrutiny. He is justifiably upset.
Nova finds Skyber in her office, working on a spreadsheet documenting everything known about the Machine. Over drinks, Nova confesses their weakening game nullification ability, feeling guilty they’re unable to help an already overwhelmed Clover Team. Skyber reassures Nova, reminding them of their strong bond and mutual support. She explains the danger of SIR, believing its sheer terrifying presence alone to be a reflection of what people truly think of her. Nova suggests Skyber adopt a less intimidating human form to be more approachable and blend in. Skyber reluctantly agrees and looks forward to going shopping after all this. Nova even offers to join in with their human form as well, once they know what it should look like.
Meanwhile, Gabe’s greenhouse gets raided by FFA members, and Gyssabel comes to his aid “for a fee” because the FFA has something she wants, with the ulterior motive to observe his behaviors and motivations, and especially when a Gold card is present. After taking back the house, Gabriel assumes her fee is the Gold and gives it to her, a selfless action which seals his recruitment into the Clover Team. Gyssabel returns his act of goodwill and gives the Gold right back, promising he’ll need it later.
Gabriel, Gyssabel, and Casti are added to the Clover Team groupchat. There, they discuss their next moves approaching the climax of the arc. Artemis theorizes Lily is not just possessed, but is the one creating the more sophisticated Manifestations based on people and things only she would know about. They decide that Brown and Artemis confront Lily that day; Kay and Pearl also mobilize, with intel that Big Top has Hugo hostage in the indoor basketball court; Casti and Gabriel are tasked to find Clyde and Bob and tie loose ends with them. Gabriel requests to Skyber that the gun the FFA pulled on him at the greenhouse fight be confiscated by the guards. He meets Fraise at the greenhouse to safeguard, while he and Casti do their job.
Brown meets Kay at the Lodge to prepare for their fights. They wind up in an argument over each other’s goals and personalities, Brown believing she acts without thinking and gets away with it, making her cocky and bullheaded, Kay arguing that Brown keeps himself in the center of danger for attention, yet always whines because he can’t handle the responsibility. Each eventually finds they don’t understand each other as much as they thought they did. Artemis breaks up the tension and takes Brown to find Lily, while Kay waits for Pearl to finish class.
Brown and Artemis arrive at Lily’s dorm, where Brown promises under Machine-imposed terror that after this, he will become a better person, reflecting on his argument with Kay and his flippant behavior ever since the Tournament. They hug, finding that human emotion still trumps any machine-made simulation. Inside the dorm room, they find that it’s been transformed like a Tournament arena, taking the form of the ERA mountain range outside campus. They find Lily, having fully submitted herself to SIR, who gives her an Adamantine card that allows her to turn into her own Manifestation of Death.
Brown and Artemis use her discarded deck against her, with three Golds just barely enough to defeat her. SIR deems her no longer useful to him, and rips the Adamantine from her heart, injuring her in real life. He claims that thanks to them, he is finally able to become real, referring to them by their full names, unknown to anyone else.
Artemis’s real name is Tamantha. It is revealed to Brown his first name is Mason.
The simulation ends, and a traumatized Brown calls Ernst to get him and the guards to Lily’s dorm to retrieve her. Ernst brings Claude, who proposes the school must evacuate, though the two students refuse to do anything until the Machine is destroyed.
Meanwhile, Nathaniel, Pearl and Kay meet in the basketball court to rescue Hugo from Big Top, with the plan to bait their tactics to make them use up their more irrelevant cards, then switch up their game halfway through (as strategized by Gabriel). Fat Guy proves especially difficult to handle, having built his deck to become nearly indestructible, turning his body entirely metal with the Gold card Sybil gave him.
- Kay and Pearl attempt to convince Penny that all this violence is for nothing, as ultimately they are all working to stop the Machine and defeat Skyber. Penny is confused further by this, until Preston does the thinking for her by outsmarting and beating the shit out of Pearl and Nathaniel. Kay snaps from seeing her friends hurt by the blatant disregard of honor and stops holding back, coaxing Pearl to briefly lose her moral compass as well.
- Fat Guy joins the fray, making Nathaniel exhaust all his cards early, while Preston separates him and Pearl from the fight. Pearl takes advantage of her portal card to softlock Fat Guy out of the ring. Penny and Pearl use their last cards and light each other ablaze while spreading toxic, flammable gas throughout the arena. Fat Guy returns and literally tears through the ring to protect Penny, but is too late to stop them from defeating each other.
- The arena is turned into a field of fire that Kay barely manages to avoid. With her last card, freeing Hugo to the safety of the rafters. Preston manages to outlast Nathaniel, and the two show a small amount of respect to one another before Preston finishes him off. Kay decides to put Preston out of his misery. Fat Guy, unable to ascend due to his altered weight, is left alone to withstand the rising flames, and Kay and Hugo are left with nothing to do but wait for the gas to take them as well. A true stalemate is reached.
SIR intervenes in the 3v3, enjoying the spectacle though not too impressed with the chumminess of the outcome. He restores all 7 students and their cards, and sends them into another simulation, this time under the Dungeon Void where he last took Kay and Lily. Taunting the fighters with all his Manifestation creations, their full names (yes, he deadnames Kay as Knowledge, the horror!) and pieces of backstory they have never told anyone, he challenges them to muster their tenacity against him, proving no matter how hard they try, they could never take him down. Remembering what Brown had said to her earlier, Kay refuses to be tormented by SIR anymore and faces him head-on. The 3v3 very quickly turns into a 7v1, and Kay, Pearl, Nathaniel, Hugo, Fat Guy, Penny, and Preston all join forces to attempt to defeat SIR.
- Unfortunately, this does not end well for any of them. Pulling the rug under them (literally) with His manifestation of Nova, NULL, he uses the void to send Hugo, Pearl, and Nathaniel to oblivion. NULL then nullifies everyone else’s cards and abilities.
- Having collected enough data of Electi, SIR “remembers” that Skyber was originally the goddess and creator of Earth, who in her constant struggle with a previous incarnation of humanity washed away by time, “Bore the Sky” to erase everything she had created, including herself, inadvertently birthing her final creation, Nova.
- With a supernova, SIR effortlessly dispatches everyone else. Preston develops a fear of fire.
Also concurrent with the 3v3 and the Lily takedown, Fraise joins up with Gabriel to switch watch shifts at the greenhouse. Gabe banks two of his favorite cards with him for safe keeping, thinking if he is able to defeat Bob, he could make a name for himself at ERA. Fraise argues this may not be the right way to gain respect, pulling from his own backstory to suggest he simply lets himself live freely as neither of them were allowed to before coming here. Gabriel thanks him, promises to consider. He leaves to find Casti so Brown stops texting that they’re “throwing”.