“You think we can beat choo-choo mcchooface easy now?” Yu asks, while holding Christine’s hand.

“Oh yeah. It’s in Hell’s Ride now! I doubt it though. Even the elites were having difficulties taking it down,” Wyn replies.

“Not quite. I think they initially didn’t know how to defeat it, that’s all. None of them got hurt whatsoever,” Anish adds.

“How are you two holding up with the burn?” Mira asks Wyn and Anish, who promptly give her a thumbs up.

Directly under Dead Center Station, Lisa leads the team to the misspelled “Demon’s Liar.” Inside the cavernous space, arcade machines fill the first hall. Players use catnips as currency and put on VR headsets to immerse themselves in the games. Yu’s attention is immediately captured by the “Soul Fighters” machine.

“Rematch?” Yu asks.

“Bring it on, boy!” Wyn replies.

After putting on the headsets, Wyn and Yu appear on the screen, visible to the rest of the team to watch from the outside. In this game, the two participating souls are to duke it out in a one-on-one match, with no rewards to reap other than the pure satisfaction of humiliating their opponent.

“Three, two, one, FIGHT!” A voice announces.

Yu summons a more formidable dragon than before, directing it toward Wyn. In response, Wyn unleashes a cyclone that tears the dragon apart. As the cyclone advances toward him, Yu creatively adapts, driving the tip of his weapon into the ground and extending the handle to launch himself upward. By the time the cyclone reaches his weapon, Yu is already airborne, hurling multiple water orbs at Wyn. Wyn evades using a slanted rock pillar, sending himself backward. He then calls down a descending cyclone above Yu, forcing him to the ground. A rock pillar shoots Yu back into the air, but before the next cyclone hits, Yu water dashes backward, staying just out of reach. As he descends, he spins the tip of his weapon, swirling water toward Wyn. Wyn counters by summoning a rock pillar to block, then punches it, sending a rocky cyclone and Yu’s own weapon’s tip back at him. Yu dodges, darting across the ground, shifting directions with bursts of water streams.

“Aw, you know what I forgot to do back in the maze?” Wyn says.

Wyn summons multiple rock pillars, forming a maze in front of Yu, causing him to pause his movement. Then from the ceiling, rock pillars emerge.

“How is this fair?”

Taunting his foe, Wyn snaps his fingers, bringing the ceiling pillars crashing down. Yu quickly reacts, propelling himself upward with his blade to shatter the pillar above. In the same moment, Wyn takes advantage of the rising pillar beneath him, springing off it to launch himself into the air. He delivers a powerful punch with a rock-hardened fist, boosted by a mini cyclone. Though Yu envelops himself in water to absorb the impact, the force still sends him hurtling into a newly created maze of rock pillars below, shattering them as he crashes down.

“Your boy isn’t gonna beat my Oppa!” Mira says, watching the fight on the screen.

“Come on, Yu! Like, totally crush him!”

Before Yu gets back up, he summons streams of water beneath Wyn, catching him off guard. Seizing the opportunity, Yu forms another dragon, this time embedding the entire blade within it, and directs it toward Wyn. Unwilling to use a cyclone to escape the streams, Wyn takes the hit directly on his left arm.

“Holy poop machine! I’m so sorry!”

Fallen to the ground, Wyn finds himself missing his entire left arm. Enduring the realistic pain, he pushes himself back up with a rock pillar.

“Come on! Beat me while you can, Yu!”

Yu water dashes toward Wyn, weapon held forward. Wyn, seemingly motionless, materializes a chakram in his hand. As Yu closes in, he extends his weapon. In a sudden move, Wyn cyclone dashes, expanding the cyclone from his feet to envelop himself, just as he did during the crackaroo fight. The force of his dash sends him crashing into Yu and slamming them both into the wall. While they’re both down, Wyn summons a rock pillar beneath them, launching himself and Yu skyward. Taking advantage of their proximity to the wall, Wyn conjures another pillar from it, propelling them forward. Grabbing Yu’s sweater mid-air, Wyn summons a descending cyclone, plummeting them both to the ground with Wyn landing on top of Yu.

“What is he doing?” James wonders.

“Your, I mean, our leader is scary,” Lisa remarks.

Back on the screen, Wyn is seen holding a chakram to Yu's throat. His intense stare scares Yu.

“I yield. I yield!” Yu says, desperately.

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“Try tapping the floor,” Wyn suggests.

Realizing that Yu’s repeated attempts to forfeit the match have failed, they find themselves trapped in the game. It suddenly dawns on Wyn that there’s only one way to exit.

“I’m sorry, buddy,” he says.

Wyn strikes Yu square in the head with the chakram until Yu vanishes. A triumphant tune plays, signaling Wyn's victory, and shortly after, he dematerializes out of the game.

“You were scary in there, my friend,” Anish says.

“Who's next? Landon? How about we settle our differences there?” Wyn asks, pointing to the machine.

“Heck no! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!”

Splitting from the group, Christine stumbles upon a sloth-themed machine. The sloth-shaped slot invites her to bet one catnip per play, promising thousands with a single pull of the sloth’s hand. Her first roll results in two CATOTOs and a crying sloth, yielding no reward. The second roll offers a mix of one happy sloth, one crying sloth, and one Catito, leaving her frustrated. Determined, she goes for one final roll, this time letting Yu pull the sloth's hand. To her dismay, he lands on three cross marks, causing the machine to penalize her with a loss of ten extra catnips.

“How? This is, like, so dumb,” she complains.

Meanwhile, Anish and Lisa find themselves inside a giant pinball table after putting on the VR headsets, becoming the flippers themselves. Anish struggles to keep the ball in play, missing flips and letting it slip by. Lisa, though not much better, manages to hit a few bumpers and rack up some bonuses, outshining Anish slightly. When the next ball comes into play, the two frantically flip over and over, trying to keep it alive, but their overzealous efforts cause the table to display a “tilt” error, disabling both of them. On the final ball, Anish manages to hit a flying UMF, but instead of earning points, the creature steals the ball, abruptly ending the game with a gameover.

“This is a ripoff,” Anish complains.“That’s what other souls have been saying too, Mister Anish.”

The team regroups as Wyn spots a machine he’s eager for everyone to try – “Demon Death Race.” After putting on the headsets, each member is transported to a private space with thirty seconds to select their kart. They’re presented with fifteen options, each resembling a CATOTO family cat transformed into the shape of a kart. No same kart can be chosen. Wyn opts for the CATOTO kart, choosing it not for its speed or acceleration, but for its superior power attribute. As the timer hits zero, Wyn is transported to a random racetrack, ready for the race to begin.

“Yo! This is Luminous Glade!” James shouts, sitting in his Catito kart, known for its incredible speed and acceleration but lacking in control and power.

“Yippee! We’re racists now!” Yu exclaims from his Catota kart, which excels in speed and control.

“Erm, Yu. Like, I don’t think that’s what you meant, yeah?” Christine responds, readjusting her seat in the Catotu kart, famous for its acceleration and control.

A strange creature holding a traffic light hovers above the racers. When the light turns green, every soul slams the pedal, launching into the race. Along the track, glowing dots appear, and collecting one allows the racer to unleash an elemental attack of their choice on an opponent. Gathering three dots enlarges the kart, doubling each of its attributes.

James quickly pulls ahead, only to miss the first line of glowing dots. Mira, in her Catutu kart, praised for its speed and decent acceleration and control, races neck and neck with Christine. When both manage to collect a dot, they gang up on James, hitting him with a fire pillar and a snowball. In response, James’ kart spins in place ten times – twice as long as the normal amount. Meanwhile, Lisa, in the Catoti kart known for its great power and decent speed and control, trails behind Anish, who’s driving the Cateto kart, known for its exceptional control and decent acceleration and power. The moment she grabs a dot, she shoots a straight line of laser, hitting Anish and Yu.

Wyn, driving the slowest of the karts, strategically waits by the first line of dots for them to reappear. When they do, he collects three, instantly enlarging his kart for thirty seconds. After grabbing another dot, he places a well-timed cyclone – now twice as powerful – in front of Yu, catching not just Yu, but also Anish and Lisa in its swirling grasp. To his long awaited desire, Wyn rams into the spinning karts, sending them crashing off the track and into the crystals, with Yu even tumbling into a pond. The off-track karts are repositioned back to where they were but must endure a five-second penalty.

Meanwhile, James, catching up to Mira and Christine, summons an ice wall in front of Christine, who quickly shoots it down with her snowball. Just as she thinks she's in the clear, Mira hurls a fireball at her, momentarily halting her progress and allowing Mira to pull ahead. However, Mira's lead is abruptly cut short when she encounters a section of the track lined with crystals jutting from the ground, which emit a shocking burst of electricity, stunning her kart. While James loses control, getting electrocuted, Christine takes the lead.

The trailing four racers are closing in. As Wyn bumps James, James ricochets between the crystals. Lisa, now enlarged, crushes the crystals beneath and rams into any karts in her path. With a perfect aim, Lisa hits Christine, spinning her into an open tttortoise’s mouth instead of making the sharp turn. Yu retaliates by spinning Lisa’s kart with a water fountain, but the collision with an enlarged, high-power kart sends him flying off the track. Meanwhile, Anish skillfully navigates through the chaos, avoiding obstacles and opponents, and takes the lead by accurately hitting the targets with wind gusts.

As the finish line approaches, Anish and James are neck and neck, with Wyn and Mira falling behind. In a surprising twist, both Wyn's and Mira’s karts enlarge simultaneously, causing a collision that sends them off the track. The final stretch features a line of glowing dots and a ramp. Anish’s Cateto kart clears the ramp but crashes into an ice wall James summons. James briefly pulls ahead with a strong jump, but he loses control upon landing. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Anish uses a wind gust to spin James even more to secure his victory.

“Only one lap? I should've won!” James mutters.

“I did Cateto proud! Can’t wait to tell him about this!” Anish says.

The results of the race are: Anish finishes in first place, followed by James in second, Mira in third, Wyn in fourth, Christine in fifth, Lisa in sixth, and Yu disqualified for not finishing the race in time.

“Hmmm…Lisa, I thought you were taking us here to gain more essence,” Wyn says.

“Yes, Mister Wyn. I was, until we got distracted by the arcade.”

Lisa leads the team into the second hall, where a myriad of doors spreads out across the space.