Eureka seems pretty intent on violence, yet her mental state has degraded to a childlike status. She starts looking around for 'friends'. Muriegro's pincushion is feeling a bit down about losing its powers (due to the influence of the round) and the death of Riko, who was considered 'malleable'. Muriegro hears Eureka and heads towards her.

Syvex feels awful. Tamerlane is still alive, which he regrets, and he's worried about Eureka. His powers have also fallen apart (round influence) and he's running out of his bottle of shadow. He hears Ripper in a room and knocks on the door.

Ripper evaluates the remaining contestants, and decides it would be best to attempt to kill Tamerlane. First gloats at Sixth. Ripper opens the door to see Syvex, and they decide on a truce.

Eureka and Muriegro meet. Eureka attacks Muriegro with a vase, but he takes it pretty well. The pincushion attempts to manipulate Eureka, possibly with or without success, but the outcome is that Eureka seems happy to stick with Muriegro while they go in search of the Knife.

Ripper and Syvex talk. Ripper informs Syvex that Riko died last round, but hides the truth of the manner of his demise. They decide the best targets this round are Muriegro (as he'll be largeless powerless) and Tamerlane (as he's missing an arm). They find an Insane Guy clutching a piece of paper. Syvex intends to take it from him, but is distracted by Alison Broderburg making contact with him. They make grand battle smalltalk. Ripper reappears, having failed to catch up with the Insane Guy, and insists that she wants to show Syvex something. It is revealed that the hotel they appeared in is merely an outer shell, the inner part of the hotel leading to a huge cavern populated by mishapen natives.

Laguja ponders this round and the previous one, and begins to get irritated about the circumstances. He also begins to worry that the Prestidigitator is getting bored of the battle, and that they'll be trapped in limbo once he loses interest completely. Eureka finds some crystal cleavers, and they hear people.

Ripper and Syvex greet the natives. Ripper gets weirded out by them and distrusts them, but ends up going with them along with Syvex for want of a better course of action. They approach a pyramid, apparently the source of the room-warping effect but also the light in the cavern. It transpires that the natives' 'god' lives in the temple, and they are being taken there to ask what to do with the strangers. The light in the pyramid is turned off so that Syvex can enter, and they experience pure darkness. Muriegro and Eureka get discovered by some natives, but as Eureka has already taken the opportunity to murder some people she gets knocked out cold. Muriegro and Laguja sense an opportunity.

Syvex realises how weak he is here, even in utter darkness. Ripper and Syvex are shown to the room of the 'god', which is revealed to be an amalgam of swimming pools. The 'god' himself sits on a golden throne, dressed in gold and red robes with a feathered headdress that hides his eyes. He gives his name as Xiuhcoatl, God of the Underlands. Syvex asks for help escaping the battle, but Xiuhcoatl claims to be powerless to do so. He addresses Ripper, asking about the nature of the Core. Ripper is unforthcoming, but when asked Syvex happily describes his own abilities and nature. They are then taken to their rooms. It turns out Xiuhcoatl is actually not a god (!!!) but Kolman Saenger, an agent of the SCP Foundation. He is disturbed by the Core and Syvex due to their SCP nature, and contacts Dr Beringer. He informs him of the sudden appearance of SCPs, and two more possible unusual beings. There is some reference to the 'sandman' incident, said to have happened a couple of hours ago.

Eureka wakes up in a locked room, her knife missing. She appeals to the space where the Malevolence used to be in her stomach (now just bubbling darkness) and it apparently works because one of the denizens finds her prison door in pieces and covered in black sludge. He is summarily murdered. Eureka has started to hack up black sludge.

Muriegro meets Kahsh, a native who speaks Portugese sufficiently for her and Muriegro to converse. She takes him to Saenger, who Laguja manages to exert some control over and commands him to announce Laguja as his brother in arms, Huitzilopochtli. Laguja also asks for information on the SCP Foundation and what artifacts are in the area.

Syvex stumbles across the scene of Eureka's crime and prison escape, but before he can go after her one of the natives locks him in the same room that imprisoned Eureka. Syvex does some deducing and comes to the conclusion that the murderer was an outsider, and although none of the grand battlers have powers related to dark sludge he's smart enough to work out where it might have come from. Unease ensues. Eureka, meanwhile, is going in search of the dagger, but has a breakdown. She hallucinates being on a train.

Tamerlane is dying. His mind casts back to his days as a bounty hunter for the king, while Fourth and Fifth discuss his prospects. Tamerlane wakes up and immediately screams due to his lack of an arm. An agent is watching him, who starts to talk to the bounty hunter about nothing he really understands. He then takes out the Knife and buries it in the remains of Tamerlane's arm. The agent starts to die, but Tamerlane, now apparently the new owner of the Knife, begins to feel better. Before dying the agent describes it as a transaction, as the Knife will only belong to one person at a time and will only let them feel pain from the Knife itself. This means that Tamerlane's life is saved, but people begin to break into the room, due to the door having been boarded over. The implication is that the Foundation were monitoring the vitals of the agent, and are aware of his death. Fifth laughs at Fourth because his bet on Tamerlane is doomed, but he at least is getting some entertainment out of it.

Syvex decides that Eureka is in trouble, and busts out of the room. He heads for Xiuhcoatl's room, where he hears the god in question shouting. Laguja speaks to Syvex and tells him to leave. Syvex asks for Eureka's location, but neither god is particularly useful in this respect. The natives outside manage to give Syvex a decent indication of where she might have gone. Dr Beringer gets frustrated when Saenger fails to respond to him, and activates the communicator that allows him to hear what is going on with Saenger. He hears the agent revealing secrets, and calls in Agent Korsikov to neutralise Saenger, telling them that he doesn't care if the entire undercity is destroyed.