Back at the dreary ditch, a political figure known as Levus de Flumus de Cruciatus crawls out from a hole which nobody had noticed earlier. Levus notices Melvin, Bullseye, and Tora, and decides to follow them to see where they're going. As the group walks forwards, they almost step on a proximity mine, but Levus calls out at them, saving them from entering the radius just as the mine goes off. Before Levus can introduce himself, he and the others notice a figure dart between two bushes, and upon further inspection, it becomes clear that they entered some kind of strange arena with nine equidistant bushes. The figure dashing between the bushes pops up for a moment, revealing it to be Lick'em, whose tongue is coated in sour powder from a massive warhead which he is holding in front of him.
"Lick them for the win…?" Bullseye postulates, for no clear reason, before returning to his usual near-undetectable state.
"Of all my options for escape from my Realm...this result was undesired." mutters Levus, while Melvin fires his crossbow into the bush in which he saw Lick'em take cover. Lick'em comes running out from the bush screeching, but he quickly takes cover again, this time doing so quickly enough that nobody can see where he went. Viola and Jumbo jump into action from underground, burrowing up underneath two of the bushes. When Viola emerges, she finds herself face-to-face with another proximity mine, which blows up directly in her mouth. Jumbo, on the other hand, manages to get lucky in his choice, and rams directly into Lick'em, sending him upwards out of the bush. Levus holds his hand at his side, causing it to glow with dark energy, before sending forth a cold, black jet of flame towards Lick'em. Lick'em sees the attack coming, and quickly maneuvers behind Jumbo's large body in midair, causing the flames to hit the colossal worm instead. When the worm crashes to the ground, Lick'em climbs down and attempts to duck into another bush, but his efforts are thwarted as Viola, who took minimal damage from the mine's explosion, barrels into him from the side, drenching him with ichor. Levus calmly strolls up to the now severely injured Lick'em and drives his obese politician hand through Lick'em's body, clutching his very soul and draining his will to live. In his dying moments, Lick'em takes one last lick of his enormous warhead, triggering a countdown sequence. Melvin looks around for cover, and almost considers using his own body to block the explosion, but decides that that would be stupid and unnecessary, and instead starts to back away from the ticking bomb. Levus notices this and gestures for Melvin to stand next to him, along with Tora. Both oblige, as well as Bullseye, though nobody notices him. Levus creates a shield made out of the same dark fire he used to attack Lick'em, while Tora uses this as an opportunity to command both Viola and Jumbo to burrow underground. After a few more seconds pass, an enormous explosion can be heard, the intense energy colliding with the shield, but not breaking it. Once the explosion is over, Levus lowers the barrier, and the group can clearly see that their surroundings were completely leveled by the bomb, though its range didn't seem to go much further than the boundaries of the bushes. Where Lick'em's body has been now lay several packets of raw sour powder and some kind of improvised rocket launcher, which he likely planned to use as a means of launching the weapon. After resuming explorations, the group finds some kind of gummy blowgun on the ground, and while examining it, they are approached by a man and a woman wearing matching pink outfits, with tutus, antennae headbands, and wings.
"Hello!" speaks the man, waving at the group. "I'm Victor, and this here is Valencia!"
"We're pleased to make your acquaintance!" finishes Valencia, nodding. By this point, Melvin is just used to people showing up and joining the group, since they usually end up leaving soon after, anyways. As a result, he does nothing to stop Victor and Valencia from accompanying himself, Tora, Bullseye, and Levus, as they continue exploring and find some kind of church with a large statue of Preacher Gradaundera in front of it. Melvin looks around the church and finds some kind of large, weaponized chin guard on a shelf, which he slips into his inventory. Valencia finds a body pillow of Gradaundera propped up on a wall, and Levus decides to follow his nose to a corner, where he finds a severed chin.
"Fuck yeah." chuckles Levus, before crunching down on the raw flesh and bone of the chin. Tora watches this from the doorway, seemingly ever-so-slightly jealous of Levus's snack.
On the other side of the wilderness, Shugi and the others come across a wild candy googles, which Knight Nikku immediately tries to tame with one of his hats. Knight Nikku throws the hat forwards, and the googles snaps it out of the air, before gobbling it down. Shugi steps forwards to try and hold the creature's bill shut so that Knight Nikku can capture it, but Thicc beats him to it, instantly incapacitating the creature with a single lick. Knight Nikku throws another hat, and it successfully lands on the creature's head, converting it into Googles Nikku. While wriggling into the distance, Googles Nikku leaves behind some kind of Eldritch Tablet, which Shugi picks up and slips into one of his fanny packs.
After leaving the church, Melvin's group finds a solitary confinement cell in the middle of nowhere, with no building connected to it. Melvin tries the door, and to nobody's surprise, finds it to be locked. Valencia gestures for Melvin to step aside, and once he does so, Valencia fires out a love beam at the lock, causing it to break open, and for the door to creak ajar. After heading inside, the group finds the room to be empty, but a distinct chuckle prompts them to look up, revealing Charles Manson to be shackled to the ceiling of the room. Melvin tries to talk to Charles, but he doesn't seem to be listening to anything that Melvin says, instead just laughing like a madman and shaking his chains. Levus uses his dark powers to destroy the shackles, freeing the crazy prisoner's arms. Charles immediately uses his newly freed hands to unshackle his legs, before dropping down from the ceiling and disappearing out the door with incredible speed. Once the rest of the group exits the room, Charles is already gone, and Victor, who had been standing guard outside, apologizes and claims that he was communicating with hollow earth, whatever that's supposed to mean.