Ashen Cabaret follows Ukko up the long staircase to the top of the metal tower. At the top, Slender runs out in front to find a room full of gold. He throws himself onto the pile, hurting his back in the process since this is not a cartoon and he is not Scrooge McDuck. Ukko approaches the pile as well, but he is much more distracted by the huge golden bust of one of the mechanical dragons looming over the treasure. The lava in the corner of the room casts everything in a dire orange glow.
Shade carefully checks the area for traps, and lets them know it’s all clear. He asks Ukko if he’s ready, and Ukko takes a deep breath before nodding. They all follow the tabaxi down the eerily silent corridor to the door that leads onto the roof. He pushes it open, and everyone steps outside.
There is a huge black metal cage floating in front of the group with a swirling dark cloud trapped inside of it. An echoed voice booms overhead, admitting its surprise at Catbot being able to trick Ukko and the rest of the group so easily. Ukko pulls his halberd from his back and twirls it around, frustrated at himself for not following his gut feeling about Catbot. The voice tells the group that it is the Dreadwyrm, and that it made a deal with Catbot. It says that there never was any prison, instead he promised to kill Ukko, in exchange for Catbot bringing him the members of Ashen Cabaret so he could toy with them.
Slender asks why Catbot wants Ukko dead. The Dreadwyrm informs them that Catbot power is fueled by entropy, and nothing creates more entropy than infuriating the God of War. If the Dreadwyrm kills Ukko, Catbot’s armies would all be able to be powered back on with the huge burst of chaos from his father’s fury. Meanwhile, the Dreadwyrm had been looking for a way to speak with Ashen Cabaret in hopes he could sway them from completing Argos’ quest. Olaf, Juno, and Slender all ready their weapons alongside Ukko, letting them know that there is nothing the wyrm can say that would stop them from working to defeat it. It asks if that’s what they really think.
The darkness is the cage erupts into four tendrils that swirl around the group. The Dreadwyrm speaks to Juno first, picking on her fears of being alone forever and being a person that will never find love. The first tendril slams into the floor of the tower and takes the shape of Juno’s dead friend, Alexio. Juno stares at them, and breathes their name quietly. Next, the Dreadwyrm speaks to Slender, asking him how he could possibly trust his new group not to betray him like his friend has betrayed him in the past. The second tendril hits the floor, taking the form of the friend that betrayed him, Beatrice. Slender ducks down behind Olaf and curses. Finally, the wyrm calls out to Olaf, telling him how disappointed his father would be in him for failing to prevent oppression and instead drinking his problems away. Another tendril strikes the ground to take the form of Benryl Kegbottom. Olaf points to the shadow of his father, and tells him he’s grown soft in Dwarvish.
Finally, the Dreadwyrm address the rest of the Cabaret, citing that none of them should be able to trust Jadeth after she met with death. The final tendril hits the ground, and it takes her shape too. The Dreadwyrm says that this is their last chance to abandon Ukko and escape from this nightmare, but they all stand fearless beside their new friend. Ukko channels a radiant aura, and warns the Dreadwyrm that he will not go down without a fight.
Shade picks him up and carries him around the arena to burn all of the shadows with the powerful light of the divine. Olaf and Slender leap over the channels of lava underneath the cage to approach the shadows of Benryl and Beatrice. Juno and Mole head the other direction towards Jadeth and Alexio.
Juno calls out to Alexio in a pained voice, begging him to snap out of it. He raises his bow to shoot at her, but Mole steps in front of her to deflect the attack. Juno retaliates with her own crossbow, letting them know that the shadows really are just a trick. Olaf smiles at that, and pounds his hammer into his father’s shadow to knock him back. He slides across the ground, and the shadow of Beatrice rushes forward to slash at him with her sword. Slender begins frantically plucking the strings of his lute to weaken Beatrice right before she can hit Olaf.
The shadow of Jadeth watches the chaos begin from atop an elevated platform, and she directs her attention to Ukko’s burning light. She unleashes a burst of magic to interrupt his focus, and he turns to face her directly. He readies his halberd, and she pulls a shadowy gun from a rift to fight him back. He ascends the stairs and leaps through the air to dodge a bullet, he brings the halberd down in a powerful strike. The shadow falls backwards and gasps.
On the ground below the platform, Juno and Mole keep pressing Alexio, making it impossible for the shadow to hide and gain the upper hand. Mole rushes forward with a shield bash, and sends Alexio flying towards Juno. She swings her crossbow around onto her back and draws her rapier and longsword. She tries to use her amulet of thoughts to see if any of Alexio is still in this shadow’s mind, but it’s completely silent. She grips the blades tighter in her shaky hands and asks for their forgiveness as she finishes them off with a quick strike to the chest.
Olaf and Slender are having more difficulty on the other side of the arena as the shadow of Benryl doubles in size. Slender yells that it’s bullshit, and Olaf looks up at his father in shock. He mocks him in Dwarvish again, saying, “my gods, you’ve grown fat, haven’t you?” The shadow rages, and Slender backs up precariously close to the channel of lava. He yells for help, and Juno and Mole sprint around the corner of the platform. Shade comes running to their aid, and gets the attention of the shadow of Beatrice off of Slender and Olaf. Olaf ducks under the first swing of Benryl’s hammer and follows up with one of his own. As Benryl staggers backwards, Slender summons a sphere of fire to incinerate the huge shadow.
Juno runs forward and leaps into the air. The runes on her cape activate, and it splits apart into dark dragon wings. She does a flip through the air and slices right through the shadow of Beatrice’s head with her longsword. Shade thanks her for the assist, and Ukko calls for his help in dealing with Jadeth.
As Shade and Mole approach where Ukko is fighting the shadow of Jadeth at the top of the platform, she adjusts her gun’s aim towards them, warning them all to stay away from her. Mole lowers their guard, but Slender yells at them that the shadow isn’t Jadeth. She sees them sheath their sword, and she tries to hide from Ukko behind them– giving Ukko an venomous glare as she does so.
Ukko uses magic to twist his words and demand that she surrender. She tries to fight against it, but is unable to. Ukko tells Shade to tie her up so she can’t hurt anyone, but Mole tries to intervene. Shade cautions them that this thing is dangerous, so finally they step aside.
Slender, Olaf and Juno join the group on the top of the platform, and the shadow of Jadeth curses at them– saying she thought they were her friends. Ukko notes that his radiant magic didn’t seem to have the same effect on her as it did on the other shadows. He glances between her and the group and cuts apart the ropes, saying that it seems something that Ashen Cabaret has to work through. He tries to cast a spell to heal Jadeth, but as soon as she sees him trying to do it, she counters the spell and backs away. He tries it again, and Juno begs him not to hurt her. He scoffs that he isn’t trying to hurt her, but Jadeth takes another step back and falls off of the platform.
When she hits the ground, the shadows around her explode into a much more threatening form. In a furious roar, Jadeth is overtaken by the violent shadow of a huge dragon. The group steps back with wide eyes as she flies up into the air. They brace for combat, but the dragon flies onto the top of the top of the cage and attempts to hide herself from them. Slender holds a hand out, warning everyone not to attack. Shade strokes the fur on his chin and asks Olaf if he wants to take a ride on the dragon much as he does. Olaf nods, so Shade tosses him towards her. He misses and falls on the ground with a pitiful thud. The dragon watches this with an indignant huff.
Slender tries to call her down, but she roars at them again– looking directly at Ukko as she does so. Juno, who had been staring at where the shadow of Alexio faded instead of paying attention to the beast, turns wildly towards the noise and fires off her crossbow. It catches the dragon in the shoulder, and she exhales a shadowy breath in the air as she howls in pain. Slender yells at Juno, and she asks what the problem is, having totally zoned out for the past few moments.
The dragon Jadeth leaps from the top of the cage and lands right in front of Juno with burning fury in her eyes. She spreads her wings and pulls her claws back in preparation to strike Juno dead, but Slender runs in front of Juno and holds his hands out. He shouts, “Jadeth stop!” And the dragon freezes with its claws mere inches from tearing into them.
She exhales a few panicked breaths, and Slender reaches for her face, telling her that they’re her friends. While this tender moment is going on, Shade sneaks on top of dragon Jadeth’s back and sits down smugly.
The dragon pushes her nose against Slender’s hand, but the mechanical voice of Catbot now tears through the air. She shouts, “No, no, no! You were supposed to kill them, starting with Ukko. Can’t Aeon’s damn champion do anything right?” The dragon snorts indignantly, and Catbot growls. She says, “fine, if you want something done right, you do it yourself.”
Suddenly, the last of the shadows in the cage explode out of it and take the shape of a massive mechanical dragon. Catbot introduces it as the Champion of Techaeo – The God Scorned. It lets out a mechanical screech that brings the group to their knees as it gleams with teal light and soars through the air around the tower.
Shade pats dragon Jadeth’s side, and the two of them also take off into the air. Slender looks at The God Scorned and readies his spell to heat metal. He points towards the dragon and ignites its metal shell. It makes another mechanical screech before dive bombing towards the platform where Ashen Cabaret is standing. It unleashes a devastating blue fire breath that scatters the team in different directions and breaks Slender’s concentration.
Ukko summons a thunderstorm, and The God Scorned swerves through the skies to carefully dodge the lightning strikes. Shade and Jadeth swoop down to pick up Olaf and chase after the mechanical monster. When they get close enough to it, Shade leaps from Jadeth’s back to the other dragon’s. He digs his claws into the plating and begins crawling carefully towards its face. Olaf and Jadeth turn back and go pick up Slender. Ukko curses that Shade’s presence on the monster means he can’t just continue shooting lightning at it. He uses his commanding spell to demand that it lands so he can hit it with his halberd.
As soon as The God Scorned lands, it spreads its wings and creates a fearful aura around it. It successfully frightens everyone except for Shade and Jadeth. Olaf and Slender both jump off of dragon Jadeth in their panic, but Ukko gathers everyone around him and casts his own calming aura in a sphere around him. The dragon turns its attention to Mole and knocks them out before jumping back up into the air. Slender shouts their name and helps them back up with a healing spell.
Olaf watches as the dragon begins to ascend and quickly wraps a rope around one of his spears. He throws it perfectly between two of the metal plates and takes hold of it to be lifted with the beast. It snarls and whips Olaf and Shade around as it tries to desperately knock them off of itself. Dragon Jadeth follows them as the other dragon takes them higher and higher off the ground. Shade ducks under metal claws as the dragon begins swiping at him to knock him off. He pulls a rope out of his bag and ties part of it around the dragon’s metal horn before running and leaping over Olaf to tie up The God Scorned’s wings. It frantically thrashes in an attempt to stop him, but Shade manages to swing around without getting hit.
Olaf drives his hammer down hard on its head just as Shade finishes, and the three of them begin plummeting several stories down. Jadeth sees them fall and swoops forward to catch them before they can hit the ground. The God Scorned slams into the floor of the tower with a clanging thud, and the team on the ground gets ready to finish the fight. The beast breaks apart the ropes and knocks Mole back out. Then it turns and shoots another blue fire blast at the group. It catches Slender and Ukko off guard, and Slender is knocked out as well.
Olaf jumps down off their own dragon and asks Shade and Jadeth if they could try doing something like that. Shade laughs, “oh, right– you’re a dragon!” Him and Jadeth nosedive and hit The God Scorned with a shadowy blast of flame just as powerful as its own. It melts away one of the already damaged panels on the dragon’s face, and Olaf sees his opening. He reaches for his hammer, but he hears a strange hiss from his warpick– Talon.
The pick begs Olaf to use it instead, so Olaf listens. He spins it around and leaps through the air to drive it into The God Scorn’s glowing eye. A burst of energy rips from the core and feeds into Talon, briefing invigorating Olaf. The mechanical monster collapses to the ground with another clang, and the team cheers for a moment– until the core begins to beep.
The warning beeps don’t give Ashen Cabaret enough heads up before the machine explodes in a blinding blast of blue light. Shade shouts in panic and lands with Jadeth to begin searching for the team through the rubble. He hears Ukko groan and helps the demi-god back to his feet. He looks at the badly injured group around and helps them all back up with healing magic. Right as he does so, Catbot leaps through a portal to land on top of one of the elevated platforms.
While Ashen Cabaret is looking battered and defeated, they still stand defiant in the face of the mechanical Goddess of Chaos. Catbot scans over them furiously, but finally she bursts out laughing and tries to play it off as a joke. She leaps down and gives Ukko a static-y lick saying, “oh Ukko, wasn’t that such a fun game? Of course I would never hurt you!” Ukko isn’t at all amused, and pushes her off of him. He warns her to stay out of his life, and she acknowledges that she has better things to be doing than continuing to harass the demi-god. Ukko sighs and gives his thanks to Ashen Cabaret for their assistance in keeping him alive.
Slender asks how they can wake up, and Ukko calls forth his thunderstorm again, saying he has an idea. They all group up and grab each other’s hands as he calls down a supercharged lightning strike. It knocks them all right out of the dream, and they wake up scattered around the floor in Slender’s house, in spite of absolutely not all falling asleep there. Jadeth rubs her head and says that she just had the weirdest dream. Slender snaps that it wasn’t a dream, so she replies, “oh, sorry then…” The group splits back into their typical bunking situations, and prepares for an actual good night’s rest.