Epilogue
An orange-furred face pushes out of the crumbling horseman's ribs, followed by shoulders and paws, peeling out as if a butterfly panicking as it escaped a falling chrysalis. With a rough shove, a pair of dark limbs push the rest of the Primal out, and Rebel turns, pulling Qaeturna to fresh air even as War still falls to the ground.
"Go!" Qaeturna shouts, though at the speed War falls still, Rebel couldn't possibly heed them in time.
It wasn't Rebel they were shouting for. Myriad wings burst forth from the ribcage, and the primals of the Underground Camp break free of the dying horseman's trap. Some carry the younger or slower members in their arms or between them, and others - Qaeturna and Rebel included - simply break their fall with their wingbeats.
A crashing of armor sounds, then a shattering of bone, but no harsh impact that would be expected of a massive beast falling to the ground like War, and all assembled turn to the site of the fallen beast. Only a suit of armor remains, some strands of flesh built up inside of it and clinging to the ground. A weak, despairing pulse emanates from it like a wavering heartbeat. Mesmerize approaches the house-sized armor set, putting a paw to it, but flinches away at the cold metal.
"Right, of course," Mesmerize says with a flat smile. "Uuner, do you know where MEME got to?"
"If it's not too much to ask," Comes a gruff voice from behind the destroyed bone cage, "We can take care of that for you."
Fang reveals themself from behind a tower of bone, limping slightly and held up by Aulik. Behind them, several Ixi from the Quarantine Swamp follow - several that haven't been seen for years. Odd mutations appear on some, others wearing tattered hazmat suits that they're still holding onto for either sentimentality or identification purposes, as the suits don't serve any functional purpose anymore. The group silently surrounds War's armor, places a paw to the ground, and opens a large rift, dropping the object back where it came from.
War drifts down, down, deeper into a ravine in the Chasm, its form simply an illusion to entertain itself now. The armor finally wedges in soft ground, and War's eyes - it assumes it might still have them - flicker on. A rumble grows in its glamour of a throat as it sees the figure standing above it.
Bipedal and shapeless, with a veil of flesh over its eyes. Its back wide open, massive lungs floating distantly like wings; veins, innards, and lobes drifting in an unseen wind in some facsimile of life. It stands on nothing, pieces of it stretching on forever.
"I'll take my name back, thank you," It speaks in an androgynous, human-like voice.
War growls, but knows not what its fellow horseman would do if it refused.
"Thank you," Death says, its voice a grin. "Impressive that you managed to convince the Sxriix-walkers that you were some sort of harbinger, I'll give you that, but you really let it get to your head, didn't you?"
The walls close in on War, just enough to hold its armor in place. It growls, hatefully but helplessly.
"I won't be back," Death gives a wave of a misshapen, flesh-forming hand.
"I would like to purchase the rest of the Rebel's debt," A beaked chimera stands in the mine before a muscular foreman, a scarf around their neck giving off an interesting scent. "For their own safety following this incident as well as a faster closure." "Interesting contribution, Corona," The Authorities pluck the scarf from the smaller Ixi. "Where were you?" "Uninvited?" Corona gives a toothy grin. "I live here, and this fellow finally opened up to let me know what's been going on. I would have pitched in as a local merchant before now had I known."
The Authorities roll their eyes, but shrug and turn around. Before they make it back to the tunnels to the Camp, however-
"Keep the scarf, dear," Corona calls.
The Authorities ball up the Hypnotic Disguise and put it in a toolbelt pocket.
"I'm free to go?" Rebel's ears twitch quizzically.
"I'm changing our laws, starting today," Aahtar Korid stands beside the Authorities, who mark down things on a holoscreen. "The Underworld Camp will open its doors to outsiders, though the guards will remain for safety - we border the Steps. No offense meant."
The Rock Collector simply chuckles and waves a paw.
"Our community is still intended as a stationary one, though there is a nomadic Primal camp setting up to the north that I've already become aware of, if this suits your desire to explore," Aahtar continues.
Rebel's eyes light up at this, and the Underworld Chief smiles, gesturing over the ginger Primal's shoulder. Ruun stands in the tunnel opening, wings beating impatiently.
