The exit appeared two minutes after the stingprey fought off the creator. I barely recognized it as a twin to the archway that had brought us into the switchport in the first place; this one was made of chalky white stone with shards of the same stuff floating about in the oil around it. Each stone was absolutely littered with carvings that I suspected were the Celaura language, but my curiosity was thoroughly suppressed for the time being.

Keratily was still a danger, and I wasn’t even sure the creator was completely gone; just that it had lost its dominion over the hazard. It could just be a powerful slyk now, which still wasn’t the greatest thing for us. Even still… I was almost hesitant to leave the switchport. It felt like I’d spent so much time here, and I’d grown a whole lot stronger since I set foot through that arch.

But those thoughts were for when we were safe. I turned to look at Okeria as he dismissed the sled he’d built, watching as he struggled to get to his feet before accepting Mortician’s help as a walking aid. “We’ve got him. But what will happen if Endra is waiting outside of the hazard for us? If we could not fight Keratily, then we doubt we could fight an Embodiment.”

Okeria shook his head before I could answer. {Endra ain’t out there. Well, she wasn’t out there when Inopsy was waiting for us. Don’t be surprised if we leave ta a whole lotta nothing.}

Jun laughed and shook her head. “That’d be a really nice change of pace. We could use a little while to get our strategy in order.”

“That’s an understatement.” I agreed with a sigh. “I really should corrupt enough gear to outfit all of us. But I don’t have enough potential for that, so we’ll have to find some easy hazard where I can farm it…”

{Please, no hazard talk for at least a few days.} Okeria groaned. {I’ve been constantly on the edge of the abyss ever since I got Persephonia’s call for help, and I could really use a day or two ta myself. At least before I gotta find a way ta get the kids over ta the all-world.}

That seemed like a very fair ask. Hell, I wouldn’t mind a few days, or even weeks, away from thoughts of Endra. But I knew I couldn’t do that. So I’d settle for a few days alone with Jun to commiserate and plan for the future.

“Will you get reports on what Endra’s doing when we’re at Rainbow Basin?” I asked Okeria.

He shrugged. {If Endra’s screwing about in the open, then yeah. But if she’s hiding away, or passing off as Persephonia, then no. I don’t have a watch out for Persephonia, but I’ll change that when we get there. I won’t let Endra stride around with her chin raised just because she took over Persephonia’s body.}

“Good. That means we can relax a little while we get ready to… huh. What are we going to do about Endra?” She wondered, then turned to me. “I remember something about only an Embodiment can kill an Embodiment, but we don’t even know where your people are on the all-world. They could be months away. Maybe we should try to talk to a different species that’s already set up?”

{Nope; that’s not a good idea in the slightest. We don’t want anyone finding out Endra’s broken the rules, since that could lead ta others following suit. We need ta stay quiet for as long as possible. At least until we have a real idea on how we’d even pit two Embodiments against each other.} Okeria said with finality. He had to know a lot we didn’t know, so I defaulted to him on this topic. {I’d say humanity is our best bet at the moment. I’ll send out some of my trusted people ta scout for ‘em, and until then, we just focus on making the three of ya as strong as we can. Two of ya are already growing at a terrifying rate, so we gotta take advantage of that.}

“That sounds like an excellent plan! Though, considering everything, it would seem that we need to leave this hazard before that can take place.” Mortician cut in. “We have had enough oil in our life, so if we could leave it behind now…”

They trailed off, and their gaze focused on the archway. I patted them on the shoulder as they walked up to join Jun and I, and only then did I notice how exhausted they looked. “Mortician? Are you doing alright?”

A long pause was my first answer. “No. We are not. Our core is quite a bit more complicated than we expected, on top of what we showed Juniper, and it takes more than just battery to operate it. We would really appreciate a… warm bed. We haven’t slept in one of those in centuries. Or quite possibly more.”

“Fair enough.” I said with a motion at the arch. “You do the honours. Jun and I will be right behind you.”

Mortician nodded shallowly with exhaustion, hefting Okeria up a little as they walked right up to the arch. They took in a deep breath, one that would’ve killed anyone else, and reached out to touch it without another word. They weren’t instantly pulled into it, which seemed to surprise them.

{Ya gotta get fully into it first.} Okeria said patiently. {So it don’t do any damage to ya if it’s a dramatic exit.}

“Oh. That is good to know.” Mortician said with embarrassment. They pushed through the arch, their arm disappearing into a curtain of darker oil, and the rest of them following suit not much later.

Jun and I shared a look, and then a tired laugh. “Well.” She breathed with a shake of her head, crossing her arms and staring at the arch as she did. “Time to go back. I can’t say I’ll miss this place.”

“I don’t know. It did push us closer together.” I said with a shrug. “I’ll always thank it for that. But not much else.”

“...Yeah. It did.” Jun said quietly, moving closer and taking my hand in hers. We just stood there for a minute, enjoying each other’s company in the relative silence of the hazard. “But when we get out there, we’re going to have so many new enemies. I miss when it was just you and me against the floodforest, and we didn’t have to worry about the Keratilys or an Embodiment and her almost-cultists.”

I squeezed her hand a little harder. “We’ll deal with it together. Having something like The End on our side should even the odds a little, right?”

Jun looked up at the black sky and sighed. “I don’t know, Seb. I don’t know.” She whispered. “If Endra broke the rules, but The End still chooses to abide by them, then how much can it help us? Endra’s gotta have more Staura Embodiments out there just waiting to come down themselves, so how are we going to fight that?”

…Shit. I didn’t want Jun to worry about the same damn things I was. “I don’t know either. We’ll have to find a way.”

Jun slowly turned to look at me, and even though I couldn’t see her eyes through her helmet, I knew they were filled with determination and worry. The same things I would’ve seen if I was looking in a mirror. She gestured at the arch wordlessly, but didn’t move towards it. She knew what it meant to go through just as much as I did. But we had to.

I took a step forward, and Jun followed after a brief pause. Our next steps were taken together, and as I felt the veil of the hazard’s exit pass over me, I was beyond glad that she was standing there next to me.

The world collapsed in on itself. I saw everything as if it were in two dimensions, flat and strangely lifeless, and then it folded. My mind struggled to comprehend the fact that the sky had just disappeared completely, and there was nothing there to replace it. Then the left folded under. Then my right. I tried to look behind me, or down, but they simply didn’t exist. I looked over at Jun to see her looking at me, both of our worlds reduced down to the small rectangle of existence, and it was…

Comfortable. Strangely so. I pulled her in close for a side hug, felt her arm wrap around my chest, and closed my eyes. I’d be seeing The End soon enough, but I was going to savor this feeling as long as I could.

It went on for another few short seconds, and then the feel of everything changed. Cool and wet was swapped out for warm and comfortable, and light assaulted me through my visor. Yet I could still feel something in my hand. I opened my eyes a crack to see what had changed, and found The End standing across from me with a posture that said it was… extremely pleased.

“What?” I muttered to myself, taking in the form of The End that was metal-like and clad in so many ribbons. It was standing in a grand hall made of vibrant blue stone that flowed like water, accented with metallic white columns and filigree that led up to a… I’d call it a throne, but there was something off about it. It was too deep, and not wide enough. So much so that ten children could sit on it in a row, but a full-grown adult couldn’t squeeze into it.

The more I stared at it, the less I understood it. It was a skeleton of a seat, with the arms so thin that they wouldn’t serve as resting places. The back and seat were simple slabs of white stone, resting on a flowing blue base that transitioned seamlessly into the floor. As if the floor had raised up first, and then the slabs and arms had been placed on it as an afterthought.

“Welcome to the center of the Ossuary.” The End said kindly, spreading its arms to reveal that its ribbons were connected to their blue and white equals in the room. “It does not exist unless I will it to, and it is only used for momentous occasions such as this.”

I looked around as The End beamed with pride, but there wasn’t anything else to see. This place was obviously a part of The End, and if the throne was for their skeletal form, I could see why it looked like that.

“So, this ‘momentous occasion’... is it for Mortician existing?” I asked, stepping forwards and pulling Jun along with me. Wait. I turned to see Jun swiveling her head around in abject confusion, taking everything in before she ended up focused on The End. “You can come here with me now?”

“I can come here with you now?” Jun echoed me, but with a lot more confusion. “Where is here? I mean, where are we? This doesn’t look like the last time we saw The End. And why did it feel like you got here before me?”

The End cleared its throat to get our attention. “It feels as if Sebastian got here before you because he did. The Envoy and The Mortician have access to the Ossuary, and they can pull in others who have… how shall I put it… unshakeable bonds with them. For Sebastian, that list contains only one person.”

A skeletal hand unfurled towards Jun. “You.”