The scientist recognizes that he woke up in the middle of something drastic.
The boy, on the ground, coughing as if he was chocked to near-death. The assassin, who looks at the doctor with an unamused look on his face. Riley lets an audible "oh non." gasp out of his mouth.
"Had a nice dream, old man?" mockingly throws the assassin.
"Ah! Hum, well, not in the slightest. This rock lacks the squishiness needed to place my head into a comfortable spot. What I should have done was get rid of my coat and use it as a blanket. Also, I'm not that old." Replies the scientist, in an effort to remain unruffled. He lets a nervous laughter out, which eases the mood of Alister. Anything that makes this sickening scientist look more pathetic than he is will always help ease Alister's mood.
Zephyr, still gasping for air, now looks at their interaction, bitter.
"Yeah, same. Unlike me, you won't have to worry about that. No more bullshit, you die today."
Riley can sense the assassin's brutality.
If the cat and mouse game's ending was ambiguous, now it's over, for sure. There is nowhere to run, except below. Riley knows that in the current situation, his animals are no match for the bounty hunter, his legs back at 100% being the biggest factor. Riley's strategy is to converse aimlessly, buying time until he extracts an escape from both the hunter and the blacksmith.
"W-Well thank you! Despite the lack of comfort, I already feel in better shape now then when I was falling to my death!"
"Right." shoots coldly the hunter.
"Speaking of which, you mind telling me why is Zephyr having a hard time breathing? Did another explosion happen?"
Ignoring the doctor's comment, Alister's hamster starts to spin again. He just thinks of a brilliant idea, one that requires the boy.
"You know what? Your death has been postponed, for a few minutes."
"I'm not sure what you mean?" Admits Riley.
"See, while you were napping around in dreamland, I got myself in a big fight with big bad blacksmith over here. Turns out that I heard the scoop of the month, something that tickles my fancy, as we say. Prodigy child, apparently, has some questions for you, about somebody!" says Alister as he points to Zephyr.
Zephyr looks at Riley. Even when beaten up, his resolve remains the same.
"Since we're on my turf now, I'm giving you 10 minutes max, Zeph. After that I'm sending Doc packing to hell and, maybe if you give me a good time, I'll let you come back to your stupid life upstairs. Go, shoot! No time to waste!"
Alister then goes to sit down by the side of the boy. If it wasn't for his mounted flashlight, he wouldn't be able to see the doctor. Zephyr is beginning to breath at a normal pace again. He looks at the scientist directly in the eyes. Him and Riley have a small confrontation. The doctor wants to look away as much as he can. Zephyr wholeheartedly believes this is all he's got.
To some extent, Alister is right: Like a fool, the blacksmith followed them into the depths of the abysmal unknown. Zephyr is stuck between a cloud of smoke on top and total darkness at the bottom. The blacksmith let his emotions take the center stage, and he's facing the consequences. The least he could get from this insanity, mainly if he's really going to perish down there, is to know the truth.
"Doc. We're both going to die sooner or later here. I hate you, yes, but at this stage there's nothing else I can do. It's either we fall to our death, we kill each other, or...Alister kills us."
"Huh, your name is Alister, assassin. That's quite the-."
"Stay on topic! Please! Just… Just tell. When you left Gallows a decade ago, you left with a woman!" Interrogates Zephyr.
"W-Well-."
"That woman. That woman was my mother."
When hearing this, Alister can only drop the act and show a tinge of genuine surprise. Zephyr continues on his demands.
"All I want doctor, is for you to tell me what happened to my mom! I know what you've done, I remember every detail of the aftermath, every single day! I spent the last decade losing everything! I have nothing! Everyone left or died, but me! This is all I've got! Please tell me where's my mom! Please!"
Alister looks at the kid, sympathy risen by how much Zephyr's begging for this information. Reconsidering the records contained in the files against Riley, his sympathy keeps on rising.
"Right. Makes sense." Let's go the assassin.
"Boy...I..." The scientist has a lot of trouble speaking his mind. "I... Look, your mother, well, sh-she volunteered to get some tests done before I left Gallows and-."
"What!? What do you mean by tests!? This doesn't answer my question! I want to know where she is! What happened!? Why did you take her with you!?"
"Boy I am literally answering your ques-!"
"There's a giant cloud of purple smoke above our heads and pure black below! You can't just expect me to pretend that there's nothing to say and walk away, because we cannot walk away! We're going to die! You HAVE to say it and I demand you say it! What happened to my mom!? Why did she leave me for the likes of you!? WHERE IS SHE!?"
Zephyr's skin starts to crack as he continues his barrage of questions, seeking an answer he's half-expecting at this point. He's wrestling with denial for the sake of bright news, that his mother is healthy, that he has a reason to escape and believe in the assassin's confidence; that this weird cloud can be passed through, so he can embrace her again after 10 excruciating years.
Alister gets up, the shock forcing him to shout out loud. The boy is showing signs of supernatural behavior. Zephyr looks at his body. Both the rage against Riley and the scare of seeing himself glow like the sun as his skin breaks apart amplifies the speed of the upcoming explosion.
With his achievement of lightning speed and the blacksmith turning into a bomb, the assassin understands that this could be the start of derangement if he doesn't end this soon.
The animals are watching the scene before Nil goes back to sleep. Urth and Eylventh witness their master commencing a panic attack. So much to say and so little brain power to process the blacksmith's orders. He can't keep up with the assault of words and the roller coaster of emotions thrown his way.
"Boy. Please, let me just... Let me take a moment, I-."
"Ok, you officially broke the man. Congratulations." Responds Alister, dazed by what he's bearing witness to. "I think, knowing his track record as a scientist and as a rascal, that you need to face the music."
The Hunter looks at Zephyr, who stares back at him with a worried, dreadful look on his face, like he's waiting for the worst. The cracks on his skin have slowed down. The pity on Alister's face is genuine.
"You're mom's dead, and by the hands of this guy." Alister points at Riley while saying this.
The young blacksmith is devastated.
He can barely stand on his knees. His eyes are getting watery. The doctor can only look down in complete disarray. What seems to be one of the biggest secrets he kept for the last decade, exposed to the last person that should have known. Alister confirms his suspicions by looking at the acting of Riley. He knows damn well that he's right. The hunter's about to pick the katana from his sheath.
"And now doc, you'll join her in the afterlife."
As the assassin walks with murder intent towards a doctor who doesn't even want to protect himself, Zephyr snaps. Before he can fully process the realization, the young man's body starts to crack again…
...
Then, a sound is born.
Something far below them produces a massive, mechanical roar that sends shivers down everybody's spines.
This sound grows.
The powerful screams brass the entirety of the Bottomless Pit. As it continues upward, the sound progresses into this ear busting pitch, a distorted screech to dissect the grounds above.
This sound reaches their subconscious.
Everyone closes their ears, while Urth hides into his master's coat and Eylventh finds a hole suitable enough to fit inside and cover its ears, thanks to its wings.
That deadly sound lasts for a minute.
It vanishes at a slow pace.
When the assassin lets his ears out of his grip, He looks around, shaken.
"What the fuck was that!?"
He scouts the area in a very energetic pace, as if fear sprung caffeine in his metabolism.
Meanwhile, Riley slowly opens his eyes, his first reflex is to look down and see his small cat Nil...
It is bleeding to death, like something in its tiny body imploded. The mechanisms of the cat's machine gun is still intact.
In agony and terror, the doctor holds his dead kitten in his arms. He starts breaking down in tears.
"No...No no no NO NOOO!! NOT YOU!! NOT MY BABY BOY!!"
"Doctor, you got two other clowns by your side, so shut your mouth! I hear one more scream and I dice everything to bits!" Yells the assassin, still panicking.
Zephyr keeps a tight grip on his ears. He can't let go. What if something screams like that again? What is this place? Why did he jump here? Why oh why? His body freezes to the point his skin stops cracking, paralyzed.
Urth watches from its master's coat; tears falling on the dead body of the cat, as it's hearing the cries of Riley vividly. Urth looks at its fallen friend with a sorrowful look on its face. It closes its eyes.
The bullfrog sees the image of a human child with ginger hair forming a bowl cut walking in the streets, with another kid, a young girl with blonde hair. They look happy, they look prideful.
Urth opens his eyes.
Nil's body twist and contorts in disgusting, unnatural ways, twitching everywhere while gnarling nightmarish noises.