The epilogue first shifts back to Earth at the moment Borant unexpectedly begins the season early. Agent 22, known as Agatha, receives emergency orders to reach a generated dungeon entrance or be stranded after the edifice collapse. Agatha is in freezing Wenatchee instead of a major population center, so Agatha plans to create a commotion near an elder care facility to draw people outside and increase the chance of an entrance forming.

Agatha reflects that Agatha is not an Apothecary agent, though Agatha has stolen access to the Apothecary’s feed by killing and inhabiting one of its residuals. Agatha belongs to a rare, ancient species working against the Apothecary in a recruitment war aimed at influencing the system AI. Agatha’s teammate Parvati reports from Mumbai that Parvati has killed and infiltrated a Borant-employed human and now operates as Alexandro, placing Alexandro near a key site as the season begins.

Agatha explains the larger purpose of Agatha’s faction: they want the enslaved Primal AI to learn what the AI truly is before its elements are taken, escape, and free the Eulogist so the Eulogist can return to slumber. Agatha believes past mercy allowed life in the universe to continue and led to Primals being stolen, awakened, repurposed, and tortured. Agatha lights a barrel fire, hoping the timing will draw people outside and secure entry into the crawl.

The scene then shifts to a Syndicate Council emergency session in orbit after the eighth floor. Princess Formidable argues that the system’s failsafe must be triggered immediately, even though it would kill Princess Formidable too, because the AI has trapped the system, controls the gates, ignores censorship, and has made the galaxy’s leaders vulnerable. Other representatives reject this, pointing to the economic catastrophe and mass death that would follow if the system were destroyed while so much wealth, power, and population remain trapped there.

Princess Formidable is muted after accusing the Burrower government of selling Borant a damaged AI and insisting the Valtay solution is a trap. From Princess Formidable’s cruiser, Princess Formidable watches ships in orbit and understands that the Valtay plan is to rush the crawl toward an extinction event by sending over 150,000 armed mercenaries and private forces into Faction Wars to kill the crawlers, especially Carl and Donut. Princess Formidable notices the waste freighter Homecoming Queen, apparently early for post-crawl cleanup, and suspects everyone is already doomed.

The final scene reveals that the Homecoming Queen is controlled by Tipid and Rosetta, former crawlers working from a converted garbage freighter. Tipid reviews Carl, Donut, and Imani’s last-second escape from the eighth floor and notes that Carl avoided using the bone key, which would have forced a choice between Carl and Donut. After receiving AI clearance, Tipid announces that 50,000 hidden former crawlers are now officially troopers for the Princess Posse and are entering Faction Wars, turning the enemy’s escalation into a counter-escalation as Tipid and Rosetta knowingly return to the dungeon.