Implication Details

Claim: If a category has cofiltered-limit-stable epimorphisms and has countable coproducts and is an elementary topos, then it is trivial.

Proof: Let $N \coloneqq \coprod_{m \in \IN} 1$ and consider for every $n \in \IN$ the subobject $N_{\geq n} = \coprod_{m \geq n} 1$ of $N$. For $n \leq n'$ we have $N_{\geq n'} \subseteq N_{\geq n}$. There is a (unique, split) epimorphism $N_{\geq n} \to 1$ for every $n$. By assumption, their limit $\lim_n N_{\geq n} \to 1$ is also an epimorphism. But $\lim_n N_{\geq n} = \bigcap_{n} N_{\geq n} = 0$. Thus, $0 \to 1$ is an epimorphism. It must be a regular epimorphism, but $0$ is strict initial, so that $0 \to 1$ is an isomorphism. Hence, $X \cong X \times 1 \cong X \times 0 \cong 0$ for all $X$.