To speak of Peace,
But prepare for war,
Kneel not before Idles,
But test not Fate.
Foresight is not insight.
Be it not Hindsight.
Calcifer was wrong. Did he believe that X had merely approached him with a mere warning? Hardly the case, not at all, in fact the warning was merely the distraction. The moment he set foot into X's realm, he had already lost the precious moments of time he had from unlocking the gate. Now however, even should Calcifer unlock the gate, he would find that X had pulled the wool over his eyes with this idle small talk. He had quite literally spoken the truth as he often does being a God of Truth, that the forces Calcifer sought was indeed beyond them. Both physically and control. Yet what Calcifer would realize the moment he opened the gate to release the forces trapped within was quite the literal truth: X had placed them far beyond reach, creating a stretch of his secret realm between their freedom measuring into the lengths of infinities. Certainly Calcifer was free to unlock the gate, yet both on either side could never reach each other, he would never have his armies and they would never escape their prison. This was typical of X, leaving doors unlocked and unguarded, yet never letting anything enter so easily not without fetching a secret or two for his amusement.
The Horn was loud, too loud, even in his Ethereal realm between the planes; between the pages of the cosmic book, X could hear Hal calling. The second horn, as predicted and foreseen, a beckon to prepare for war. And so the portals would be opened once more, rifts torn through the pages as the gods of light would come to heed the call to arms. To which X produced a smile across his thin lips. To a page long forgotten then, as he walked the halls of his library, rising from a leather chair as the bookshelves lined the walls without end. While the other gods preferred their realms, their pages within the book of planes, X preferred to exist fringes between them. It was within the gaps where the God of Secrets dwelled, not the pages which could be so easily read. And much more than this was the access to the Nexus of them all, at the very spine of the book, where he could simply travel to and through all the realms he pleases and visit all the pieces on the grandest chessboard.
It was time, his longstanding preparations had already been accounted for as he was the first to appear in the War Room, taking his seat at the table like an old war veteran. Upon the table placed before him was a chess set which he had placed long ago, an army of white pieces stood before a single knight in black, although one of the pieces a white bishop was captured and set asside. Calcifer was wrong once again, X did not take a neutral stance in this war. He did have a score to settle, and the value of a bishop was equal to that of a knight. He waited for them to gather into the old room, perhaps some surprised by his appearance in such a place, perhaps others were not. And as the last of them trickled in, the portals weaving through the pages in and out he finally addressed the assembly.
"The Lion's Roar follows the Silence." X commented, regarding to his initial call and warning to which none seemed to understand the gravity of his first call to arms. Now it was too late and the enemy was already at the gate. Then again not every god was a clever god, not all could unravel the breadcrumbs X had left some like Darko were far too linear, other like Hal were perceptive, yet lacked the timing. Either way, in his game of riddles only the Creator was exempt, yet between the two of them the could not stop fate. But certainly X had a contingency plan should it fail.
"Preparations have been made Hal-Reftar, I have foreseen this moment as a possibility. Though none can reach the enemy, the enemy cannot reach his allies. Now brethren assembled, Ask me not if I know the enemy, test not my knowledge for that which escapes your mind does not escape mine. Yet I may only proceed to prolong the inevitable, we march slowly towards Armageddon and thus there are two tasks at hand. The first we as Gods may do, the second requires the mortals to complete for us.
What stands before us, should the mortals fail us, lies beyond the gate. Once released, they shall destroy everything in existence and wipe clean the slate. Everything shall return to the void it once was, and this outcome I have seen to... A universe of eternal nothingness that even we the Gods do not persist in our immortality. Yet even when we are faded and gone, long since our memories have faced oblivion, I would offer hope. I propose that we gather the Living Corpse, and from the godly essence of the Dead Immortal, should we create a seed of life that shall survive and begin the universe anew. Make no commotion brethren assembled here. We have had our time, let us create a new generation should we fall.
Now which stands before not us but the mortals is a simple task. Should the enemy realized my attempt to stop him, he shall seek one of my Books: The Compendium Explanaris, as the mortals call it, will allow the enemy to go through the backdoor and pull his allies through the far realm which borders my own. Should it fall into his hands, the path will be opened and doomsday fall upon us all. Those amongst us with chosen champions, favoured mortals should be directed to seek the Compendium Explanaris and deliver it to their god. I Entrust this book to whoever shall find it, be it for good or evil.
What say you, Brethren of the Light? Will you fetch a book and body to for the sake of all in existence? Or shall you resign yourselves to retire to your respective realms and, like I watch and observe the spheres collapse before joining the void?"
