It gets the three Kuthites to pause for a couple of seconds before one of them snarls something and they turn their attention back to Keltham.

Well on the bright side the Queen of Cheliax will have no opportunity to deny Carissa Hell. 

She gets in the way.

Before Carissa can actually get herself into the way, it becomes a moot point.

Reinforcements now include that elderly and long-serving retainer to the House of Thrune, Gorthoklek, general of Cheliax's armies, and more importantly at the moment, a pit fiend.  With relatively few exceptions across Golarion, the general rule is that the pit fiend wins.

He lands on top of the Kuthites about to attack Keltham without that significantly slowing his massive clawed feet from striking the ground.  "Stay near me," he speaks in low rumbling Baseline, words that Carissa can probably recognize by now as dath ilani in intonation, even if she doesn't know the meaning.  Then Gorthoklek begins speaking spellwords, and from him spring scorching rays, quickened fireballs, a meteor swarm.

One claw makes a beckoning gesture to Carissa.

She will come when beckoned, and confirm for Keltham "he's on our side", though presumably he's inferred that from how he's breathing.

Yeah, that's assuming way too much about Keltham's priors being strong enough to relate his evidence in any solid way to reality.

"Orders else -" he starts in Baseline, per emergency training, and then switches to Taldane.  "Orders or situation report."

The Chelish norms for emergency communications are different enough she's not quite sure what he means. "Gorthoklek serves the Queen, stay close and shout at him if something's after you."

"If you're not otherwise busy, what's currently happening and are we likely to win it."

"Zon Kuthon attacked us and yes."

There was supposedly only a 4% probability of that happening this quickly even after updating on his god's warning.  Keltham doesn't know if the read here is that his god understood which exact leap of wild guessing he'd make, or if Cheliax is dumb enough to fake the attack he indicated being nervous about in the most blatant way possible.  He can't trust his truthspell, now that he knows what Fake Being Enchanted actually does, he knows exactly how easy it would be for a fourth-circle cleric to defeat, and they didn't mention that to him even if Carissa said (honestly?) that she didn't recognize the spell -

"Pilar's dead.  Is that permanent when somebody does it using a horrible-looking sharp thing."

- the sword isn't an elaborate sword of soul-trapping or something, is it? No, perfectly normal +3 vicious cruel sword. "Not permanent. - though if we're at war with Nidal now they might be prioritizing resurrecting soldiers."

Dead for a while is not an emergency, dead forever is.  Keltham remembers Carissa's own fears fast enough not to say it.

He looks upward, then.  Strange auroras are flickering in the twilight sky, visible even without full night fallen.

The phenomenon doesn't look centered on the villa.

It looks like it's stretched all the way from horizon to horizon.

"What's happening to the sky?" says Keltham.

"....I have no idea."

Gorthoklek's voice answers instead.  He is no longer casting fire about him, battle is dying away, and now Gorthoklek himself seems to be looking up at the sky.

His rumbling voice sends chills down the spine of all who hear it, Keltham and Carissa alike.

"Those above all mortals now battle."

An observation: 

If Zon Kuthon were to have just violated a Pharasma's-Name edict about nonintervention, that would rather settle the question of whether it is safe for Golarion for Zon Kuthon to continue to exist. If He is inverted such as to not just fail to coordinate with, but to deliberately defy, such edicts, even only occasionally - if there's even a chance that's what happened here...

One would expect Gorum to be first to speak, on such occasions.  He is a very great god, though not quite as great as Asmodeus, and has always been the foremost proponent of keeping Zon-Kuthon as a counterbalance.  Asmodeus's insinuation would be noted, would shift some probability estimates a tiny bit, shifting other negotiations a little bit in Asmodeus's favor; but His suggestion would soon be rejected.

Gorum doesn't speak, for some reason.

Irori knows fractionally more than other gods about this matter, or so He believes, and is not particularly a fan of Asmodeus.

He's not a fan of Zon-Kuthon either.

He is less yet in favor of unnecessary conflict between major deities.

There have already been multiple divine interventions meddling in an issue of some concern to Otolmens; She is understandably annoyed.  While I do not think we stand in danger of imminent destruction, I would fully advise that everyone listen to Her about this and comply with the spirit as well as the letter of Her instructions and not meddle here any more.

That said, this same record of previous divine intervention, and the timing, suggests that Zon-Kuthon probably already had His warriors on the way when Otolmens issued Pharasma's Edict and stands not in direct violation of it.  I doubt He had an army already assembled and waiting, to be directed straight into Otolmens's interdicted region almost the moment she issued the Edict.

There is discussion of this, leaning of course towards Irori's viewpoint.  Actually disciplining Zon-Kuthon in any serious way would be a lot of unpleasant work.

Gorum speaks then, after the fashion of gods.

He shows them the evidence of Zon-Kuthon, in fact, specifically instructing His people, directly after Otolmens's order, to violate Her edict in Pharasma's Name.

Gorum has been persuaded.

He is obviously not willing to go along with Zon-Kuthon's destruction; that would give the portfolio of Lawful Evil to Asmodeus alone among the ancient gods, with reverberant effects at the deepest levels of reality.  But let Zon-Kuthon be sealed up away as much as Zon-Kuthon can be sealed, in a vault not unlike that which holds Rovagug, to be released only as a counterweight to Asmodeus if that becomes necessary.  Asmodeus will be strengthened by this too, of course, and not trivially, but that is a price Gorum would sooner pay than see Zon-Kuthon release Rovagug.

If such a thing is to be done, and it does appear it might be necessary, it should be done at once and unanimously, because a day of war Golarion can withstand, but a fight that would last any longer than that will flood the crops in the fields and destroy the people and, down the line, the kingdoms relying on them. 

Iomedae has considered, long ago, how this could be done. At the time it did not seem wise, and She has been apprised little of whatever prompted so many gods to change their calculations, but here is how it would be done, if sufficient resources are committed to the doing.

And if it is to be done She should hold the key, obviously, as a Lawful god opposed to Asmodeus (let's be honest, the Lawful god opposed to Asmodeus), and one who can be predicted to release Him under conditions satisfactory to everyone else save Asmodeus, whose awful conduct is of course the reason they've even been pressed to this dilemma.

Gorum would prefer to hold the key Himself, of course, but He realizes that other gods are more likely to go along with the suggestion that it be Iomedae.

...there is clearly plotting going on here, gods are not stupid, Gorum did not come across this information by coincidence.

That Nethys could have given it to Gorum is almost too obvious to need thinking; but you can't go around blaming Nethys for everything, that's a way to miss all the other possibilities that aren't "Nethys did it".  Also, contributing information leading to the downfall of another god, even Zon-Kuthon, would be pretty daring for Nethys; other gods are aware that Nethys could do more than the usual damage if Nethys started acting deliberately against other gods, and while Nethys might be able to get away with moving against Zon-Kuthon, out of all the gods, once, He'd be walking very thin ice after that, if He were ever found out.

A plot between Gorum and Asmodeus??  Some weird accommodation between them???

Gods' minds are large enough to explicitly consider many possible hypotheses.  They will consider the possibility that it was Somebody Else who made an accommodation with Asmodeus, and then successfully persuaded Gorum to turn against Zon-Kuthon using this information.  They will consider the possibility that Zon-Kuthon was lured into doing this and that is why Gorum knew where to look to collect the evidence.

It doesn't change the fact that Zon-Kuthon did in fact deliberately violate a Pharasma's-Name edict from Otolmens.  This is kind of a big deal for any god, let alone Zon-Kuthon, who maliciously withdrew His powers from the Star Towers that Dou-Bral used to impale and weaken Rovagug within Its prison.

Asmodeus is confused, and dislikes it. 

Those are inadequate words for the experience of being Asmodeus; words are generally inadequate for it, but those ones especially so. All of Caina grows colder, as Asmodeus withdraws His power from Hell in order to think; few ever enter or leave Nessus, and there is no word of what is happening there.

It obviously serves Him, for Zon Kuthon to be warred with, and locked away; it's why He bothered to vaguely insinuate this might be warranted. And it does seem like Zon Kuthon might be more willing to war with Asmodeus - not even for any clear reason! - than previously imagined, which makes the case for being rid of Him stronger. 

But this was orchestrated, unambiguously, maybe by Nethys, maybe by several gods collaborating (Iomedae and Irori? Sarenrae and Abadar and Cayden Cailean, who has been intervening in Cheliax for some not-known reason? A minor god, gambling everything?) and it is hard to imagine that the end towards which it was orchestrated was simply the removal of Zon Kuthon. 

There's lots of minor things that could be attained in the short term by distracting Asmodeus with a war with Zon Kuthon. Cheliax will be drawn into a war with Nidal. Ground might be lost at the Worldwound. Perhaps a difficult province in Cheliax could break free. 

It seems unlikely that a god made a move with these stakes for that practically trivial prize. 

Asmodeus is confused, and dislikes it. 

And yet, when confused, it's better to have more resources than fewer, and it's better for Zon Kuthon to be gone. 

He indicates willingness to back imprisonment of Zon Kuthon, with more resources if the key goes to Gorum. And He'd like Iomedae to note that absolutely none of the recent nonsense is his fault; he's intervened only when fully paid by other gods, to direct his people in not harming mortals They got suddenly attached to.

Iomedae ignores this. She's not sure why Asmodeus bothers to talk to Her without paying Her to listen.

At this point Abadar has no idea what is going on (lit: plenty of hypotheses and little evidence) but He wants Zon-Kuthon sealed up rather a lot; Abadar is the one who, long ago, bargained for Zon-Kuthon to go into a temporary imprisonment that should have lasted much longer than it did.

Asmodeus benefits greatly from this, more than any of the rest of us.  I suggest that we designate this threshold level of resource commitment as Asmodeus's fair contribution and probabilistically collectively withdraw our support in proportion to how He tries to contribute any less.

There is debate, but quickly; somebody might tip off Zon-Kuthon and then it all becomes harder.

Many gods, not all, combine their powers; the rest agree at least not to interfere.

The forging of a vault begins, with a key that Iomedae alone can turn.

Sarenrae temporarily focuses nearly all Her will on the vault where Rovagug is imprisoned, she could not protect that vault from a full assault by Zon-Kuthon from every direction, but with Zon-Kuthon otherwise distracted she will be able to fend off any lesser attempts at that, if it does not come as a surprise.  There also does Otolmens stand guard.

And most of the other gods assault Zon-Kuthon, everywhere that is not that vault; Zon-Kuthon must put the greater parts of Himself within it, or else be vastly diminished.

That Zon-Kuthon will scatter smaller-sized fragments of His will and power beyond the vault, yet linked to His greater whole, is inevitable; it is not easy to really, really kill a god, if they have not made themselves vulnerable by collecting themselves too much into one place.