The vault is shut.

The lights in the sky flicker out, not directly seeable above the layer of clouds now covering the entire planet, but some wizards and other spellcasters know.  They cheer, and go to cry the good news to others.

Not nearly all clerics, but a few clerics here and there, of eighth or ninth circle, receive faint touches of reassurance from their exhausted gods.  They cheer, and go to cry the good news to others.

High on mountains, here and there, above even the clouds of war, metallic and chromatic dragons watch the sky's lights fade, and raise their heads and bellow victory for Good and Evil.

It's still raining, of course, clouds don't just vanish when the gods stop stirring them.  But now the rains will grow lesser rather than more, and soon in many places they will be gone.

Merry Christmas.

Nethys is sort of tired now and has been making Himself be way too coherent for way too long and He needs to be everywhere but also on some distant planets making pretty explosions for a while.

It's okay, Nethys.  Go rest, or be more where you are resting.  I think we can handle the plan from here.

Bye for now, then, mysterious female god!

...Nethys, you obviously know who I am, for reasons up to and including being the God of Knowledge.

I know!  But the things that watch from orthogonal angles to ultimate reality don't!

Nethys, I think you actually should rest.

You're not my real mom but fine.

Oh but until Nethys gets back, nobody tell Keltham about the part where everything he thinks is a trope is actually not that trope and none of the forces structuring his universe were originally shaped to put him into an eroLARP and he actually is just Wrong Genre Savvy reading faces in the clouds.  Nethys wants to see Keltham's face when he finds out!

Wait.  Nethys is actually always everywhere and sees everything.

Well, please wait anyways!

Nethys, I think you should rest literally right now.

Nethys will make RESTFUL EXPLOSIONS.

In Egorian, trumpets ring out about three minutes after Aspexia Rugatonn gets the news and some wizards on aerial teams above Nidal Send in with the same. 

Carissa's head snaps up from praying.

" - that's - got to be good news, they wouldn't trumpet for bad -"

His eyes snap open and he looks out the window, as if he's going to see something, but obviously, of course, it's still raining.

Hope is already lifting in him.  Twelve days to ruin the world, last time, one day this time and it was just a regular storm when it ended.  That doesn't sound like a hundred and fifty million people are going to die.

"Can you - go get confirmation, and come back to me," Keltham says.

"Yes." And she opens his door and takes off down the hall towards the temple.

As soon as the door is closed, Keltham puts his face into his hands and starts sobbing.

On the streets, presumably, people are rejoicing, but in the temple they're not; if there's a lessening in the general atmosphere of fear and doom, it's a slight one. Maillol's of course still out. The fleeting thought that she should get the punishment over with now while her torturer will be in a good mood doesn't even seem like it'd be true, never mind that it'd be irresponsible, Keltham told her to come back. 

"Keltham asked for news," she says, because it seems slightly less stupid than "did we win."

"Asmodeus won, we have confirmation on that from Hell now.  Zon-Kuthon's not dead, though, the fucking other gods let our Lord do most of the real work and then sealed Zon-Kuthon away, in a vault to which Iomedae has the key, in case they want to use Him against our Lord some day."  The second-circle priest speaking spits on the floor nearby, to clear his mouth from speaking Iomedae's name.  "Nidal's clerics will keep getting spells.  Doesn't change that their god is sealed up and Asmodeus is no longer distracted by fighting Him, so now they're fucked."

" - well. I don't know why they think it'd go any better for Zon-Kuthon if they ever do let Him out. - I'm not sure what parts of that I want Keltham authorized with. That Zon-Kuthon's in a vault not dead seems fine, and is necessary to explain why the war with Nidal isn't pretty much over; that the Good gods did that to counterbalance Asmodeus, I'm leaning no; maybe they did it because it's....faster...would it in fact have been faster..."

"Think you want either the Grand High Priestess or an older devil for that one."

And the Grand High Priestess is incredibly busy and Carissa doesn't in fact have a line to Hell but she's not actually willing to go back to Keltham with a lie that isn't shaped like the truth.

"How long have people been waiting for an audience with the Grand High Priestess, I'm expected to go right back to Keltham once I have news."

"Start with 'forever' and adjust downwards from there, but not very far."

"Great. I'll go back with an incomplete story, then, and I request that when we do next have a line with Hell the question be conveyed."

The priest gives her a skeptical look (maybe this ignorant fool doesn't know who Carissa Sevar is?) but dutifully scribbles down a request and the name of the third-circle wizard who made it.