The revelation that the Netlins were Fallen Angels had plunged Umbria into a state of deep anxiety. The already complex situation had become even more grim. How could they confront beings of such magnitude, whose nature and intentions were a dangerous enigma?
The weight of this new reality fell especially heavily on Professor Alatar. The elderly soothsayer spent hours in meditation, trying to peer into the mists of the future, searching for some guidance, some clue as to the Netlins' purpose. But his visions were fragmentary, confusing, filled with disturbing images that he couldn't fully understand.
One morning, during a deep meditation session at the Umbria astronomical observatory, Alatar was struck by a vision of unprecedented intensity. He didn't see falling angels or magical battles. He saw something far worse.
He saw impossible geometries that stupefied the eye, cyclopean cities submerged beneath inky oceans, and at the center of it all, a titanic form, vaguely humanoid but with an octopus head and membranous wings, sleeping a deathly sleep in a city of wrong angles. He saw alien stars aligning in the night sky, and felt a vast, ancient presence completely indifferent to human existence, a presence emanating madness and despair. He heard a name whispered on cosmic winds: Cthulhu.
Alatar emerged from the vision gasping, his heart pounding and a cold sweat running down his back. He ran to the library, where Merlin and the Council were gathered, discussing defensive strategies.
"I've seen him!" Alatar exclaimed, bursting into the room, his eyes wide with terror. "The Banshee's warning... the Netlin... is not for us!"
Everyone turned to him, surprised by his agitated state.
"There is something else!" Alatar continued, trying to articulate the nightmarish images he had witnessed. "Something ancient... vast... slumbering, yet awakening. Cities beneath the sea... misguided stars... Cthulhu!"
The name echoed through the library, sending shivers down the spines of even the Elder Wizards. It was a name that appeared in the darkest and most forbidden texts, fragments of the Necronomicon, whispered legends about cosmic entities whose power transcended human understanding.
Merlin paled visibly. He quickly approached Alatar, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder, while his own eyes frantically searched the darkest shelves of the mental library that was his memory.
"The Codex Angelorum Perditorum," Merlin murmured. "It speaks of a 'Great Ancient War,' before the Fall. A war not against Heaven, but against... the 'Cosmic Intruders,' the 'Horrors of the Outer Void.'"
Merlin gestured to the book Alatar had been studying. "I reviewed those passages. I always thought they were allegories, metaphors for the struggle against the darkness within. But Alatar's vision... Cthulhu..."
The old wizard put the pieces together. "The Netlin do not come to judge us for our sins or for the conflict between Light and Chaos, at least not primarily. They come because they sense the awakening of their ancient enemy. They come because Cthulhu, or his kind, seeks to reclaim Earth!"
The revelation was like the blow of a sledgehammer. The threat was not only internal (Nyx, Morgana, Poimandres) nor celestial (hostile Fallen Angels), but also external, cosmic, an invasion by alien beings whose power defied sanity.
"So," Aria said, trying to process the enormity of the situation, "the Netlin might be... allies?"
"Reluctant allies, perhaps," Merlin replied cautiously. "Their pride is legendary, and they probably see us as little more than insects in the midst of their millennia-long war. But their primary goal might be to stop Cthulhu, not us."
"And what about Nyx and Poimandres?" Kaelen asked. "Do they know about this?"
"It's likely that Poimandres, as a primordial entity of Chaos, has some knowledge of these cosmic forces," Merlin said. "And it's possible that Poimandres's awakening and the growing influence of Chaos are, in fact, weakening the dimensional barriers, facilitating the awakening or arrival of Cthulhu and his progeny."
The situation was desperate. They were caught between multiple fronts: the dark alliance of Nyx and Morgana, powered by a Chaos dragon; the imminent arrival of the ambiguous and powerful Fallen Angels (Netlin); and now, the existential threat of a cosmic invasion led by Cthulhu.
"This is beyond anything we've ever faced," Professor Minerva said, her voice trembling.
"And it will require measures beyond anything we ever considered," Merlin stated, his gaze hardening. He looked back at the copy of the Keys of Solomon and the Emerald Tablet. "Forbidden knowledge... ancient magic... they may be our only hope,
Not only against Chaos, but against the horrors that lie beyond the stars."
The atmosphere in Umbria grew even darker. The fight for survival had taken on a cosmic dimension. It was no longer just a matter of defending their school or their world from the familiar darkness, but of protecting reality itself from alien and incomprehensible forces. The arrival of the Netlins was no longer just a threat or a mystery, but a harbinger of a much larger and more terrifying war that was about to engulf the Earth.