Time is an interesting thing, as is reality. It can be said that the way people perceive time changes based on the ambient stimuli that affect them, and with that also comes the fact that reality itself seems to shift depending on ones reference point and events and stimuli that are both present and prior to the moment in which reality is observed. As everyone knows, time seems to speed up when you are engaged in an act that you enjoy, almost as if existence itself is punishing you with a shorter period of enjoyment for daring to find some kind of fun in that brief moment of happiness.

Likewise, time seems to slow down when you are doing things that you dislike, almost as if the universe itself takes perverse delight in watching you suffer what should only be a minimal span of time but instead seems like an eternity. Media of all types has long since used time and its passage to eliminate certain undesirable aspects from itself, either by using montages or simply engaging in the always divisive ‘time skip’. Now, I know what you are thinking; why is this person going on about meaningless philosophy?

Well, that is because both Darksol’s people and the giant asshole tree that ruled the Elves both want to keep war from arriving as soon as possible. I know, I know. I’m sure we all saw this coming a mile away, and if not, you likely foresaw it when you read the previous paragraphs.

“Yep!” says the always enigmatic and quite possibly eldritch being who hailed from outside of reality. “We’re going to skip ahead a bit.”

Lord Wolfenstein turns to you and lets out a sigh, resting his(?) hands on his(?) hips and shaking his(?) head in a clear display of dissatisfaction. Despite not being able to completely understand what the being actually is beyond some purely basic level; you can tell that he(?) is quite clearly upset.

Lord Wolfenstein turns away from you and looks toward all that is playing out in the regular world, gesturing widely and shaking his(?) head in utter annoyance and disbelief. He(?) half turns back to you and looks you dead on while gesturing with his(?) right arm and hand towards all of reality.

You take a look and you can see that there is a tenuous and fragile peace on Mortis, but you can also tell that it is all balanced on a knife’s edge. You can see the great asshole tree plotting and scheming away, quietly moving more forces from one place to another all while Kain counters each move with a deployment of his own. No shots have been fired, no damage has been done, and all that is happening right now is a series of chess-like moves as both sides prepare for what is certain to come.

“Do you see this bullshit?” Lord Wolfenstein asks, his(?) vocal tone being that of incredulity. “I told him not too long ago to just get it all over with as soon as possible, but he still delays it! We’re on a bit of a timetable here, and yet he, the effective ‘God of Death’ just refuses to go along with the plan! Look at him! He knows what he is, and yet he fights against his true nature!”

Lord Wolfenstein folds his(?) arms across his(?) chest and taps his(?) foot on the… ground? Well, you can’t exactly tell where you are to begin with, and in all honesty you know full-well that trying to understand would be a futile and quite possibly mind-breaking endeavor. You feel it best not to question the why or how that you are seeing what you are seeing and hearing what you are hearing or even how you managed to get here and before that weirdo to begin with, so you might as well roll with it.

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“Although,” says Lord Wolfenstein as he(?) tilts his(?) head and gaze off towards a different area, “to be fair, the fact that he is able to rebel so intensely against his own nature is rather impressive. I would have expected him to just ignore the cries of the masses and just go full-blown world conquest regardless, but then again I and the others see things differently.”

Lord Wolfenstein takes another look at the world unfolding beyond the place where both of you stand, watching existence play out until he(?) get noticeably more irritated. You would try and calm him(?) down but knowing what little you know of his(?) power from what you’ve seen and read so far you feel it would be in your own best interest if you try and avoid Lord Wolfenstein lashing out at you. You have never even read anything that showed him(?) this irrationally angry, and you can’t help but wonder if there is some way that you can keep him(?) from simply fast-forwarding through all the events yet to come.

After all, you do kind of want to see the events leading up to the war that you know for a fact is coming. Or, then again, maybe you don’t. Oddly enough, you seem to be of multiple minds, almost as if the ‘you’ that is here is a gestalt made up of more people that just yourself. Well, that doesn’t bear thinking about, as if there is one thing you’ve come to understand it is that thinking too hard can be overly damaging when it comes to crazy bullshit like this. Better to just go with the flow.

“I do hope you don’t mind, but I’m just going to move the clock forward a bit.” Lord Wolfenstein says with an audible hint of annoyance. You see him(?) do… something… and the visions before you begin to rapidly change, swapping between locations and perspectives at an unnaturally fast rate. You can barely make out anything that is going on now in the world of Mortis, but you can tell that Lord Wolfenstein just sped through enough events to at least finish the 7th Book in terms of the total number of chapters.

Last you checked, you had already read all 18 chapters (including side stories), more or less, of Book 7 and if the current situation could be counted as chapter 19 then you had just seen roughly 20+ chapters worth of material just whizz by. Finally, about near the midway point of what should have been Book 8 but was now roughly the midway point of Book 7, Lord Wolfenstein sets the flow of reality back to normal.

You honestly can’t decide whether to thank him(?) or be angry with him(?) but if there is one thing that you’ve learned from all the reading that you’ve done, it is that it is a very bad idea to try and mess with angry superhuman, reality-warping beings. Lord Wolfenstein turns to you and seems much more stable, as if all the irritation and annoyance that was previously there has vanished into nothingness.

“I understand you may be a bit upset, but I want to be clear that we both know that the 7th Book was getting rather droll. You know who may be getting better at writing non-action, but let’s be perfectly clear, you know who still needs a lot of work on that front and the current setting just does not lend itself to that sort of thing. Anyway, it is time you get going, as I’m sure that you’ve got more important things to do today.”

It is at this point that you realize you can no longer see Lord Wolfenstein and you no longer are in that weird space outside of realty. Better still, you also don’t feel like you are a gestalt of multiple people all at once!

With things getting back to normal for you, you realize that this chapter has come to an end.