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Nulla

When Eyes Open

I extend a warm greeting to you, student of the seen and the unseen. The time of our Convergence is nigh, and the occasion calls for endless and boisterous jubilee.

Yet, I refuse to partake in such revelry and exultation. A gentle voice has caressed my humble mind and has left to me the most sacred and honorable of tasks that a mere mortal could aspire to complete.

I shall record by hand, in apocrypha and tomes such as the one in your grasp, the great journey that all living beings in creation will experience by the grace of our Father.

These Chronicles however, serve a different purpose. It would be the cruelest of fates for the story of the Vanguards of Salvation to be lost in the inexorable sands of time. Inevitably, all will be saved by the Father, and as such, the trillions of new residents of Paradise must know exactly who rendered such a beautiful and perfect outcome possible.

To describe the presence of our Father is impossible with the tools provided by this limited and primitive lexicon. To exalt His warmth, to praise His voice, to speak of feats once thought impossible that He performs with laughable ease day after day.

Simple words are not enough.

To see Paradise is to open your mind to realities that have always been in place, yet you were blind to. To feel His embrace is to give your soul to a being so far above our humble creation, that the only natural choice is to love without question. To wield His might is to push your frail body up a steep mountain you cannot conquer on your own. To hear His words is to be assured by a caring friend, encouraged by a knowing father, led by the truest God of all.

To be a Caretaker of Paradise is to smell the gorgeous roses of the Garden; to touch the pristine ebony of the night sky; to know that your mission is one of righteousness and true purpose.

Your life starts anew once again. Who you were before enlightenment is forgotten, cast aside as unimportant. If all living beings in this reality are pieces in the grand work of an artisan, you have become part of the hand that puts them all into place.

Are you not convinced, honored reader? Do you believe that I spew lies from my maw? That I dare deceive you with tales of the impossible and improbable?

I do not resent you, precious student. In fact, it is to be expected that a mind as young as yours would resist concepts that are far above the capability of mortals. I was once like you, as well.

Let me assure you, my words come from my very soul, and I am nothing outside of what He has given me. To speak falsehoods of the Father would not only be heretical, but ungrateful and devoid of the love He shows us in every moment of our fleeting lives.

But there is one point where you are correct. These are just words after all.

Vapid, meaningless words.

No matter how laborious my work, it all ends in the same outcome. One cannot describe Paradise. One must experience Paradise.

Lend me your hand, curious pilgrim. Allow me to take you into the greatest of journeys.

A/N: Hello guys! This series will be detailing the backstory of the new faction introduced in the past couple of chapters that I have been working on and fleshing out for a while now; referred to as the Bringer Cult by Xabiar, myself and the other beta readers.

I hope that this is to your liking!

For those who are lost as to what exactly all of this is, you can check out Xabiar´s XCOM trilogy, beginning with Hades Contingency and as of now in progress with Advent Directive. This is basically supplementary material for this universe, in the same function as the XCOM Files.

- Edumesh

Xabiar Note: Hello also, everyone who reads this. Won't make too many A/Ns on this as, for once, I'm not the one writing it. But like Edumesh said above, this is being done in conjunction with myself and the rest of my editing team. Everything read in here is canon as far as the lore is concerned in my setting - or as close as Edumesh wants to make it - this is not the most objective of narrators, after all.

The reason this even exists is because over the past months (Yes, months) Edumesh has been putting in an absurd amount of work for something that has, right now, only showed up in a couple of chapters. I knew that only a fraction was going to be shown at this point, and much of the context lost since this is an area which is probably not going to get a POV just because of how it works.

Having all that work just be reduced to a highly fleshed out background document, never to be seen outside our small group, seemed a massive waste, so this was the solution we agreed upon. He's a good writer in his own right; with a very different writing style and tone than what I usually do, but that's something I quite like about it. Don't expect this to be like what I've done so far. He's in charge here, and I think it'll be a unique and interesting experience.

I hope everyone enjoys this, and be sure to give feedback on it as well!

- Xabiar