Chapter 134: Book 2: Sinking
I can't stop it.
The thought intrudes on my mind, foreign and not my own. There's a distant part of me that appreciates that Gheraa makes it clear that these thoughts are his way of communicating with me. He could have disguised them, I assume—made me entirely unaware of his intrusion—but he's instead left me aware.
Presumably, though, there are limits. Otherwise he'd just be speaking with me directly. The fact that he can't is just another reminder that despite his presence here, he's dead.
What remains of him still acts to show me exactly how out of my depth I am. I can feel my senses being guided, for lack of a better term. They pierce through the veil of the Intermediary's door, a hint of Phaseslip's power allowing me to cross that threshold, and...
I sense it. The raid boss.
There's an asteroid coming.
It's enormous—probably the size of Isthanok all on its own. If it were just an ordinary piece of rock, I'd be confident in Whisper and Guard's ability to stop it, but it's not. That thing is full of enough Firmament to incinerate all of Isthanok on its own, and something about that Firmament is... wrong.
It's twisted the same way Gheraa's Firmament is twisted. Someone's death is fueling it, and at the core of that death is something entirely unlike Gheraa's more protective bent.
It's raw, unstoppable hatred. Anger. It burns so brightly that it scalds my mind just to sense it, and I withdraw almost immediately; Gheraa's presence wraps protectively around me in the same instant, preventing further backlash.