Die. Respawn. Repeat.

It took Gheraa a while to piece it all together. Part of the problem, he thought, was that there was a part of him that didn't want to put it together. He understood now why the higher ranked Integrators kept it secret—there was something about the truth that was... uncomfortable, for lack of a better word. Trying to pry open this secret felt wrong.

He kept going anyway. If there was any chance that this was going to be important, then Gheraa felt he owed it to the people of Earth to try.

That didn't mean he needed to stay still while doing it, though. The storm around him was beginning to worsen, a little like the dungeon had finally sensed and recognized the danger of his presence here; more concerning, however, was the fact that he could sense a disturbance elsewhere in the dungeon.

That was strange. Gheraa hadn't expected to be interrupted. There were few individuals on Hestia that could survive the pressure of the Intermediary combined with the soulrot of an Integrator's death. The Hestian Trialgoers could, perhaps, but Gheraa couldn't think of a reason they'd be interested in the Intermediary. Maybe if they were trying to repair it, but that would require them to have initiative.

There was another possibility, of course.

He'd been told that Ethan was trying to bring him back. If there was anyone strong enough to both survive the Intermediary and cause a disturbance he'd be able to sense, it was him.

Gheraa pushed himself back to his feet and began to walk, trying not to look particularly hurried. As he did, he continued mulling over the fragmented images in his mind, slowly piecing together the core of the secret he'd found. The warning? He still wasn't sure exactly what it was.

Even when he'd mostly pieced it together, it felt more like a particularly horrifying children's tale or a myth of creation than it did a forbidden secret locked within the Firmament of all Integrators. It was strange, to say the least.

It went a little like this.