Alex stepped out onto Gorath's surface.
Every one of his instincts scread at him to turn back, but he didn't listen to any of them.
The air was oppressive, heavy with the weight of sothing vast and ancient, saturating his senses with an unmistakable sense of dread.
As he moved closer to the cavern entrance, he felt the pull within him intensify, his very will fracturing under its weight.
Each step felt as though he was moving through quicksand, his thoughts clouded, his body moving almost in spite of itself.
The jagged cliffs cast eerie shadows, and the gusts of frigid wind seed to carry whispers, but Alex had already realised those were from the foreign feelings that were taking over his very being.
With each step, his control frayed,and his breath ca in ragged bursts.
But he pushed forward, even as the distance between the ship and himself widened, filling him with a persistent ache, a desperate instinct to turn back and bring Mira here, to stand beside him and share in whatever fate the planet had planned.
But he was here alone.
Ahead of him, the yawning mouth of the cavern beckoned, drawing him down into its depths like so endless black maw.
The ancient stone walls seed to pulse with an unnatural life as he descended, the darkness growing thicker, wrapping around him as he moved closer to the source of his tornt.
He staggered forward until he finally reached it.
The vast black sphere he had encountered before, an orb of pure darkness hovering above a rocky pedestal.
The presence emanating from it was overwhelming, its ancient sentience pressing down on him with a force that was suffocating.
And suddenly, his body was no longer his own.
His legs nearly gave out as he fell to his knees, his hands clutching his head as his mind spiralled, fighting to hold on to any remaining shred of sanity.
The pull grew stronger, tearing at the edges of his consciousness, as if the sphere was trying to absorb him, to rip him apart and consu his very essence.
Through gritted teeth, he forced himself to speak with his raw and desperate voice.
"What did you do to ?!"
His voice echoed in the cavern, swallowed up by the darkness.
The sphere remained silent, its inky surface undisturbed.
"Why?!"
His shout trembled with rage and despair, his fists clenching tightly enough to draw blood.
"Get rid of it!"
But the sphere offered nothing, only a consuming silence.
Its stillness was almost mocking, the lack of response an admission in itself.
He had his answer—it had done sothing to him, sothing irreversible, and it had left him to grapple with it alone.
A shiver ran down his spine as he recalled his first encounter with the planet's soul.
It had spoken to him, cryptic and despondent, and he rembered the tone of longing, of bitterness when it had ntioned its isolation, the confines of its own existence.
Gorath was a planet devoid of life, imprisoned within itself, no form to interact with the outside, no voice to reach beyond.
What if… what if that was why it had reached out to him?
What if Mira wasn't a part of its plan…?
Maybe it wasn't expecting Alex to bring Mira along as well…
What if it had given them this… infection to use them, to break the limits of its own existence?
The thought sent a surge of anger through him, a powerful, defiant clarity piercing through the haze of influence, his heart pounding with a renewed sense of clarity.
"You used us."
He said in a low tone filled with cold fury.
"You're trying to live through us. Trying to escape."
The sphere remained silent, but Alex felt sothing shift, the pull montarily weakening as if in response to his understanding.
He rose unsteadily to his feet, fighting back the insistent voice that urged him to stay, to succumb.
He wasn't leaving.
Not yet.
But he would not yield to it, either.
And whatever it wanted from Mira, he would not give in to that, not while he still had an ounce of control.
Taking a steadying breath, he faced the sphere, its silence heavy with a quiet intensity that promised it would not let him go so easily.
But if he had any choice in this, he would not give it what it wanted.
"No answer?"
Alex's voice echoed through the cavern as he stared at the ominous, unyielding sphere.
A sliver of clarity crept into his mind, sharpening his focus as he pieced together the planet's motives.
The influence that had plagued him since landing began to lift, peeling back like layers of mist.
It all fit: Gorath had reached out, needing him as a bridge — a way to leave this barren existence.
"I'll just destroy this whole place, then. How about that?"
Alex snarled, his tone cold and biting.
He raised his hand, letting a small fla ignite above his palm — a ta orb of Phoenix Fire, harmless at first.
But as he channelled more of his energy into it, feeding it with a surge of power, the orb grew, its radiance intensifying.
"Still not willing to speak?"
He challenged, watching for any reaction from the sphere.
Nothing.
The sphere remained silent, impassive, as if calling his bluff.
But Alex was in no mood for gas, and this was no empty threat.
Glaring at the sphere, he continued to amplify the fire, the orb swelling in size and potency.
Its aura grew fierce, filling the cavern with a heat that pulsed with the intensity of his anger.
The very air crackled, as if it, too, could feel the raw power emanating from his hand.
Just before the fla could reach a crescendo, Alex slamd it to the ground, releasing it with brutal precision.
A tremor shot through the cavern, and the stone floor quaked beneath him.
He had sent the fiery mass downward, allowing it to tear through the rock layers on a direct path to the planet's core.
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