Temptations

Alex stood in the cockpit, watching the planet grow larger in the viewport, its dark, storm-laden clouds swirling as if waiting for him, drawing him closer. 

Gorath's surface loomed beneath him, an unforgiving landscape of jagged cliffs and shadowed valleys stretching across the barren world, but it was more than just the sight that sent chills down his spine. 

There was something beneath that surface, something that seemed to be reaching out, like spectral fingers, clawing at the edges of his mind.

Each second they descended, he felt it intensify — a whisper, a seductive lull urging him to give in, to silence the doubts, to trust whatever force had led them here. 

It pulsed in time with his heartbeat, syncing to the rhythm of his thoughts and fears. 

He clenched his fists, trying to steady his breathing, but the closer they got to Gorath's surface, the harder it became to maintain his grip on reality.