"In other words, the next time Durach goes through the barrier, he'll achieve his purpose. He'll have killed all of us by the electronic feeler. It disassociates electron structure of the nervous system so that it can't reform."
"And I'm the only one who can stop him," I whispered.
Carleth said that was right.
I said, "Why doesn't Durach use the Merger then, right now, and go back and get the job done?"
He explained that to me also. "As soon as he came back this time, we knew what he had tried to do, what he was planning. We got conscious control of the Merger machinery, or part of it anyway. We've maintained that control because we have greater numbers, and the combined mind-energy has been too much for Durach. That is why he's been killing us one by one. Our power over the Merger has been going down. The danger point is reached now."
"And what about Mal and Glora?"
"They followed Durach into Third-Plane reality to try to stop him. By so doing, they sacrificed most of their higher abilities. Durach, being a freak, an abnormal Fourth Stage man, came back through. But Glora and Mal cannot; they can never attain Fourth Stage life again."
Carleth paused, then said, "You can destroy, Berton; we cannot. Therefore, you're the last chance of defeating Durach."
I thought about everything, as much as I could. About how bitter it would be to know the feeling of being a part of this higher world of Mohln, then finding yourself once again in the blind and groping world of the Third Plane where no one had any idea of what greater reality was so near.