" -ducting this idiotic opert-" says a feminine voice through the... crack? Tear, maybe?

It proves to be a very talkative voice, though, and more informative than any of the White Mantle he's been able to find. Further crackling words are:

"-ver months,"

"demented mining operation,"

"definitely going to explode..."

...

"Hello?"

No direct response. It continues its crackled muttering, regardless of him. However, with proximity (and bringing his shield around the tear to stabilize it a bit), he can make out a bit more of what is being said.

"- crackpot cult with a rock fetish -"

What... is this. This person isn't wrong, but where are they, why can they not hear him? Is this a recording of some kind, a ghost...? Does he have a snarky ghost here somehow?

It's not clear. If there's a ghost present, she's not making herself obviously apparent except for the muttering, and it's not obvious how a recording would have been stored in this medium.

She continues to be a very helpful ghost/recording/magical anomaly, though.

"- ways to mitigate the inevitable disaster? -"

"- even so it'll tear a damn hole to the...."

And then the voice trails off, and falls silent.

...no, all in all he thinks he's left with more questions than answers. He supposes now he knows the cultists were apparently eating Bloodstone shards? Which is an absolutely insane thing to do, but if these people were sane they would not be White Mantle, now, would they? And he can't imagine that was what caused the explosion. 

Note to self, though, Caudecus might have indigestion when they finally find him. Sorry, assuming he's working with the White Mantle, of course, he's innocent until proven otherwise.

But this doesn't actually bring Canach any closer to his goals, so, he should keep going.

Unfortunately for Canach, the following magical anomalies are not nearly so informative. Or sane.

It's going to be a long day.

It's a rather long day.

The ambient Bloodstone magic is harsh on everyone, and James has to take down more than one erstwhile ally who got forcibly overwritten by a mindless beast. He does not like it any better than any of the previous times he has had to do this. He really feels like it's not asking much, to not have to kill someone he's fought beside just because some insane magic took over their brain. On the bright side, most of his people are fine, especially people who were not as close to the blast, and who managed to stay sheltered while the magic anomalies settled down.

Speaking of which, he does eventually manage to figure out a way to navigate the maelstrom and reach the coliseum. It does not have anything of interest, which is disappointing. It does have a view of something of interest, which is mildly terrifying.

Oh, does he mean the gigantic crater in the ground that could fit the coliseum and every remaining airship in the (admittedly deprecated) Pact fleet, at the same time? Covered in glowing and growing crystals and at the center of the magical disaster, now becoming faintly visible through the lightening red fog? Filled with horrible abominations that know nothing except rage and pain and hunger? Does he mean that?

Yeah, that's probably alarming or something.

Compared to the coliseum, it's very easy to get to. The ambient magical radiation is not quite so friendly, though, which is to say it bites twice as hard and hates him personally. Is he sure he wants to investigate it?

No. Not at all. First he is going to go back to the crashed ship and tell the General about it.

"Fire and brimstone, Commander."

"I know."

"Any signs of Canach or the human minister?"

"No, but I imagine the crater will be a natural convergence point for anything of interest. And Squad Leader Bennett mentioned seeing Caithe run past, which, knowing Caithe, means that she wanted to be seen."

"Caithe... The sylvari firstborn? What is she doing here?"

"Don't I wish I knew. The crater is probably our best lead."

"Best of luck, Commander. You'll forgive me for not joining you."

"No, I could not ask this of you, of course. You should make sure our people are safe and bring them home."

"Ah, no, not that, either. I'm afraid the White Mantle have made themselves everyone's problem when they nearly destroyed the continent, so the Pact is probably going to come here en masse to make sure they don't get to try a second time."

"Sensible enough. Thank you, General."

She grunts. "It's my job. Now go do yours."

"Yes, sir."

Okay, now he's gonna go explore that crater. A little break for food and resting his legs goes a long way to give him the energy to keep going.

Hopefully also the energy to deal with the horrifying abominations contained within. Because those feature heavily.

Some are maddened White Mantle, but more common is some kind of bloodstone elemental. Bloodstone shards held together by will and malice and magic.

They are still killable, though, so he's probably fine.

The new spell Taimi developed is really good, at dealing with them, too. Whenever they try to use too much magic at James, he can bounce it right back at them, and they explode. 

...perhaps he should be more careful of the explosions. He's not gonna, but maybe he should.