The Secret Voice centers on Dr. Issac Galapagos, a sorcerer/fighter of the Red College, a group of magic-wielders trying to help hold back the forces of Wux Heng. Wux Heng isn't simply a conqueror, as he reduces the places he takes to rubble, using up every resource they have. The Red College has had some success slowing his advance and forming alliances between various kingdoms, but they've by no means stopped him.
Wux Heng's forces also carry a poison on their weapons, one that reduces those afflicted to shuffling zombies. Soto draws their innards as having been replaced with something fungal-like. Issac was wounded in a battle but has thus far staved off this final undeath, though not without cost. He's losing focus, hallucinating, having difficulty distinguishing reality and fantasy (he's not supposed to be holding a severed hand right then.)
Still, his persistence in the face of the infection may have given him some greater insight into what the Red College is up against. Or, if the presence in his mind really did gain sentience because he's so stubbornly resisted succumbing, he's made things even worse.
Hard to say, since as far as I know, Soto hasn't released any more of this in this last half-dozen years. He set up a lot of backstory and intrigue, such as why Wux Heng is so destructive. Wouldn't it be more useful to keep the lands he conquers in a state where they can continue to produce? Soto draws Heng with a noticeable purple bullseye centered over his right ear, which feels significant to his claims that he's got certain foreknowledge of how things are going to go. But then, why does he need the help of a witch (though we don't actually see her help)? There's an immense wall holding back a collapse in reality in one corner of the world. No one seems to know why reality collapsed, or why there. Is it connected to the thing in Issac's mind, or Wux Heng? Don't know.
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