Not even a month later and there is another detection. Why it has taken so many years for Evelyn to become so careless is a mystery to me, but I know not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Especially because now, I believe that I might be successful in completing my mission. Looking down at my hands I chuckle, that it would turn out to be this easy, that all I would need to stop all this madness is a relic, after all the grief that the last one has caused me. This one is quite different though, seeming to read my thoughts searching for a task, anything I imagine, it becomes, anywhere I imagine, it goes, very interesting indeed.

‘Ready a single slip craft, I will be completing this mission personally, just like in the old days,’ I comm.

I don’t even bother to change into an Atmos suit, my plain clothes will be just fine for the task at hand. I begin walking down to the hanger, where the slip craft should be ready momentarily.

The hatch to a slick looking slip craft opens quickly with a snap, allowing me to walk over and sink down into the pilot seat. I can’t say how long it’s been since I’ve piloted my own craft, but the controls are familiar and the onboard AI should function well enough to make up for any lost talent.

I detach from the landing bay and take off away from the megalith, a few more minutes and I should be far enough away to slip to Eiso, the source of the detection; a planet whose only notable feature is a Prelude structure left behind centuries ago.

I don’t want to bring any attention to myself, the whole point of me going in alone is to avoid detection by Evelyn, so she doesn’t have the opportunity to run, like so many times before. I will be coming in as just a regular traveler, giving no indication of any affiliation to Sequel.

The slip complete, Eiso lies before me, a greyish green planet with little variation on its surface, making it look like a marble. Shooting towards the nearest port, I should be planet-side in a few minutes.

I exit the craft and I am greeted by an empty port, the leftover signs from research teams long gone lay scattered all around Outdated scientific equipment not worth transporting off-world, and abandoned excavation equipment from whatever digging that may have been needed sit overgrown and forgotten.

The detection originated from the base of the Prelude structure, so I plan on starting there. I use the relic as a sort of transportation, willing it around myself and then up into the air in the direction of the structure.

It really feels like the universe is throwing me a bone at this point. She is literally waiting for me at the base of the structure. She has never stuck around and stood her ground; I imagine she thinks of herself as quite a force to be reckoned with. Little does she know of what’s coming.

I descend to the ground about a hundred meters away from where she stands waiting, the silver coating of the relic slipping away as I will it to congregate around my hands. She instantly recognizes my arrival and looks up in my direction.

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‘Is this a taunt, using my own relic to try to bring me in? It’s been quite a while Markus, you don’t look a day older than the last time I saw you, are they treating you well after you helped me escape?’ she comms. I can see the glowing rings materialize around her arms from here, she must aim to vaporize me from a distance. I think not.

‘Thoughtful of you to care, however, as I’m sure you know, I’ve not been allowed leave or even an alternate assignment since you left us. Whatever sympathy I once had for you is gone, it is time for you to come home,’ I reply.

‘I wouldn’t be so sure,’ she comms, as she raises up her arm and fires a focused blast exactly through my chest. I feel it happening, I always do, the energy zaps through me and it is undeniably painful, but the moment passes and as is my blessing, my curse, I am completely unharmed. I cannot blame her for the look of disbelief that crosses her face. There is little in the universe that would so easily withstand such a short range and focused blast from a plasma railgun, but a relic’s magic is absolute, and as it stands right now, the only way I go out is if the sword relic I wielded for years cuts me down, just as I did to its previous owner who had begged me to do so. Another blast comes, then another, as I casually walk closer and closer. At twenty meters she bends down and takes out a twin set of graphene blades, apparently not quite subdued to her fate. She rushes me at an astonishing speed, and I believe the blades cut through me at least five times before I can reach out and grab her. Alone I’m sure that she would be many times stronger than I, but I am not using my own strength but the irresistible force of the relic that coats my hands like a pair of gloves. Splitting the relic into two more separate pieces, they hold each of her feet down, immobilizing her in place. Her hands are the next to be held captive, forced down to her sides.

I reach out and touch her face as she stops squirming, realizing the futility. Her face, a face that drags so many painful memories to the surface.

“You know, I designed your face, you are the spitting image of my daughter. At the time I thought it would be endearing to have my work mirror my personal life, but now, after you have consumed all I ever held dear, it is but a cruel joke. Did you know that after I let you leave, I was never given leave to see anyone outside my new post as a subcommander, that my wife and daughter grew old and grey without ever hearing another word from me, all because of you.”

A look of understanding crosses her beautiful face, as if she finally understands the reasoning behind my personal vendetta.

“It’s not as if anything that’s happened to you is my fault, I’ve only done what needed to be done to survive. Any resentment you have towards me is misplaced, Sequel is the root of all our misery,” she says.

“While that may be true, this is the path of least resistance, and as the saying goes; I brought you into this world, and now I’m taking you out of it.” With that, the relic splits into several more pieces, severing her head, arms, and legs, cutting her into six separate pieces. Immediately after splitting her up, the relic completely encapsulates each piece, keeping any biological fluids in place as well as protecting the surrounding landscape from any kind of blast should one occur, given the unstable nature of her body now in pieces.

It seems to me that after so long, with no end in sight, that for my search to be over is too good to be true. Why it’s taken until now for Sequel to provide me with the proper resources I have no idea. I also don’t know what to do now that I’m free of this quest, the problem of my everlasting immortality doesn’t seem to be fading any time soon, and I haven’t given a life after my search any thought in years. What I’ll do next is a mystery to me, but one thing is certain, what Evelyn said about Sequel is true, it might not make up for the life I could have led, but dismantling Sequel from the inside out seems like a goal worth pursuing, given the circumstances.