Finder was looking. Looking for a needle in a giant haystack. A haystack the size of a skyscraper. The new Nephilim was somewhere in this galaxy, but this galaxy had 100 billion stars. Most of those stars had planets, and on one of those planets was a single Nephilim. And he was tasked to find it. It didn’t matter that it was impossible because failure meant his people would be wiped out. Destroyed by the whims of a goddess.

  Finder was connected to the faster computer in any universe using a neural interlink. Computations faster than thought, narrowing down the possibilities. Finder swam in the data. There was no other way to describe it. The data was all round him and he moved through it, blocking some paths, opening others. His continued movement narrowed down the possibilities. From hundreds of billions of stars to tens of millions. It took weeks and was not enough.

  Finder was at his limit. He was desperate, as were his people. He pleaded with the doctors to leave him in until he finished, but the doctors pulled him out anyway. The People still had time, but if Finder died all hope was lost. Finder was sent to the hospital to recover. Weeks connected had taken its toll. He was dehydrated, exhausted, and starving. He would spend the next three days recovering and complaining about it, while others went over the reduced number of planets, picking out the most hopeful possibilities. A few thousand missions would be sent, but not enough to guarantee success. It would be pure luck if someone found it.

  Three days passed and thousands of missions failed. It was too soon, but Finder convinced the doctors to put back into the neural interlink. His vitals were carefully monitored, and any abnormalities were discussed with the best doctors and minds to determine if they dare let him stay connected. Time was running short, so they always left him in the neural interlink.

  Finder once again swam through the data. Again, he reduced the possibilities from hundreds of millions to tens of millions. As the days passed, he grew weaker but continued on. Tens of millions became less than 5 million. A huge number to be sure, but still one that with a little luck would be doable. But Finder didn’t stop, he continued. He wouldn’t leave it to luck. Luck had abandoned his people, when the goddess tasked them. The doctors tried to remove him from the neural interlink, but Finder had locked them out. He continued past the point of no return, sacrificing for his people. The damage done, the doctors could only watch and pray.

  One hundred thousand, seven hundred and sixty-three possibilities. That was Finder’s final gift to his people. A gift that would save his people, sparing them from the wrath of the goddess. Finder’s body was removed from the machine, his connection broken from both the neural interlink and life. A smile on his face.

  His people rejoiced, knowing they could find the Nephilim. Thousands of starships left in search. It could still take weeks, even months but they would find the Nephilim in time. Celebrations were given in honor of Finder’s sacrifice. Joyful and sad, The People celebrated his life.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

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  Captain Janus led his crew to the planet. It was the twenty third planet on his list, Sol Y39, fourth planet from the star. The locals called it Tellus Nova.

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  Whisper quietly sat at her breakfast table sipping her tea. She stared off into nothingness as her thoughts were directed inward. A new Nephilim had been born. Now she knew where he was. She turned her inner sight onto him. Clear as a sunny day, she saw him. She watched him go about his business. He wasn’t a very impressive specimen, at least right now.

  Whisper would watch Count Trevor of House Tierra. She would know this Nephilim. Know what motivated him, what drove him. She wanted to know him better than he knew himself. If it took her years, she would watch until it was time to act. She had plenty of time. If fact, she had all of time.

  Betelgeuse watched silently for a minute before he slipped away. He had delivered the information requested and now wanted nothing more to do with Whisper of the Seven Stars. To say she was mercurial was, at best, an understatement. She had been known to praise one second and then kill the next. Now, his most fervent hope was that she forgot his people. Betelgeuse went home.

  Whisper watched for months. He led a dreadfully boring life, she thought. Not once did he go out monster hunting, or any fighting whatsoever. He was a Nephilim and his life should be about fighting and getting stronger, not scratching after gold. Why was he even working on the Healers Association. She just couldn’t fathom. The only fighting he did was in that Dungeon, and that was only once. All the creatures were too low level to provide any real challenge. He had gone with a full team and provided healing. The others did most of the fighting anyway.

  Maybe she should visit this Nephilim. She had tried to return to his dreams, but something was preventing her from getting through. That had never happened before. Whisper decided that she would go and straighten out this Trevor of House Tierra. He would follow the path that she laid out for all Nephilim. The path of violence and growth.

  An envelope appeared on the table next to her. It wasn’t there a moment ago, but now it was. How it got there Whisper didn’t know, which made her worried. She knew every molecule, every atom in her domain. Nothing should be able exist in her domain without her knowledge and yet, there it was. Something or someone had left an envelope and letter without her knowledge.

  Whisper carefully picked up the envelope. Another strange phenomenon, she couldn’t tell what was inside. That shouldn’t be possible. This was her domain. This was where she was the strongest. She could not be challenged here. Here she was as close to omnipotent as possible. Yet she couldn’t see inside the envelope. A simple thing that was beyond her. Worry became fear. A feeling she hadn’t known in millennium.

  She turned the envelope over and opened it. Inside was a single card. A plain white, 3x3 note card. On the card was a single word in black lettering. The word was NO.

  Nothing else, just that. But that single word was beyond terrifying. One of the most powerful entities in existence had forbidden her to go to Tellus and interfere with Trevor. It had told her no, and she was powerless to deny it.

  Whisper retreated into herself. She closed off all avenues to her domain. She would see no one, go nowhere, stay in her house. Stay until Trevor died or ascended. She would obey, no matter how much it chaffed, because disobeying meant the true death even for her. She would do all this because the System had taken an interest in Trevor of House Tierra and it was best to stay away from anyone the System was interested in.