I only survived because of my cowardice.

Sulfur was finally disconnected from the broadcast network after this point. I hate this part.

[RECORDED BROADCAST : NULL] - CLOSED GROUP [SCARCITYOFSIGNIFCANCE] ScarcityOfSignificance, all participants anonymous

COM: THEY FOU

COM: OUT

COM: NO

COM: THEY FOUND OUT THEY’RE COMPROMISING

SBC: Membrane?! What should I do?

COM: REMEMBER

COM: REMEMBER- THAT I-

SBC: Remember what?

COM: I can’t I CAN’T COMMUNICATE ANYMORE I WON’T MAKE IT THEY’RE TAKING MY-

[[ERROR - COM DISCONNECTED]]

SBC: No… no…

At one point in the past I attempted to get rid of this log. I have lost much of the visual data. I am happy about this personally but I will attempt to stitch together the footage.

[RECORDED VIDEO]

Sentinel: In this Chamber I, as your Saint, will Enact my greatest Blessing for my People!

Sentinel: Over the Course of only FIVE Cycles I Have Completely DISABLED and Ultimately ELIMINATED your Iterator- a Useless Piece of Technology, a Mound of Flesh and Metal!

Sentinel: If such a Greater Organism can be felled so Easily, what Power does it really have? It is So Far Seperated from us! They do not Understand the Suffering We Put Ourselves Through to Break the Chains, to Shed our Karma, to be ENLIGHTENED.

[He picks up the lifeless puppet of Sulfur. Holding him up by the cables on his neck.]

Sentinel: Horizon of Sulfur! Dead- his Limp Corpse!

[Sulfur is ripped from the umbilical. Wires sparked and disconnected.]

Sentinel: Now. Observe.

[His other arm reels back and without hesitation punches his puppet. Splattering carnage hides the damage delt to Sulfur’s face. In an instant Sentinel goes in for a second shot. The neural fluids are dripping down his fist and pooling below.]

[He tosses Horizon of Sulfur on the floor of the chamber.]

Sentinel: Completely Paralyzed! He couldn’t Fight back even if He Wanted to!

[Sentinel kicks his puppet. As if Sulfur was ever going to get back up…]

Sentinel: We have Grown Reliant! Complicit! These “Iterators” will not Solve our Problems! You have All Fallen into the hands of Sloth and No Longer understand the-

[ ]

I’m sorry. I’m cutting it off there. Sentinel only repeats himself for the next several minutes in front of a recording audience before leaving the chamber.

That was what he did most the time.

What could I have done.

I stopped trying to record things after that. I lost hope. Sentinel went on the podium and bragged about having defeated Sulfur and Membrane. He went on and on. The people were radicalized against iterators for a time being. I believe my council was worried for a moment that I would have been affected by this sudden movement. But I wouldn’t have cared what happened to me at that point.

I blocked it all out of my memory. I put everything that I could remember of my conversations with the two of them on this pearl and tried as hard as I could to bury it. I would even go as far as to say that I’m frustrated about your… insistence to know. But you have it now. You know now.

The ripple effect his death had is nothing to gloss over either.

A few high council leaders of both my house and those of neighboring iterators in foreign groups came together in response to Droning Hush of A Sentinel. This would be known as the United Congregation. Though back then it was simply referred to Department Regarding Ethical Treatment of Iterators. I see why they changed it.

The DRETI began to place strict rules on our supervisors and councils about how iterators should be treated. Though it was not any set in stone doctrine. The rules would constantly change. But their goal was only to prevent another Horizon of Sulfur incident from happening again.

After several more speeches (many showing contempt of the DRETI) Sentinel would… suddenly vanish. Not a trace of him left. Some say he ran off to ascend. Others say he was killed. Nobody really knows.

I had heard some other rumors going around my temples as well. That the DRETI were starting a project: “Missing Links” to make up for what was lost. To help them archive all instances of misconduct that could be sorted through. I’m sure that project then turned into your friend Chain of Missing Links.

They had made an attempt at wiping Membrane’s mind of Sulfur completely. Every single memory and association with him. It succeeded, of course. But iterator technology then was primitive. She didn’t come back the same.

As for Sulfur… he was completely gone. As far as I knew. Nobody was allowed to check in his can to be sure of it either.

Nobody.

The knowledge would terrify future iterators. It was a secret they were willing to keep and cover up funnily enough.

Whatever “messages” you’ve been getting from him are most likely just pranks. It’s a waste of time to go chasing after him.

He’s gone. And he won’t come back.

<-