Those Who Cannot Die - Levi Bible (the rosie project .TXT) 📗

“…who was killed here and why?”
The door slammed behind him, and he spun in reaction. The candle on the table was the only lighting. He took the candle, walking towards the door. “Who is there?” he called, his echo the only response. Isaac kicked the door, his leg still sore from the torment he had been put through for the last few months. Sighing, Isaac sat in the small wooden chair, feeling the relief of his legs.
He looked at the note, trying to read what wasn’t covered in blood. It was almost completely illegible, save for the bottom of the note which read: Farewell, Isaac
-Cyrus. It had been written to him, but why? Cyrus never seemed to be the one to give up. Maybe sense had finally come to him, that Immortality wasn’t worth it. Maybe not. He couldn’t find out until he had left the building. Then a thought came to him. A rose covered with blood…was Rose in trouble? Isaac needed to find out.
“No chance of that without getting out of here.” Isaac said to himself, walking again to the door. He slammed against it, using what little Astral Energy he could muster. The door flew open, a tall man standing at it.
“Isaac, where were you?” asked the familiar voice of Cornelius. Isaac looked up in awe, Cornelius’ bronze-colored eyes matching his blonde-colored hair, his skin barely visible in the shadows.
“Cornelius, you jerk…” Isaac muttered, smiling. “…why didn’t you come earlier?”
“I had to skip out on a date.” Cornelius said, turning around. “Besides, I didn’t even know where you were. I only just entered the building.”
“Is anyone else here?” Isaac asked, hopeful that at least Rose was. Knowing Cyrus, however, and his attachment to her, she wouldn’t be.
“Unfortunately, no.” Cornelius muttered, looking at Isaac. “But I do know where that slime Cyrus went.” Isaac gulped. “However, in your condition, you are not going to help her.”
“I don’t get you sometimes.” Isaac said, walking to the chairs, and sitting down.
“Like when?”
“Nothing. I have a question, Cornelius,” Cornelius raised an eyebrow. “I have been feeling something…something evil.”
“Something evil? Have you been having visions?” Cornelius questioned, leaning on the chair to Isaac’s left. He nodded, looking forward blankly. “I see. I have been feeling this since long before I met you. If I am correct, these visions are from far into the future, maybe even at the end of the planet.”
Isaac sighed, folding his hands and rested his chin on them. “That is a cheery thought.” He remarked, and Cornelius smiled.
“Maybe, maybe not. I can only assume the end, I cannot truly tell.” He said. “Anyway, they were headed for the Mountain of Life.”
“Mountain of Life?” Isaac asked, looking at Cornelius. “Never heard of it.”
“I know where it is. Supposedly, it is where the Immortals left the planet prior to us.” Cornelius said, “Not much is known, but Cyrus must have found something I never knew.” He stood. “I suspect he has done quite a bit of research on us, considering how much he knew.”
“More than you have?” Isaac asked, a slight smile forming.
“Maybe. That is what I wish to find out.” Cornelius said, walking towards the study. Isaac stood to follow him, but he stopped. “You have to go stop whatever it is he is doing.”
“How? I don’t even know where the Mountain of Life is.” Isaac commented, looking upward to Cornelius’ head was.
“No, no, no…this won’t do…but then again…” Cornelius muttered, grabbing a book off of the shelf. “I forgot what condition you were in…but maybe…”
“Maybe…?” Isaac questioned, trying to keep up with Cornelius, who even now was tearing the room apart, placing some tomes on the table and others on the ground. Isaac looked at the book, but the symbols were antiquated, Isaac had no clue what any of them meant. They weren’t used back in his time.
“This Cyrus fellow certainly knew his archaic symbols…” Cornelius commented. “I haven’t seen them in a long time…”
Isaac sighed and gave up, sitting down. Cornelius slammed one final book onto the table, Isaac looked around on the shelves which were now barren.
Cornelius sat once more, now searching over the various texts and documents he had pulled off the shelves, entranced in whatever story they seemed to offer. He grabbed a quill and began writing different symbols down, all the odd markings forming words in some odd language.
“What are these, Cornelius?” Isaac asked, looking at the odd symbols which formed archaic runes.
“A code. The Timeless Code that this man tried to recreate.” Cornelius answered half-consciously, still writing down the runes almost automatically. “It is our lineage, Isaac! Where we come from. This man gathered quite a bit of information. The question is…” he said, putting the quill down and grabbing more parchment, “…how did he get this information when I still struggle to gather…”
“The Timeless Code?” Isaac asked, leaning on his hand.
“Yes, the Timeless Code! The code which tells of how to gain, or lose, Immortality, as well as how to regain one’s memory after Reincarnation without a Soulbind.” Cornelius explained, holding his hands out in a gesture that told Isaac to stop talking. He took the hint, and stood.
Walking to the doorway, Isaac pondered the note. He held the rose, looking at its delicate, blood-spattered stem. It seemed so innocent, so gentle…why did she have to get involved? Isaac thought, again and again, guilt plaguing his every breath. He stood by the railing, looking down into the bowl-shaped room. What could it mean, and why was Isaac pulled into it? It was always his fault…always.
The sound of Cornelius pouring over his texts and runes, papers flying, and quill scratching at the surface of parchments was easily distinguishable from the silence of the room. Whatever he was feeling, Cornelius had felt it for a much longer amount of time. He stood from the rail, sitting again in the throne-like chair. He then took out the knife, cleaning it of the blood on his tattered prison cloth. Were Cornelius not here, Isaac would exit the building as quickly as possible.
Cornelius slammed something, Isaac quickly checking what had happened. Cornelius sat at the desk, his hands over his head.
“What happened?” Isaac asked, looking over what Cornelius had been doing. It looked like a large circle, many intricate designs that any art connoisseur would pay a fortune for. But there was one piece missing.
“The Timeless Code is missing a fragment.” Cornelius stated grimly.
“Then just fill it in,” Isaac suggested, leaning against the barren, wooden shelves.
“You don’t understand, Isaac.” Cornelius said, slamming his fist on the table, Isaac stepping back in surprise. “The Timeless Code predicts everything that is supposed to happen in existence, as well! Without a final piece…”
“So we don’t have a spoiler to our lives, oh well.” Isaac scoffed. “Cornelius, get over it.”
“It means that the universe will eventually come to an abrupt halt.” Cornelius stated. “My visions, they almost make sense now! But then…” Cornelius said, looking at the symbols, “…look at these symbols, the Runes of Darkness. They foretell the dying of the sun.” he walked around the table as well, looking at various other symbols. “They tell other things…dark things. Mostly about us, but also on humanity’s advancement through ‘science’.”
Isaac stared at him. “I don’t deny human advancement, but the dying of the sun and a halt to the universe? That is kind of extreme, isn’t it?” he asked, standing over the table as well.
“Unfortunately, no. This was written by Ambrose, the King of All.” Cornelius continued examining what he had done.
“You have mentioned him before,” Isaac remarked, looking at Cornelius. “The one who led the Immortals off of Earth.”
“I didn’t understand his motives at first, but this is basically a road map of the Timeline. See this design here?” He pointed near the middle of the circle, “That foretells that if the Immortals stayed, everything would already be dead.”
“But how? How could one man, Immortal or no, foretell all this?” Isaac asked, his skepticism quite apparent.
“The same way you and I get vague images of the future. The difference being in that he is much more adept at it.” Cornelius said, standing erect and folding his arms. “Well, that is obvious from the get-go.”
“If they left before you were born, how do you know all of this?” Isaac asked, rubbing his temples, chasing a headache away.
“I cannot say. Not yet. I need to confirm my suspicions first and foremost.” Cornelius said, leaning against the table. Isaac sighed, placing his hand over his face, his thumb and forefinger touching his temples.
“One of your many shortcomings, Cornelius, is your ambiguity. Say what you mean,” He said, standing to full height.
“I mean, I won’t tell you false facts.” Cornelius said. “For now, lets carry all this out. Once we are gone, we won’t be capable of coming back.”
“Huh?”
“There is a rather powerful spell on this building. At certain, randomized points, entering the Malatesta Palazzo will bring you to this horrific torture den.” Cornelius explained. He rolled the Timeless Code into a portable, scroll-like form. He grabbed many tomes, and told Isaac which ones to grab.
The darkened halls seemed to stretch on and on, just as when he had first entered the building. He remembered the guard he had spoken with that day, how they had both suffered from the “Red Flash”. The memory, however, had been broken. He could not remember the sun, nor the clouds. To him, remembering that day was simply imagining him and the guard standing in a dark void, not unlike the one he and Cornelius were walking through now. He had to find Rose, he had to know if she was okay. He just had to…something drove him on.
Cornelius opened the door with his leg, his arms full. “Careful, the light will hurt for a few minutes.” The door opened, the light flooded into the dark corridor. It burned. Isaac closed his eyes, unable to shield them as his arms were preoccupied. Even closed, the light burned his eyes. A bright red color had flooded his vision, rather than the bleak darkness his eyelids usually brought.
Opening his eyes, he managed to squint, gradually letting the light in. He now saw more of Cornelius, his cloak had been replaced with a fine silken shirt, his pants were finely colored black. He wore a small ponytail, his hair parted down the middle. They walked through the gate, the foreboding gargoyles still watching. Isaac admitted to himself, he missed them slightly.
“Nice clothes,” Isaac remarked, looking around at the crowds of people that filled the streets. Beggars, merchants, aristocrats, everything he had been robbed of for a few months. It wasn’t the worst, but it made Isaac realize what it was to be robbed of something, even if you didn’t think much of it.
“The same could be said of you, Isaac. Now come, our estate is this way.” Cornelius said, walking around the corner. Isaac followed, the building now surrounding him on either side. “Welcome to my estate. You see, my wife and I divorced, and I made off with her fortune by some miracle.” Isaac smirked, rolling his eyes.
The bright, colorful mansion sprawled out before him, the shrubbery pristine, even compared to the green grass of which the front garden had to offer. Servants tended the plants, visitors admired the view. It almost compensated for the months of pure darkness Isaac had gone through.
Cornelius talked with a slave, they both nodded, and agreed with whatever they were talking about. Isaac didn’t pay attention, something else was nagging at his conscience, something darker. Isaac had no thoughts about the