Up high above the ground, upon the roof of a huge, towering skyscraper, sat a man with a bottle of alcohol. His eyes so soulless and dark, you'd wonder whether or not he was really even alive. His name is Isaac Star, a 27 year old man who has lost everyone dear to him, with only a bottle of cheap alcohol and his clothes to his name. As he stares down at the rapidly depleting bottle, he sighs and thinks about his life.
At age 7, his parents died in a plane crash, on a flight they wouldn't have been on had he not begged them to come home before they were planning to do so. At age 13, both of his grandparents, his guardians at the time, passed away from a freak house fire. At age 15, his last remaining relative, his great uncle passed away from cancer, leaving him to be left in foster care. The tragedies of his life don't stop there. Every single family he was put under, had a tragic accident befall them within the first month of fostering him. At age 16 he ran away and decided to never get close to anyone ever again. That all changed at age 24 when he met a girl named Ashley. No matter how much he tried to fight it, they fell in love and lived blissfully for 3 years, conceiving a child in the process. He had thought that his luck was finally changing for the better, but fate had other plans. Exactly 1 year ago, Ashley passed away giving birth to a very sickly baby named Anna. He spent his very last dime trying to find ways to treat her and keep her alive, but in the end it was all for naught. She passed away not but a couple of days ago.
With eyes that seem to have age by years as the seconds go by, Isaac looks up at the rapidly darkening sky. He remembers that it's supposed to get very stormy, with a chance of severe winds. He doesn't care though. He's already decided to end it all today. In a voice filled with sorrow he says solemnly, "It's kind of fitting that my last day on this Earth is covered in darkness, as have all the days that have come before it." Looking at the now empty bottle of alcohol, Isaac stands up onto the ledge, and peers down into the bustling city below. "My life has been one of sorrow and anguish, but this is by far the lowest I've ever been," he said as he browses through his life story. As thunder and lighting crackle in the distance, he stares up at the sky longingly. "Ashley.... Anna... I'll be seeing you soon. Maybe in the afterlife I will finally be free from this pain and suffering."
As the wind started to pick up, he resolved himself to his fate. He takes one step, and falls towards the pavement below. Since he decided to jump off of a rather tall building, he has a few seconds before he actually will hit the ground. During this time, instead of seeing his life flash before his eyes, he sees blurred visions of giants cleaving the world in two, demons brutally slaughtering others on battlefields, and a figure who's gender and face are obscured by a hazy mist. "What the hell is all this?" he thinks to himself.
Right when he is about a meter away from the pavement, time seems to slow down to thousands of times slower than it normally operates. So much so that he's stuck stationary in the air. While he is bewildered and confused about his current situation, he hears a soft androgynous voice speak to him. "Your journey is far from over, Isaac," the voice says to him. Stunned by what is happening, Isaac can do nothing but hurriedly his gloss eyes over everywhere to find who it is speaking to him. "I know you have many questions right now, but they will have to wait for another time," the voice says as Isaac feels a pressure that makes him feel like the heavens are collapsing. "Just know that if you practice the Immortal Codex to completion, you will have the power to control life and death, and resurrect those most dear to you," the voice says calmly. Isaac is stunned when he hears those words. Immortal Codex? What is that? What is happening right now? "Only when you reach the apex will you be qualified to know the truth to your questions," the voice says.
The next moment Isaac sees a hand large enough to cast a shadow on the heavens themselves envelope him, and everything fades to black.
"Am I dead?" Isaac says to himself. I can't feel or see anything.... Was all that just a hallucination before I died? It felt so real though... Especially that pressure. After what felt like an eternity, Isaac sees a light in the distance. "Is that the afterlife?" he asks to himself. "Whatever it is, it's probably better than this darkness." The next moment he finds himself being drawn towards that light at breakneck speed. When he's within touching distance of the light, he reaches out and tried to grasp it with his hand, only to find his hand being sucked into the light forcefully. "What the hell, I can't pull away," he says panicking. The next moment, his whole body is sucked into the light and he loses consciousness again.
Drip.... Drip.... Drip
"Is that water?" Isaac wonders to himself
"Bro..t.r Isa.c, pl..se ..n't leav. me!" Who is that? They're calling out for me, but it's so muffled.
"ISAAC!!!" Isaac's eyes shot open when he heard that scream. Blinded by the light though, he tries to sit up, only to find that he's being weighed down by something.
The next moment his eyes finally focus to the light, and he sees what is keeping him down. It's a young girl who is probably not a day over 14. She's bawling her eyes out, but quickly notices that Isaac is awake. The next moment she starts crying harder, hugging Isaac. "You big dumb idiot! Do you know how scared I was when I saw you stop breathing?!? Don't ever scare me like that again! I told you that fighting Jacob was suicidal without entering the Meridian Opening stage! Your lucky I got here in time and stopped him from actually killing you!" Isaac was stunned by this turn of events. Meridian Opening stage? What is that? And how does this girl know my name? He thinks to himself.
Scanning his eyes around at his surroundings, Isaac notices that he's in a forest surrounded by plants and trees he's never seen in his entire life. They emanated vibrant pulses of vitality that were unlike anything he knew of. Finally bringing his sight back to the young girl bawling her eyes out, Isaac is about to ask where he is, but is suddenly assaulted by a pain so terrible that he blacks out.