The room was furnished with a small table and chair. A single lamp stood on the mantelpiece above a bookcase. On the table lay a bottle of brandy and three glasses. There was also a small crystal bowl containing a few pale yellow pills.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6WhfMmxbZG
"This is your supply of painkillers," Death said. "In case you need them. Just swallow one of these whenever you're feeling sick or anxious, and it should alleviate any discomfort. Of course, if you ever do need a doctor, I can arrange one for you, but that's assuming you'll come to me for help. If you decide to leave the castle and see a physician of your own, I'd advise against it. For one thing, it may put you in danger. But mainly, it wouldn't be necessary. I can cure almost any ailment or injury in an instant. All I need is your consent to do so."
"Is this place yours?" Vincent asked.
"Everything in it is mine," Death said. "Except for one thing, which is a kind of gift for you from me. It's a special gun. With this weapon, you can destroy people and control souls, which is something I do quite often. At least, I used to do it quite often, before I got tired of having to deal with the aftermaths of the destruction. But anyway, the point is that you're supposed to use this gun only in cases of a dire emergency. Only in life-and-death situations. Otherwise, it would defeat the purpose of giving it to you. Do you understand?"
"Yes," Vincent said. "I guess I do."
"Good. Now follow me."
The Death led the way out of the library and into the hall. There they encountered a young lady in her twenties, wearing an elaborate lab dress with a deep eyes bag. She was walking toward them, but she seemed unaware of their presence.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgkZ9PX5nSM
"Who's there?" she whispered. "Come out! I know you're here!"
"It's okay," Death said. "I'm here too. Come over here, and meet my guests."
She stopped walking and stared at the two of them with wide, startled eyes as they approached. Her face was pale and her lips were quivering as if she were about to cry.
"Hello, Sally," Death said." May I introduce our guest Vincent, he is the vampire that we turn back to be a human and now he lives here."
"He's so cuteeeeeeeee! No wonder you guys are going crazy with him." Sally smugly grins. "Hey, hey, hey, I'm so happy you guys found each other. Can I hold him? Pleeeease?"
"No!" Vincent said. "Don't touch me."
"Why not?" Sally said. "I love you, all right?"
"Sure you do," Death said. "But it's not like that."
"What is it then?" Sally asked. "Are you a vampire or something?"
"No," Vincent said. "Not exactly. I'm immortal, but I don't have fangs or bloodlust or anything like that. I just have this particular talent I'm trying to develop."
"You want to teach him to kill people?" Sally said.
"No," Death said. "That's not what I meant. I don't kill people for fun or sport. I'm not into that sort of thing at all. I'm talking about the power to destroy them permanently and to send them on to another realm after that. I can do that if I choose to do it, but it's not like I enjoy doing that. The whole thing is very distasteful to me. That's why I wanted to give Vincent this gun. It's the only way I know of to stop people from dying permanently, without killing them outright."
"How do I use it?" Vincent asked.
"Hold out your hand," Death said. "I'll show you."
Vincent looked at Death, who nodded his head. Then the two of them walked around to the rear of the Sally, where Death took a revolver from his pocket. He placed the muzzle against her forehead and fired.
There was a loud bang, and a tiny ball of flame erupted from the tip of the barrel. It rose a few inches, hovered there for a second or two, and then fell to the ground. It was still burning. Yet the is no bullet wound.
"Sally won't die, she became a soul property that you can control with your will, you control her to do whatever you want like extracting her soul from her body. But do be careful the process will kill any normal human if you don't put back the soul into their body quick enough usually 5 to 10 minutes and if the soul is strong sometimes within 1 hour. And now I give up that control," Death said.
"You use the gun against its creator, how rude of you." Sally a little piss off
"Okay, now you know how it works," Death said. "Use it only in an absolute emergency, and only after you've exhausted all other options."
"I won't," Vincent said. "I promise."
"Then I'm satisfied," Death said. "Now I must get back to my work. Goodbye, Vincent. Good luck with your project. And good luck to all of you."
"Why is he so nice to me, I don't understand?" Vincent starts to weep. "I never knew anyone would ever want me, let alone love me. I didn't think there was any chance for me at all, and now this is happening!"
"Cheer up," Sally said. "We're all here to help you. Aren't we?"
"Yeah," Vincent said through his tears. "I guess you are."
" Now, let me introduce myself again, I'm Sally, code name Skullet Due, and I can create anything out of my mind! So I'm the main tech support person here, And you can be Sally or Due if you want, and if you need anything, don't be afraid to ask, but if you want me to make something for you, you get to pay up first, usually $100,000 or above. Ok is everything clear?" Sally asked.
"Yeah," Vincent said wiping his nose with his sleeve. "I'm Vincent, and I would like it very much if you made me a copy of myself, so I could spend time with both of you."
"If you do that, I get to make you a robot free of charge just this once, which is better than a copy of yourself anyway." Sally smiled. "And then, if you want, I'll teach you how to make robots of your own."
"Okay," Vincent said. "That sounds great. Why don't we start right now? How long will it take?"
"A while," Sally said. "First I'm going to have to build the robot chassis. Then I'll have to program it and install its brain chips. It shouldn't take more than a day or two."
"So what do I call it?" Vincent asked.
"Call it whatever you like," Sally said. "But I think I know what it ought to be called. What about Mr Z?"
"Mr Z!" Vincent exclaimed. "That's perfect! You're terrific, Sally!"
"Thanks," Sally said. "I'm glad you like it. Now, let's see what else you need."
The two of them went downstairs to the factory floor. Sally showed Vincent the various machinery that she controlled and explained how each worked. Then she took him into the research lab and introduced him to the scientists working there. Finally, they went down to the basement and examined some of the spare parts stored there. They spent most of the afternoon exploring the basement together, and by nightfall, they had built the basic framework of Mr Z's body. When they finished, Death appeared and wished them well. He left with a wave of his hand.
"Well, I guess I'd better go home now," Sally said. "I'll let you stay here until morning, but then I want you to leave to your room. Understand?"
"Yes," Vincent said. "I won't be gone for very long."
"Good enough," Sally said. "Here's my number. Call me if you need anything, and I'll come right over. Welcome to our family love."
"Thank you," Vincent said. "Now I'll be going, and I hope to see you later."
He went upstairs and entered his bedroom. On the bed lay the clothes he had taken from the closet. He dressed hastily and went outside.
He passed through the forest and came to the edge of the lake. It was dark now, and the moon hung low in the sky above the trees. He gazed at it, wondering whether it was Death's reflection, or perhaps merely a trick of light and shadow. He tried to remember if Death had ever told him what he looked like. Perhaps he was familiar with the creature in the painting that hung beside the bed; the figure in black robes who held a scythe in one hand.
At length, he became aware that someone was standing nearby. It was a tall man with wild hair and a beard. He wore a long cloak of midnight blue and carried a staff with a skull on its top. A ring of skulls encircled the base of the staff.
"You're the first visitor I've gotten today," the man said. "It's been a boring day."
"I'm sorry," Vincent said. "I wasn't expecting company."
"Of course you weren't," Death said to himself. "I'm not always visible when I appear to mortals. Sometimes I just walk among them, unseen. I've done that with you before."
"May I ask your name?" Vincent said.
"Call me Grim," the man replied. "Do you know why I'm here?"
"No," Vincent said. "Was I expected?"
"No," Grim said. "I just thought I might as well talk to someone instead of sitting here alone in silence. I don't get many visitors these days."
"Is there anything I can do for you?" Vincent asked.
"No," Grim said. "Just sit down here near me. That way we can talk without disturbing each other."
They sat down side by side on the damp grass, gazing up at the moon. They talked quietly for some time, and then Grim began to laugh.
"This is a strange place," he said. "I never imagined that there would be such beauty here, or even that such a thing could exist."
"Beauty?" Vincent said. "What makes you say that?"
"Look," Grim said. "Doesn't it seem wrong that this should be so beautiful, yet so lonely? Don't you think that things should be less wonderful and more terrible than they are?"
"Yes," Vincent said. "I suppose so. Do you know why that is?"
"No," Grim said. "But I suspect that it has something to do with the fact that we're mortal. We have short lifetimes, and so time appears to us to move faster and more sharply than it does to those who live forever. So we experience life as a succession of brief moments, each of which seems to last a lifetime. Each moment is eternal. That's why we sometimes feel that life is so painful and unfair because we look back on our entire lives and perceive that each of them was a single endless agony."
"What do you mean?" Vincent asked.
"Consider the following paradox," Grim said. "Imagine a race of beings who are immortal and infinite in lifespan, with no beginning or end. To one of them, every moment of existence lasts infinitely long, and therefore everything is equally important and of equal value. Therefore, the race is indifferent to all things, including itself, and acts only according to its interests. It experiences no pain or pleasure whatsoever and cares nothing for the welfare of others. After all, if all things are alike to them, why should they care about anything but their preservation?"
"That sounds horrible," Vincent said. "Why would anyone want to live like that?"
"Because they wouldn't," Grim said. "They would be insane to do so. But since they have no real awareness of themselves or anything else for that matter, they simply act according to their desires, and thereby create for themselves a world of unending happiness. The unhappiness of everyone else is irrelevant to them since none of it affects the eternal lives of the immortals."
"I don't understand," Vincent said.
"Neither did I at first," Grim said. "But then I realised that the paradox applies to us mortals as well. Consider eternity. It consists of an infinity of moments, each of which is identical to all the rest. Yet in each of them, the individual exists, feels joy, suffers pain, loves another, and dies. These millions of experiences are all part of the same thing, and yet they cannot all be the same. Each moment must be different from the others, and yet it too shall pass, and so will all the others, until all of them have vanished forever.
"Yet consider the human condition," Grim went on. "Every moment of it is unique, yet they are all so similar as to be indistinguishable. We live and die in an age of endless war and bloodshed; our children die in war, and our fathers and mothers were all killed in wars. Our children fight in battles we fought ourselves, and in turn, will be fought by their descendants. We pass along a legacy of violence that we share with all men, and in doing so we become a part of it. We are soldiers in a long line of warriors who have always waged wars against one another, and we shall continue to do so forever. Yet although our blood flows in the veins of all men, there is no one whom we can identify as our enemy. We are all our brother's keepers, and we are all our enemies. Our common ancestry is lost in a maze of generations, and we share the same fate in the end. And so we do battle with one another endlessly, without ever knowing why."
"It's a terrible irony," Vincent said. "We're doomed to suffer forever because we can never escape the past."
"Yes," Grim said. "Even if we could somehow overcome our shared history, the future would still be inevitable. All the events we experience in the present will soon pass away, leaving us to face a new world where everything will be different. Every moment we live is a single instance of a vast and eternal process, a second of eternity that contains multitudes. But we are creatures of the finite, and the universe is infinite. Everything we touch, all the memories that we carry through the centuries, all the hopes and dreams that we pursue, and all the thoughts and feelings that we experience, are all transient things and will vanish upon their passing. Even the emotions that we feel in any given moment are ephemeral things, and soon will fade and disappear. No matter how long we live, or how deeply we feel anything, it is all transitory and fleeting."
"You sound depressed," Vincent said.
"I am," Grim said. "In a sense, I feel that I am dying. I watch the people around me grow old and die, but my own life seems to be going nowhere. There is no purpose to it. I am not quite sure what I am supposed to be doing with it, and yet I fear that I may not have much longer to find out."
"Sometimes I feel the same way," Vincent said. "But I think that maybe it isn't true."
"What do you mean?" Grim asked.
"I don't know," Vincent said. "I've been thinking about it for a long time now, and I can't explain it properly. The truth is that I believe that I can make my life mean something. Maybe I can change the world, or at least a small part of it. I think that immortality is irrelevant, and now that I'll be able to achieve my dream without it. I don't think that I'll ever be completely satisfied with myself unless I accomplish something worthwhile while I'm alive. I might as well try to do it now before I die."
"That's a very sensible attitude," Grim said. "I wish that I felt as positive about things. It's hard sometimes, you know. All the time I spend wandering through the woods, watching people grow old and die, waiting for a chance to kill them."
"I know," Vincent said. "Life is a curse."
"Maybe," Grim said. "But then again, maybe it's just a blessing."
They sat silently for a few minutes, staring up at the moon. Then Grim stood up suddenly and walked toward the lake.
"Wait!" Vincent called. "Where are you going?"
"I'm sorry," Grim said. "I can't tell you. You won't understand."
"Please wait," Vincent said. "I've come all this way."
"I don't want you to see what I'm going to do," Grim said. "I've already put it off for too long."
"All right," Vincent said. "I'll stay here."
"Thanks," Grim said. "Now be quiet and don't disturb me. I'll return in a short while."
Grim stepped into the lake. A few seconds later he emerged on the far shore, dripping wet. He climbed onto the bank and dried himself with a cloak.
"Why did you do that?" Vincent said. "Don't you know how dangerous that was?"
"I'm an element spirit," Grim said. "Water doesn't harm me."
"How was I supposed to know that?" Vincent said.
"I didn't expect you would," Grim said. "I wanted to show you something else."
He pulled open his cloak and let it drop to the ground. Beneath it, he wore only a loincloth of black leather and the skull staff in his hand.
"Oh no…" Vincent gasped.
"Look at me," Grim said.
Vincent stared at him. His face was deathly pale, and sweat poured down his forehead.
"Do you know what this means?" Grim asked.
"No," Vincent said.
"It's a sign," Grim said. "The mark of the Master. It shows that I am the Chosen One."
"Chosen…?"
"Chosen to see the world until the end," Grim said.
"But you can't go!" Vincent said. "It would be better for both of us if you stayed here."
"No," Grim said. "Not anymore. Things have changed. I've made my choice."
"Then I will stay here with you!" Vincent said. "If you will take me with you."
"I can't do that," Grim said.
"Why not?"
"Because you already have a family now," Grim said. "I need a guide who can show me the way, that why I join Death and took the code name of Skullet Dieci. He promised me he will show me a changing world for me, in return for my loyalty. And I have a dangerous mission to complete."
"But I could still come with you," Vincent said.
"I told you, I can't do that," Grim said. "But I would like to ask you something else. Would you mind coming with me to your home, and seeing your mother and father?
"They pass away 20 years ago," Vincent said. "My mother died giving birth to me, and my father two days later. They buried him and gave me to some strangers to raise. I've never seen any of them again."
"Well, I am sorry to hear that," Grim asked.” you know what I will visit you when I completed my mission, how about that?’
“yes! promise you'll return safe and sound,” Vincent replied.
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***
in the meantime is Friday, and Sam lost contact with Vincent for two to three days. At first, he lies to his son about him being safe with the organization without knowing for sure. And his visits the place is empty. He begins to freak out a bit. Not knowing the other location he had found him in. And tonight he continued to check in at the White facility. Death is waiting for him on the sofa watching TV. He sees Sam entering and greeting him. “how is it going, Mr, Sam.” Sam looks kind of stressed and asks Death “ Hey sir. I…mean Death, where is Vincent?” “ Why won't you try losing my mind.” Death asks.
“I thought it would be kind of inappropriate so your my boss and all,” Sam said humbly.
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, WOW, just day one and you already starting to act like a corporate slave, you got some really funny humour.” Death replied, “if you didn't read my mind I bet you won't do that at all.”
“Yes, I read your mind when we were still talking about our working conditions,” Sam confesses. “ And what a mess it is, the power to control every fiction in the world and apply it only to yourself. What an astronomical ability that was. Not only you can feel my mind reading, but you can also achieve infinite loop behaviour as well. I mean If you can do it all yourself Why do even bother to assemble a team?”
Death reply“ Is because I…” “ Yes, I know you feel alone and you want to accompany, and fiction power to yourself meaning if the thing exists in real life you can only imagine a fictional one with a different quirk. And of course, your power needs Spirit energy even if you achieve something that changed the world if you lose focus even for a second the world will turn back to normal. And if you want something to stay a certain way worldwide you would need to focus your whole life doing it. They for defeating the purpose of you being unhinged and staying true to the Bible quotes ‘For what shall a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit his life? or what shall a man give in exchange for his life?’”
“Man, you speak my heart out.” Death said while having tears in his eyes.” And yet you are still afraid of what I will do to Vincent, even though you just using him as a pawn.”
“come on, I have to come up with something to ensure my safety, He was just the best option we had, yet when I see how he looks at Tre I know is game over, you guys met with him a while back already, he just plays along with us. The main issue is one of your guys seems pretty afraid of you and always overthinks what your intention is, of course, that guy being the one you put under me. He becomes a hot-headed smart-ass after he saw what you're capable of when you kill a guy over and over again in front of him. Just to show him what happens when someone crosses you. I'm just kind of afraid of what he would do when he is alone with Vincent.” Sam sigh.
“That's why I try to put him under your wing, He did try to kill Vincent in a mission I sent him, Vincent and Tre on, he overthought me for needing to know Vincent's secret and threatens him if he doesn’t talk, he will strangle him to death, therefore, sparing him in the fate of being killed by me over and over again just to know his secret, of course, Tre did stop him, I heard she even use a Time Loop just to stop him from killing Vincent. But I can't blame him cause on one hand I did put that impression into his brain, and on the other hand, the methods did come across my head when sooner or later I ask him about his past and origin. So that's where you came in, when you are free of duty you can be our therapist. And my first mission to you is to give Vincent a therapy session and help me read Vincent's mind and founds his secret!" Death answered with an excited face.
“That this is a really fucking bad team management.” Sam said, “ But you're the boss.”
“Snd yes we forgot to inform you about the change of headquarters. I change somewhere in the middle of nowhere in a cave near the sea, this old headquarters is for only people we don't trust and we have already changed your portal so next time it will go to the new headquarters.”Death said.” And now I will grant you the name of Skullet dodici.”
“Why not Skullet Terzo, wait name collision get it,” Sam mumbles to himself.
“Ok, it's time for work.” Death concludes.
after he teaches Sam how to use the Portal Device, He opens the portal and disappears into it, and Sam follows.
.***
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