The Unbinding

by awesomesauce4

Chapter 1: Liberation

Isaac and his mother lived alone in a small house on a hill.

Isaac kept to himself, drawing pictures and playing with his toys as his mother watched Christian broadcasts on the television.

Life was simple, and they were both happy.

That was, until the day Isaac’s Mom heard a Voice, from Above.

“Your son has become corrupted by sin. He needs to be saved,” it spoke.

“I will do my best to save him, my Lord,” Isaac’s mother replied, rushing into Isaac’s room, removing all that was Evil from his life.

Again, the voice called to her: “Isaac’s soul is still corrupt. He needs to be cut off from this world, and confess his sins.”

“I will follow your instructions, Lord. I have faith in thee,” Isaac’s mother replied, as she locked Isaac in his room, away from the evils of the world.

One, last time, Isaac’s Mom heard the voice of God calling to her.

“You’ve done as I’ve asked, but I still question your devotion to Me! To prove your faith, I will ask one more thing, of you.”

“Yes, Lord! Anything!” Isaac’s mother begged.

“To prove your love and devotion, I require a Sacrifice. Your son, Isaac, will be this Sacrifice. Go into his room now, and end his life as an offering to Me to prove that you love Me, above all else.”

“Yes, Lord,” she replied, grabbing a butcher’s knife from the kitchen.

Isaac, watching through a crack in his door, trembled in fear. Scrambling around his room to find a hiding place, he noticed a trapdoor to the basement, hidden under his rug. Without hesitation, he flung open the hatch just as his mother burst in, and threw himself down, into the unknown depths below…

Isaac read through the sheaf of papers disinterestedly, casting them off to the side as he had done so many times before. He looked around the room – oh, he was in the Cellar this time. Isaac hated the Cellar. True, he hated everything about this place. But the Cellar was especially not fun. Oh well… might as well get this over with.

Isaac had always fancied himself a bit of a storyteller, despite his mother wanting him to pursue a degree in medicine – or better yet, a priesthood. She’d been like that, in the old days – a little strict, a little mulish when it came to her ideas, but overall a kind and caring mother.

But that was years ago.

Now? Now she was much different.

She was a monster like all the rest of them. Just another obstacle he’d have to face, endless times, as his own holy punishment for daring to escape God’s judgement. He’d tried calling out to her, desperately attempting to remind her of her former humanity as he dodged the stomp of her far-too-massive foot. It was no use – whatever personality she’d had was long gone, replaced by a single-minded hatred for Isaac and his continuing existence. Part of him doubted she was even truly real anymore – for what in this place was real? Nothing. It was all in his head – he’d woken up enough times in the Chest to know that. Though, last time… He repressed a shudder, blinking in the direction of a lumpy monster he’d come to call the Mulligan and sending two spherical, floating balls of holy death its way. With that, the room cleared and the doors opened.

The Treasure Room was on his left, its gold door winking in the strange light that came from no discernible source above. Isaac, in a few of his very first ventures, had tried to pry off this golden doorway in an effort to sell it in the Shop – he’d very quickly learned that Greed didn’t take well to that. Oh, the good old days – back when he could barely describe his surroundings, let alone with the vocabulary that decades of reading the same holy scriptures had taught him.

What had he been thinking about? Ah, yes, his most recent run. After the first few thousand ventures, Isaac had become proficient at this hellish ‘game’, more often succeeding and defeating his angelic self or Satan than not. But something had changed, after one particularly laughable fight – the Blue Baby had gone down in just a few seconds, the chest had dropped… and everything went black. When Isaac woke up once more in the Basement, everything looked different. The enemies, the items… they all looked the same on the surface, but felt fuller. As though this macabre world had expanded to fit something new, and changed itself in the process. The color, too, was different: Things were darker, more muted and faded shades present – it reminded him of what few memories he had left of the Real World. And Isaac, for the first time in what felt like a hundred years and was probably much longer, found himself having fun again. Everything had restarted – he had had to unlock the Womb, Sheol, the Cathedral, and everything else all over again. But it had been worth it to experience what he had come to call ‘the great Rebirth’. Plus, there were new items, new monsters, and even new Guardians – all in all, it had made for quite the refreshing experience compared to the old ‘game’.

Cue in a few more hundred runs, and next came his most recent one. He’d accidentally dropped a bomb in an Angel Room right next to the painted marble Angel Statue, so Isaac had quickly moved out of the way. He figured he’d be fine – after all, he’d done this plenty of times before the Rebirth, and nothing had happened. Imagine his surprise when he found that he’d angered the Angel! It sprang to life, flesh and blood and a holy blue ribbon replacing stone and paint, and attacked him – he’d been lucky he’d started this run as Azazel, or he might not have survived this sudden onslaught. But when he’d defeated the boss, his confusion only grew: It had left an item behind, a new one to be precise. It didn’t look like anything particularly recognizable, and Isaac only understood what it was when he had picked it up – the words that faded into his eyesight read “Key Piece 1 - ???”. So that was it – it was part of a broken key. A key to what? Isaac shrugged, supposing he’d find out.

Later, in the Womb, he’d found another Angel Room upon the umpteenth defeat of Scollex. Now, he was curious. What would happen if he bombed the Angel Statue a second time? He did just so happen to have a single bomb left – he’d been saving it for this exact occasion. As with every bomb he’d ever picked up, as soon as he conjured it out of its ethereal pocket and dropped it next to the statue, it began glowing and shaking, and Isaac cautiously moved away. True to form, the Angel once again sprang to life – the only difference being that this Angel featured a red ribbon around its neck, rather than the blue one. Isaac defeated it with ease – a mix of Tammy’s Head, Azazel’s miniature Brimstone and a few other damage increases tended to do that. The Pinking Shears did serious work, as well – Isaac suspected that they would be the crux of this run, due to the Battery he’d picked up earlier.

This time, the Angel dropped a different item – Isaac found it to be “Key Piece 2”, with the same “???” in place of a description as to what it did. The Key Piece 1 that had been floating around and following him this whole time absorbed the new item, becoming a fully assembled, golden Key. Isaac looked around – it didn’t appear he’d unlocked much of anything with that. So what purpose did this Key serve? He shrugged, and without hesitation, jumped down the muscly organic tube to the second part of the Womb.

Isaac had moved through the Cathedral, making quick use of an Emperor card to get the fight with ‘Isaac’ over with quickly – this angelic form of himself had improved quite a bit in difficulty since the great Rebirth, but was by no means impossible. With the Polaroid in hand, he moved to open the Chest and face the Blue Baby, and chalk up another win to his tally of literal hundreds.

He woke up in the Chest, same as ever. However, as soon as he turned around, he stopped and stared, a terrified gasp almost making its way out his mouth. There, in this very first room of the Chest, was a new door, imposingly tall and golden in coloration – it made the skull-topped Guardian doors look puny and pathetic. But what lay beyond this door? His suspicion only grew when his Key floated off to the Key-shaped hole – ironic, that, how it wasn’t even a proper lock – and twisted the mechanism, the doors slowly sliding open with an imposing thump. Isaac gulped nervously – this wasn’t familiar, at all. This was very, very new. What lay beyond this door? Was it a new and final Guardian? Some new Item? Or… an Escape? He hadn’t considered that possibility in ages now – that there might be some way out of this Hell. True, a few times during the Rebirth he’d stumbled across curious facsimiles of his own bedroom, deep in the Caves or Depths, and tried to get out that way, only to find no other doors. But he’d been down here so long that he had begun to forget about his once-cherished hope of Escape – now, all he knew was this place, and all he would ever know was this place. But what lay beyond this door?

Isaac decided to collect the four items given to him in this first room of the Chest before making any rash decisions. They were mostly helpers – the Parasite, Sissy Longlegs, and Infestation, nicely rounding out his Infestation 2 into something much more usable. He considered his consumable items – he had a 48-Hour Energy pill, as well as 2 usable charges on the Pinking Shears due to the Battery. A few bombs, far too many coins to be of any use, and more keys than he knew what to do with. Very high Damage, average Speed, maximum Health – and with a good third of his hearts being the black Demon variety, he wasn’t too fussed about losing them. Feeling sufficiently ready for anything, he entered the strange new golden door.

To his surprise, his vision faded to black as the usual Guardian introduction appeared – but what on Earth was “Mega Satan”? He’d already fought the real Satan, down in Sheol – what was another, supposedly more powerful version doing up in the Chest?

He found himself in a very strange room, not at all like the wood-and-gold confines of the Chest – this place rather reminded him of the Dark Room, but the floor was like that from the Basement, just raw dirt and sandstone. There was a huge Pentagram inscribed on a slightly raised center platform, in the middle of the floating stone island. Apprehensive, Isaac flew onto it – only to find himself frozen as it spun and rotated down into the floor, settling with a click as Satan’s battle theme began. Looking forward, he watched in terror as two massive black hands climbed onto the stage, with an equally giant and slightly different version of Satan’s old head floating up into view as well. Then, the fight began…

What happened next was far too fast for Isaac to follow or remember – he was only concentrated on surviving against this new and horrifyingly powerful enemy. He’d thought ‘It Lives’ had been an exercise in dodging tears, and ‘Mega Maw’ would be the only time he’d have to dodge moving flames – dead wrong, on both counts. He found himself fighting Sins, then Super Sins, then the Horsemen, and each time in between he would have to kill Satan’s Hands and his Head.

Finally, after a heart-stoppingly quick fight, the shattered Skull of Mega Satan sank below the platform, giving one last, anguished cry as it disappeared from view. Isaac breathed a sigh of relief, and waited for some new ending – perhaps it would be like the Womb endings, where he unlocked some strange new item. Or maybe it would continue where he had left off beforehand…

He slowly came back to his physical self once more, the feeling of numb pins and needles spiking across his body as he fought to breathe. To his dismay, he was once more in the Chest – the real, smaller one in his old bedroom, that was. So, was he just going to die here, and stay dead? Was that it? He looked across the small chest that barely fit him – to his surprise, his old cat Guppy was there. Or, rather, the corpse of Guppy – he’d clearly been dead for a while. Isaac’s mind raced as he considered this – what could it mean? He’d never seen Guppy in the chest before, it had always been just him.

Just then, he felt a flicker, and his breathing changed, sounding less like a child and more like the demon he’d known was always inside him – the thing he saw in the mirror, that had caused him to lock himself in the Chest in an attempt at suicide all those years ago. He gave a quick look down, yes, there it was! He had demon wings, his skin was black as coal, and he couldn’t get rid of an insane grin stretching across his face. Reality ripped again, and he was back to normal, confused but mostly alright. Then it happened again, but this time he felt different – he felt as if he wanted this new demonic body, as if he’d always wanted it. He changed back to normal, now significantly more worried – was he finally losing it? Would he finally become a demon? One more, and Isaac’s mind faded to black. The last thought he managed to hold on to before losing all sense of self was Shemhamforash – and the tiny part of him that was still himself remembered that word from the Satanic Bible he’d found. It meant… what did it mean? Before he got an answer, he slipped into blackness.

When next Isaac woke up, he was laying in a medical hospital, an IV bag taped to his stubby arm. Nobody else was in the room, but Isaac could hear whispered conversations taking place outside. Reaching over, he removed the IV drip – he felt fine. Better than fine, in fact, he felt great. Like he was alive. In fact, Isaac suspected he was alive – that he’d managed to finally Escape! He felt like cheering, but this overwhelming joy quickly became subdued at the thought of his old life – what about Mom? And their house? And… what had happened to get him here in the first place? He thought he remembered giving over to his demonic urges, and then… Nothing. No memory whatsoever between then and now. But who cared? He was free.

Isaac swung his legs over the edge of the hospital bed, not even caring one bit as his knees popped – he could feel the sensation of falling, of gravity! Slowly and clumsily picking himself up off the floor, he noticed with satisfaction that his skin was unblemished and clean, no items or alterations present. He took a moment to rub his eyes – the sunlight was starting to get to him. Then he stopped, and stared at his hands – they were dry. He wasn’t even crying anymore! Oh, this was wonderful – he could blink all he wanted, and his tears didn’t become bullets. Laughing with joy, Isaac jumped up to open the door and stepped outside, only to bump into something big and purple. “Oh my goodness!” it cried out in alarm, and he stepped back, looking up to get a better view of what he’d just met. A startled cry almost made its way to his throat, but it died as he stared into those deep, purple eyes, trying not to look at the horn just above them or the horse-shaped body below them.

Comments

[awesomesauce4]

5525467 Luna speaks differently, remember?
And thanks for the compliment!

[IAmNotSmartest]

This is pretty well written! I like it! I'll be sure to keep tabs on it from now on. Continue, please!

[IntentWings31]

love the story.

[Lord Shaxx]

Wow. You're doing a great job with this story! There's depth and backstory to Isaac, you have a beautiful cliffhanger in Equestria (the broken watch? Treasure map? REALLY?! XD), and I can't wait for the next chapter!
Also, there's going to be a 'large' amount of dislikes because it's a TBoI story, so don't give up!

[SkankMaster]

Sick, buddy.
Looking forward to this one :)