Marcus was slumped on the sofa after the old man had knocked him out, he had remained in this state for over 3 days.
All the while Lucian was standing over him with a hand laid on the boys head and eyes closed in deep concentration as if doing something incredibly difficult.
As time went by he seemed to age at a visible speed, if he looked old before then his current look was indescribable with his eyes sinking into his skull and a brand new horde of wrinkles claiming his face while even the fat seemed to evaporate from his bones.
On this third day Marcus finally woke up, slowly opening his eyes to feel as if he had for some reason gotten weaker, yet a brand new energy was running through his bloodstream as if he was capable of anything.
"What the hell did you do to me Skeletor?" He asked in a panic while he jumped up and felt his body all over to ensure he was still whole. After feeling there was not a single wound on his body and all limbs were still attached he calmed down a little but was still staring at Lucian awaiting his answers.
"What I just did was a very draining process, let me sit down and drink some of my tea before we continue our talk, but make sure to listen properly. I don't have much time to explain all the questions you may have and I need to share the most important parts before you leave." Lucian replied as though he had a gumball stuck in his throat.
Lucian took a breath and sat down, taking the teacup that had been sitting there for the past 3 days and taking a sip. Marcus looked at his own cup and took it realising it was still warm and smelled fresh, he took a sip and as the rush of flavour hit his tongue he realised it was the best thing he had ever tasted.
"Can you at least tell me how long I was out?" He remarked, to which Lucian simply held out 3 fingers.
"3 hours? How is the tea still warm?" He remarked.
"No boy, 3 days and don't worry about that, in this place food and drink always stays in the perfect state for consumption. But that's not important, are you ready for my big speech?" Lucian asked before taking a last big gulp from his cup.
Marcus nodded in agreement so Lucian took a deep breath and started talking.
"Ok so, a long time ago my species was the peak of civilization able to create and destroy with a thought, each of us having our own unique abilities that awakened within us when we reached our adolescence.
Due to our standard lifespan being so long our adolescence was reached after several centuries which is why I had to awaken yours myself because your lifespan isn't long enough to reach that age.
What I have just done to you for the past 3 days is age your soul enough to awaken your ability using my own lifespan, due to you being half human this took quite a bit of work and several millenia of lifespan which was pretty much all I had left.
I have 14 hours left to live.
Don't ask me how I did this because I'll be dead before finishing my explanation. As for the why? You are far more important to the future of the world than I am.
As I said, the rising is coming and he comes with it."
"Who? And what is the rising? " Marcus couldn't help but interupt with these questions, if he was so important what could this rising possibly mean?
"Don't interrupt, you're wasting time out of my life just to rush to the next part of my explanation" Lucian glared at Marcus with a little impatience.
"When my civilization was at its peak we had several sacred laws each for a good reason, one of which was that we couldn't breed with a human. This law was in place due to a prophecy that a human hybrid would bring our race into extinction, though it seems the prophecy was misinterpreted it was him who wiped out my people. He was the strongest of us and led his legions of dark creatures against us, though thes creatures were weak in comparison to us their numbers made it fairly even and even overwhelmed us.
I was the only survivor of the slaughter due to my self imposed exile after I broke the sacred law, this allowed me to hide my time and trap them all in an alternate dimension.
I bound this prison with many magical seals that were supposed to last for eons, but they have weakened faster than predicted and the first of them are going to break within a few months.
Each broken seal will release dark creatures upon the earth and within a few centuries all of the seals will be broken and all of the terrors held within will have been released.
It is your destiny to bring my race into extinction as the prophecy once said, that means you will destroy the last of the 'powers that were'.
This is why you are so important, that traitor to our kind is basically unkillable to anybody but you, I don't know how you will do it but the ending is clear, you need to kill him."
"How the fuck am I supposed to do that? I know you just awakened my ability but I don't feel like I have enough ability to kill a near unkillable being that is so impossibly strong" Marcus asked after a few seconds of silence with clear panic in his voice.
Lucian smiled gently looking at Marcus and slowly said "Because of your half human heritage, you can only inherit the ability of your ancestor, which is me. My ability if used correctly has the greatest potential, the only reason I couldn't beat him myself was because we weren't prepared for such a betrayal and I never had ambitions to be the strongest because of the responsibility that came with it, although I was still highly respected.
My ability is that of the Sacred Deal.
I can trade anything I have for anything somebody else has by way of a willing blood contract. This goes beyond the physical and can claim things such as the abilities of others, their strength or even their lifespan, but they have to be willingly traded.
I have been watching the world through my entire exile and it seems the demons have claimed credit for my ability in their own twisted way.
I did give them the ability after all, don't judge me the version I gave them is way inferior, so many limitations and I needed the trade"
"So I can trade anything for anything as long as I have it?" Marcus looked excited about this, he always was good at convincing people to accept his terms on things.
"Yes but be smart about what you give away, now finally I also have 2 last gifts for you, one being this space that I built over the past several eons, it will always provide what you need whether it is knowledge, resources or some other things that could be useful as long as you have the ability to claim them.
The last, although is a bit cliche I liked to read about them as they seemed useful. It is a system, please lean forward and I'll upload it. Don't worry this won't knock you out this time."
Lucian reached out his hand as Marcus leaned his head towards his ancestor, when they made contact Marcus felt an electric charge running through his brain and gritted his teeth, and he could see Lucians legs slowly turning into ash. Gritting his teeth in pain he looked up to Lucians face.
"Sorry my boy, I didn't want you to back out. The upload of a system requires a soul to be burned away and I don't have any spare, I'll see you in the next life. Good luck with your journey, make me proud." Lucian said his final words as he finally disappeared completely into a pile of ash.
The next moment a screen appeared before Marcus.
[System has been successfully uploaded]
[24 hours until installation is complete and features become available...]
[System AI available with limited functionality]
[Private Training Space guide uploaded to AI]
[Please wait for further functions...]