Despite thinking it was the end for him, and that he would never wake up again, Lucian found himself fading in and out of consciousness while slumped up against the wall.
Through this state of semi-consciousness, Lucian felt as though something was weighing down on him, it was warm, a warmth he hadn't felt in a long time.
The warmth of another human.
He couldn't move his body, but each time he faded back into consciousness, Lucian felt as though his body had recovered a little bit more.
When he finally came to, he realised where the warmth was coming from. There was a girl, seemingly the same as him, lying on his chest. She had blackish-purple hair, with pale white skin and light purple eyes. He had never met the girl before, and he assumed that she must have come out of the pod which was now much more visible with the illumination of the rising sun.
Although he didn't know the girl, Lucian felt a strange sense of closeness to her. His body was fully healed, and he assumed that the girl had something to do with this.
Not wanting to leave his saviour in an alleyway asleep after she had nursed him back to health, presumably putting her in a state where she fell unconscious as well, Lucian decided to bring her back to his home.
He had thought that his body was fully healed, but after standing up and lifting the girl into his arms, he noticed that he had arguably grown stronger than before.
Lucian inspected the girl more closely, and he couldn't see a single blemish on her skin or imperfection in her appearance whatsoever. She waswearing surprisingly normal clothes considering the high-tech, metal pod she had come out of.
He wondered where she came from, but all of his questions could be answered later once she had woken up.
The walk back to his house wasn't far at all, and aside from his blood-stained clothes feeling uncomfortable to touch, Lucian had no trouble getting back into his house with the girl.
He placed her down on his bed gently, so as to not wake her, and proceeded to get changed out of his ruined clothes. Thankfully they hadn't been expensive, Lucian didn't have the time or money to buy luxuries so his clothes were mostly cheap and disposable.
He took off his top before opening his wardrobe to look what he had to wear. Without his hoodie on, Lucian could see the scar on his chest where the knife had gone through. It was quite large but thin, and it looked like it had perfectly healed in the last few hours.
While he was looking at his new scar, he heard a voice come from behind him, "You're awake, I guess you're wondering who I am, aren't you?"
Lucian turned around, forgetting that he was topless to look at the girl who had seemingly woken up.
"Well, don't you look good, come here and I'll explain who I am. You can leave your shirt off if you want to."
"Sure, if you insist." Despite not having much experience with girls, Lucian didn't feel awkward with his shirt off in front of this mysterious girl, he actually felt quite comfortable.
He walked over to the girl and sat down on the side of the bed.
"Well, first off, my name's Luna and from now on I'm going to be your wife. Before you say anything, just hear me out. I come from a planet very similar to yours, except my planet was destroyed by the same monsters that are invading you. I was sent here to try and help save your planet, I only just turned eighteen so I wasn't able to enter any dungeons on my planet, but I trained lots and I have a good power so hopefully I can help." Luna smiled after saying this, almost as if there was nothing in the statement to be questioned.
"Okay, quite a lot to take in, I'm Lucian. I understand to an extent about your planet being destroyed, but why are you my wife now?"
"I probably should explain, before I landed I had already spotted you fighting those men. I was intrigued by your fight against them and wanted to ask why you weren't using your power but, by the time I landed, you were terribly injured. To keep you alive I had no choice but to link with you, I think my species has a better healing ability than yours, it's why you're still alive."
"I think I follow you, but I still don't get why we're married. Also, are you not a human? You look human enough to me."
"Well, I think my kind are very similar to humans, but like I said we're stronger than you on average. I'm from a planet called Sylvestris, on my planet two people can link their souls to share their powers and physical abilities, I tried to link with you to keep you alive and your soul accepted me despite your unconscious state. I noticed something strange though, when I linked with you it didn't seem like you had a power."
Lucian made a face which was a mix between both annoyance and sadness, "Well that would probably be because I haven't gotten one yet, I still haven't awoken my power or my status."
"Status? What are you talking about? My planet didn't have anything like that, we all had our powers since birth, do your people not?"
"No, they randomly manifest alongside status windows which display our information. You'd just say something like status open and-"
Joint Status:
Names: Lucian / Luna
Ages:
18 / 18
Species: Human / Sylvestrian (From Sylvestris)
Status: Linked
Powers: Corrupgrade / Perfect DNA Replication (Corrupgraded) (Shared)
Stored DNA:
"Well that's new, can you see that too?" Lucian asked with a shocked look on his face.
Luna was even more surprised, to the point where she had moved back on his bed a little bit, "What is this, is this that status thing that you were talking about? Why's it just floating there?"
She started waving her hand through the screen, intrigued as to how it worked.
The two of them looked over the screen in front of them, Lucian was confused about two things. The first was that the status was joint between the two of them, and the second was the fact that he had obtained seemingly both his own power and the power of his new wife as well.
He clicked on them both to get a more in-depth explanation of the powers he had gained from this new connection, or 'link' as Luna had put it.
Corrupgrade: Upgrades the power of an ally. In turn, it will cause the boosted power user's inner desires to leak through into their emotions and actions more frequently.
The description of his power intrigued him, and as both he and Luna would be using the corrupgraded power it was likely that their inner desires would become heightened over time.
What interested him even more though was Luna's power that the two of them would be sharing from now on since they had linked.
Perfect DNA Replication: Upgraded by the Corrupgrade power. Replicate and store the DNA of encountered species and exhibit their traits and abilities in a more humanoid appearance. DNA of specimens will be boosted to the peak of their evolution line, e.g. Goblin DNA - Peak Goblin DNA.
"Your power is amazing!" Lucian couldn't hide his excitement, just a few hours before he thought he was going to die, but now he was faced with a wife and a power, unlike anything he had ever heard of before.
"Yours too, I can't believe you made my power stronger! My power before was just to temporarily copy the DNA of an exact replica of a specific creature."
"I apologise for the negatives that come along with it, I didn't even have this power before just now, and I assume it's because of you. I can't thank you enough, you saved my life and you even helped me open up the status window, thank you, Luna. I know we've only just met, but I'm glad we did."
"Me too, I don't know if it's because of the side effects of your power or what, but I want you to kiss me. Even though we've just met I'm so happy that we've linked. I want to help save your planet with you, I hope you feel the same way."
Even without any experience with girls, and his previous lack of interest in them, Lucian felt the same way. The girl in front of him was beyond beautiful, and in just a few hours of meeting her, she had essentially revived him and given him a real chance at saving humanity.
"Of course I do." Lucian leaned in and kissed Luna, and it was the best feeling he had experienced in his entire life. He pushed her down onto the bed and the two of them let their instincts take over.