Wiping down his tears his smile beamed like sunlight would on David's face, blinding him momentarily.

How could a person be so beautiful?

David thought but didn’t dare to open his mouth.

The boy before him unknowingly kept releasing a weird aura that was bestial in nature and made him feel like if he tried something funny, he would immediately slash his neck and kill him on the spot.

In the years he stayed in sanctuary he never met a person like that.

Kind and dangerous at the same time.

"Are you better now?"

He asked carefully and slowly watched as the boy laughed and then collapsed deeper into the soft embrace of the bed.

"Yes, I am just confused."

Boy said and closed his eyes, relaxing without care.

David was prepared to stand up and give the boy some space, but then the boy's eyes opened, and he carefully opened his mouth, with a trace of uncertainty in his voice.

"What are ascenders precisely?"

Stopping his attempt to stand up David tilted his head.

Did he have amnesia?

No person in the sanctuary could not know what ascenders were and the reason was simple.

Because only ascenders can enter.

There was no normal person who didn’t know it, no blood demon, no exorcist, no craftsman, and no Lightbrighter. They all knew because it was the first thing that was told to them the moment they gained their powers.

You are a monster.

David remembered his mother standing upon him and throwing him out of the house. Her strong hands grasped his neck before he escaped her grasp and fell onto the white snowy ground.

Her voice still resounded in his head.

Never come back.

She said and from then on, he never met her.

Waking up he looked at the boy who watched him with an innocent expression and soberly smiled.

This boy lost his family, his companion, and now even his memory what could be worse?

"Ascenders are…."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

What were they exactly actually?

Weapons?

Monsters?

Watching the curious eyes of the boy he was unable to tell him that, but he didn’t want to lie.

"Did you even hear about the creation myth?"

Boy nodded and then with closed eyes he began to recite the entry verse from the bible of Almighty.

"Book of Mother, chapter one at the beginning chaos reigned supreme, no life existed and death was ever present in all things, only chaos was able to exist in the wake of destruction and nothingness that spread through the land but from the middle of it all fire of life lifted himself up and from the blood of death, the man walked out and with each of his steps, he gave all thing life. The plants began to grow, the beings started to be born and once death world began to gain color but all man felt was a sense of loss, so he kept staring at the sky."

Finishing, the boy opened his eyes and turned his head to him.

While he did it some of his wounds opened and his bones creaked.

"That is how the first human was born according to the text but what does it have with ascenders?"

David smiled.

The curiosity of the boy, his clear blue eyes, and his thin and long black hair made him remember a time when he was his age. It was not so long ago, just three years but what happened in these three years made him feel old.

"Ascenders are born from the blood of the first man, they are his descendants and each of them holds part of his power that’s why our bodies are stronger, heal faster and can endure much more than normal humans but that is also why we are burdened by a curse that made as desire more."

He didn’t want to say more but if the boy was there for a longer time than him and could not remember the most important thing, sooner or later he would try something stupid and he didn’t want this boy to die.

"This desire…"

Looking at a painting of his friend who died for the same reason he took a deep breath.

"This desire will slowly grow in you and push you to grow your powers, absorb and refine your surroundings, and strengthen your body. The longer you fight it the stronger it becomes until you can no longer bear it. When that happens your body and mind will shatter, and you will become a monster filled with nothing but desires."

Blinking, the boy watched him with surprise, but David did not stop talking.

"The most common way to slow such a thing is to ascend through refining. You can do it slowly; you can do it fast but what I found out in my stay here is the longer time you can take to ascend from transcendent lord to transcendent baron is three years. Four and a half if you try to do it extremely slowly."

Gazing down on the floor he began to play with his finger, his heart beating with the unease he felt from revealing it all to the unknown boy he saved.

What if Cecilie found out?

Would she try to execute him?

She wouldn’t dare!

He hissed in his mind and his voice came out with a tremble of furry.

"After ascending you will most likely gain more time, but no one is sure how long."

Because no one can ascend in this hellish place without because of that bitch!

Anger flowed through his veins prepared to spill out of his eyes when a curious unease voice came out.

"Isn’t there another way?"

Lifting his gaze, he observed a boy's face that was full of fear and questions.

He knew what the boy wanted to ask.

How was he still alive if what he said was true?

"There actually is another way to slow it down but it works purely in Sanctuary and nowhere else. But even that way has its limits and most of it can stretch time is ten years after that desires will still penetrate your body and try to take you over but that is not a worse limitation."

David took a deep breath as he leaned onto the chair.

"The worst limitation of this method is that you can't ascend in sanctuary condemning you to lose your mind and body eventually without any chance for salvation."

Noticing a glass of water, he brought it for the boy, and feeling his dry lips he took a sip and then continued.

"As Ares creator of the first human language said, it doesn’t matter how much you fight your fate, in the end, those who are condemned to suffer will suffer and those who are condemned to be monsters will turn into monsters, the only choice you have is when it happens."