Ema led Leo to a bedroom and took her leave. After Leo closed the door, he took a shower. Then, sitting down, he looked at his ceiling before recalling the scan ability he had.
Name: Leonard RageHeartRace: High Beast Hybrid (Lion, Spirit Eagle)Bloodline: Elemental Lord / Soul BeastEnergy:
Will: All categories
Elemental: Fire / Ice / Light
Spiritual (Reioku)
Abilities:
Elemental Manipulation: perfect control of elemental energy
Will Control: fluid control of inner will
Spiritual Control: high-level reiatsu control
Unhuman Body: super strength, speed, thought process, senses in human form (on par with Lv 35)
Shape Shifting: ancient lion, ancient eagle (can adjust size and form)
Lord Bite: awakens the beast instinct of the bitten, infusing the beast self into them (after the process, any race keeps standard abilities and loses weaknesses)
Beast Lord: respected and loved by land and aerial beasts and animals; can communicate telepathically with them
Soul-Beast Claws: arm and leg claws with ability to cut anything spiritual (like X-23's, but black)
Infused Soul Blades in the arm claws (triggered separately by chant)
Soul Burial: touching lost souls with the back of the claws sends them to the soul land
Nodding at his status screen, Leo started to inspect everything carefully. But thanks to the sparse information, he began to growl and toss around on the bed, unable to sleep.
Putting on his clothes, he headed to the library—and to his surprise, he found Ema arranging some books on a table in her human form. Seeing him enter, she smirked."I knew you'd come. You are your parents' son for sure."
Not knowing how to respond to being compared to people he hadn't even met—though they were his parents in this life and he had no memories of them—he just shook his head."So, I guess you know why I'm here?"
Ema's smirk grew wider as she patted the pile of books beside her."In here, you'll find everything you need to know about the RageHeart and Shiroyasha families—their condition, history, roots, and the awakening process of the heritage they carry." Her expression turned serious."I hope you understand the situation you're in."
Leo nodded and glanced at the pile of books—almost a hundred stacked there. Looking back at Ema, he noticed she was staring at him before starting to leave the library."Won't help me out?" he asked.
She waved without stopping."Call if you need help." Then she closed the door behind her.
Sighing, Leo looked at the mountain of books in front of him."Guess it's just me and you, Alfred."
Taking a scanner from storage, he placed it on the table and began scanning the books one by one."Alfred, arrange the books in a new database under the name 'Supernatural Origin.'""[Affirmative, sir.]"
And so, Leo spent the night scanning and reading until the first minute of daybreak, when he finally finished the RageHeart family research. Putting the last book away and leaning back in his chair, he let out a long breath before looking at the ceiling again. Then, his gaze shifted to the window as the sun began to rise."And that's just my father's family? Really, 'watch what you wish for' fits me perfectly—though I didn't wish for anything, probably."
After hours of digging through countless pages, Leo had a general overview of the family and its abilities. He also realized just how far his condition was from normal.
First, the family mostly came from a high beast society—a race of beings who connect to their version of a beast in the Elemental Forest. The key is being linked or connected.
They're not natural beasts, but more like humans with the ability to take on the linked beast form and gain the corresponding element and abilities (if they have one).
Take a normal family member as an example:
At around 16 or 17, they start dreaming of turning into a beast and running wild in a forest—that's the awakening of their beast awareness. With the help of old family arts, they learn to control themselves in these dreams. Then, they get the chance to enter a place where they can train to control their powers more easily.
Finally, the awakening or adulthood ceremony: they're sent into the forest physically to fight their own beast and earn its respect and loyalty, gaining full access to their abilities.
That also eases their will training, as everyone in the family has high capability with most will categories and instinctual control over elements.
After awakening, they stop aging, gain full control of their abilities, and unlock unique powers only they can use—like gifts, but more powerful.
But here's the catch: no awakened member can leave the family grounds for more than a month, or their beast risks taking over. Only those with high compatibility can survive outside longer.
Second, they become emotionally unstable in areas with thin elemental energy.
That's where Leo noticed how different he was.
For starters, he was 100% sure he had no beast self in the forest. The first time he was there, he was already in the forest, if you count the top mountain as part of it.
His dream fights were somewhat similar, but he could control himself from going too far.
Also, no one had recorded the ability to control and summon the creatures inside the forest like he did—it was like commanding the other side of someone, somewhere.
Most importantly, no one in the RageHeart family could control or use more than one or two elements—let alone turn their body into said elements. That had never been heard of.
Finally, the only energy they could use was elemental from the beast side. Essentially, they were humans, and only those with a high will level could use elemental types outside their natural affinity or control other energy types.
And that was just the surface.
When he first woke up after the trial, he realized what he could really do.
He literally became the forest king. In the central world, he could wake any beast—not normal awakening, but his unique ability: Lord Bite. This allowed him to directly infuse the beast into whoever he bit, no fighting, no fear of losing control to emotions or irritations in thin elemental places.
Add to that his Beast Lord ability, which gave him rule over all beasts—including intelligent ones and even the beast self.
Sighing, Leo stretched and took out his phone, putting his legs up on the table."Alfred?""[Affirmative, what can I do for you, sir?]"Leo thought for a moment."Let's see what we've got on Shiroyasha. Also, check if you can find any up-to-date info.""[Should I include data on RageHeart?]"Leo nodded. "Please do."
After a while, a report appeared on a holographic screen. As he read the first two paragraphs, he fell from his chair.
Who wouldn't, when you read that your mother's family had a hand in every major industry in Japan—and much of Asia—with over 35% of shares in almost everything?
In simple words, they ruled Japan and some small countries from the shadows. Even more, his mother was the daughter of a powerful figure there, though most of her connections and data before marriage were missing.
Picking himself up, he chuckled."Now I'm scared of what I'll find about RageHeart."
Sitting back down, he kept reading. The more he read, the more he wanted to shut his phone.
The Shiroyasha family, according to the records in the scanned books, was one of the surviving clans from the first war against Yhwach—yes, that Yhwach.
After the war, the Shiroyasha took their people and chose to guard the Garganta—the link between the central world and the soul world, which fell under the King's jurisdiction.
Some didn't like the idea, since they were quite popular in the soul world due to their unique ability to accelerate the awakening of Zanpakutō, along with dozens of other mind-blowing abilities.
But they did what they thought was right, and now they were a behemoth—a force to be reckoned with in both the normal and supernatural worlds, despite being neutral.
Leo shut his phone and looked at his palm before slowly extending his claws. He stared at them for a moment."But nothing explains your origin."
Sighing again, he stood, packed up, and was about to head out—only to notice Ema sitting in the chair, arms crossed in her owl form."Where are you going?" she asked.
Leo sighed."I need to head back. I have school tomorrow, and I need time to process what I just learned—which is honestly way too much."
Ema nodded, concern in her eyes."But how will you explain your change? Not every day you see a man shoot up from 1.70m to over 2 meters tall, and if you didn't notice, your hair has gained black streaks."
Leo looked troubled."Any suggestions?"
Ema pondered."If not many people have seen you before..."
Leo shook his head."No, just a dozen or so people, and some only have pictures on legal papers I use."
Ema nodded."Can you change your age and photo in public records? Also, get some certificates under your name."
Leo nodded and asked Alfred to do so after taking some pictures.
Ema smiled, then started to glow. A wave of light radiated from her in all directions. Leo looked around, surprised."What was that?"