Leon and Angus continued to walk through the woods in complete silence with only the rugged-looking man turning back with a look of concern every now and again to make sure the frail boy was still following behind. Leon on the other hand was buried deep in his thoughts.

Throughout the walk, Leon had focused on his body and especially the small deep-red core that was quietly stirring inside of him. It felt alien, unnatural and a bit... blasphemous?

Leon wasn't sure why that was the word that came to mind when he focused on the core, but he noted it and put the thought to the back of his mind for now. Furthermore, the weird connection he felt with the Earth whilst trapped in the rocky sarcophagus was no longer present. No weird jolts of energy coming from the ground, Leon even faked tripping over planting both hands firmly on the ground, but again got no reaction back other than a heightened look of concern from Angus.

Leon didn't reply to the worried face of Angus and after getting back up, continued to walk slightly head down. Angus sighed and shook his head but didn't say anything to Leon before turning back and continuing the walk.

The steely silence continued for another half hour before Angus came to a halt and turned back to Leon, the sudden pause causing the boy to a sudden stop and Angus didn't miss the boy's shoulders rise a little and his uncanny golden eyes quiver.

'Shit, probably scared him.' Angus thought.

"Sorry lad, I was out hunting earlier before I decided to visit the lake, where I found you, however, I left my axe somewhere here, so I need to collect it quickly. It won't be long..." Angus said with a caring tone before looking around slightly lost, "I hope."

---

Angus frantically searched the area whilst Leon just stared at him in a deadpan expression, the rugged man looked out of place pacing around the densely packed woods shouting curses after looking around every tree unable to find the axe in question.

As the sunset over the woods, the last dying rays of light suddenly caught something, and a glint caught Leon's eyes. Curious, he walked over to the location and found a large double-bladed great-axe around a meter and a half long stuck bone-deep into a black boar-like creature with massive tusks. The creature, even though long dead, still gave off a somewhat intimidating aura and frightening appearance, which made Leon raise an eyebrow in interest.

'A mana-beast?' Leon somewhat confirmed to himself.

Even though he'd never seen one in person, mana-beasts were well-documented creatures that appeared throughout the world and unlike normal animals, had somewhat become in tune for whatever reason with the natural mana that existed and evolved to become stronger, faster, and more intelligent than their mana-less peers. These creatures varied in all shapes and sizes from the black boar Infront of him to creatures that were in books as the stuff of legends, like dragons or leviathans.

More importantly, even an ordinary mana-beast was no joke and most low-tiers made a conscious effort to avoid them, so the fact the intimidating creature lay lifeless on the floor with the oppressive looking weapon sticking out of its neck made Leon see Angus in a different light, it would seem the rugged, seemingly clumsy man genuinely had some skill. Leon turned his attention back towards the axe before laying a single hand on its shaft.

'Might as well bring it back to him seeming I've found it' Leon thought, thinking nothing more of it before a voice suddenly called out to him.

"Ah!" said Angus, his face brightening as he looked over to see that Leon had found his axe, "I'll be right over lad give me a seco-"

With a somewhat sickening wet crunch, Leon unwedged the large axe from the neck of the boar with a single hand and raised it up to look over the axe, thinking it looked far more like a weapon of war than something one would use to hunt with.

"Oh! I see you're a super-strength ability user like me" Angus said with surprise, seeing the frail boy lift the bloody axe from the dead boar with a single arm that couldn't be much thicker than the shaft of the axe itself.

Leon looked over at Angus with a confused look, super-strength? What did he mean? Why would he need super-strength to lift an axe that barely weighed a thing?

"What's with that look boy?" asked Angus, mirroring Leon's confused expression, "That axe-head is made of pure meteorite and probably weighs more than you do."

Realizing his blunder, Leon quickly dropped the axe back down which landed with a heavy thud on the ground.

'Fuck, super-strength too?' Leon thought in confusion, wondering what other secrets becoming Altered held before looking back at the axe that lay sticking out of the ground, 'It does look heavy, but it just felt so... light'

"No need to panic boy," said Angus chuckling, breaking Leon out of his trance, "It's not like you’re an elemental or something, super-strength isn't very uncommon."

Angus stood next to Leon and swiftly picked up the axe with a single hand and slung it across his shoulder.

"Come on now, we're not far from home."

---

Leon and Angus finally arrived back at what seemed to be a humble-looking wooden house in a small clearing of the woods, the warm light of a fire inside emanating from the quaint windows. On the way back Leon had tried his best not to do anything more... weird. He did however ask a single question that both made Angus happy, as the boy finally talked to him of his own volition, but also a bit more concerned. Leon had asked what the date was and to his shock, he had found that it had been a little over three years since that day. The day where everything went wrong in Pavos. Leon continued that last stretch of the walk in shocked silence, he knew he'd lived a lab-rat for a while, but three years? Had it really been that long? However, Leon didn't have long to dwell on it before they arrived at their destination and looking at the warm homely cabin a weird feeling bubbled up in the pits of his stomach.

'I'm... nervous?' thought Leon, his brows furrowing a bit at the long-forgotten emotion, being nervous was something that had died for him long ago after innumerable sessions of torture, nothing could really shake his psyche. Yet Leon stood Infront of that house, nervous about what would happen next.

Angus attached the dead 'mana-boar' to a meat hook and let the remaining blood drain out before turning back to Leon and beckoning him to come inside with him. Leon took a single deep breath to calm his nerves before stepping up the porch along with Angus who had a beaming smile on his face.

"My beautiful wife will surely be over the moon to see you," said Angus with a grin, pushing open the front door, "she has a real soft spot for kid's and is pretty kin-"

"ANGUS DRAKE!" boomed a female voice from inside the house that cut off Angus' speech and caused both Angus and Leon to flinch, "Do you have any idea what time it is!"

The thunderous voice drew closer as the woman's very footsteps seemingly caused an earthquake that was isolated to only around the log cabin that had seemingly got a lot darker very quickly.

"You have no idea how worr-" the woman's voice suddenly cut off as she came into view and her warm brown eyes completely ignored the scared husband and locked onto Leon.

Leon, in the brief moment where time seemed to have frozen, studied the woman before him, for someone who had just let out a roar that seemed like the closest thing a human could get to a dragon, the woman before him didn't really match. She was a bit taller than Leon, standing around 5 foot 6 inches tall, with a lithe, well-proportioned body with long flowing auburn hair that matched her warm brown eyes. However, before Leon could discern anything else the woman let out a cute shriek and rushed towards Leon and knelt down and grabbed him by the sides, her eyes boring into his as if she were trying to see his soul.

Leon did try to shake her grip, the unfamiliar touch making those bottled-up habits bubble to the surface but found himself completely unable to release himself from her iron grip, in a desperate effort, his eyes turned pleadingly to Angus who just stood there looking somewhat embarrassed scratching his chin.

"Sorry kid, I did warn you," said Angus sheepishly.

"Oh, look at you, you poor thing," said Angus' wife whilst examining every inch of Leon's face before moving down to his body where now illuminated under the warm light, the grotesque number of scars were evident, barely covered by the tattered rags he was wearing. Both Angus and his wife's expressions turned grim and her hands quivered slightly as she brushed her hand over the scars lightly. However, as she touched the scars, Leon recoiled back with a pained expression, causing both doting adults to flinch a bit.

"I-I'm sorry..." whispered Leon, he could tell the two meant him no harm, which was already hard for him to believe but that didn't mean he trusted either of them.

"It's my fault, I got a bit over-excited..." said the woman with a sorry look on her face, "My name is Viola and I'm sure you already know the name of my useless husband here."

"Hey..." Angus replied with a defeated expression.

Viola ignored him, clearly still annoyed about his tardiness but continued to speak to Leon.

"Dinner's nearly ready, there's more than enough for you to eat all you want," she said looking at Leon's gaunt face and frail physique, "for now though how about I run you a bath?"

Leon knew she was definitely being polite because even he was starting to notice his own stench, and it was unpleasant, to say the least so he quickly nodded, and Viola stepped away to run the bath. Angus hung the axe back up on the wall before turning back to Leon.

"So..." said Angus, trying to break the awkward silence, "you said you didn't have any parents... did they pass?"

Leon's eyebrows raised at the topic of conversation, but at least it wasn't something Leon wasn't uncomfortable talking about too much such as what happened over the last three years, so he decided to answer, after all, so far, the couple had been nothing but hospitable to him.

"I'm not sure, I've been an orphan for as long as I can remember" replied Leon, not putting too much weight into the words as it was all he knew and had long been accustomed to not having a family, however for Angus who grew up with strong family bonds and put his family before anything it was hard for him to hear that this boy hadn't experienced the unconditional love of a family member.

The conversation didn't last long before Viola re-entered the room.

"The bath is ready for you... I also laid out some clothes that should fit" said Viola trying to mask a pained expression that was mirrored by Angus.

Leon thought it was weird that the couple would have clothes that would fit a frail eleven going on twelve-year-old child but looking at their failing attempts to hide their downtrodden expression, Leon thought best not to ask.

"Thank you," Leon replied simply before walking down the hall to where the steam from the bath was wafting out of the room and shutting the door behind him.

"Where on earth did you find that boy Angus?" asked Viola.

"He just appeared out of nowhere by the mouth of the lake not too far from here, he looked pretty lost, I mistook him for a girl at first as well, if not for his super-strength, I'm not sure he would even be able to hold his body up," replied Angus.

"Super-strength?" Viola said, her eyebrow curling up in interest, "How do you know that? I doubt he told you, doesn't seem like the talkative type."

"I didn't know either until he unwedged my axe out of the neck of the tuskenhog I hunted with one hand, didn't even seem like he tried that hard," Angus said, whistling with an impressed expression as he recalled the memory.

"He must have been pretty shaken at first, being that young and seeing a giant dead mana-beast, I almost passed out when I saw my first mana-beast," said Viola with a sigh thinking the child was too young for such sights.

"To be honest, now that you mention it, he didn't actually seem bothered at all, he just looked at it with that same deadpan expression and weird golden eyes... on that topic, what is up with that, you ever seen golden eyes before?" asked Angus.

Viola replied by shaking her head, "It's a bit weird he didn't react, but if he's been alone in the woods for a long time, I guess he may have seen a couple before, and on the topic of his eyes, I think they're stunning."

"They give me the creeps, I don't know why," replied Angus.

"Did you manage to get anything out of him?" Viola asked with a concerned expression, "Children don't just turn up out of the blue in the middle of the woods, especially around these parts."

Angus sighed in defeat, "Only that his name is Leon and he's an orphan, found that out when I brought up what he said about not having any parents."

The room suddenly got darker, and the temperature seemed to drop a few degrees, Angus realizing his blunder tried to correct his mistake but was too late as he turned to his wife who was giving him an icy glare.

"You. Did. What?"

---

Leon stripped off the dirty rags that clung to his skin and stood infront of the body-length mirror in the bathroom. He sighed as he looked at his body, his gaze fixed to the scars that littered his body, he remembered each and every single one in painful detail, but one stood out to him more than the others. He ran his fingers across his upper chest very close to where his heart was, and a large unusual looking scar lay. The rock spear cast by Herman Dest that had ended his life, irrevocable proof that what he had experienced wasn't an illusion.

He really did die.

Leon let out a long sigh before turning to the steamy bath and began lowering a leg in when suddenly a foreign jolt of energy ran up his leg, body before arriving just below his sternum where he felt that foreign core whir into life.

'What... why now?' Leon thought, whilst removing his leg from the water.

However, after he removed his leg, the energy was cut off, and the deep red slowed before returning to its dormant state.

'The connection is with the water?' Leon thought and dipped his leg back into the water and as expected the energy began flowing again into his core. Feeling confident, Leon fully got into the bath and a wash of energy began flowing into him, giving Leon an indescribable feeling. As his core whirred into overdrive he felt as if he was brimming with power, unlike anything that he'd experienced before, including the instance where he was buried underground.

'Underground...' Leon thought, seeming to come to a realization, 'whilst I was buried, I felt a definite connection with the Earth, now in the bath, I feel a connection with water.'

Leon smiled, a single answer that didn't hold too much information but was a start, and from there he was sure he'd only discover more.

Leon raised his forearm out of the water and closed his eyes focusing on the energy that was flowing into him. Like before in the rocky sarcophagus, he willed his core to direct some of the energy to his fingertips and he felt it respond as red-tinged energy flowed from the core up through his arm.

Leon opened his eyes and the corner of his lips curved into a smile as he saw water defying gravity and flowing up his suspended forearm out from the bath and collecting at the tips of his fingers. His golden eyes seemed to sparkle just for a second as he watched the water dance across his hand. He tried to will the water to shoot out from his fingertips but found no response and no epiphany such as he felt when he broke away the rocks around him back when he was buried.

For the first time, Leon felt a burning desire, a desire to uncover more about his mysterious abilities and what being an Altered truly was. He shut off his core and the water dropped back off his arm down into the bath and he sat back with a satisfied grin.

For once, the future didn't seem so bleak to him.