A/N: Surprise, I figured I would just drop this here even though I'm not completely satisfied with it, everyone who's stuck around this long should get an update. Be warned, I am still strongly thinking about redoing this whole book so don't be surprised if one day the chapters change. Anyway, that's enough rambling from me, here's the chapter.
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There were only so many things that Leo could have experienced in life so far. Despite having parents so strong that he still couldn't really understand the scope of their power, it hadn't changed the fact that his parents had so far treated him exactly like how a normal 10-year-old on earth would be treated...
If that 10-year-old could casually control the elements themselves and had eyes that could do things Leo still didn't quite understand.
That all went to say, Leo had a mostly normal perspective up until this point. It was no surprise then, that his reaction to seeing a 23 foot (7 meters) black and gold eastern dragon crash landing in front of him simply could not be blamed on him.
"Holy shit!" Leo's eyes finally opened fully for the first time since he entered this new reality.
The crown in his eyes shuddered, platinum fire flashing intensely as the chain-like patterns adorning his body began to pulse in time with the flames in his eyes. Leo could feel his perception sharpening, the world slowing down drastically as his heart sped up.
Leo didn't think as his body flashed a brilliant platinum that would blind any enemies even as he disappeared from the spot he was previously in, only to reappear floating above the unknown enemy.
Still moving on instincts, Leo thrust out his right hand watching with detached curiosity as the brilliant flames gushed out of his hand and split into 10 flaming chains that attempted to wrap up the creature before him.
The draconic eyes of the beast recovered from the intense flash at this moment, and seeing the unknown attack heading towards it, the beast snorted and disappeared from Leo's sight.
Maneuvering through the air behind him, the beast was getting ready to show this puny human his place. It reared back its mighty head mouth filling with pale green draconic fire as the beast prepared to unleash unholy hell.
At that moment a soft giggle was heard, then the move brewing in the Pokémon's mouth was forcefully dispersed.
Lying on the head of the Rayquaza was Saphira who had been quietly watching the show since the dragon appeared and saw fit to finally bring an end to this farce.
By this point Leo had regained his composure, but seeing his partner sitting on the head of the unique looking Rayquaza gave Leo a headache.
'You can't seriously be thinking of trying to stage a mutiny against me, right?' Leo sent an exasperated thought to Saphira, half complaining and half relieved to see one of his favorite pokemon no longer trying to kill him.
'This idiot wasn't trying to kill you, and if he really had been, do you really think I would let it leave alive?' Saphira rolled her eyes to herself as she responded to the foolish question.
'In that case, what's going on with this pokemon then? Why did it suddenly show up here and decide to what, play a prank on me?' Leo wondered as he continued to survey the surroundings, and only after making sure that there was nothing else that was an immediate threat to him did, he begin to relax.
'Instead of asking me, why don't you just ask him yourself? Honestly how your parents could have a child as foolish as you amaze me every time, I think about it.' Saphira rolled her eyes as she responded to Leo's childish (in her opinion) complaints.
Leo fought the urge to throw a middle finger at his irritated mew, though he made a very 'loud' mental note to get her back for leaving him out to dry like that.
"Honestly though, hey big guy why did you try to scare me like that? If I was anyone else, I might not have even survived your little 'prank' you know." Leo crossed his arms that still flashed almost imperceptibly with the flowing platinum flames of his bloodline.
"Well, don't be shy now big fella, why did you attack me?" Leo glared slightly at the dragon, the flames in his eyes flickering so subtly it was almost impossible to tell and tilted his head to look directly into the eyes of the black and gold colored juvenile legendary.
"Oh child, this rayquaza is still a juvenile and as such hasn't learned the human language well enough to speak it yet." Caroline spoke with an amused tone, as though the dragon hadn't just sprayed dragon fire mere inches from her.
Leo knew of course that the dragon was still a baby, its size, while impressive when compared to a human, could at most be considered a slightly bigger ant to its older relatives in this reality. After arriving at this reality Leo had noticed that his two other wishes had become active.
One of which was the ability to have perfect communication. While this sounded like a lame ability at first, that was only the case for those who didn't see the potential it held. Even at its current low-level Leo could talk to all sentient and non-sentient living beings.
This meant that he could perfectly understand what any pokemon he encountered was saying. Thankfully, it was a controllable ability allowing him to choose what he did and did not listen to. At higher levels, this ability would become a sort of command over reality itself. Just think, Leo could ask the air around his enemy to move away, leaving them in a vacuum.
When trained to its peak, this ability would even let him speak to the very molecules that make up the physical and immaterial world. Any enemy would simply fade away with a word from Leo.
To be honest, Leo was originally a little uncertain about being able to reach that level, but with the help of his third wish that was no longer a problem. Getting back to the matter at hand, Leo turned his head away from Caroline as he heard the dragon whelp begin to complain.
"Foolish mortal, I sensed a bloodline that suppressed my own and came to see who would be so daring. Be grateful that you have that accursed THING protecting you from my wrath."
The legend moved around agitatedly in the air, its serpentine body causing light wind gusts to form around it as Saphira continued to use its pristine body as a makeshift bed.
"Huh, you can feel my bloodline pressure?" Leo's face was contemplative as he eyed the childish sounding dragon. 'Hey Saphira, I know you just dropped a bunch of info in my head, but I thought it would be impossible to find someone with a bloodline strong enough to detect mine?'
Leo's thoughts flowed much faster than the conversations going on, allowing him to continue conversing with Saphira even while he chatted with the dragon and elderly lady.
'I have tried to warn you multiple times to be more careful in this reality, but if I had to guess, this guy is probably a soul bound pokemon for a major figure. I can't fully tell without drawing blood, but from what I can sense from here I can tell there are 2 bloodlines in his body.
One is obviously his own, but the other one feels like it was only recently activated. While it is possible that he has only recently activated a dormant bloodline, based on the origin I can feel his other bloodline feels distinctly...human.'
Saphira hadn't JUST been playing a prank on Leo when she decided to hide and observe the big worm's actions. She had a sense for its power and got more information after landing on its head and using a strange fusion of psychic and dark type energy to subtly observe its energy makeup.
That was also the reason she could so easily counter everything the rayquaza tried, she had plenty of time to counter any attacks, after all she could see them being created. This was not an easy technique for her at her current strength. Despite her intense training these past few years, if she had to compare her power to the levels available in her memories, she would at most be a level 5 now.
In any case, at her current level she was unable to make any attacks using the fused energy. She could, with some effort, use the energy to get an almost perfect perception of whatever her energy touched.
The exact details escaped her, but she could tell that as her 2 energies mixed, they almost seemed to click together as if they were returning to their original state instead of being forced to fuse with what should be their natural enemy.
Saphira naturally pushed this matter to the back of her head as she continued to appraise the 'petulant worm' that refused to submit to her clear superiority. Finding nothing else of immediate importance, Saphira mentally shrugged and directly teleported to the top of Leo's head, much to his annoyance.
Sighing as he felt the spoiled princess of a mew settle onto her throne, Leo couldn't help throwing one last mental complaint to his partner.
'By the way Saph, why does it feel like I am a newbie in this world when it comes to power level. Shouldn't me being half a universe master already make me stronger than anyone below that level?'
Leo communicated through his bond, a hint of confusion and wariness vaguely surfacing from the striking platinum flames serving as background in his eyes.
By no means was he scared, but Leon had always kept a clear mind amid his seemingly laid-back manner. While he could tell 90 percent of his original strength had been stripped from him, it hadn't disappeared and had instead been condensed into a more refined energy that seemed better able to support the abilities of his bloodlines.
With that being the case, even though he had only 10 percent of his original maximum energy available, he was in fact more than a little stronger than before he had entered this reality.
And yet, even with that being the case, Leo could tell that the girl standing by his side was at least as strong as he was if not stronger based purely on the intensity of the energy he sensed from her. That did not even bring into account that the woman named Caroline felt so much stronger than him Leo doubted he could escape even with the help of his Hax-like eyes.
Saphira naturally understood where his thoughts were and tilted her head briefly as her eyes closed in thought. 'To explain this would take too long even through our bond, so to keep it simple this is due to 2 major reasons. Firstly, you would indeed be the strongest being in a level 5 reality or lower.
Due to this being a level 10 reality with the ability to even contain 1-star ranked beings it is no surprise that the rules of this reality will still be applied to you and most of your powers besides your bloodline.
Meaning that, it has condensed all your power into the 2 'types' of your bloodlines and quantified it. Basically, you have gained a much sturdier foundation for your future growth at the cost of becoming a level 5 'baby' in the world.'
Saphira's explanation may have seemed long, but as beings bonded on the soul level as soon as she figured out the answer to send Leo had simultaneously gotten it.
To the outside world it would be hard to tell he was in a deep conversation as the platinum flames that served as his sclera seemed to ripple perpetually the same.
But those who looked closer, and knew what they were looking for would notice that the amethyst crowns that made up his pupils had greatly dimmed in color to a faded purplish-black while chains of a slightly lighter shade had taken up the space of his irises.
More than an aesthetic choice, this was Leo activating one of the semi-passive abilities he had managed to create with the help of his father.
Leo altogether had made 9 such abilities and once they were all merged and improved, he would officially have reached the second level of his dad's bloodline. In any case, this ability was focused on providing Leo with an intangible 'domain' that would immediately alert him to any dangerous energy or malicious intent that got within a 100-yard radius of him.
The younger Claire heard a beep coming from the futuristic yet draconic looking helmet in her hands and took a glance at the prompt, only to glance in surprise at Leo. "Oh, what a pleasant surprise! It seems this foreign young master knows how to hide his energy from our basic security systems." Caroline spoke with a gentle smile on her face as amusement danced within her crinkled eyes.
"Any warrior with a half-way decent training should be able to do that, plus I can tell he is probably using an ability of those glasses or something."
Claire spoke with a dismissive tone, though her eyes were still grave as she resolved to address Leo before he got any more dangerous or stupid ideas that seemed to be commonplace for those 'privileged' higher layer beings. Claire had to resist rolling her eyes as she thought about the number of 'superior' beings she had seen killed by their own hubris.
"You should be careful of your actions when we reach the compound. I don't know or care what your family may have told you about this layer, but I can promise that if you try anything you won't live long enough to regret it."
Leo wore a bemused expression as he listened to the overly aggressive warrior speak. 'She really doesn't seem to like us huh?' Leo sent with a mental chuckle to his companion. 'Hah! Speak for yourself, I haven't been constantly ignoring common decency like you.'
Saphira teleported from Leo's shoulder where she had been sitting to be in front of Claire and let out an adorable 'meww' sound that made the hardened warrior woman instantly squeal in delight and hug her tightly, marveling at the soft feeling of her lustrous fur.
Leo's smile twitched as he watched Saphira being pampered by the girl who up until now had seemed to be only capable of making either an angry glare or an even angrier scowl transform into yet another braindead fan of his partner.
As if to rub salt into the wound, Saphira looked at him with an evil smirk from over Claire's shoulder and then promptly curled up in Claire's surprisingly comfortable bosom, if her mewls and flashes of sensations she kept sending him were any indicator.
Leo fought to keep a grimace off his face. There was no point being jealous of his own pokemon, especially when she was practically made to capture the hearts of almost anyone who saw her. Being a dual psychic and dark type gave her bewitching abilities that not even ghost type Legends could hope to stand up to.
Even when she wasn't purposefully utilizing said abilities, her every movement and sound could still qualify as a low strength 'attract' attack, in Leo's humble opinion. (A/N: Yeah, that's not a joke and it will become relevant later.)
In any case, for all her bad habits, of which there were many, acting cute was not one of them and it even made Leo feel slightly better about going into a literal dragon's den. Speaking of which, for an area that was supposed to be teeming with dragon type pokemon, Leo hadn't even seen any pokemon in the surroundings or sensed any within the confines of his passive domain for that matter.
It had to be known that even though he hadn't adapted to this layer yet, his domain was still spreading a full 10 miles(16 km.) in every direction. Yet, all he could sense was regular vegetation and some sort of structure so huge that his senses couldn't even take in the full size of it. In fact, he couldn't even sense anything within the giant structure, it just seemed like a giant compound shaped void to his senses.
[A/N: So, I am going to be changing the names for different realities to layers for ease of understanding, i.e. A level 10 Reality = 10th layer so on and so forth]
Although it seemed like a bad omen, Leo had to admit he was impressed by the security measures taken by his new hosts. If Leo had even one active ability before getting sent to this 10th Layer, he would have almost assuredly been able to force his vision through whatever blockade was blocking him.
But, not even mentioning how he might have been received for doing such, he was beginning to think he might have been killed just making the attempt. After all, no matter how strong his potential was, given his current situation Leo was in fact almost no different from any other native being on this Layer.
All the benefits he got from being born on a higher Layer were nullified by the fact he hadn't yet achieved a true metamorphosis to become a being of the layer he was born into. The pressure he had faced during his birth was a representation of that.
It had allowed his newborn body to essentially skip all the layers before it, but he had to prove his worthiness to the consciousness of his home layer by overcoming this trial and ascending back to his home the conventional way. Deciding he had spent enough time probing his 'escorts' Leo decided to finally get down to business.