The beginning of savagery.

The door of his bedroom was slammed shut as Leonardo entered. He grunted from pain and pulled his bed against the door. Cecilia broke the lock when she invaded before, this was the only method to avoid his mother and Hailey to casually enter.

Leonardo extraneously walked towards the tub that was still filled with water but had to stop before entering the bathroom, vertigo and dizziness put him under a drunk state he never felt before.

He tried to step forward but only saw the ground coming and chose to just embrace it.

Thud!

Leonardo sighed and smiled. The pain of falling was negligible at that state.

[Your forehead was nearly shattered just like Ugo's, How the hell will you recover!?] Azumi's irritated tone of voice made Leonardo smile. 'As long as I'm alive, it's all good. We just have to wait for it.'

[Wait for what!?]

But Leonardo didn't answer and just smiled as multiple hemorrhages started throughout his body.

[Use the leftover mana to stop all this inner bleeding!] Azumi said but Leonardo ignored her again, inside his demented eyes calculations were being made.

'Lust in itself is present in any and all forms of pleasure, with Cecilia I discovered it's strength when it comes from carnal desire... But what if it comes from self-realization? A great achievement?' He thought inwardly and calculated all that he has achieved today.

Leonardo beat a future hunter as a common mage without formal training, in front of a crowd that's looking to please the possible mayor, his father. That's why Leonardo's name and the video will spread like wild forest fire and go beyond the edges of the city, counted with the incident from before he'll undoubtedly become one of the most valuable common mages, great popularity comes with a spread deck of opportunities to use and leverage in negotiations. Plus, he proved to Hailey that she was right in counting on him while showing Helen that he could live well and fat as a rabbit amongst snakes

Thinking up to here, Leonardo's pained grin became wider as he added the cherry on the top of the cake.

'I destroyed my bully, and tied Claudia to me in a way that her hate and pride, won't ever allow her to leave my side before surpassing me in every way'

Leonardo rolled to the side and gazed at the ceiling, with a calm, sincere smile. 'My foundations are set.'

At that concluding thought, a wave of warmth enveloped his dantian, the last bit of mana started to become something else, from the clear blue it usually is, it became translucent gold.

And pure, unmatching pleasure numbed his mind.

But it didn't come from his skin, muscles, or bone.

It came from deeper within, as if there was a new layer of structure on his body, it exhaled warmth from within the bones and the root of each cell. Two minutes of that warmth and Leonardo was wide awake, unencumbered by dizziness or the cold sweat from hemorrhages.

It was still there; the pain, the hurt, and the wounds but nothing affected his mind or body. If he wanted to move, he felt he could.

Azumi's words from before flashed by his mind; [Pleasures of the mind will enhance the mind, pleasures of the body will improve the body and pleasure of the spirit will strengthen it.]

'So the part that most profits from self-realization and self-improvement are the spirit, and this deeper layer is...where it lays.'

[That is indeed it, the root of the fleshly body. The energy that fuels the first cell to multiply. The ignition, if you will]

Leonardo sat cross-legged, took a breath and smirked at the geisha who materialized her body, this time with a golden long yukata with ivory adornments.

Leonardo still with that enlighted gaze of someone who made a discovery, curtly retorted;

'You're wrong, I can see it, and feel its root, just like every other part of the body, it started as a single cell and bathed on the body and mind's real experience to grow, it is, in short, the essence of what you become.'

The geisha frowned [Do you really believe your mere eighteen years of experience can decrypt something like the spirit, in mere minutes? What about the existences that lived eons and are still puzzled by it?]

Leonardo laughed. "I'm a scientist, Azumi. I don't look for deep meaning or higher-power, I accept the nature of what I found, then try to modify it into something bigger and useful."

Silence prevailed as Leonardo felt his body reaching a critical state, but as he was unimpeded by the effects of the injuries he could meditate and gather mana with ease.

As he did, it was converted into that pure translucid mana that seemed to instantly make his headlight and body health, He guided that mana into the mana circulation method's vortex, and it sent it circulating throughout his whole body.

It was nothing like the pleasure he had with Cecilia, but it did its job and turned critical injuries into mild annoyances.

After setting his body to normal, Leonardo exhaled a sigh of relief. He didn't have the right place to compare, but he guessed his mind was more clear, focused and tougher than a monk who meditated through ten whole years of his life.

But as he opened his eyes, a chilling fear crawled up his spine, the sight in front of him was of a stormy sea, raging and threatening to extinguish the lands around it. On the surface of that sea was expressionless deep green eyes and a loose, long obsidian hair, crossed arms and back leaned on the door of his bedroom.

Claudia was staring at him as if she could see through his soul.

"From when I entered the house to now." She started speaking and took a step towards Leonardo.

"That's how long I've been monitoring you. I've left a spark inside of you when I attacked earlier, my idea was to spy on you, hear what you say, type, write, and understand the changes on your body. Use that information to open your gut and take the ideas you have and came out as the owner of everything you wanted to build. But who'd thought-"

She stopped right in front of him, crouched down, and grinned in a way that showed how shrill and venomously wicked her hate towards him is.

"Who'd thought, you'd shorten months of work and show everything to me in a single hour."

Leonardo grinned back. "I always knew you were a shrew underneath, but never expected this yandere side, do you plan to eat my heart then sigh with relief and claim we finally became one?"

She slowly reached with her index finger and tapped his knee. A jolt invaded his body and wreaked havoc, but the only thing she saw was an easy smile staring back at her.

Then a palm flashed by her eyes.

Slap!

Claudia felt her face abruptly turn to the side and her back hit the ground with strength. Then came the burning sensation on her cheek and the swelling sensation.

She got up slowly, tongues of electricity flowed around her body.

Then Leonardo's sleazy tone reached her ears. "Cecilia is holding her rifle now, and she knows we're fighting, the scope on that thing can see through mountains, why do you think she let you inside the bedroom? Want to try and see if the elite soldier can miss in this distance?"

The tongues of electricity didn't fade as she smiled maniacally. "Better for you if she doesn't, or I might just reveal everything I learned from your body to the powerhouses of magic, I wonder how they'll experiment on your body and torture you for your thoughts."

Leonardo sighed and said. "Yes, then I might just reveal that you manipulated the test of authority and made your S class authority look like a C class. I wonder then if they won't make you one of their glorified minions? Bind you with laws and watch every shit and piss you take with countless hunters at bay in case you fart a little out of line."

The tongues of electricity faded as tense silence flooded the room.

"You came here to heal me at first. But then saw I didn't needed it and raged at yourself for caring for my death." Leonardo broke the silence.

She stomped the ground at once "If you died I wouldn' be able to overcome you and restore myself!" Then she froze on what she just blurted out.

But she didn't have more time to think, as Leonardo's arms grabbed her tight and used his pair of lips to attack hers.

She raged and bit them, blood spilled out, but he laughed out loud and pressed her down on the ground with his body. She shocked him, strongly so, But he didn't move out or stopped trying to breach through her clenched teeth.

Her eyes were red with savagery as she sunk her nails on his arms. Blood came out again, but he didn't stop, he held her tight and let out a low grow as she shocked him with a stronger jolt.

Then he kissed her neck, and licked all the way to her ear, breathing roughly like a beast. "You can stop me, you know I won't die, just jolt me unconscious." He whispered in her ear.

And she did, then he paused then continued, with rough care, caressing and nibbling her skin. "Don't play, you know just how much of it you need to put me down, and you can easily do it."

With enraged tears, she shocked him again, then again. But after reaching a certain threshold of strength, she didn't raise its power. She didn't know why, but she didn't want to stop this fight.

His low tone of voice spoke in her ears. "Allow yourself this, release some of that stormy rage."

As she heard, Claudia's eyes turned wild blood-red as her heart started beating rapidly,

She roared. Clawed his back with strength and pulled down her palm, cutting his back hide with the sharp nails, Leonardo raised his head in pain and she laughed with sadistic pleasure.

But he soon looked down at her with the hungry eyes of a beast, he pulled her hair back and slipped his tongue into her lips, She winced from the pain and kissed back while latching her legs around his waist. The kiss was salty, with the taste of blood-iron and savagery.

The barbecue was just beginning for them.