Square One
Leonel had been aware that his father had been tinkering with his body for a long while. Maybe it took a personality like Leonel's to not be bothered by it in the slightest.
The first oddity was obviously the vomit smoothies he had been forced to drink for as long as he could remember. His father had been so insistent that despite hating it with all his being, Leonel still never missed a single day.
In the end, it seemed to have been worth it. Originally, Leonel had thought that it was designed to strengthen his body. Right after the Metamorphosis, his body seemed to undergo odd burst periods where his speed and strength would increase faster than they should for a person without using a special training technique or method. But, after reawakening his Innate Node, Leonel became almost 100% certain that the smoothies were actually for the purpose of providing enough strength to allow him to accomplish such a feat, something he hadn't quite understood was an enormous deal until meeting Wise Star Order.
However, now, Leonel was suddenly not so sure anymore.
For one, the entire reason he had had such an enormous store of Anarchic Force within his body to begin with was because, according to Wise Star Order, he had stolen energy from the Regulator. If the energy he needed to reform his Innate Node came from the Regulator, then what role did the smoothies play?
Was he overthinking things? Had he been mistaken? Or was it that both had played a role?
Leonel suddenly felt that he understood far too little about his dad. The man was messing with his son's body as though he had access to the knobs that defined everything that was him.
'That old man probably knows how to create Lineage Factors, I don't doubt it at all.' Leonel thought to himself.
Leonel shook his head, his mind somehow both absent and running a million miles an hour at the same time.
His father seemed to be dealing with a burden he wasn't telling anyone about. Leonel wanted to help, but there was really only so much he could do, not while he was still so weak. This was another large part of the reason he had made the decision to set aside the King nonsense for now to focus on blooming his own strength.
As for how he would do that, he would just continue almost the path he was already on, focusing on comprehending his Innate Node. He hadn't forgotten that that ticking time bomb was still looming over his head. At the same time, he also had to gain a firmer comprehension of his Ability Index as well, though that no longer seemed to be as important now that he could access Tier 4 on the Void Battlefield…
Wise Star Order had said that Leonel's Dream Force affinity was far too high for the level of mastery he had over his Ability Index, but he still had no real idea how to use it. This situation seemed to answer the question of 'how' quite well. His father had sealed a portion of his Ability, or at least what seemed like his Ability.
As for what extent, by Leonel's estimation, it should probably be a level infinitesimally close to the Savant realm. If he was truly a Savant, he shouldn't be able to utilize Force or comprehend the Universal Cycles, so this was the best explanation he could come up with.
Of course, Leonel had thought of the wild possibility that his father had actually suppressed his Ability from the Savant levels down to normal ranges precisely so that he could do what Savants normally could not. But, after some more thought, Leonel felt that this was likely not the case.
While it wasn't the first time his father had accomplished something impossible, this felt like far more of a special case.
During the months Leonel was bedridden and couldn't move, he had had a great number of talks with Wise Star Order and in that time, he had come to understand Savants a bit more. The main reason Leonel thought it was impossible was because suppressing the Ability of Savants wasn't a rare ability. No, it was rare, it was instead more accurate to say that all those of a certain level of power could do so.
This 'power' referred not to individual power, but rather the power of a family or Organization. The suppression and control of Savants was an entire sort of industry in and of itself, and it wasn't as difficult as it might seem, or else Savants would rule everything.
In fact, the favored method of Organizations and families that had savants was precisely to suppress them from Tier 5 down to a lesser Tier 4 or Tier 3. In extreme cases, it was even possible to suppress a Savant down to the point they had no Ability to access whatsoever, exactly like Earth had done with its Savants.
The methods ranged from as simple as Earth's which only required isolating the Savants from Force, to far more sophisticated methods wherein Savants might even end up permanently crippled without special intervention.
This was all to say that even in such situations where Savants were suppressed to lesser Tiers, they were still unable to do as Leonel could do and begin to increase their strength as a normal person would. The moment you were born a Savant, you were forever cut off from such things.
And, that didn't even consider the biggest elephant in the room.
If Leonel was born a Savant, he would have never been gifted an Innate Node by the Regulator to begin with. Savants couldn't have or form Nodes, so they likewise couldn't have Innate Nodes. In addition, if a Savant were to be given control over Scarlet Star Force, they would be similar to Elthor and his Chaotic Particle affinity. They wouldn't be given an Innate Node to begin with. Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.
This evidence left Leonel at a bit of a loss for how to comprehend his father's actions. It truly felt too disjointed and none of it made sense. So, he was right back to square one… Not understanding a thing.