No one doubted leons claim at standing at the top of the current hunters after that display of overwhelming power. this even extended to the other classes and even the older students thanks to the fact one of the students was live streaming the entire class. the ease by which he systematically disabled weiss was publicized so a very large amount of people including salem who had discovered this students postings of their lessons with leon had seen him in action. most simply thought he was impressively skilled and powerful but salem saw the deeper truth.
Leon wasn't even trying in that spar and weiss was almost completely defenseless against him. salem estimated that leon was likely just bellow the level a honed maiden would be on if any of them were to truly put in the effort to reach their full potential. frankly it bothered her to no end that ozma seemed to have roped him in. salem had seen enough of leon in the videos that the student had posted to know that leon was definitely not subordinate to ozma as she could see his pride that was not even hidden. this left the only option left that ozma hadn't shared any information on her with leon since he was an uncontrollable factor.
This meant salem could still approach him without running the risk of him immediately attacking her. the biggest problem she had however was that she knew that leon was very familiar with the essence of grim after seeing him getting splashed with it in the various memories the "witness" grim had given her access to. salem was quite happy seeing him getting exposed to the small amounts that he had as she personally knew how corruptive the stuff was to the mind.
Leon's habit of torturing the grim had made it so unlike her who tossed herself into a grim pool in a failed attempt to kill herself that he was unconsciously becoming more prone to destructive tendencies. her change was violent and instant but leon was slowly getting more corrupted as he got exposed to the essence of grim. salem knew that at the rate he was going that leon would eventually be corrupted enough for her to sway him over to her side. for now though she was content to wait patiently for her prize to come to her on it's own.
Ozpin also watched the live stream along with the other professors and knew that leon was by no means exaggerating his own power. this left him conflicted as he knew that leon would be an extremely valuable asset in the shadow war with salem , but at the same time ozpin also knew that leon was a proud soul that couldn't be forced to heel. if leon were to be brought in on the knowledge of salem he would run the risk of escalating the war if she discovered that leon's semblance mimicked her immortality almost exactly minus the storage amount for the energy that fueled it.
This secret was only known to three people after summer had died , qrow , tye and ozpin himself were the only ones besides leon aware of the near unkillability that leons semblance gave him. if salem ever discovered it she would likely drop all of the pretenses of remaining unseen to go all in on acquiring leon for herself. the worse part was how tempted ozpin was to directly hand leon over to her in exchange for peace even if only for a few centuries , a price she would likely jump on eagerly.
It wasn't even hard for ozpin to understand how salem's mind worked at this point after having died and been reincarnated over the centuries. immortality was terribly lonely and that was even with him having another person with him during the first few years of his reincarnation. it was far worse for salem who only had herself for the millions of years she had lived from the first civilization. the temptation of having someone else that could accompany her forever without growing old and dying would be a fatal lure she couldn't resist. ozpin himself may have filled that role if he had wisely not brought up the mission that the god of light had given him and turned on salem.
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