Hate is often described as a dislike for someone or something, but that doesn't quite do it justice. Dislike and hate are vastly different, and comparing them is like comparing apples to oranges.
The feeling of hate can be caused so easily. Some people will have a single negative thing happen to them, and in response, they will be filled with hate. A person full of hate will naturally be negative. The world will seem a little duller, and it will become harder to find joy in things that once brightened their day.
Susie Nyx was someone who suffered a lot. She lost her mom at an early age, became infected with some sickness that affected her Core and stunted her full potential, and also lost her father and learned that he died trying to get a cure that would hopefully repair her damaged Core. At least, that's what Davi Hawker told her, along with the fact that it was he who killed her father.
If anyone was allowed to feel hatred, it was her. And that hatred came spilling out like a pot of boiling water when her eyes landed on the man who did this to her. Davi Hawker had come back to Daisy!
Without even skipping a beat, she launched an attack at him, ramming an orb of fire directly into his face. By some miracle, he managed to block it and reacted to the strike, but the force of it still blew him off his feet, and he collapsed onto the ground.
That was how she found herself, now lording over him, fire gushing out of her palm. Her hair was the color of coal, and long strands ran down her back, igniting in embers. She wore a hospital gown just like her friend Hannah and the other girls, who all became mutants, but the gown was rapidly heating up and melting against her skin, turning red. Smoke was also starting to rise from her flesh.
None, this was from a spell. Not even the fire around her palm. This was because of her damaged Core, which kept rapidly leaking out her fire magic to the point her own body was starting to fail and couldn't handle the heat. In no time at all, she'd go back to being coated in pure fire, slowly burning to ash.
Her father's death meant nothing.
"How dare you?" Susie spoke through clenched teeth that started to crack. "How dare you, how dare you, how dare you! How dare you think you can waltz back in here!"
She hated everything about him. She hated the way he looked, the way he talked, and even the way his eyes pierced through her defense and stared back at her in pity. She hated this man.
Before Davi could say or do anything, Susie rammed her fist directly into his face. She got on top of him, ramming a knee into his gut, and he grabbed the front part of his robes, her heated body igniting part of it while her other arm lifted up and smacked across his face, over and over again.
Screaming filled the town, and several guards ran forward, looking horrified. "Susie! What the hell are you doing?" One of the guards ran to pull her off of Davi, but he yelled and yanked his hand back the moment it came in contact with her. "Stop it! Susie, you're overheating! Get off him!"
"Do you know who that is?" Another guard also demanded, trying to grab Susie, but he was also burned. "That's the hero who saved our town! Don't hurt him!"
"Hero? This bastard is not a hero!" Susie screeched. "He killed my dad! My dad was the real hero! This guy took his credit and his life!"
One of the guards gritted his teeth. "We've been over this several times before! When we investigated the place Garon died, all we found were traces of his own mana and mana belonging to a fire mage or monster, likely that flaming snake. Davi Hawker's mana wasn't present at all; he couldn't have been responsible for his death."
Chaotic mana was untamed and wild, filling the air and present everywhere, but unique mana, chaotic mana that was absorbed by a mage's Core, was… Well, it was unique. Because of this fact, it could be said that it was similar to a person's fingerprints.
When a mage casts a spell in an area or gets into a fight with another mage or monster, they leave a temporary mark behind, as their mana coats the surface of things it touches. This mark can't be seen with the eyes but can be sensed, though it only appears for a short amount of time before it fades away.
This method can be used to track down rogue mages who commit crimes with their magic. It is also what told the guards that Davi Hawker was innocent. When they examined the area, they didn't find any traces of Davi's mana near the corpse of Garon, not that there was much of a corpse left, as he reduced himself to ash.
That fact is actually why the guards weren't able to find any traces. Davi did strike a blow on Garon, as did Olivia, and so their mana would have been on his body and able to be sensed, but Garon's final act of blowing himself up coated him in so much raw fire magic that it burned the marks away, and thus to the guards, it looked like Garon was either killed by another fire mage or the flaming snake that was often showing up to kidnap the girls.
Some people did also consider that maybe Garon killed himself, but those people weren't the majority because, after all, why would the perfect and kind Garon Nyx do that to himself? Surely, his death had to happen at the hands of a monster.
"Davi didn't kill your father!" The guard said in an urgent tone. "We've told you this so many times; when will you accept it?"
"Never! I'll never accept it!" Susie's fist kept coming out over and over again, punching Davi as hard as she could. Red was starting to coat her fists. "He said it! He told me he did it! Isn't that right, 'hero'!" Susie sneered at the final word and glared down at Davi's face. "Tell them. Tell them all what you told me, how you killed my father, and how you wanted me to hunt you down. Let them see how twisted you really are!"
Susie then froze when she noticed something. Davi silently stared up at her, his face uninjured. Her knuckles throbbed, and she glared down at her own hand to see that all that blood was coming from her.
She wasn't even able to hurt him.
Her first attack had caught him off guard, but now that he was forced on her and was able to shield himself with his mana, her strikes were doing nothing to him. She couldn't hurt him.
A moment later, Susie felt herself slide off him as Davi casually stood up. She crashed to the ground and glared up at him as he rubbed his chin. The difference in power was evident. He was an Arcane Knight, and she was just a brat throwing a tantrum.
Despite that, Susie growled, and her look of anger didn't change. "I'll kill you-"
Davi kicked her.
Hard.
His leg ignited in mana, and Susie felt all of her ribs shatter. He held nothing bad, and she was quite literally punted through town, flying past the open gates and out into the field. She rolled through it, hundreds of meters away from the town, and was practically vomiting up blood.
All the guards stared in shock, as to them it had all been so fast. They weren't even able to process the fact that Davi's strike landed. He was practically a superhuman compared to the rest of them, and as far as they knew, all they heard was a loud 'booming' sound, and then both Davi and Susie vanished.
"W-Where did they go?" One of the guards asked.
"I think they're out of the town?"
In the field, Susie wheezed and struggled to breathe. "R-Row Flame Feel!" Her fire gushed out more, and her ribs healed, but that caused her mana to grow more reckless and untamed. Her body's temperature began to climb even higher, and more sections of her hair caught aflame.
"When we met, I gave you two options." Susie's head jerked up, and she found Davi standing in front of her now, having appeared out of nowhere. She tried to lunge at him, but he casually slapped her hand away and knocked her legs out from under her. "Option one, I said you could live a nice and peaceful life and not cast any more spells or strain yourself. This is because your Core is unstable. I'm pretty sure you have a Golden Core, but not a complete one. You likely have a Core focused more on Circuits and only a fraction of a Golden Core, but Golden Cores are naturally so big and full of so much mana that your regular Core simply can't handle it and isn't built for it, and so it's cracking, and the mana is seeping out. Each time you cast a spell or do anything involving mana, you cause your Core to have to further strain and expand, which leads to the cracks growing and more mana escaping."
Susie forced herself to her feet and growled. She twisted around to face Davi, and more fire flowed down her body, her skin becoming a nastier shade of red as she once again tried to swing at him.
She flinched when he caught her wrist. He held it tightly and stopped her attack. Susie hissed in pain as he began to squeeze down, and she squirmed, trying to rip her arm away, but he didn't let go.
"The second option you were given was to come kill me." Davi's stare was cold as his eyes met hers. "Yet, this is the best you can do? You could have lived a decent life if you tried. Sure, you wouldn't be able to use magic, but you could have lived longer than those other girls if you valued your own life. You didn't do that, though, did you? Instead of prolonging your own life, you kept using magic and allowed your Core to break down again, yet it wasn't even for option two. Your resolve is weak, your strikes lack strength, and you show no skill. You didn't dedicate yourself to burning what little life you had so you could kill me, so then what option did you pick? You picked a secret third option. The greedy option. You wanted both. Instead of training, you just kept breaking yourself down, shortening your life, but didn't have the guts to go through with it all the way, and also, you now can't even choose to live a good life at all. You've shot yourself in both your feet and can't even beat me."
"Why do you care!"
"Because Garon's death means even less now." Davi sighed. "At least if you lived a good and long life or died avenging him, then it would have had a bit more meaning, but now it's just another pointless act."
"Don't talk about my father like that!" As her rage grew, so too did her flame, and her entire body was on the verge of igniting. Her mana flared up, a bright orange glow that crackled as intensely as the fire that her flesh was turning into. Her fist was finally able to get past his grip, and she hit him in the chest hard enough to make him wince. Her mana, her rage, and her fire only grew, and the field was set ablaze.
It didn't last long, however, as Davi used his trump card and decided to fight fire with fire, or in this case, overwhelming heat with overwhelming cold.
"Vil Shadow Vault."
Davi's vault expanded, and shadowy hands shot out of the ground and wrapped around him and Susie. Susie's eyes widened as the fire around her began to go out, and she shivered. Ice started to creep across her flesh, especially where those shadowy hands touched, and before she could act, both she and Davi were dragged down and plunged into a wave of darkness.
Susie felt her entire body be swept up in a chill that defied logic. The fire that was around her was forced out, unable to withstand the cold. Even Davi felt his skin was affected. Lately, it seemed to have gotten even colder than it typically was.
Both of them were flung through the darkness and crash-landed on a stone platform that floated in the endless sea of nothingness. This platform only existed whenever he used Shadow Vault at the level of Vil, as it was created through a Vow. The Vow itself was extremely simple. It would stop the shadow birds from getting onto the platform so long as all the participants that had been dragged into the Vault remained on it.
"W-What the hell is this?" Susie demanded. Her anger faded, replaced with fear as she watched something creep through the darkness. She could feel hundreds of eyes on her, and there was a sense of dread that wouldn't go away. Davi had been dangerous, but whatever was in here was the real threat. "Where did you take me!"
"Don't get off the platform, otherwise we're both dead." Davi looked around his vault, and his eyes narrowed as he spotted all the hawks. There seemed to be a lot more than usual. Thanks to being on the platform, though, they were safe. "Looks like my idea worked. You're not on fire anymore. How do you feel?"
Susie blinked and then glanced down at her skin. Her flesh was still red, and it was smoldering but rapidly cooling off as well. All the fire wasn't strong enough to compete with the cold, and her burning sensation was fading. It actually felt kind of good to be in whatever this place was. She often took ice-cold baths due to how hot she'd become, but this beat that by a large margin.
"A-Answer my question!" She ordered. "Where are we?"
"We're in my vault." Davi hummed. "Your damaged Core causes your mana to reach levels your body simply can't keep up with. Maybe if you were stronger, your body could handle it, but it isn't strong enough. You also can't seem to live a quiet and simple life or go through with gaining the strength you need to properly survive, so I guess I'm going to get involved."
"What do you mean, you're going to get involved-"
Davi smacked her. His strike landed across her face in a single slap, which jerked her head to the side.
"You bastard!"
He punched her in the stomach as hard as he could and caused her to nearly collapse. "How do you feel when I hit you?" He questioned casually.
"I-I'll kill you." Susie spat out.
"You can't, because you're not strong enough to." He hit her again, launching her across the platform, but he held back enough so that she wouldn't go flying off of it. "Do you feel anything when you're hit? Besides pain?"
"Y-You're dead!" Susie stood up on wobbling legs. Usually, her style of fighting was simply letting her raw flames loose, but they weren't working in this place. Her heat couldn't thrive. Instead, she merely threw an awkward punch out that held no real strength behind it. Her strike landed directly against Davi's chest as he took the blow.
"When you hit me, I feel a kinetic force go through my body." Davi allowed his body to shift with the punch, lowering its damage, and with Way of Self Iron, he redirected the energy into his fist. He held back as much as he could and only used Susie's own force back at her, but in her state, even that was enough to bruise her stomach and make her howl. He hit her dead in the center, trying to have the force disperse across her body evenly. "Do you feel it also?"
"Shut up!" Susie hit him again, and for a second time, he directed the blow back at her.
"The kinetic energy of an attack is something I can absorb and redirect back at my enemy. Seriously, try it." Davi balled his hand into a fist, and this time he struck out with more effort. His attack slammed into her side, and Susie groaned in pain but then felt something else.
It was something she had always felt but was never quite sure about what it was. The more she heard him yap, the more she realized it was a physical force of energy akin to chaotic mana. Kinetic energy was made during all forms of movement, and she could feel Davi's movement perfectly at the spot his attack landed. It surged inside of her gut, and instinctively she reached out toward that bundle of power.
It was immense but nowhere near the level of her fire caused by her unstable Core, so gaining control of it was relatively easy. She redirected it and twisted her knuckle into his stomach, hitting him back with his own energy.
Davi slid back and gripped his gut, a large bruise rapidly spreading across his gut as he winced. He nodded his head. "Yep. Just like that."
"What was that?" Susie glanced down at her hands in awe.
"Way of Self Iron. A Martial Arts you seem to be compatible with. I was hoping it was the case and took a guess. I recently discovered some more things about it and how it can affect all forms of energy that enter the body. Use it with your magic." Davi instructed.
Susie frowned. "My magic? I can't; this place is so cold, I already know my fire magic won't work."
Davi shook his head. "No. Don't cast a spell. Focus on your mana and how immense it is. Then use Way of Self Iron. See what happens."
Susie's frown only grew. Despite the weird situation, she decided to play along. She could feel her power, wild and untamed. It was massive. Trillions of times more than she should have had. Her body literally couldn't handle the full effect of it, and as she tried to grasp it, she felt its weight start to settle on her. She began to heat up like she always did, but there was something new that was happening. Before the heat could even fully form and before her body could be harmed by it, Way of Self Iron activated for her, and that energy was suddenly dragged forward.
Susie raised both her arms up, and Davi's eyes widened as a massive golden ball of energy simply appeared in front of her. It was just like when he created his mini orb, only this one was even bigger than a beach ball and almost looked like a miniature sun. It was forged entirely out of golden light, and cracks were starting to filter out across it as it got ready to explode.
The attack launched out like a bullet, and Davi narrowly dodged to the side as it flew past him. It kept going and going and going, and then it erupted, creating a massive blast that lit up his Vault and made the hawk monsters cry out, either in fear, shock, or anger.
"Looks like I was right. You have a Golden Core."
His theory had proven true. Susie's body was breaking down because she only had part of a Golden Core. What made Golden Core so special is that they were massive, able to survive outside of a person's inner world. This was one of the reasons people with Golden Cores were able to fire out beams of pure mana. It lacked the properties of a spell and was instead just a glob of mana compressed down. No normal mage could do this, as it would simply require too much energy, but Golden Core users could do it in spades.
The issue with Susie was that she didn't have a full Golden Core. Her central Core was a Circuit Core, and so the size of it hadn't changed. It lacked the size needed to hold in the sheer amount of mana that a standard Core could, which was why it was breaking.
She also lacked the safety measures that Golden Core users had. Because they had so much raw mana, if their body reached a point where the mana became too much for them, they could simply fire out that mana in the form of a golden orb, since that would take a ton of mana away from them and would instantly lower the strain. Susie didn't have the ability to do this until now.
After he combined Way of Self Iron and Old Bird's Flapping Wings, he had accidentally done something similar, of course, on a much smaller scale. The chaotic mana in the air had been absorbed into him and then fired out in the form of that tiny orb, which Ragna had mentioned worked a little bit similarly to a Golden Core's Golden Orb.
That was another reason he wanted to come to Daisy. He always planned to speak with Susie again because he wanted to teach her how to do something similar. He figured she'd be able to use Way of Self Iron, as Way of Self Iron worked best with people who had mixed Core and had bodies made for taking in a vast amount of energy.
Once he taught her that, that was all her Core needed to finally fix the damage. It wasn't a foolproof solution, and it wasn't exactly safe either, but by building up her energy, the strain and volume of her mana would flood her body, which Way of Self Iron would then grab and blast out of her before it could superheat her.
It wouldn't do anything with the overall strain on her Core, nor would it fix all the damage she had already taken from it, but it would at least ensure that going forward, her body would be damaged a lot less. This alone would extend her lifespan by at least five or six years.
"From now on, don't cast any spells," Davi stated. "If you ever feel like you're hurting or getting overwhelmed from your mana, fire off one of those golden orbs into the sky or the forest or something. It should ease the burden and-"
Davi stopped when he saw Susie grinning down at her hands. "I can do it." Another orb began to appear, this one a lot smaller. It was followed by a second, a third, and even a fourth orb, which began to rapidly float around her.
While he had been deep in thought, her own mind had been piecing together how this new power worked. Garon had claimed his daughter was a prodigy, and Davi realized that wasn't an exaggeration. She had already developed the skill hundreds of times further than he had gotten his own.
Susie turned to glare at him, and the orbs began to hum and spin. "I'm sure now that I can kill you!"
She had taken the lessons he gifted her to heart and was now about to use them.
The orbs fired toward Davi, and he cursed.