Why did everyone hate me?
Max was my friend, but he looked at me badly and tried to kill me. He's bad. He hated me now…!
But… b-but I didn't do anything wrong! Honest!
We were playing with the big wheel Max's father took off his tractor. Rolling it around was fun.
The others were here too. Cabble and Klink both were part of the trio of followers I made with them.
Part of Max's posse. The crew members of his future demon hunting ring that would support him.
After all, Max awakened his Innate Gift.
He was the only one in the whole village that was talented enough to have a power of his own.
The ability to turn into a fighting machine!
It made me a bit envious of him.
I wished I'd awaken my own Innate Gift. Become a hero that protects the weak and stands above all.
Getting the attention of everyone.
They'd call me cool and stuff for being able to shoot lasers beams… and stuff. All of those stuff.
I didn't expect things to turn out so badly.
We played. We laughed. Then…
…I don't know what happened after that.
My body started to change, and I could feel something was being pulled out from inside me.
After my ears became pointy, I turned into a girl!
It would've been funny if turning into a girl was the type of Gift I awakened, but Max sensed it too.
Miasma was starting to gather around me.
This Gift was cursed!
I could feel this strange connection forming between me and the rest of the crew of ours.
It made me feel… disgusting.
Like I was forcing a bond between me and them.
My body felt weird. My chest… my eyes… and even my lower body. All of it felt like they had twisted.
What was this feeling…?
"Monster!" Before I could explain, Max shouted at me and pushed me over. He looked really mean.
What did I do wrong?
He chased and threw stones at me.
The others, who were supposed to be my close friends, also helped. They kept on hitting me.
They got angry at me.
That's… I didn't like it. Why did they hate me? I'd done nothing wrong. This wasn't what I wanted.
Someone tried to save me, but they got hurt too.
They seriously got hurt because of me…!
After being thrown onto a tree and feeling my back break, I felt like that 'connection' felt more stable.
And the pain I'd felt had went away.
I felt like my brain was being rewired… and it was for the better. Rather than really 'corrupting' me.
One new trait I exhibited was cutting off empathy.
My mind felt so free and flexible now. I didn't feel as bad as before for when that person got hurt.
But I still felt annoyed that Max was angry at me.
How dare he get angry at me?
I didn't do anything wrong. There was no reason for him to use his Golem Transformation to do murder.
That was wrong of him.
I should punish him.
My mouth moved to curse at him, but what I'd originally wanted didn't come out as expected.
Instead, a roar came out of my mouth.
Now this was odd…
It was such a loud roar fuelled by hatred, but I wasn't sure why my body was reacting this way.
My physical abilities also increased.
From the looks of it, my Base Quality had been naturally chosen without me deciding for myself.
It was called 'Haki'.
From what I remember, Haki grew stronger with the amount of negative emotions the user was feeling.
So why was my Haki so strong?
Was it this strange anger that was influencing my actions, but wasn't really affecting my behaviour?
Nah… that latter part might not be correct.
I was acting like an animal when I fought Max. My fingers clawed at him like they were my talons.
Slicing deep into the earthen exterior of his armour.
Haki strengthened my body. A black metallic sheen covered my hands while exchanging lethal blows.
It was weird how little I felt about this.
Even though Max was gradually being injured by my savage style of fighting, I felt nothing about it.
My fists struck the golem body ruthlessly.
"Traitor!" My former friend yelled out. He became more serious in dealing with me with his powers.
Showing me abilities I didn't know he had.
I roared, and was caught off guard when a beam of energy tore through my shoulder from his arm.
Cannons?
It looked like being a golem wasn't limited to the appearance. He shot a lightning round of Qi at me.
One of the most powerful Attributes to exorcise Demons was used so easily, and by a Martial Artist.
Who would have thought he could do that?
Even though my shoulder hurt, I watched Max's closely. Seeing that he winced at my appearance.
Did the look of my shoulder seem that bad?
From the way Max looked at me uncomfortably, I could tell he had some sort of reaction towards it.
To grasp when he felt, I turned on that part of my brain that had empathy and tried to figure it out.
Hmmm… From what I could tell, he didn't want to hurt me himself. His beliefs and reality clashed.
Was it because we were friends before?
Even though the golem's expression was a bit hard to read, I came to the conclusion of what he'd felt.
Then did something about my grave injury.
That 'bond' I felt with him still seemed fine, so I decided to give greater thought onto what it was.
The strong Haki armouring my skin seemed like it was hungry. Wanting to eat to replenish its power.
It wanted me to tug at the Qi I was feeling from the other side of the connection. Siphon it all away.
I tried to do it…
And what would you know? Doing so felt really refreshing. Even though it was only a tiny portion.
"S-stop! I'll kill you if you come any closer! You traitor… Miliv, what are you doing?!" Max seemed to be restless. Moving towards him with a blown off arm seemed to be scary… Visually speaking.
Hmmm… Would he stay still?
Somehow, the prospect of tasting his Qi again was more appealing than caring if he hated me or not.
It wasn't like I couldn't stonewall him anyway.
The moment I got close enough for him to want to take another swing at me, the siphoning went up.
Streams of Qi flew from his body to my own, and ended up emptying him to the point Golem Transformation couldn't persist. The rocky exterior fell apart, and revealed the person hiding inside.
I smiled at him, but not FOR him.
It was more the smile you make when looking at your favourite food. He was not a supplement.
One that had given me enough internal energy to heal the injury on my shoulder. I should stop now.
The usual me would be content with this.
Siphoning out his Internal Qi had weakened him greatly. Not only his Gift, but his body shut down.
Falling unconscious after a few seconds of this.
But why didn't I feel like moving away?
There was no fear of pain or death in my heart. The only thing that moved me was the tasty Internal Qi.
If I moved away from Max, then I wouldn't get to taste it anymore. Which was a missed opportunity.
My watery mouth opened to slurp out his life force.
"Halt!" Someone's voice roared behind me, before I felt a foot colliding with me in a dynamic entry.
Throwing me to the side.
Dad?
"How did a Demon get over here? Where's Miliv?" I heard Dad trying to talk and wake Max up.
Did he not recognise me?
Dad, it's me. Your son.
I tried to talk, but the wrathful flames that were scorching my veins made my throat too dry.
Roars came out instead.
On a side note, what does Mana taste like?
I ran to Dad to give him a hug, but he rejected me the same way Max did. Such an act hurt me.
Did he blame me for this too?
I didn't want this Gift. I'm not sure what this was or what it does, but I was sure things would be fine.
Dad just needed to give me enough Mana to feel full. After that, I'd naturally turn this ability off.
To get that done, I looked at Dad's arm.
I wasn't sure what his Sacred Weapons were, but I was sure Dad was a Warrior Class individual.
He obtained a Class which gave a passive and active ability respectively. Just like any other.
They added to his Star Alignment method of cultivating his Base Quality. Acting as 'Defiant Stars', which were sub abilities that the Warrior Class had. Their affinity being Fire and Metal.
One of them was the Fire Attuned 'Power Sharpening', while the other was 'Weapon Healing'.
It meant breaking a Warrior's weapon was useless.
I'd heard uncle Farhon used these two stars for swordsmanship, but Dad wouldn't do that.
Dad was too smart to do something like that.
Just as I'd expected, Dad lifted his gauntlet and shot out energy projectiles turning into arrows.
The special 'Arrow Formula' he specialised in and tried to teach me manifested on his gauntlet palm.
Beams of Wood Mana tried piercing my body…
…but they were slower than Max's electricity.
I didn't even have to expend much effort in dodging out of the way. Lightning Qi covered me.
The Haki covering my body took on the Attributes of the Lightning Qi and Earth Qi I'd siphoned.
Becoming denser. All while enhancing my abilities.
I could feel the electric currents vitalising my body.
My speed when charging at Dad was way faster than earlier. Getting in close to lane my own strike.
But I stopped mid way.
Jumping back when I saw Dad's cold eyes.
A bullet hit the ground in front of me. It wasn't made entirely of Mana, so I couldn't siphon it.
Weren't these the bullets Dad worked on…?
Judging from the number I always saw him reloading at home, there should only be seven.
The moment I was sure, my body moved forward.
Dodging the moment the trigger was about to be pulled in my direction. Not before that or later.
On the exact moment before the trigger pulled.
1…
2…
3…
4…
5…
6…
And adding to the gunshot from earlier, I could safely say that Dad was now out of ammunition.
I remember that MagiPistol's that Dad told me about could only shoot regular bullets or beams.
Not both.
It meant that I was certain now was the best time to get in close. I had to kill him before he attacked me.
…Huh? Kill?
Whelp, I had to defend my own life anyway.
I started to connect with Dad and try to siphon his energy the same way as I did with Max earlier, but it looked like I'd been misunderstanding it. There was more than one power source in his body.
Smaller ones he kept on consuming in his moves.
The moment I got close, I was taken off guard when Dad was able kick in the Haki armour.
His thin leg containing a dreadful heaviness.
No, this wasn't exactly weight.
It felt more like a sturdy iron pipe had been swung with enough force to damage my Haki armour.
Sending me flying back.
Click. The MagiPistol was pointed at me again, and I had to guess whether he was bluffing or not.
Probably not.
Since there was no harm dodging this, I was able to save myself from getting my arm blown off again.
Looking at Dad surprised when he began shooting.
'So it was like that…' I quickly figured out Weapon Healing was being used 'regenerate' the bullets.
There was likely a single bullet at the bottom of the ammo magazine was where the 'healing' started.
If I wanted to not regret having the opportunity to taste power again, I needed more experience.
But I also couldn't let this last too long.
It wouldn't be long before people started to check on the commotion. I needed to escape… now.
Sorry Dad, I just want to taste energy that again.
I charged at him and stopped the flow of Haki covering my face. Allowing him to see me.
And my real appearance…
"Miliv?" The moment Dad said my name, I used that gap in his defence to punch him clearly.
My Haki empowered fist hit him deep.
Breaking the left arm he'd used to defend himself clumsily, which threw him at a familiar nearby tree.
Dad was in the same position I was earlier.
"Sorry, Dad…" My voice finally came out while apologising, and he made a complicated look.
I was ready to end things here.