GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

Chapter 2317: Rank 6 Bloodthirsty.

Killers have been dangerous since rank 1. If not for the existence of divine artifacts that can be forged from the corpse of undying godclads to bestow the ability to use the Aegis Shield divine ability to others, a killer would be a terror to deal with just because of their Sever divine ability.

Even if the only divine ability that Killers have is Sever, they would be formidable up until they reach rank 9 because the Sever divine ability is a legendary ability, as it can cut anything as long as there is spiritual energy to support it.

Other pathways only get their legendary divine ability when they reach rank 7. Some even get delayed until they reach rank 9. But not killers. Killers get one of their best divine abilities, if not their best, right from rank 1.

This early advantage that killers have has enabled them to truly show what they are capable of as long as they have spiritual energy. This advantage, aside from the fact that killers don’t need it, could also be why killers don’t have any ability that boosts their physical power.

Assassins have the Shadow Boost divine ability. Giants have the Strength Boost and the Earth Boost divine abilities. Travelers have their speed boost divine abilities, and knights have many ways to boost their strength and the strength of others.

These boost abilities make the godclads of these pathways formidable and capable of fighting higher-ranked beings and even killing them. But killers don’t get any boost ability until rank 6.

Of course, Killers are not the only ones who don’t get boost abilities from rank 1 to rank 6. Of their four pathways, the pathway of undying, the pathway of telepaths, and the pathway of slavery don’t have boost abilities.

That makes three out of four pathways that don’t have boost divine abilities. There are even more pathways aside from the ones they possess who lack the boost of divine abilities. So killers are not special in that aspect.

Killers are not being singled out because of their early advantage. That is confirmed to be the case when killers gain the rank 6 Bloodthirsty divine ability.

The rank 6 Bloodthirsty divine ability is an ability that boosts the power of their other divine abilities, including Sever. It actually doesn’t boost physical power. It seems to boost spiritual power, which is why it is more powerful than other divine abilities for boosting.

Normal boosting of divine abilities enhances physical attributes like strength, defense, stamina, speed, healing, reaction time, etc. Boosting divine abilities won’t enhance the power of the soul, which is why telepaths, slavers, illusionists, and dreamers who attack the mind and don’t have boosting divine abilities themselves can always fight those who boost their power equally.

But this is not the case for killers. The spiritual power and the power of the divine abilities of killers get enhanced once they start using the Blood Thirsty divine ability. This makes them almost equal to someone of a higher rank.

The best part of the Blood Thirsty divine ability is that it doesn’t have a limit to its enhancement. It is like the Power of Money divine ability of the pathway of merchants in that aspect.

The enhancement of the Blood Thirsty divine ability is triggered when a killer kills. So the more a killer kills, the stronger they will get.

Thanks to the Bloodthirsty divine ability, a rank 6 killer can become as strong as a rank 9 godclad in terms of the power of their divine ability. Killers will still be lacking in terms of their physical power, which will make them easier to kill, but anyone that wants to kill them must make sure that they are not touched by the killer in the process.

However, this great power comes at a great cost. Not that anything is free in this world. But the price that killers have to pay for using Bloodthirsty is very expensive.

Killers have to pay the most important thing to godclads. The most important thing is their sanity.

Just considering the name of the divine ability, one would notice that being bloodthirsty is easy to become the opposite of being sane. This is the case with using the Bloodthirsty divine ability. The more the divine ability is used, the more their sanity is lost.

The loss of sanity is unstoppable. Not even Legion can avoid it using their innate ability because the influence of the divine flesh affects their soul directly, not their body.

They can’t avoid the loss of sanity because the Bloodthirsty divine ability enhances spiritual power, meaning the soul, not physical power or the body. They are literally enhancing the power of their soul with their own spiritual energy by passing that spiritual energy through the divine flesh first for conversion before returning it to their soul.

So the side effect can’t be stopped. When they tested it, the divine flesh didn’t cause any trouble for them intentionally due to their innate ability, but their soul was still corrupted.

As they used the divine ability, their eyes became bloodshot and their vision reddened. Their mind also became slower, and their thoughts became only about killing. These symptoms only became more severe the longer they used the divine ability.

The saving grace is that the loss of sanity can be temporary. The loss will be temporary if the divine ability is stopped. But if the divine ability isn’t stopped in time, the killer will lose control and mutate.

For many killers, the loss of sanity by the bloodthirsty divine ability is permanent because they only have one consciousness. Once their single consciousness has been influenced and occluded by the divine ability, it becomes nearly impossible for them to stop the divine ability.

So usually once a killer begins using the Bloodthirsty divine ability and begins a widespread massacre, they usually lose control and mutate. This is why the rank 6 divine ability is also called the gateway to madness.