Chapter 379: Massacre

Finally realizing how he would be able to improve his understanding of his Epiphany to the next level at a quicker pace, Aurus could not help but become excited, sensing that his whole body seemed to be hinting to him that killing would be beneficial to him.

Nevertheless, even though his body seemed to be screaming to him to find another animal to kill right now, Aurus was still doubtful as to whether or not killing an animal would help improve his understanding of the Epiphany by that much. For all he knew, the moment he killed the animal was just a coincidental moment wherein a large amount of Wind energy particles surged into his body out of nowhere.

With that in mind, he decided to test it out one more time, eventually finding another rabbit nibbling on a bunch of leaves not far from where he was. Hovering over it as an aura of killing intent and bloodlust emanated from him, Aurus extended his right palm once more before shooting out a blade of wind, decapitating the rabbit as its blood gushed like a fountain.

As the rabbit's blood trickled out from its body, a large amount of Wind energy particles condensed around Aurus before being absorbed by his body, drastically increasing the progress of his Epiphany incomparable to what his progress looked like while he was just absorbing Wind energy particles from the surroundings.

Seeing that his progress had increased by a lot once more, the thought of killing being able to improve his Epiphany in less time had become somewhat more solidified than ever before, with his body aching to take control over his body and go on a maniacal rampage from it. But of course, Aurus was still doubtful as to whether or not it was true.

In his mind, something like this happening once was a fluke, but for it to happen twice, it might just be a miraculous coincidence. But if it happened another time after that, then Aurus definitely wouldn't hold back.

And so, with that in mind, Aurus went ahead and moved throughout the forest a bit more to find another animal to kill, eventually spotting a small fox frolicking through the various foliage and trees littered around the forest. Unlike the small rabbits he had killed, which took on a slight green shine due to the overabundance of Wind energy particles, the way the overabundance had taken effect on this small fox was its tail completely taking on a pastel green color.

In any case, even if its abilities were stronger compared to normal foxes, it still didn't stand a chance against Aurus, who mercilessly shot a blade of wind towards the fox, piercing directly through its heart.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Seeing that a large amount of Wind energy particles had condensed and been absorbed by his body once more, Aurus was now certain that the killing of animals had great effects on his progress regarding the comprehension of his Epiphany. In fact, after killing two animals, he felt like he was quite near to reaching the third level of his Epiphany.

Nonetheless, with Aurus killing animals three times and all of them allowing a large amount of Wind energy particles to be absorbed by his body all three times, Aurus allowed his mind to be a bit more loose, letting his primal instincts take over his body. Of course, he made sure to not go overboard, knowing very well of the impacts killing brought to the environment. But in any case, he had no qualms in killing animals as it improved his combat power.

With that in mind, he then went on a killing spree, killing any thing that moved throughout the whole forest located near the edge of the Divine Wind Valley. Funnily enough, with his primal instincts mostly doing all of the work, he had even targeted some of the leaves that swayed along with the wind, only to soon find out that he had accidentally hit an animal behind it.

Nevertheless, with him going on a killing spree, the speed at which his comprehension of his Epiphany progressed had vastly increased compared to before, with it breaking through to the fifth level within a span of ten minutes. By the time he felt like he had eradicated almost all of the species living inside the forest, he had already reached the sixth level.

At this point, his primal instincts had gained greater control over his body, with it automatically heading towards the forest on the other side of the Divine Wind Valley within a few moments. At the very instant he arrived, he started to go on a massacre yet again, not even sparing the somewhat rarer animals that roamed the forest.

To clear the forest on the other side of the Divine Wind Valley, it had only taken Aurus half an hour to do so, with his understanding of his Epiphany breaking through the eighth level due to the sheer number of animals he had killed so far.

Well, to be more specific, he had only killed around a few hundred animals so far. But thanks to how it gradually became harder for one to comprehend one's Epiphany, the number of animals he had to kill to reach the next level drastically increased for every consecutive level. Which was the reason why he had only reached the eighth level after killing so much.

Then again, even though he had only reached the eighth level of his Epiphany out of the 99 levels out there, Aurus was surprisingly in a state of euphoria, a euphoria that was triggered by the killings he had done so far. Normally, Aurus would be hesitant to kill a being unless he needed to do so to improve. But now, those hinges holding him back had now become looser than before, making one wonder as to whether or not he could still remember his earlier words of not going overboard.

Fortunately, by the time his instincts realized that there was next to no more animals for him to kill in the other forest, his rationality gradually took over his body, slowly removing the euphoria he felt from killing the animals as guilt and shock overwhelmed his body.

"How…did it turn out like this?" Aurus muttered to himself, wondering how it had gotten this bad within such a short amount of time. Sure, he had allowed his mind to loosen up a bit, but never did it occur to him that something like this would be the result of it.

As he pondered over this matter even more, he eventually felt the presence of an incredibly strong being gradually making its way over to where Aurus was, instantly making him go into panic before using his movement skill to hastily get out of the Divine Wind Valley.

As for the incredibly strong being that had just barely missed the moment Aurus left, it landed near the spot where Aurus previously was before letting out a long sigh, looking at all of the animals it had put in a lot of effort to breed, only for it to be killed in one go by a madman.

"This divine being doesn't mind other beings killing a bunch of my animals…but for you to go to this extent, now you've incurred my wrath," the being muttered to itself, feeling indignant at the meaningless deaths of his animals. Unfortunately for the being, Aurus had already teleported far away from the Divine Wind Valley, heading another place in the process.

…

Whoosh!

By the time he had stopped teleporting, a couple more hours had passed since then. Naturally, since he was adamant in advancing his understanding of his Epiphany to higher levels, he opted to head towards an area where there were a lot of Wind energy particles, just like the Divine Wind Valley. Though, unlike the Divine Wind Valley, he had an additional requirement for the location. In this case…

A lot of animals to kill.

Allowing his mana to recover, Aurus then commanded the system to show him his current location, allowing him to find out that he was in a place called Greater Tempest Cliff. As he read this name, he could not help but feel like this name was somewhat familiar to him. Unfortunately, even after he pondered over this thought for a couple of minutes, nothing significant came to mind.

With that, he shrugged his shoulders and placed this thought at the back of his head as he started to teleport once more, deciding to aim for the predatory species of Greater Tempest Cliff.

Previously, the animals that he had targeted at the Divine Wind Valley were only animals that could be considered prey. But even then, the amount of Wind energy particles they allowed him to absorb had already reached a level pure absorption couldn't achieve. Though, as he continued to kill more and more animals, he eventually started to kill predatory species, which gave around thrice as much Wind energy particles than those considered prey.

And so, Aurus aimed to kill the predatory species of Greater Tempest Cliff first before those that were prey. On top of that, after recalling what had happened after he let his mind loosen up, he made sure to keep himself in check every once in a while as he soon made his way to the first predatory animal he found.

With a single blade of wind, the predatory animal fell to the ground with its back open for all to see. Looking at the animal's opened back, something had awakened inside Aurus once again, prompting him to restrain this feeling to its limits. But unfortunately, even though he fought against it, he still ultimately lost to it in the end as he went on a crazed killing spree once more.

With all of the predatory animals in Greater Tempest Cliff being his target, he swiftly moved through its terrain and killed all of them with a single blade of wind, allowing an abundant amount of Wind energy particles to circle around him every time he killed an animal. In fact, with him moving at greater speeds, the speed at which his body absorbed the Wind energy particles was even slower than him accruing more Wind energy particles to absorb.

Nevertheless, his understanding over his Epiphany was consistently improving. By the time he had killed around half of the predatory animals in Greater Tempest Cliff, he had already reached the 10th level of Epiphany, increasing his combat power by quite a certain amount. As for him depriving the whole Greater Tempest Cliff of its predatory animals, he had achieved the 11th level of Epiphany thanks to that.

Normally, such a killing spree would've been noticed by other beings at this point. But due to the uniqueness of Greater Tempest Cliff, which did not really have any being ruling it, Aurus did not have to fear the repercussions. And so, after he had killed all of the predatory animals in Greater Tempest Cliff, he moved to killing all of the prey, only finishing by the time the sun was close to setting down.

Coming back to reality as his rationality returned to him, Aurus looked at the aftermath of his killing spree once more, wondering whether what he was doing was right or wrong. Though, as he thought about the times where his blade would impale or pierce the bodies of the animals and allow blood to spurt out in various ways, he could not help but feel like his morality and judgment over this matter had clouded quite a bit.

Fortunately, he had eventually suppressed his primal instincts to the limit, allowing his rationality to take reign once more as he thought that the amount of progress he had achieved so far in understanding his Epiphany was enough for now. Though, just as he was about to leave the Greater Tempest Cliff and head back to where the Verdant Blossom Branch Alliance was located, he could faintly hear the sounds of people talking and having fun, making his bloodlust awaken slightly before he suppressed it once more.

"I should head back to the alliance," Aurus muttered to himself before repeating it in his mind over and over again. Knowing how dangerous it was for him to allow his primal instincts to take control over his body, he did not dare to imagine the aftermath of what he would do if he went nearer to that place.

Sadly for him, it seemed like his body had a mind of its own, gradually guiding him to where the place where people were even though he didn't want to.