20 Serial Killer

Chaos and Apathy.

These were the core ideas that represented a Criminal and an Unwinged Angel.

A Criminal went against the laws and rules for the pleasure of doing so, for accomplishing their desires, for the mere chaos of doing so.

An Unwinged Angel completely disregarded the rules, it looked at the chaotic world it created as a Criminal with cold, uncaring, and apathetic eyes. It saw itself as the superior existence that had the rights to not care about any rules, about any madness, about any chaos.

So then… What was the core idea behind a Serial Killer?

…

Ethan found himself in the corrupted world from before once more. This time, however, he was no monster.

'What is happening?!' Ethan found himself in the corrupted world with his own body.

He was no longer a different creature, point of light, information, or anything like that. He was himself.

Ethan tried to use his powers, but they didn't obey his orders. Everything he once had, all the powers he had accumulated, was gone.

'Fuck! Dammit! SHIT!!!' His once calm mind was broken once more, the balance that existed before not at all present.

Having to support all the mental imprints he had ever absorbed made Ethan go completely insane. His entire mind was filled with different chaotic ideas and perspectives, there was nothing that could help him cope with the many mental imprints anymore.

"AHHHH!!!" His shrieks of agony from having his mind invaded by the chaos that was no more contained, reverberated in the dark plains he was now.

Ethan's knees bent and he fell to the cold and dark grass below, still struggling to contain the immense pain he was in.

'TheRE… MuSt BE… a WaY OUT!!!!!!' Barely able to think straight anymore, Ethan found himself being consumed by the mental imprints inside of him.

His desire to kill, rape, have money, visit all places, give order, give chaos, know everything, it all became clear in his mind.

Every single one of these desires started consuming his mind completely, soon enough, he would be no different from a Beyonder that lost control.

Ethan kept pulling himself through the grass, desperately trying to find anything that could save him.

But it was simply too difficult. The strength of the mental imprints in his mind was far too great, he could not resist them at all.

"SINS…! SINS…!!! SINS!!!!!!!!!" He bellowed out with his feeble sliver of consciousness. Trying to make the powerful sins that corrupted his existence, that allowed him to become much more powerful than other Beyonders, to help him in his current situation.

Ethan could still feel them, he could still feel Sloth and Gluttony, even a little bit of Lust. But they seemed to be out of his control, in a world completely different from this one.

…

In the outside world.

Ethan had just taken the potion when his body fell to the ground. His mind was transformed from the new imprint that appeared on it.

"HAHAHA!!! I AM ALIVE!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!" He suddenly started laughing loudly with a demonic voice, completely different from his usual countenance.

Getting up from the ground, he suddenly looked around and pointed at one of the walls.

From his fingertips flew a dark-green flame that seemed even darker than before. It quickly reached the wall and started consuming the spirituality that made the protection ritualistic spell work, completely engulfing the entire bathroom.

"HAHAHA! From this point forward, the great Sullivus shall return to this world!!!" The flames kept consuming the entirety of the bathroom, but just before they could break the spell completely, their aura completely changed.

…

False Tenebrous World.

Ethan was being consumed by the powerful mental imprints inside of him, almost losing any hope of survival, when he heard a voice.

It was his own voice, it was laughing, saying it was alive and that it had returned to this world. When Ethan heard this voice, he understood what was happening.

'When I took the Serial Killer potion, one of the mental imprints was far too powerful for my mind to support. The balance that existed between everything was completely broken and another will awakened in my body. Trying to protect me, my sins of Sloth and Lust sent me to a dreamscape created inside my own mind.'

The problem was that this dreamscape couldn't be created in his outside consciousness, but his subconscious, where all imprints were located. Ethan was now inside his own cage of temperance.

When he realized that, Ethan felt an indescribable rage, beyond anything he had ever felt before. This rage consumed his thoughts completely.

"YOU DARE!" The world around him started breaking apart. The dark grass became corroded and burned with green fire, the black sky full of flames was consumed by a strong dark-green glow, the entire landscape started trembling.

Ethan's mind was consumed by an impossibly powerful ire, like he would never be able to calm down ever again.

His mind was consumed by WRATH.

…

In the outside world.

When Sullivus took Ethan's body, he immediately noticed the peculiarities of this body, but he couldn't really understand why it had so many Beyonder powers and no characteristics whatsoever.

He then tried to use the powerful dark-green flames he possessed in this body to break the spell that protected the place and escape to the real world.

However, before the seal could be completely broken, the dark-green flames suddenly stopped obeying his will.

It was like they weren't even cast by him, but by someone else. "What is this?!"

Before Sullivus could react to what was happening at all, he suddenly hunched his back. Putting his hand on his left chest, Sullivus seemed to be in extreme pain.

*Crack

"AHH!!" The side of his skull burst in a carnage of bones, coloring the place a shade of crimson.

"YOU DARE!!!" Before Sullivus could react at all, he horrifyingly found out his mind and will was being destroyed.

With an intense fear taking part in Sullivus, he just couldn't react to the current situation at all. His will was completely obliterated before he could do anything, consumed by a rage so supremely powerful even gods would fear.

The rest of 'his' body started bursting apart in numerous pieces of bones, transforming itself into a demon made from pale white.

Dark-green flames escaped from the bones, consuming the rest of the bathroom and destroying everything in its way. Sullivus did not have the time to think anything, his will had already disappeared from this world.

Ethan once again regained complete control of his body, and his advancement truly took place.

His bones started growing out uncontrollably, the flames around him became more and more powerful, the aura of his body taking a dark and ominous flair to it.

Every part of Ethan was being transformed by the bones and flames, he started becoming a completely different being.

However, before he truly lost himself to the advancement, an absolute sense of balance was restored to him. His body reverted back to human form, his flames went into his control once more, and his mind was regaining some level of clarity from the rage.

When Ethan finally regained his clarity and sense of self, he realized he still had many imprints from the potion he just took, they weren't being restrained by the cage of temperance thanks to their impossibly powerful nature.

But it didn't matter anymore, because-

Wrath: The sin of eternal anger. It has the Authority to Destroy and Annihilate everything that comes in contact with it, ceasing it completely when necessary. Its current power is still limited to Sequence 7, unable to access its true Authority over *%@¨&*#$ #%¨#&$%¨#*#$%#*¨$%*@

This was the sin that allowed Ethan to destroy the Demon known as Sullivus with ease. And it was also the power that would rid his mind of useless imprints forever.

Using his control of Wrath, Ethan made its powers destroy the useless imprint that remained in him. All the human imprints were destroyed, and some of the potions' imprints got certain parts of them destroyed too.

As the imprints were annihilated by Wrath, Ethan felt his mind becoming infinitely clear. The cage of temperance contained the useful imprints for him, so Ethan would still have desires to not make his mind become completely blank with apathy.

From now on, Ethan wouldn't need to worry about any mental imprint below Sequence 6 for potions and beasts, and Sequence 4 for human beings.

Ethan then started to analyze his current body and powers.

As the bathroom had been completely destroyed by the flames, he could only leave it and proceed to the wardrobe's mirror.

Seeing his appearance, Ethan was incredibly surprised. He had gotten impossibly younger, like having 20 years once again. His skin was smoother than porcelain, his eyes became an even darker-shade of piercing green, his hair completely changed colors to that of pale white, and his entire body became impossibly defined.

'What? How did…?' Ethan was confused as to what made him become so much younger than before, but he soon understood the reason.

'Sloth… Keeping the balance also means making me younger and living longer?!' Ethan became incredibly satisfied, he smiled with a high degree of amusement, completely different from his absolutely apathetic nature from before.

'How pleasant it is to feel some happiness after not feeling almost anything for so long.' While his mind certainly wasn't much human anymore, Ethan could now feel more emotions. The only problem, though-

"The pleasure I receive from the suffering of others has been intensified by a lot." Ethan was now like a true sadist that loved to see suffering and despair from all things, a consequence of his transformation into a Serial Killer.

As a Serial Killer, Ethan now had two new core powers, while his powers from before were elevated to a higher level of strength.

Bone Control: He could now control his own bones, this power had four main abilities; Bone Weapon, Bone Bullet, Bone Armor, and Bone Flexibility.

Bone Weapon was the ability to create any weapons from his bones, growing them out of his body and using them to fight others. The pain from growing and detaching the bones was reduced by huge margins.

Bone Bullet could grow the bones at his fingertips and fire them like bullets. They would be no different from a strong revolver.

Bone Armor allowed him to grow his bones all around his body, creating a strong armor made from bones that wouldn't bulge from the bullets of a revolver.

Bone Flexibility was the power to make his bones as flexible as rubber, he could essentially bend himself many times before reaching his limit.

The second power was the ability to use a more advanced form of ritualistic magic, which was mostly related to devils and demons.

This power was stupidly dangerous, Ethan wouldn't dare use any of the rituals he received to contact the many devils with terrifying honorific names.

He, however, received three rituals that wouldn't require him to contact any of them.

The first one was the Ritual of Monstrosities; Its powers allowed Ethan to create a monster from many bodies and use it as his slave, allowing him to create eternally loyal creatures to serve himself.

The second one was the Ritual of Bestowment; It allowed Ethan to infuse one of his powers into objects that could contain it. For example, he could imbue his Flames of Hatred in the jewel of a ring, allowing anyone with the ring to use its power. The power bestowed would be limited in uses depending on how good the materials were.

The final ritual was called Ritual of Summoning; It had the power to summon a creature from the Abyss, allowing Ethan to make a contract with it. This ritual was still incredibly dangerous, but Ethan had ways to bypass the danger in some cases.

All his previous powers got enhanced to varying degrees: His cursed fire became much more powerful, and it could now be deployed inside a person's body as a seed, allowing him to burst it later when he wanted.

His healing factor got much more powerful, as Ethan could now be cured from a nearly fatal injury in just one or two minutes, anything below that would just take thirty or forty seconds to completely heal.

Ethan's curses also got incredibly more powerful:

The Curse of Interference could affect the divination of demigods not proficient in it;

The Curse of Insanity could make a common person go insane in just three minutes and Beyonders would now be affected in just ten minutes or so;

His Curse of Misfortune could now bring greater calamities with much more ease;

The Curse of Illness could now make a person get sick from much less, and some individuals might get sick without any medium for conveying the diseases;

His Curse of Death now needed less sacrifices and could affect a recently advanced demigod with a weak constitution.

He also got two new curses: Curse of Bloodlines and Curse of Siphoning.

The first could make a person's entire bloodline be affected by the curses Ethan used upon them, allowing him to destroy an entire family from just one individual.

While the second could allow Ethan to steal the lifespan of others for himself, or give such lifespan for someone else. The conversion rate was terrible, as it would take 100 years of a person's life to give a mere 1 year. The time it took to completely drain a person's life was just two hours, were they to be Beyonders or not. Demigods weren't affected by the curse.

"What great powers, I can certainly kill a Sequence 6 Beyonder after some preparations, even more so when I get the powers from the other Sequence 8s I asked for."

Ethan stopped analyzing himself and picked another set of clothes, as his previous one had been destroyed.

After tidying everything up and sealing the bathroom with another ritualistic spell, he left his house and went in the Aurora Order underground market's direction.

"Time to kill a Devil."