Shortly after achieving his victory, Jake began to wobble in the air before collapsing heavily to his knees following a fall of several hundred meters. His Spirit Body was like a candle burning at both ends and the most prominent symptoms were the slowing and radical weakening of his psychic and neural activity.
The other less striking, but equally detrimental symptom was emotional emptiness. Devoid of joy and sorrow, he was in a state of utter mental neutrality that impaired his very drive to do things.
Because of the Digitization, his body also seemed to be at the end of its rope, manifesting the same psychosomatic disorders. Biting his tongue to keep himself awake, Jake didn't let go of his Vitality Aether, which was still preventing those Words of Power from healing away.
"Not yet. I can't relax yet." Jake repeated to himself, thinking about the plight of his companions as he pushed vigorously on the ground with his arms to lift himself up.
I got the question again on discord about why Jake (or the other characters) don't become more logical and rational by increasing their intelligence stat.
For that, you have to refer to my description of the intelligence attribute in the first chapters. Some may know this, but I originally studied medicine.
Self-control, rationality, concentration, logical reasoning, planning, ability to resist impulses etc... are all in the pre-frontal cortex. In my novel, and more specifically in the case of Aether Intelligence, the entire brain is upgraded.
Therefore, if you have mental disorders, a certain personality, there is a good chance that these traits will become more pronounced, even if you also gain intelligence and self-control. In the same way, the emotions felt are more intense as the spiritual power increases.
This 4th Ordeal, which focuses more on the Spirit Body and Soul, highlights these aspects through the Soul Class system. The Soul is different from a human brain, but each thought, action, becomes stronger when repeated, until it produces tangible effects on reality and changes who you are.
This vague term of "Killing Intent", very common in webnovels, which is akin to an oppressive and killing energy, is to be understood literally here. The stronger the mind is, the stronger it feels and desires things. If the will to kill is strong enough, it can happen for real.
Jake's Words of Power exploit this principle, but in a more profound way. Through an extremely complex Soul Spell, Jake's intent is made real when he writes these words.
However, keep in mind that at a very high level, if his soul was millions of times more powerful, he would obviously not need these Runes anymore. A simple thought would become reality.