While the men of the Seraphim Church moved and Fabienne and her men made life difficult for these demon hunters, the local imperial family was also acting on Lothur's behalf.
After orders from the Supreme Elder of this family, one of the emperor's men quickly traveled to the northwest of the empire, near the border of this state with Cesha and Utral.
In this area was located a range of mountains and dense forests with the presence of powerful beasts.
Because of these unique features in the whole empire, there were no cities for hundreds of square kilometers in this area. It was also a place of difficult access for people from the empire as well as from neighboring states.
But precisely in one of the mountains of this remote area was the most powerful hidden family of this state, the house behind the local imperial family!
This was the home of the Jansen family!
There, the Nascent Soul Transcendent sent by the Supreme Elder had just arrived at the first post, where men of the Jansen family watched the surroundings.
"Elders, I request passage as the empire faces trouble. We are at risk of being attacked by Daemon, his son, and his wife. The Supreme Elder has sent me here to discuss this with the watcher Rudolf." That level 17 man said reverently, looking at the leaves in the surroundings but aware that people were watching him.
Hearing that, a level 18 man observing this area and his companions were silent for a moment.
One of them then said. "Daemon and his family are not the kind of threat that concerns us. Your family should handle this without our interference, House Leopoldine's member.
We are not your bodyguards, don't forget that."
"But... Senior, we are at a crucial moment... Lothur Ritter is growing too strong, and he even escaped from our men, even with the Five Seals Formation containing him!
We fear he will become a Saint and a problem for the state." That man increased his state's fears a bit, trying to get the attention of these Jansen family men.
The Jansen family had Saints in its ranks and was the most powerful family in the empire. But it did not easily allow Saints to emerge within that state.
When someone reached the peak of level 18, they would usually try to probe that person and see if they would leave the empire, join one of the powers with Saints in such a domain, or they should be killed to avoid chaos.
A very powerful society lived in the underworld of this empire, moving Leopoldine's most important decisions behind the scenes and ignoring everything else.
For them, all that mattered was their peace, that their interests would not be harmed, and their position would not be exposed.
Therefore, troublemakers were very frowned upon by them!
"As far as we know, Lothur Ritter desires peace as much as we do. But your family members continually persecute him." Those words did not fool such an outer guard of the Jansen family. "Member of the Leopoldine family, we don't like to interfere in your state, but your dispute for the position of the emperor is getting out of hand.
Since you are here, let me give you this warning. If you draw any more attention to yourselves than you are doing now, we will choose the next sovereign for ourselves."
Gulp!
"We will do our best to improve, senior!" That man said firmly, worried. "But as for Lothur, doesn't his action of creating the cars worry your organization? That will attract people from all over the continent to the empire."
"Not at all. Those cars are nothing more than new carriages. It won't be something like that that will attract our enemies." That person said, before returning to his previous silence, making it seem like he was no longer there.
The Leopoldine family man clenched his fists in frustration, feeling that he and his family members would have to endure the hard times on their own.
'Now all that remains is for us to join our forces and prepare for Daemon!'
...
A few hours had passed since Lothur had taken over the Flame Faction.
At this moment, he was still at that group's headquarters, finishing learning the second soul-focused technique he had decided to learn.
Luckily for him, some of his opponents' techniques were based on the elements he was strongest in and would match perfectly with his characteristics as a hybrid and his Soul Bones.
[Cruel Underworld] [Rank: Gold]
[Mastery Level: Adept]
[Description: with the darkness of your soul, overpower the fallen and create an army of the dead. Increases the user's Soul and Will effects by 25% while using.]
...
[Omnipotence] [Rank: Gold]
[Mastery Level: Adept]
[Description: with your mastery over physical and soul, be unbeatable for ten breaths and show your opponents the terror of an all-powerful being. Increases the user's Strength, Soul, and Will effects by 25% while using.]
[+1.8 in all physical attributes.]
[+0.5 in SOU.]
[+0.6 in WIL.]
...
[Name: Lothur Ritter]
[Physique: what doesn't kill you makes you stronger]
[Bloodline: Life Devourer]
[Soul Cultivation: level 16]
[Body Cultivation: level 17]
[STR: 337.7] [CON: 638.8] [DEX: 349.3] [AGI: 350.6]
[INT: 271.2] [PER: 550.1] [WIL: 400.6] [SOU: 130.6]
[EVF: 0]
Lothur finally saw his subtle advances after learning those two techniques and raising his mastery of them to the second level.
With his current Intelligence, he could do this in a few hours of training, so he had easily reached this level in these two techniques without even fighting once.
However, this young man was looking forward to battles with his new skills, which he felt would not take long.
After dominating the faction he was in at the moment, his slaves, dominated by the Black Flames, who controlled things there for him, had already notified him of the enemies surrounding him.
For now, no one had attacked, but the tension near where he was standing little by little increased, and more powerful enemies arrived to torment him.
He had nowhere to run after all he had done, and so he continued to train, waiting for the start of the battle that would surely take place there sooner or later.
His bloodline skill still needed more than half a day to recover, so he couldn't rely on it. As such, he was focused on raising his understanding of those two soul techniques as much as possible.
'If I overcome this challenge before me, everything will be easier later!' He clenched his fists, certain of his strategy to dominate this place.
...