While two of the three level 22 Sages faced the fearsome powers of Elke and Annaliese, the last was in a much worse situation.
Surrounded by the three siblings of the Jansen family, there was no way that such a level 22 Sage could resist three opponents of the same level as him!
Even if this individual was already close to advancing to level 23, against the three siblings who had centuries of experience fighting together, he didn't stand a chance.
Before he even tried to challenge the storm of blades created by Lothur on the outskirts, he was already suffering at the hands of those three descendants of Mathias.
Using only their techniques, the three quickly made that man scream in pain as he got closer and closer to entering the space of influence of Lothur's bloodline ability.
Noticing this, he shouted louder, enraged at being faced with this terrible situation!
"Damn you, Jansen family, you'll pay for the crime you committed by allying with that creature!" The man found a way to say these words amid the wave of pain in his body. "The continent will be your enemies, you bastards!"
However, the three weren't worried about empty threats like that. Lothur was about to advance to level 23, and with the strengthening of their group through this war, few could stand up against them.
Feeling more confident than ever, none of the three gave that man any importance. On the contrary, they put more of their powers to use, finally throwing him toward where Lothur was finishing killing the two level 23 Sages.
Meanwhile, Lothur felt his characteristics improving, getting closer to the Diamond grade.
However, achieving this level of quality was very difficult. In a way, the Diamond grade represented the 6th stage, a level never reached before!
So the closer he got to it, the slower his progress would be, and even high-level bodies like those of Sages wouldn't be as good for him to take more significant steps.
With all his characteristics already at the Platinum grade, Lothur wouldn't be able to make any qualitative improvements that day.
But his EVF points would go up a little more.
[EVF: 3,900 -> 10,900]
...
[363 points added in SOU for 10,890 EVF.]
...
[SOU: 9,850 -> 10,213]
...
[EVF: 10,900 -> 10]
...
[Name: Lothur Ritter]
[Physique: what doesn't kill you makes you stronger]
[Bloodline: Life Devourer]
[Soul Cultivation: level 22 -> 23]
[Body Cultivation: level 22]
[STR: 4,200] [CON: 7,297] [DEX: 4,488] [AGI: 4,572]
[INT: 1,599] [PER: 6,280] [WIL: 2,899] [SOU: 10,213]
[EVF: 10]
At that moment, Lothur looked at his status and felt the difference this improvement had made, taking his soul cultivation to the next level.
Feeling that as the red mist around Lothur disappeared, Elke and Annaliese cheered up, seeing their man getting stronger.
The three elders of the Jansen family felt almost the same satisfaction, seeing that they were right to choose to follow young Ritter.
'This guy will one day reach the 5th Catastrophe!' One of the three siblings thought to himself, feeling reverence at seeing the emergence of someone with so much potential.
Lothur was a hybrid, and no one knew how far and fast hybrids of demons and humans would go since, throughout history, no one had ever seen one of these beings go so far.
But even though he was a hybrid, Lothur was still surprising the siblings, especially as his actions and temperament were unlike those described in other beings of his race.
Lothur was calm, rational, and not particularly bloodthirsty. What's more, the way he stole powers from others was also different from what happened with hybrids, something that made him less diabolical.
Those three siblings didn't feel bad about committing the crime of supporting him and being supported by Lothur.
As such, seeing him getting stronger, they couldn't help but feel good!
"Congratulations, Lothur. You'll quickly pass us again." Elke approached him when she saw that it was no longer dangerous to do so, ignoring the Soul Bones of those individuals forming where their bodies had disappeared.
Annaliese said something similar, and Lothur smiled, feeling that this was good, but it also had its problems.
'Now I might have to face another one of those catastrophes at any moment...' He thought internally, seeing the great problem of cultivators of his stage.
By leveling up, Sages would already have it in their minds that they might have to face another catastrophe at any moment!
But even with that in mind, he said. "Thanks for your words, guys. But now we have to move."
As he said this, he picked up the 11 Soul Bones that had formed in the surrounding area, few in number, but most of them of excellent quality.
Not everyone had the chance to absorb many bones in their lifetime. In fact, apart from demon hunters and important members of Concordia's most powerful forces, most Sages had less than 4 Soul Bones.
Because of this, most of them usually had more than 10,000 years of cultivation and usually only absorbed their bones after reaching the 4th stage, when cultivation became more difficult and the bonus of the bones more significant.
This was the reality of the strongest on the continent, which is why Lothur only obtained 11 bones from 5 Sages that day.
But with these 11 Soul Bones, Lothur obtained 2 Emperor demon bones, 7 Monarch demon bones, and the rest General demon bones.
These were Soul Bones of the highest quality!
But once again, none of these Platinum-grade ones were a match for him!
As he moved with his group away from that area, back towards the Three Great Lakes Region, Lothur told them. "Of those bones I collected, most of them are no good for our family, Elke, Anna.
Only two Monarch demon bones will do for Viktoria and Rebecca. The others we'll have to distribute among our people."
Hearing this, Annaliese thought of her mother and said. "Lothur, can you consider my mother's situation? If you can cure her of her situation, she can certainly absorb some of these bones."
Elke was silent when she heard this, knowing that Lothur had promised to see what he could do for the woman, but he wouldn't be so generous to Mabel as to not only cure her but also give her so many bones.
Lothur looked at Annaliese in silence for a moment, thinking hard about the woman's situation and the history they'd had so far.
...