Mixed Blessing System

Not only did Lothur sense someone approaching the area, but everyone in his party sensed something.

Cykad was the most frightened by everything that was happening. Still, even so, when he sensed a Saint approaching the area, he couldn't deny the efficiency of the method.

Viktoria looked to the south and saw a spatial distortion created by a low-level Saint. 'That's not a spectre.' She worried, imagining the possibility of troublesome people coming to this place.

A Saint was no big deal, but if an ordinary person could sense Lothur's ritual, then maybe some Sage in the area would too!

That would be worrying!

Elke and Rebecca also looked worriedly at the spot where a middle-aged, blond man had just appeared and was flying towards Lothur.

But Annaliese had a different thought in her head, remembering what had happened to her family months ago.

'A possessed body?'

Blood and Smoke sensed what was inside this newcomer and immediately realized that this was no ordinary human but a body possessed by a spectre.

Many spectres on the continent didn't live in their supernatural form but in bodies that they could cultivate more easily, live in the human world, and strengthen themselves more easily.

Bodies also gave them freedom. That is, when a spectre was formed, it was confined to a certain area near the place where it was formed. But by possessing a body, no matter what level it was, these creatures could transcend those limits and go wherever they wanted!

And that wasn't all! 

When a low-level spectre was formed, in addition to the many limitations on how far they could go, these creatures also had another level of limitation, which was their rationality.

Low-level spectres were extremely chaotic and could only follow their instincts. But by possessing a body, these beings could stabilize their thoughts and act rationally!

Because of this, spectres of all levels would try to possess living beings, especially people who were capable of cultivation.

When Lothur saw the possessed person arrive at this place, he wasn't surprised by the shape of the spectre, but he couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

To him, it was obviously a possessed body. But for people below the 5th stage, it would be impossible to tell. In fact, even Sages could be fooled by these creatures.

Thinking about it, Lothur couldn't help but wonder how many possessed bodies there were in the relevant powers on the continent.

'What a problem...' He thought as he closed his eyes while he sensed several other individuals arriving in the area, all of them spectres or possessed bodies.

The ritual Lothur had initiated was special. Only creatures with a strong elemental affinity to the laws behind spectres would be able to sense what he had initiated.

Thus, it would be very difficult for humans or beasts to sense what was happening there, and any human body that moved in Lothur's direction would surely be possessed by a spectre.

Even demons, beings with a great elemental affinity for darkness, would have difficulty understanding this ritual.

Knowing how this ritual worked, Lothur wasn't worried about non-spectral beings approaching him.

"Elder..."

As more and more spectres and possessed bodies arrived on the outskirts of the area, the newcomers approached where Lothur was, kneeled down, and recognized him as an elder of the Castle of Shadows.

No one was surprised to see a humanoid body under the control of the ritual. This could be an elder possessing someone important, a rare occurrence but possible.

At the same time, even if they didn't feel anything to indicate that Lothur was possessed, these creatures wouldn't question his identity. After all, only 5th-stage spectres were capable of initiating such a ritual.

Humans couldn't withstand the elemental combination necessary to initiate the ritual!

The only known type of soul capable of having the necessary affinities were those of high-level spectres!

As such, everyone there recognized Lothur as a superior and bowed their heads without hesitation, trying to please him so that he would let each of them eat at least one of the spectres in formation.

All of the arrivals were Saints between levels 19 and 21. But even though Lothur only used 2% of his power, that was enough for them to increase their strength from 14% to 38% when devouring those spectres in formation!

That might not seem like much, but if a level 19, Origin Saint, devoured 3 of those forming beings, it could get enough to reach the peak of level 20 in just one night!

This was the power of the spectres, something that made them as dangerous as Lothur and his group thought they were!

Knowing what these creatures wanted, Lothur smiled and looked subtly in the direction of Blood and Smoke.

'Those two are incapable of devouring those spectres in formation...' Lothur laughed, wondering what he had to do.

"Eat, my friends! Grow stronger to complete our plans!" He said as he opened his arms, making the creatures very happy.

Little did they know that the young Ritter only wanted to "fatten them up" to feed Blood and Smoke better!

With Lothur's permission, these spectral beings did not stand on ceremony. In an instant, they split up, the strongest going to devour the more powerful spectres in formation, following the hierarchy of power.

The women of Lothur saw this and watched in horror as the powers of these creatures increased significantly in a matter of seconds.

Cykad was the most frightened by this, but knowing that Lothur was in control of the situation, he wasn't so afraid of these 30 spectral creatures around the young Ritter.

He then said in the young man's mind. 'Lothur, two of these possessed bodies are members of the royal families of these two states. What do you want to do with them? If you kill them, the spectres will realize what we've done and try to attack these houses again.'

'Oh? They were that far along with their plans?' Lothur clenched his fists when he heard that, worried, of course. 'Very well, I'll subdue these spectres and make them work for us in secret. We'll only eliminate the others.'

With that settled, by the time the spectres had consumed more than two-thirds of the essences summoned in the ritual Lothur commanded, his black flames were secretly dominating the possessed bodies in the area.

Blood and Smoke saw Lothur's signal as the other spectres finished eating and moved away, finally free for the greatest feast of their lives!

Without waiting for the creatures to realize it was a trap, they attacked the two strongest in the area.

...