Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System

Chapter 739: Showdown Devil VS Demon (part 11)

"Why are you not moving you, useless trash!", shouted Marcus to the snake as he made the legs of the domain explode in black flames, whatever the silver haired masked youth is doing to the lioness, it’s obviously not good news for him.

After all, the lioness using mere wisps of that red energy could already slap away the giant snake, then when she covered her paw with it and stomped, the resulting explosion was strong enough to emulate an earth spell raising a huge rock wall that stopped the advance of the black water in the ancient sea battlefield hellscape.

With only that she was already able to stand up to the attacks of the proxy when manipulating its respective hellscape, as for when her whole body exploded in that red light, the lioness managed to directly blast away the spell of the snake, so she getting stronger was something Marcus didn’t with to see.

"Your opponent is me", unfortunately for the devil ruler system user, Daimon flashed from his previous position appearing in the way of his charge towards the lioness, because contrary to what Marcus thought, he wasn’t rendered immobile due to the stream of red light which was still pouring out of his body to then travel towards the lioness.

"Clang!", with a loud metal clashing against metal sound, Daimon’s energy spear clashed against the domain’s claws successfully forcing Marcus to stop in his tracks.

"Damn it!", without any other option Marcus entangled with Daimon flashing through the sky while exchanging attacks, powerlessly seeing how the giant pillar of red energy landed on the lioness.

"Hisssss!", that being said, while the master was blocked, the snake did jump into action, literally, its body was covered in solid rock armor as it pounced at the lioness whose eyes were closed as she was bathed in the giant pillar of red energy that poured out of Daimon’s body, to then be enveloped in a large red cocoon which completely obscured her situation from the outside.

"Crack!", that wasn’t the sound of the lioness being crushed by the armored snake, but the sound of the whole rock armor covering the snake’s body shattering at the same time.

"Boooom!", and that was the sound of the snake’s body being sent flying a few hundreds of meters into the distance, before all the black water immediately followed it, leaving the horse and the haunted locust tree general whose faces were ashen, completely in the open.

"B-Black Shadow Charge!", the haunted locust tree general rushed the black horse which exploded with shadow mana turning into a black streak of light that flashed into the distance, or at least they tried to do it, before a red flash which is what sent the snake flying earlier, reached the general.

"Aghhh!", the red flash pierced the general’s back and then raised him into the air dragging him back to where the red giant cocoon was.

"Roaaar!", a loud roar came from the cocoon which bloomed like a giant flower before dissolving into countless red particles revealing the black lioness which was now enveloped in a giant seventy-five-meter sized red energy manifestation.

However, unlike what would directly come to mind, the red energy manifestation that enveloped her as if replacing the domain which she had taken away by Marcus, while mainly still having the body of a lioness, there were some extra features familiar only for Daimon and Eve among the current present people, Narasha included.

One of them being the real appearance of the "flash" of red light that had pierced the general from the back and dragged him towards the lioness, keeping him struggling while floating in front of the lioness, a tail, well a scorpion-like tail to be more accurate.

That being said and while being an energy manifestation, it didn’t look rough like what a scorpion tail would look like, but smooth as if carved in the highest quality type of jade, there were even rune-like symbols on the tail one per each of the ten segments that conformed the tail, crowned by an elegant sting.

The second distinct aspect, were a magnificent pair of wings full of highly detailed feathers that sprouted out of the energy manifestation’s back, in case you haven’t realized it yet, that form is similar to that of a manticore.

’Mmm, I honestly only tried it on a whim, the tail was the limit of my interference so those wings while using my energy as their source, were modeled by her instinctively, perhaps her original lineage was similar to that of Dana’s family branch ancestor’, thought Daimon.

He knew the basics behind of Arianna’s energy, since the werewolf girl explained it to him, the reason as to why her energy manifestation while it could be stretched, enlarged, partially constructed and more recently further refined to increase many different aspects of it, it still took the form of a wolf, is because the vitality in her body is linked to her werewolf lineage.

After all, among the high vitality races in the four galaxies, vampires and werewolves stand at the absolute top, in opposite peaks, one focusing in the energy aspect while the other focuses in the physical aspect, respectively.

So, Daimon knew that if the lioness were to use Arianna’s energy, her manifestation would take the form of a lioness, however he also knew that she would not be able to reach that level upon unlocking Arianna’s energy, the werewolf girl first had to go through the stage in which her hair, wolf ears and tail dyed red, which was when her energy saturated her body to the limit, before she could manifest it externally.

In the lioness’s case, she doesn’t have a physical body so instead of being dyed red, the corresponding stage was she being able to clad her body in Arianna’s energy, which she reached by herself by the way, and then Daimon decided to give her a little push by infusing an insane amount of red energy into her.

Now, the problem is that Daimon doesn’t have a lion-related lineage, therefore his energy shouldn’t have been compatible with the lioness, but an interesting idea surged in his mind back then.

The foundation of what Daimon has reached, can all be traced back to a single entity, the manticore which he killed after Aisha used her life to leave it at death’s door, that was the first and sole SSS Divinity feat he has achieved, a victory against all predictions which grazed the realm of impossibility.

Other manticores do exist in the four galaxies, in fact Aura has fought different sub-races of them, however not even the oldest and strongest of them could begin to compare to the one Daimon and Aisha met back then, the power Aisha was able to wield by abusing that forbidden spell with all her life and potential by detonating her magic core, could have gravely injured a half emperor but then that peak Arch rank manticore actually survived, albeit being left at death’s door.

And yet, while he obtained unparalleled abilities among which "Mystic Vitality" and "Overlord’s Pride" abilities of a level he had never obtained from a magic beast after that until he overscored the trial of the lineage temple to obtain the Dracolevia lineage, made it clear that the manticore of back then wasn’t a normal manticore but probably a special variation and even then, he didn’t obtain the lineage of that magic beast.

’I know you still feel guilty due to what happened back then Eve, to the point that even when we had just met and didn’t thrust each other, you silently exchanged the reward lineage of the manticore alongside my promised level treasure for those abilities and the leftover was used to add the option of the rune that revived Aisha, if anything, I’m sorry for not noticing it earlier’, suddenly said Daimon to his insides, making the blurred image of a certain administrator girl tremble for a second.

While it was still a "mystery" how the manticore suddenly appeared before Daimon and Aisha that day, Daimon already had an answer to that in his heart, it for sure was due to the influence of the system, which translates to the fact that Aisha died because of the system.

The Daimon of back then would have for sure loathed Eve if he had learned it, but the current Daimon understands that she didn’t do it herself, he only had access to the system after the manticore died, so it must have been some kind of twisted trial for him to awaken the system, in fact Daimon is sure that it wasn’t his system the one that created that situation, because unlike the other systems he has come to know about, his, grows according to his desires and principles, that’s why his missions are fundamentally different than others, he can even choose not to accept them, albeit forfeiting an opportunity but without receiving any punishment either.

’Daimon, I...’, Eve’s trembling voice was stopped by Daimon the next second.

’It’s fine, you couldn’t tell me due to the restrictions of the system and I understand why that has been the sole subject in which you didn’t give me a hint about it even if you could have, neither mom nor myself blame you for that, in fact I no longer hate that manticore for what happened as well’, said Daimon as he gazed at the lioness who was now incarnating the tail of the figure that used to share the burning hatred he had in his heart, besides the Naktis.

When the lioness awakened Arianna’s energy, there was a short-lived spark coming from Daimon’s body, which confirmed that while he didn’t obtain the manticore’s lineage, as it wasn’t displayed in the current lineages he has, he should have gotten it.

Eve interfered since she knew that he would have hated obtaining the lineage of the one that killed Aisha, the abilities and the rune that revived Aisha were more beneficial for him than the manticore’s lineage and on top of that, she didn’t want Daimon to follow the predicted path of those that manipulated things behind the scenes.

She said that Daimon’s starting privilege was the revival rune instead of a promised treasure, but that’s not true, she opened a path for him to break free of any external influence, including her own since even reviving Aisha was but an option, he could have chosen not to do so and have a higher start after all.

So, the current Daimon which after all these years has broken away from any kind of external influence is the result of his own choices and personal growth, thanks to Aisha, Erin and the others as well as seeing firsthand how there are signs of invisible hands manipulating things behind the scene and toying with people’s lives.

As to why Eve for the first time didn’t try to play tricks to bypass restrictions to hint Daimon about something, it was the single time she was "selfish", because she didn’t want her first ever friend, namely Daimon to hate her.

Of course, that was a thorn in her heart, which is why she was preparing herself to tell Daimon about it after he had finished the global raid and was back at the four galaxies, even if it meant being hated by him and Aisha, she didn’t think Daimon would take the initiative to speak about it before she had her chance.

’From what I know, without a host even you had no way to interfere in what happened back then and the very first thing you did after meeting me was repair the damage to the best of your capacities, for a total stranger that you were tied to on the spot, how could either Aisha or myself hate such a good girl like that, if we had done it then it would have been akin to falling for the scheme of some despicable trash, Erin wouldn’t be with me if I was so gullible’, listening to Eve’s voice which broke down at the end of her previous words, Daimon chuckled as he said.

’That’s right Eve, Daimon even helped me and Disaster to gain control of ourselves, even when we attacked him the first time we met’, added Nasha as she comforted her bestie.

’Mm~’, while slightly sniffling as a sign that she nearly did cry, Evangeline let out a happy sound.

[Ding]

Amidst the nice emotional exchange which appeared to take long but it elapsed in just a few seconds, in which Marcus and the snake were too shocked by the elegant manticore-like manifestation enveloping the lioness to pay attention to anything else, the sound of a notification rang in Daimon’s mind.

[The unique mission series "Boundless" has been unlocked due to a specific action]

That was a new kind of notification, earlier thanks to Scarlet and the others he was notified of obtaining a "Mission’s seed" which required other actions to unlock a mission, according to Eve that is something akin to a "last will" left behind by a dead system user which meant that those colorful girls as Eve called them most likely descend from a system user, in fact the missions of Adam and Marcus must have been seeds at their origin and they evolved into proper missions after the entrance to Neptune opened considering that all the girls from the missions which he ended up befriending had ties to system users direct on indirectly, only for their biggest opportunities to be stolen by Daimon.

’Let’s leave that for later’, thought Daimon as he returned to the real world thanks to the deafening roar of the lioness.

"Roar!", the lioness inside the manticore energy manifestation roared and the first symbol on the tail of the manifestation lit up in bright green light which was clearly Tessa’s energy, one that used to be incompatible with the lioness by the way.

"Aghhhh!", the general screamed in pain as green energy poured into his body from the tip of the stinger that was piercing into him, making green cracks cover him before he melted into a puddle of black liquid that fell to the ground, corroding a fifty-meter-deep crater into the black solid soil the next second.

’That was poison energy modified from Tessa’s nature energy, well I guess that ultimately all poison originates from "nature" at the end of the day’, thought Daimon as he saw the proxy of the living hell jungle dying in such a horrible way.

"Black Sky Charge", with a much more elegant and refined voice compared to when she was tied to the shadow colosseum, the lioness who had recovered to the early stage of the Arch rank and also gained the capacity to use techniques, as that wasn’t a spell powered by mana but by the energies she could control now, the giant manticore manifestation extended its wings and then flapped them turning into a flash that moved through the air towards the horse who was frantically running towards the colosseum, running for dear life.

"Boooom!", the lioness descended from the sky and directly crushed the horse which instead of being regenerated, turned into a black stream that flew into the colosseum.

"Crack!", the tail of the manticore manifestation flashed and directly blasted a giant hole into the walls of the colosseum, the lioness clearly wanted to completely eliminate the horse so that she could destroy the colosseum.

"That’s enough you fucking bitch!", alongside Marcus’s angered shout, the snake exploded in brown and blue devil mana before it... split into two, one dark brown colored and one dark blue colored.

"Ancient Sea Battlefield, Dual Fallen Guardian!", following Marcus’s spell, the originally one-hundred-meter sized black water body that followed the snake, doubled in size.

"Earth Devil Beast Barrier!", the dark brown snake opened his mouth and devil mana poured into the ground surrounding the shadow colosseum creating a one-hundred-meter-tall rock wall that surrounded the colosseum.

"Water Devil Beast Barrier!", next a giant wave of black water encircled the rock wall, creating a moat but that was only the physical barrier, which was followed by a shadow mana dome that covered the air above the colosseum, at this point the lioness had retrieved the tail of the manticore’s manifestation.

Of course, those two spells while they could block some of the lioness’s attacks, they would crumble if she was allowed to attack continuously, so the now two snakes blurred into motion charging at the lioness who soared into the sky, followed by a two-hundred-meter large black water body with two fifty-meter large snakes in them.

"Boooom!", those three clashed the next second, resulting in a dark brown, dark blue and red-yellow energy explosion that engulfed everything in their vicinity.

"I see, so that’s why the living jungle hell felt lacking as well as why the shadow colosseum wasn’t overwhelmingly strong, they were meant to cover twice the size and be twice as strong as they actually are, there must have been "something" going wrong when you created them, right?", said Daimon with a smirk as he gazed at Marcus whose expression became unsightly.

’This masked bastard, he suddenly feels "different" out of nowhere, did he take another step into becoming a damn hero or what?’, wondered Marcus as he gritted his teeth.

Having his secrets seen through by the enemy was unpleasing after all, especially ones related to the trump card he spent so much time to obtain in order to defeat Adam for once and all, namely the grimoire.

To be honest, Daimon had already guessed that was the case, the living hell jungle covered the sacrifices of two of Marcus subordinates, but it only covered a one-hundred-meter area and the general without the assistance of the black flame horse was nothing in Daimon’s eyes.

As for the shadow colosseum, it was one of the top three hellscapes Marcus prepared to counter Adam and while the lioness was indeed strong, the colosseum couldn’t support her as it should have, otherwise she wouldn’t have been so easy to deal with.

The reason behind the previous is that the shadow of the devil tree parasite and the lioness betrayed Marcus, or more accurately they escaped from his control which messed up with the hellscapes he created with their sacrifices.

The jungle accounted for the two parasite devil trees that fought with Tessa, the mind burning hell and the golden mountain were respectively created from the enemies that faced Femi, the shadow colosseum while being a single proxy hellscape it came from the lioness who fought Dana and whose sacrifices were strong enough to create a dual guarded hellscape if she hadn’t betrayed Marcus.

As to why the same didn’t happen with the ancient sea battlefield hellscape, that’s because Rendon didn’t escape from Marcus’s grasp, as he is still alive though he sealed himself, which allowed him to finally exert the might of a hellscape that mixes the sacrifices of two subordinates.

"So, what if you know it, looks like that red energy can’t be used by you, no matter how strong that pawn gets if you who is the one connecting her with those damn energies die, then she’ll follow you to the grave!", shouted Marcus to which Daimon chuckled.

"Certainly, I can’t create an energy manifestation like her, but who told you that I can’t use the red energy", casually said Daimon as he closed his right hand forming at first with which he punched at Marcus who had a bad premonition.

"Thunder Roaring Lion Fist".

"Roaaar!", as if a lion roared to the sky, a deafening sound echoed through the vicinity as a twenty-meter sized lion head with its mouth opened, covered in bright yellow lightning advanced through the air towards Marcus.

"Boooom!", the devil ruler system user reacted by crossing the arms of the domain in front of him, since the attack took him by surprise, for a simple reason, that wasn’t an imitation, nor a result of stacking a bunch of energies and a physically forced martial art, it was a technique, which though still involved a martial art and said energies, not only had its casting time greatly reduced but it also had its resulting power increased.

"Ack!", the arms of the domain were blasted away and the main body was flung a few hundreds of meters into the distance, but more importantly Marcus felt as if a rock had hit him on the chest, the shockwave travelled through the many layers of mana and defenses, forcing a trace of blood to come out of his mouth!