Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System

Chapter 583: Challenges Thea’s version (part 19)

Gwen slowly turned her head around to see the attacker, she reacted too slow in part because her focus was on the masked youth who was radiating a dangerous aura like it was nothing and also because… the one who appeared behind of her was someone she knew, one of her most trusted subordinates and the one who ran her secret lab.

Unfortunately, the voice that came from that familiar face wasn't the one she expected, still she knew to whom it belonged and it made sense considering that there was an arm coming out of her chest.

"Hi Gwen, it's been fifty thousand years, so I hope you can return what you "borrowed" from me", the black-haired woman then jumped backwards, retrieving her arm from Gwen's chest.

The white translucent snake that was coiled around the arm of the black-haired woman, started dying black.

Thalia's real appearance projected behind the woman from the Dark Spirit race, the now black phantom snake moved upwards from the arm of the woman and was absorbed by Thalia's projection.

"Aghhhh!", Gwen who hadn't shown to be visibly in pain even after getting a hole on her chest, screamed her lungs out, she covered herself with the remaining shield array, forcing Thalia who returned to the body she is possessing to distance herself and go back to Daimon's side.

By the time the scream ended, the bizarre scene of Gwen's body decaying at a visible rate was revealed, apparently whatever she took from Thalia is what was keeping the body she was occupying together so now that Thalia stole it back, her body became unstable.

Under the surprised eyes of Daimon and the others, Gwen's body withered, in a second she went from being in her thirties to her late fifties.

'Disgusting, she was actually recreating her own body using an artificial race as an incubator, don't drop your guard', mumbled Evangeline to Daimon in his mind.

And her warn came in handy, when followed by a crazed glare, a gray fluid energy accumulated on the hand she regrew earlier, forming a bead which she crushed the next second.

"You want to kill me, fine, let's go all to hell!".

Daimon's violet amethyst pupils contracted behind his mask, as he shouted.

"You three, defend!", the two queens and Celia, didn't know what was happening but their instincts screamed danger so they raised their barriers first, not even a second later, the whole area was covered in a dazzling ball of flames, followed by an earth-shattering explosion.

"Booom!", a blinding light engulfed everything in a thousand-kilometer radio, the space trembled and got torn up here and there.

The previous lasted around a whole thirty seconds, before the explosion ended and the light disappeared, revealing countless slightly shattered mana barriers floating on a giant crater that used to be the headquarters of the Snake Tyrant's army.

What happened is that Gwen actually made all her present subordinates do the same, the magic beasts included, why did such a crazy thing didn't blow up this whole planet when Stellar ranks were included you wonder.

Well, that was because the explosion was contained by a force of similar strength, which were all the magic beasts Daimon stole from Travis self-destroying themselves, the explosions consumed each other instead of the planet and that's how Draim was saved.

"Crazy, she actually planned to take Draim down with herself", exclaimed Celia, to which Daimon who gazed at the queens and Thalia who looked dejected due to the result of the battle, chuckled.

Unlike Celia, those three could tell that Gwen didn't die, but escaped, of course Daimon was the same, but for a different reason.

"I promised to help a certain someone, so of course we can't let her have the final say in this fight", said Daimon as he threw a small pebble to the air, while he snapped his fingers.

"Switch", following that word, the pebble disappeared, replaced by the still emaciated figure of Gwen, whose expression was filled with disbelief at the fact that she who had gotten out of the range of the explosion was forcefully teleported back.

Unfortunately, she couldn't even make a sound before her field of vision was filled with white flames, the shield array blocked in front of her but to her surprise the thing was easily cut through as if it didn't exist to begin with.

That being said the flames were consumed enough for her to see the real appearance of the object that was slashing her chest diagonally, a black one-edged sword.

"Aghhhhh!!!", a pained scream escaped from Gwen's mouth, she reacted on the spot, jumping backwards to get away from Disaster, but the sensation of dread didn't with that.

"Acid Chain".

"Dark Scale Seal"

A portal opened behind the escaping Gwen, Mirellia appeared at her right and used whatever battle aura she had left to cast a restraining martial art to prevent Gwen's body from moving, Thalia joined the fray using a spell to bind the left side of her body.

And the icing on the cake was Thea, who appeared in front of Gwen, her spear aiming at her face, the empress didn't even use a spell, she just injected as much mana as she could into her spear and thrusted as hard as she could.

"N….!", Gwen didn't have the time to scream, her head exploded into a thin red mist, at the same time, Mirellia and Thalia reached their limits, Mirellia had overdrawn her battle aura to cast that martial art, after creating a barrier earlier, as for Thalia that phantom snake she used pushed the body she was possessing to the limit.

Their martial art and spell, respectively, disappeared letting Gwen's lifeless body fall from the sky, the three panted with renewed happy expressions, at least until they heard Daimon saying.

"You can stop pretending, you value your life too much to go just like that".

"…", after a couple of seconds of silence in which, those three looked in every direction trying to find any trace of Gwen, just to end up defeated, a cold mocking voice gave them the answer they were looking for.

"So, you can even see me in this state, you are full of tricks", all the eyes fell on the origin of that voice.

Above in the sky, the translucent projection of a beautiful woman with gray and red hair, appeared, the space behind of her shattered as a portal started to take form.

Thea gritted her teeth, even after all that, she couldn't kill her enemy, it was frustrating enough to make her try to force more mana out of her magic core, at least until a comforting pat landed on her shoulder.

"Stop, in your current state, you three won't be able to harm her", said Daimon, he pointed his index finger at Gwen's projection, shooting a ray of white flames at her, which was blocked by the image of a young man.

Thalia's eyes saw red as she recognized the one who blocked Daimon's attack, the object of her hatred and one of the four users that participated in the war of foundation of Neptune, Dorian.

"Calm down, that guy is as dead as possible, in fact we could say he suffered a destiny worse than death, becoming resources for her, right?", said Daimon to Gwen who laughed with disdain.

"So, you knew it all along, damn annoying missions, forcing me to use such a valuable thing as an "extra life", whatever, you can win this time, I'll kill you…", Gwen's words were interrupted midway by Daimon.

"Didn't you know that villains die because they talk too much", Gwen who was relaxed since she could tell how worn out were the enemies in front of her, suddenly felt a sensation of crisis.

And for a good reason, Daimon's mana and battle aura reserves which were practically injected into the Comet Sword that was still covering Disaster in white flames, recovered to full before he once again put everything he had into Disaster.

The wild flames that got dimmer after burning the shield array with the help of Disaster destroying the runes and draining the lifeforce of the two bodyguards, turning them into perfectly flammable dried mummies, fiercely roared with new vigor.

"Comet Sword", Daimon who appeared in front of Dorian's projection slashed Disaster, but contrary to what one would expect… the thing didn't budge.

"Clang!!!", the sound of metals colliding and sparks flying all over the place was the result, what's more, for the first time, Disaster failed to cut through something which was energy-related, since the projection wasn't physical.

"Hahaha, my "Tyrant's Seal" isn't something you can destroy with just brute force, no matter how strong you are, you are just a lowly mortal!", Gwen who feigned not to have felt a chill running down her back a second ago, mocked Daimon.

'Don't listen to her, you should have noticed it by now, but she isn't someone you can kill right now and still you managed to defeat her, in fact even if those three were at their prime right now, that seal would be… Daimon?', Evangeline who felt angered by Gwen's words and wanted to cheer Daimon up, stopped midway feeling a sudden in Daimon's aura.

Time seemed to slow down as a huge curtain of darkness, appeared behind Daimon, all the presents witnessed how Draim's sky darkened on the spot, before a new source of light was born.

A purple menacing pair of star-like eyes, could be seen opening from within the curtain of darkness, disdain filled them as they glared at Dorian's projection, then Daimon slowly and elegantly slashed Disaster frontwards, visibly nothing happened and yet Gwen felt as if she was going crazy.

"Impossible!!!".

"Crack!".

Gwen's scream followed by the sound of crystal shattering, echoed through the sky as a thin line appeared on Dorian's projection, before a rift formed right in the middle of the projection.

"Ahhh, I don't care anymore, all of you turn into debris along with this damn planet!", the projection started to shatter at a fast rate, along with the space nearby it.

"Daimon, she is going to make the space in the whole area, collapse, we have to get away from this place!", exclaimed the empress, to which Daimon who was in a strangely calm state, shook his head as he pointed at the south, out of which a portal just opened.

"This is offensive from you, where do you think, you are escaping to without me, Gwen", the unexpected figure of Travis emerged from the portal, his body was glowing in a red menacing light, making him look like a red slaughtering star.

"Kid, I owe you one this time, also it's good to see you escaped", said Travis as he flashed towards the currently shattering image of Dorian, the first part was naturally directed to Daimon while the second part was surprisingly directed to Thalia who found a red pendant landing on her hands right now.

"Boooom!", the moment Travis reached the breach in Dorian's projection, he turned into a fierce tornado of red mist, he self-destroyed his body as well, just in time for Gwen to jump into the portal that finally finished forming.

"No, get away from me you psycho!", Gwen's hysterical screams could be heard coming from the portal, along with Travis's maniacal laugh, the portal turned red and then closed, at the same time the dark curtain behind of Daimon, was absorbed into his body and the sky returned to normal.

"Phew", Daimon let out a sigh of relief, he deactivated Core Synchrony, also the projection crumbled apart on the spot, the reason as to why Gwen was so desperate to escape is because that sole slash from Daimon actually destroyed the projection, it was just taking longer for the thing to disappear.

Which is why Daimon wasn't worried about Gwen's last threat, the thing was finished, Travis only accelerated the process, how did he know it, easy, he heard the sound of a notification and saw the message appearing in front of him.

[Ding]

[The mission "Stealing from the devil", has been updated <!>]

[Steal the legacy left to help the Devil Ruler 50% à 75% (0/1)]

In other words, he achieved something that made the progression percentage of the objective to advance and the only thing he could think off, was having destroyed Dorian's projection.

Also, he realized from Evangeline's words from earlier that… killing Gwen wasn't a part of the mission and as if to confirm his theory, from the now completely destroyed projection, two rays of light flew.

One landed on Daimon while the other reached Thea's spear, which surprisingly turned into black energy particles that entered the reverse of her right hand, turning into a black snake emblem, very much to the surprise of the empress.

As for Daimon, a second notification rang in his mind.

[Ding]

[The mission "Stealing from the devil", has been updated <!>]

[Steal the legacy left to help the Devil Ruler 75% à 100% (1/1)]

[…]

But that wasn't all, a new message from the system arrived.

[Congratulations to the host for killing the fallen codename: Tyrant Abyss Snake, a special reward will be awarded by the system]

[Ding]

[Congratulations on obtaining "Memory Orb" X1]

[A new skill has been created due to a specific action…]

Daimon who was in the mid of reading the notification, felt his head getting dizzy, so he stopped paying attention to that and instead gazed towards those three, making Thea's eyes sparkle as she got the "message".

"It's over", with those words, Daimon's eyes closed as he fell asleep, his body started to descend from the sky, or that would have been the case under normal circumstances.

The empress happily flashed towards Daimon to help him float so that he wouldn't fall from the sky, just to see a second person appearing at the other side of Daimon, just in time to also keep him floating.

Thea frowned as she saw the skinny black-haired woman who reacted at the same time as her, keeping Daimon up by his left arm, while she did the same but with his right one.

"What are you doing?", asked the empress.

"Giving him a hand, isn't that why he gazed at me before falling asleep?", said Thalia, making Thea's frown deepen.

'Damn it, she was actually floating next to me, so who was Daimon referring when he looked earlier', thought Thea before saying.

"For starters, who are you, your projection earlier looked a bit like me, but if you were that ancestor of mine who was imprisoned then you would look way older than me, right".

Thalia felt a vein popping on her neck at being considered old, by Thea, she might have lived more years than Thea, but mentality wise, she was younger, the empress was in her early twenties while Thalia was in late teenage years, around 18 at most, similar to Aisha or the crazy girl Sarah.

Unlike humans, most other races aged differently, years weren't the way they measured their lives but let's leave for another day, the Lamia queen saw sparks flying those two and she chuckled before clearing her throat to interrupt them.

"Ahem, we can leave the introductions for later, that woman and her headquarters might be gone for good, but the remnants of her subordinates as well as her beast's army are still here, we should retreat back to Melliun to safely recover", said Mirellia.

They were basically out of energy right now, it would be dangerous if they were ambushed in a weakened state, also she wanted to confirm that her daughters were okay, she knew they were alive and that their lives weren't in danger, but as a mother she wanted to see it first hand, after that explosion from earlier.

And then, before those two could react, Mirellia "snatched" Daimon away from them, before flashing downwards.

"Hey!", the empress and Thalia got energy out of who knows where and followed the Lamia queen right away, Celia did the same but from a respectful distance.

…

Ignoring what was happening in the real world, Daimon found himself in a vast dark space.

"Eve, can you hear me?", said Daimon out loud.

"Mm, this is just a short dream for you to rest… speaking of which what happened earlier, I have never seen you doing something like that before, Overlord didn't level up but that was completely different?", mumbled Evangeline.

Daimon softly smiled, he could hear the worry behind Evangeline's voice, it would be a lie to say he wasn't surprised by what happened when he couldn't cut through Dorian's projection.

"It was something I came with instinctively, I felt a similar but contrary sensation as when I fought with Aleah, it reminded me of how I felt when I faced that manticore, I simply wanted to utterly crush it and then that happened", he said.

'And here I was worried that his body would turn into mush for using a power you shouldn't possess at this point, but he is completely alright, I guess I should expect that from my host~', thought Evangeline before saying.

"The next time you feel like that, tell me… please", and with that the caring Eve was gone and she returned to her usual playful self.

"Leaving that aside, I think you should wake up already, you have a lot to explain to those two~", after saying that, Evangeline ended the dream and Daimon returned to reality.

He found himself in a comfortable and spacious bed, he easily recognized the roof as the one from the room at the castle of the Lamia queen which was given to him and Thea, it's worth mentioning that though he opened his eyes, he was still wearing the mask of the Hollow Suit.

Only himself or his soulmates could remove the mask unless given permission by him, and though he wouldn't have minded giving permission to Thea and the others, he simply forgot about it, he never found himself in a situation that required others to rake off his mask after all.

In fact, it has been years since he exhausted himself to the point of needing immediate rest, since the early days when Aura became a drill instructor from hell during training, at least.

Anyway, he would have continue resting, if not for the tense atmosphere that reigned in the room, Daimon observed the two participants of the "staring contest" ongoing, Thea and Thalia who was in her projection form, that being said she looked way better than before, if one didn't have good eyes, it would be hard to distinguish her from a normal person with a physical body.

"It's my turn to give Daimon a recovery potion", firmly said Thea as she took out a blue liqueur bottle out of her storage ring.

"That's alcohol not a potion… besides you did it earlier, it's my turn now", retorted Thalia as she showed her potion which was indeed a medicine.

"Humph, this was created using a special water which Daimon gifted me, so it doesn't matter if it is a drink, there won't be any side effects!", exclaimed Thea with a strange pride in her voice.

"So, what, I made this potion myself, the materials weren't of the best quality, but the refining method is superior to the ones used in Draim or Neptune, the effect would be far more beneficial for him", said Thalia, defending her potion.

"Sigh, if you two keep arguing, I'll just give him one from the royal treasury like yesterday", added a third voice, which belonged to the Lamia queen.

"No!", those two finally agreed on something, blocking the way of the Lamia queen who was about to pull a fast one on them, giving Daimon a potion in a snake-shaped bottle.

'How long was I out…', wondered Daimon, from the corner of his eye, he could see the two Lamia princesses, spying on what was happening from the slightly opened door of the room.

'The rest of yesterday, these three kept checking on you even at night, unfortunately they couldn't take your clothes off to "clean" you, but besides that, they took turns to tend to you~', Evangeline's merry laugh filled Daimon's ears for a whole five seconds.

"Ahem, thanks for looking for me, I'll go take a bath", Daimon suddenly got up the bed, before those three could say anything, he used blink and disappeared from the bedroom.