Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System

Seeing the despair in the eyes of the snake as he landed on the right pan of the bone scale, Rendon didn’t forget to say.

“Don’t bother to try and beg, the curse of “Betrayal Retribution” gives its caster the power to read the cursed one’s inner thoughts, so I perfectly know how much you are cursing me… not like you can even speak unless I allow you to, though”.

Obviously, someone like the snake who sold his native magic beast fellow to the Lords in order to preserve his life, would do anything to survive, so the only reason as to why there wasn’t even a peep coming from his mouth, is because Rendon had sealed his capacity to speak.

“From the very beginning we both knew we couldn’t trust each other, but since you and that bastard Marcus were so thorough in planning how to screw me over… die with as most regrets as possible!”, exclaimed Rendon to then give the command so that the altar spell would proceed with the necessary process.

“Debt Settlement Sacrifice”, with those words, the eyes of the snake opened up like plates, judging by how much did his mouth open, it was easy to know that it was suffering excruciating pain, despite not being able to let out a single sound, that probably made the whole experience even more traumatizing which is what Rendon wanted judging by the savage look in his eyes.

Next, the snake’s body started to dissipate, quite slowly by the way, but the snake didn’t die until his head was gone, leaving behind only a black-brown yellow energy core floating above the left pan of the bone scale, the scales which until this point were at similar heights, moved so that the left pan was placed lower than the right one as if it “weighted” more.

The dried-up bandaged figure at the front of the altar, in other words the “devil mediator”, opened his mouth and then black mist as well as vitality in the form of a red strand was forced out of the energy core to then be devoured, until its color turned light brown instead, and now the right pan where Rendon was standing lowered too much, it was then that the bandaged dried-up figure looked into his robes to then take out a small grey “bead”, which he threw towards the left pan of the bone scale, which equilibrated things.

‘That’s an energy core’, thought Lyn who observed with interest how the scale’s sides contracted so that the pans ended up positioned one above the other, the grey and brown energy cores then entered Rendon’s “body” which was a projection made out of mana.

The three cores started rotating inside of the body, producing a dark blue, grey and brown cocoon which blocked outsiders from seeing what was happening inside of it, it only lasted a couple of seconds though.

“It sure feels nice to “breath” again”, said a voice coming from the cocoon which dispersed into thin air the next second, revealing a tall man with a decent athletic build as well as dark blue hair and grey-blue eyes, at the same time the altar alongside the “Devil Mediator” disappeared meaning that the process was over.

“You surely look quite different from when you were a member of the Black Marlin race, not only that, the way you conduct yourself is quite different as well”, casually said Lyn, to which Rendon coldly snorted in response.

“Save your usual rambling, it won’t work on me…”, just as Rendon was speaking, he was interrupted by Lyn adding.

“You were also scum back then, but not the type to purposedly make your enemy suffer without any reason, not because you had any sort of code, but because you were afraid of a cornered enemy’s last attack, so your personality got messed up due to awakening nether”.

“I originally thought it was Violence but that grey colored nether it should be Pride… no it’s on the lighter side so it has to be a subdivision of it, “Selfishness” perhaps”, said Lyn as she saw the grey-blue color that Rendon eyes had gained.

“Crack!”, the conversation however had to stop here for a second, because the barrier reached its limit and started crumbling apart, and while Lyn had many questions to ask, she was curious about the power Rendon had obtained, since he absorbed an earth affinity core, but she couldn’t feel any earth related energy firm coming from the enemy.

“Hssssss!”, the moment Rendon was out of the barrier, the ground and the air itself around him started sizzling as the temperature dropped like crazy before ice started forming with him as the center, the domain of the snake had disappeared when he died, so of course it had to be replaced.

That being said, neither mana nor nether poured out of Rendon’s body so this was the effect of his manifestation phenomenon instead.

“Affecting the world just by gathering it, means that your affinity and control over the element had advanced to the limit of the Lord rank, your ice affinity has reached a base similar level to that of Dian or Pheli, not bad”, said the alabaster dolphin princess.

Rendon’s answer was his body disappearing from where he was standing to then appear a couple of meters in front of Lyn.

“Immutable black ice, freezing step”, the name of the spell came after Rendon had used it, as for his attack, he went with a simple punch with his fist which was cladded in dark blue ice mana.

“Clang!”, naturally, Lyn answered with a punch of her own, without using a technique as well, the result was sparks and the sound of metals colliding, while Lyn’s fist produced a sky-blue shockwave, Rendon’s fist frost upon contact with Lyn’s attack, being covered in black ice.

“Booom!”, the ice layer covering Rendon’s fist as well as Lyn’s shockwave exploded the next second, making both fall back due to the impact, while the result looked similar as to how the snake managed to stand up to Lyn at the start, the situation is different, because Rendon is not using powers of the Arch rank, nor the two energies he possesses, only his ice affinity and ice mana.

‘I guess it’s not called “Immutable black ice for nothing”, it ultimately shattered but it blocked my shockwave, still there is something about it that I can’t pinpoint as of current, what am I missing…’, thought the alabaster dolphin princess as she opened and closed her hand a couple of times to then charge at Rendon.

“True Explosive Echo Fist”, midway though her charge, Lyn pointed her right fist at the enemy and a large blue shockwave was shot at Rendon who answered by punching at the incoming shockwave.

“Immutable Black Ice, Frostbite Fist!”, he also shot a mass of energy with his punch, it was ice mana instead of energy unlike Lyn, and the result was also different, cold mist and black ice crystals appeared wherever Rendon’s attack passed, until his attack clashed head on against Lyn’s.

“Hssssss!”, a layer of black ice actually covered the whole giant shockwave released by Lyn’s technique, though it lasted for less than a second before the ice exploded.

“Booooom!”, however with that, Lyn’s technique ended, sending broken pieces of black ice all over the area.

“First, Claire put all her focus in imitating me, and now you went to such length to create a fighting style to counter mine, I didn’t know I was this popular with enemies”, casually said the alabaster dolphin princess as she analyzed what happened a second ago.

Rendon’s attack consisted in a mass of ice mana that exploded and expanded upon contact with strong external interference, to then encompass it with ice in order to freeze any energy carried by them, it was a spell thoroughly thought to counter Lyn’s shockwaves.

“Not that I blame you at all since the other option was Pheli and you thought I would be an “easier” target”, added Lyn as she casually grabbed the piece of black ice that was flying towards her face to then crush it with her hands.

“Immutable Black Ice, Freezing Step”, that last sentence from the alabaster dolphin princess obviously hit a sore spot, however Rendon was actually good a controlling himself, which by the way entered in conflict with the understanding Lyn had of him, and that’s a lot to say, because like previously stated Lyn is always analyzing what’s around her, so there is no way she didn’t do the same for Rendon during the time they were “on the same side”.

‘Nether does have the capacity to affect its user’s mentality negatively, however this change in personality can’t be caused just by that…’, thought Lyn to then return to the real world when she felt danger approaching her, just as Rendon reappeared on the battlefield.

“Immutable Black Ice, Frostbite Piercing Palm!”, if the previous spell used by Rendon was meant to block and counter Lyn’s shockwaves, this one was meant to… break through her defenses.

Rendon who appeared next to Lyn thrusted his palm which was covered in black ice at the alabaster dolphin princess only to stop at around sixty-five centimeters away from reaching her.

“Hisssss!”, the ice mana gathered in Rendon’s palm was released on the spot and expanded to engulf Lyn freezing the “invisible defensive field” that always surrounded the alabaster dolphin princess, that effect of the spell was represented by the words “Frostbite” and “Palm” and now it was time for the “Piercing” part.

“Crack!”, spikes grew all over the frozen block in which Lyn was trapped, but it also exploded at the same time, since of course the alabaster dolphin princess didn’t just wait for the spell to do its job.

“Boooom!”, a sudden explosion made Rendon flash away to avoid getting caught in the shockwave, once the explosion subsided, a Lyn who was also standing a few meters away from her original spot was revealed.

There was another difference when compared to before as well, the corner of her right sleeve was destroyed, in other words the spell used by Rendon was… effective.

“These clothes were a gift you know”, said the alabaster dolphin princess, her original clothes were slightly worn out so Daimon gave her some new ones, and in case you wonder why does Daimon have women’s clothes that fit Lyn in his inventory, well, she has a similar figure to Liz.

“Don’t worry the rest of your body will soon match that sleeve’s style”, said Rendon which made Lyn laugh, making the enemy frown, Lyn often shows disdain and her words are as destructive as her fists, not to mention that she has the strange habit of pursuing her curiosity to the end, but she never takes her enemies lightly.

“I guess having to spend so much time in this place ended up being a good thing, I have been able to learn about a lot of interesting things lately, for example I remember a certain nearly destroyed record from the ancient noble families that appeared and disappeared during the war of foundation of our kingdom…”, Lyn’s words were interrupted by Rendon appearing next to her with both of his palms aiming at her.

“Immutable Black Ice, Frostbite Piercing Wave!”, this time the amount of mana imbued in the attack was way bigger, also it didn’t aim at Lyn in specific but raised up to engulf everything in the vicinity, this was meant to prevent her from dodging the following up spike creation after her defense was neutralized like she did before.

“Resonation Armor”, with a couple of words a blue energy sphere expanded with Lyn as the center clashing with the incoming tsunami of ice mana, of course Lyn’s energy was frozen and then the ice mana aimed to pierce through it but the sphere pulsed and the frozen layer was destroyed and replaced on the spot.

‘This bitch, since when did she learn a defensive technique!’, inwardly screamed Rendon, a doubt that was solved by Lyn the next second.

“I’m a participant of this challenge, my Alabaster Horned Dolphin family has basically no defense type spells nor martial arts, but our sister race does, so I decided to give it a try”, she said to then add.

“And speaking of really obscure subjects, there was an ancient family who alongside mine worked together with Pheli’s, but had its records erased from the records… or more accurately almost all its records, except the ones secretly kept by their eternal enemies, us from the alabaster horned dolphin family, the traitorous shield who were degraded to servants after their nasty deals were revealed to the world “Grey Icelock Turtle race”, with each word spoke by Lyn, a new ripple was projected on the blue energy sphere that was protecting her.

So, a new layer replaced the frozen one, she was literally using her words to defend herself, well it was more complex than that, she was replicating the “rhythm” of the ice with her own voice to block the spell, a technique that obviously doesn’t belong to her race but to the one from which Mellie and Annette descend.

“Impossible!!!”, exclaimed Rendon, not at the technique used by Lyn, but at the words that came out of her mouth.

“My mother would beat up anyone who tried to act like a “muscle head”, so reading at least ten records a day was an essential skill for anyone in my family who wanted to keep living, but it was also your fault, you went and used a spell modeled after one of the signature royal skills of the Grey Icelock Turtle family, “Turtle Breathing Seal Jade” which is why that snake was missing the really important information about me in your memories, you hand picked what to give him and what to keep for yourself, while sealing your everything in that ice sphere”.

Earlier when Lyn was fighting the snake, she realized that the enemy lacked key information about her that Rendon should have been aware off, while he did have some basic knowledge of her fighting style, meaning that Rendon was indeed devoured or at least a part of him was.

He wasn’t devoured, but simply feigned to die and threw some of his memories and mana as bait, while he sealed himself in that sphere, that was the first hint Lyn got, but of course she needed further confirmation which came when she saw her defense being overcame in such a way.

“There was an interesting phrase at the end the nearly destroyed records which mentioned “A grey turtle’s “bite” is stronger than what the dolphin might think”, despite those guys being erased from existence, one of my ancestors decided to leave a warning about it since they were such a pain to deal with, so it’s not weird that I know about it, the real question here is… why the hell do you know this information and where did you learn those spells?”, said Lyn in a rare for her, dead serious voice.

“Pride Permafrost Breaking Spear!”, Rendon directly extended his right arm and grey nether gathered on it, freezing the air while forming a grey ice spear with which he charged at Lyn who had just finished blocking his previous spell.

Though Lyn had brought out a new technique, he wasn’t doing it bad against her just with his mana, and yet he now mixed his nether into his spell.

“Clang!”, Rendon’s spear clashed against the resonating armor of Lyn, freezing a layer of it to then pierce through on the spot, however he was met with fierce resistance as the alabaster dolphin princess continued speaking.

“It couldn’t have been Dian, not because his family lacks antiquity to know about this subject, he also hates me for always getting in between Pheli and himself, but he doesn’t have what it takes to turn a loser like you into a relatively decent fighter”.

“Pride Permafrost Freezing Prison!”, seeing the spear not going through Lyn’s defensive technique as fast as he wanted it to, Rendon directly discarded it and instead exploded in black mana and grey nether creating a cold wave which actually froze everything within two hundred meters around him.

Unfortunately, as if a nightmare had fallen upon him, Lyn’s voice came from within the giant block of ice which he had created himself.

“Given that you have awakened nether, the Lords would be the obvious option, but they wouldn’t have taught a guy like you about how to awaken nether by yourself, but would have instead instilled it into you, so it wouldn’t have been Pride, but Violence, Lust or Death instead, also while Claire is trash, she is actually talented, it’s just that she made the stupid mistake of trying to compete against Pheli and myself, so it’s not that strange to awaken nether with some instructions from those guys”.

“Domain!”, Rendon’s answer however was he directly summoning his domain as if his ass was on fire, note that he was actually doing rather well against Lyn, even if she blocked his spell like that, that didn’t mean that he was being overwhelmed like it happened to the snake.

So, he wasn’t using his Domain out of desperation or urgency, it looked as if he simply wanted to… keep Lyn from speaking about the subject in question, or more accurately as if he didn’t want to give her time to analyze it, fearing the answer she might reach.

“Permafrost Hell!!!”, with a loud shout, black and grey ice started covering everything in the vicinity, not only the ground, it even started snowing so unlike with the snake, even the sky was affected.

“Crack!”, a loud shattering sound echoed through the sky as Lyn emerged from within the giant block of ice which was buried by a thick layer of snow a second ago, and now “clinking” sounds could be heard as the snow solidified upon landing on her, each drop of it was actually an attack as the multiple frozen layers that appeared on the resonating armor in a single go, suggested.

“Your absence at the last battle means that you disobeyed Dian’s orders, so you are not afraid of the wrath of a family with a Throne behind of them, therefore whoever helped you has more power than a whole royal clan and it’s informed of things that even within my family, the guardians of knowledge of our kingdom, probably only my mother and myself know about and not in such detail”.

“As I thought, you are going to have to answer some really important questions one way or another”, she said.

“Damn it, go to hell already, Pride Permafrost Crushing Hell Spike!”, Rendon who had flown high into the sky raised his hands and a huge amount of mana and nether gathered to form a two-hundred-meter large ice spike which then descended upon Lyn.

“Sky Shattering Step”, with a light tap of her right foot, the alabaster dolphin princess flashed continuously upwards, until she was floating a few dozens of meters in front of Rendon who moved his hand to change the direction of the giant ice spike.

“It seems that you are afraid of being interrogated about it, at least more than the fear you used to have when you saw me or Pheli, not to mention that you have been getting ahead of yourself a lot since the appearance of that nether, looks like I’ll have to fix that first”.

“True Earth Shattering Seal”, alongside calling out her technique, the alabaster dolphin princess snapped her fingers and the world appeared to have lost its color for a second.

“Crack!”, what followed was the giant ice spike exploding, followed by a giant hole appearing right at the center of Rendon’s domain, only then did the shockwave came.

“Booooom!”, a spherical explosion extended with Lyn as the epicenter pushing not only the ground below her, inwards but even the clouds above were dispersed as if an invisible pillar had descended from the sky.