Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System - Chapter 730 - 730: Showdown Devil VS Demon (part 2)

What Marcus didn’t know is that he wasn’t the only one surprised here, behind his mask Daimon couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the green energy wood shield that had blocked in front of him after having destroyed the cocoon earlier.

When he was trapped inside the cocoon, Daimon gathered silver energy which he was going to expand in in order to break the effect of the curse while also defend himself against the attacks that he knew Marcus was going to throw his way.

Since at the end of the day a curse belongs to the negative side of the energy spectrum, it was going to work for sure, but midway through the process, Daimon suddenly saw his silver energy turn bright green and the formless mass of it, changing to form a solid-looking wood shield construction.

The shield then expanded itself tearing through the red thread cocoon on the spot, to then block the black flame spear spell and ultimately turn into a small rain of green light particles that integrated into the ground around Daimon.

Despite Daimon not knowing why the previous happened, it’s not like he was completely in the dark.

‘This does for sure feel like Tessa’s energy and the effect of that shield is similar to her techniques as well, but if my senses aren’t failing me, she hasn’t regained consciousness yet, so how did this happen?’, wondered Daimon as he saw the small lively green shining piece of ground around him.

The living hell jungle couldn’t move through it no matter how much it tried, it wasn’t a barrier though, because the roots, trees and other plants could come after Daimon through air, they just couldn’t invade that piece of shining soil.

“Tsk, so you did receive some things from that damn Adam bastard”, said Marcus as he beckoned towards Daimon, making the living hell jungle charge at him, in his mind since Daimon isn’t radiating nature or wood related energy, this mustn’t be his doing, but the one of an external mean, a treasure of some sort.

“Living Hell Jungle, Devil Starved Roots!”, Daimon’s body exploded in silver energy as he saw strange gray lifeless roots emerge from the ground in all directions around him.

Unlike all the other trees and vegetation of the living hell jungle, these ones looked dead but that changed the next second, ironically when the withered roots entered in contact with Daimon’s silver energy which was supposed to burn them away.

“Hssss!”, the lifeless gray roots started releasing black smoke upon contact with Daimon’s silver energy as a sign that they are of negative nature, however at the same time they seemed to come to life given that they exponentially grew in size and thickness.

What’s more, like beasts that have been deprived of food, the roots became violent as they chased after Daimon who had jumped into the distance in order to dodge the spell.

“Vegetation from hell is vicious, the starved roots will even drink poison to quench their thirst, turn into their nutrients masked bastard!”, shouted Marcus as he manually controlled the roots to go after Daimon who radiated more silver energy, finally burning the roots that were the closest to him.

“Humph!”, however with a cold snort, Marcus made more of them follow right away, apparently, the reason as to why he didn’t give his hell darkness mana to those roots, is that they would simply eat it like they were doing with Daimon’s silver energy, though that was also killing them, it was quite a persistent plant that would feed on anything even if it meant dying.

It also didn’t help that Marcus was the absolute ruler of the living hell jungle, he could send the trees and other vegetation to their deaths and they would follow the given orders.

The moment Daimon who had put distance between the starved roots and himself, landed on the ground, he pointed his right palm frontwards as he proposed himself to concentrate a large amount of silver energy to throw it at the incoming gray withered roots.

Since he had already deciphered how to get rid of them, once they had eaten enough energy, they lost their capacity to resist against the silver energy and would instantly burn, of course Daimon also knew that this was what Marcus wanted, since he used them to tire him out, not like he cared since Daimon’s energy reserve are huge.

However, once again the result was different than what he expected, the silver energy gathering in front of him suddenly turned bright green colored and also took a solid construction form, it was a long bow this time though.

Intrigued by this phenomenon which was though obviously related to the Alfear princess, remained a mystery to Daimon, he grabbed the long bow and tensed the string making a bright green energy arrow appear on it.

“Crack!”, a loud snapping sound echoed through the vicinity as Daimon let go of the string, releasing the green energy arrow and while the long bow turned into bright green energy particles that once again integrated into the ground around where Daimon was standing, the arrow which was flying towards the gray withered roots, landed on the nearest one.

Then under Marcus’s eyes of disbelief, the gray withered roots changed to gain a lively green tone as they grew in size and thickness, however at the same time he lost control over them unlike before, also the roots stopped moving, it was as if they had turned into normal tree roots.

And that was probably the case considering how they weren’t being affected negatively by Daimon’s silver energy now.

‘That sole arrow contained way more “vitality” than what the silver energy I had gathered to counter the roots, had, and both the bow and the arrow didn’t even use a fifth part of the silver energy I had prepared for it, that was without a doubt nature energy and of a really high quality like the one of Tessa’, thought Daimon.

Using less energy to produce a much more efficient result is the description of a technique, however Daimon was sure he didn’t use one, he simply had the intention of launching a long-range focused attack and his silver energy suddenly turned into that long bow, which by the way could count as an attack.

“Booom!”, Marcus who in his anger made the living hell jungle attack the now normal roots, turning them into splinters and pieces of broken wood, gritted his teeth.

‘What the hell, he didn’t show any signs of having access to nature energy, but then as soon as I used the hell jungle page, he casually pulled this, this fucking bastard is messing with me!’, he shouted to his insides as his body exploded in black flames which then travelled down his legs into the ground.

“Fine, let’s see how long you can keep relying in whatever trinket Adam gave you when fighting the real deal, Living Hell Jungle, Damned Wood Army!!!”.

With Marcus’s call, certain trees within the living hell jungle lit up in black flames, uncomfortable cracking sounds like those produced by bones being broken, could be heard coming from those trees as… wood arms and legs started breaking out from the trunks of the trees.

The result was a dozen of humanoid figures covered in dark green bark as both skin and clothes, besides that it was worth mentioning that they had chains around their necks that connected them with the trees and their bodes were burning in black flames, there were both male and female shaped ones as well and each one of them radiated the aura of the peak of the Lord rank.

“Kill him”, the damned army as Marcus called them, turned towards Daimon, they lacked faces since apparently their eyes and mouths were the ones that could be seen in the trees from which they generated, but Daimon still felt their “gazes” on him.

Without Daimon noticing, his eyes shone in a bright green light and time seemed to stop for moment as a sequence of images flashed through his mind, it didn’t take him by surprise since it looked like a simpler process than when he used the memory orbs.

Nonetheless, what did interest him is that the images that he was seeing were from the point of view of trees, which though completely different in shape, Daimon could tell where the ones from which the damned wood army came from.

In said images, Daimon saw Marcus arranging some strange symbols around the trees while throwing different ingredients and potions here and there, to then tie ropes from the branches of the trees before he… hanged living people by their necks.

But that wasn’t all, the last step was Marcus using a black dagger to slit their throats which put an end to their signs of resistance, their blood then flowed out of their bodies and was absorbed by the symbols on the ground which resulted in the corpses being assimilated into the trees, which had now gained those many pairs of eyes and mouths with sharp razor teeth.

‘Are these the residual memories of the trees which Marcus used for his ritual, well, Tessa could communicate with the wood thorn knight, so perhaps this technique might come from her as well’, thought Daimon.

He genuinely didn’t do anything, besides feeling somewhat curious about the strange wood humanoids which Marcus had summoned, and then the previous process started by itself as if following his will.

Back to the real world, the moment the wood humanoids turned to see Daimon, they charged towards him leaving black flaming foot prints on the ground on their way.

“Clang!”, despite their outer layer looking like bark, the moment Daimon’s fists collided with theirs, the sound produced was more like that of metals clashing, also the wood humanoids were also somewhat resistant against positive oriented energy, because while Daimon’s silver energy suffocated the black flames covering their bodies upon contact, their bodies didn’t crumble apart right away.

On the other hand, it could also be because the trees to which they were connected were sustaining their existences through those chains, which is why Daimon tapped his right foot on the ground to then flash from his previous position.

“Swift Step”, having used a speed focused movement martial art, Daimon who was about to punch the chains in order to destroy them suddenly twisted his body to then flash away the next second using the silver energy to propel his body, dodging the tip of a couple of spears and arrows and metal net.

“Booom!”, the moment Daimon appeared again, he jumped to the side dodging a dozen of needles, flying knives and a bolt, which ended up destroying the area where he was standing earlier.

‘All those were magic treasure, only Lord ranked but still magic treasures despite the restrictions of the Blood Prison realm’, thought Daimon as he saw from where did they originate.

“Black Devil Weapon Trove”, Marcus had manifested a black treasure trove out of which the humanoid figures were pulling out magic weapons to replace the ones they had used earlier.

It’s worth mentioning that while the inventory is a function that probably all system users obtain, the properties are not the same, for example neither Adam nor Marcus’s inventories had the capacity to remain completely unrestrained by external interference, they had to brute force their way through restrictions in some cases, which needed them to put effort and could also damage the things they retrieved from there, not to mention the difference in storage space and the like.

So, unlike Daimon who besides using Rita’s ability to keep some things in his shadow for both emergencies and to hide the fact that he is a system user, doesn’t use other special storage means for specific situations, Marcus did.

“Crack!”, one could see cracks appear on the black treasure trove appear as the restrictions of the Blood Prison realm started affecting it, which made Marcus click his tongue, still the wood humanoids had brought out new weapons, so with a wave of his hand the thing disappeared, and a tattoo with the same shape appeared on Marcus’s left wrist to then disappear from sight the next second.

Armed with swords and spears, half of the humanoid figures charged towards Daimon, while the remaining half who had bows or crossbows pointed them at him from distance to then release a barrage of arrows and bolts.

“Shatter Step”, with a stomp of his right foot, Daimon deviated the incoming arrows and bolts, however the other six wood humanoids charged through the shockwave slashing their swords and spears towards him.

“Clang!”, with his palms covered in silver energy Daimon smacked the magic weapons away to then move to the side, which gave him open view of the chains that connected those guys to the trees.

‘Let’s see, whatever is happening, it responds to my wishes, so I want to cut those damn chains’, thought Daimon as he extended his right arm to then gather silver energy in front of him.

His little experiment was a success, the silver energy which he had gathered changed to become a bright green one which then condensed into a large serrated wood energy sword, with which Daimon slashed at the chains, easily cutting through them, all this under the disdainful gaze of Marcus.

‘Fool, those aren’t just mana chains, they are the manifestation of the ritual used to create the damned army, even if you cut them, so long as the trees remain, they will regrow’, he thought to then abruptly turn towards a few of the trees from which the chains originated.

“Crack!”, Marcus’s right eyebrow twitched as he saw the bark of the trees in question crack and shatter the next second.

“Screeee!”, below the bark the trees had a red flesh-like texture, having their protective layer destroyed even from distance, they started screaming from pain due to exposure to Daimon’s silver light.

But that’s not the most shocking part, but the fact that the chains which were tying the wood humanoids didn’t reappear, with a wave of silver energy pouring out of his body, Daimon completely suffocated the black flames burning on them and also burned away the dark green bark covering the humanoids, revealing three guys whose auras resembled the natives from the Elemental Sea and three girls from the Mermen Sea, who smiled at Daimon as their bodies turned to ashes.

“Boooom!”, the trees to which those wood humanoids were connected exploded the next second, turning into piles of broken flesh, bones and wood which then dissolved into a puddle of black goo.

“Swift Step”, Marcus however didn’t have the time to process how a painstaking ritual of his was destroyed with a single slash of a wood energy sword, because he saw Daimon flashing towards the remaining six wood humanoids which he had ordered to attack him from distance.

“Stop it you fucking masked bastard, Living Hell Jungle, Haunted Locust Tree General!”, with Marcus’s shout, the ground in front of the remaining wood humanoids cracked open and an imposing three meter tall fully armored wood figure, riding on a black flame horse emerged to block Daimon’s path.

That was one of the special trees from the living hell jungle like the mandragora from earlier, unlike the damned army which was created combining a ritual with a normal tree from the hell jungle, how does Daimon know that you ask, well the answer is simple, instead of radiating the aura of the Lord rank, this mounted fully armored guy was at the early stage of the Arch rank.

‘This should be the trump card of the hell jungle’, thought Daimon, the moment that guy appeared, the mana contained in the living hell jungle plummeted, the thing still maintained its existence but the picture on the black book looked way less detailed than before.

“Neeeeigh!”, anyway, back to the fight the moment Daimon approached to cut the chains of the remaining wood humanoids, the black flame horse which the fully armored general was riding, opened its mouth to breath a tsunami of black flames.

“Booooom!”, the sword which still remained in Daimon’s hands was slashed at the incoming attack, splitting not only the black flames but also the ground in its way, however before it reached the fully armored general, the guy extended his hand and grabbed one of the wood humanoids using it as a shield to block the slash, to then throw the now vertically split wood humanoid aside.

Since the chain wasn’t cut the wood humanoid slowly recovered itself, at the same time the black treasure trove from earlier made its appearance once again, for the fully armored general to take out a three meter heavy halberd, it looked imposing but it was still a Lord ranked magic weapon.

“Crack!”, the black treasure trove exploded as it had reached its limit, however Marcus didn’t seem to care as that only contained Lord ranked magic treasures which he used for his subordinates, so it wasn’t a big loss or anything like that.

What’s more, most of the energy of the living hell jungle was given to the fully armored general and now he couldn’t make the trees and plants mage big movements like before, so he stopped commanding from the back and jumped into the battlefield again.

“Black Devil Hell Step!”, black flames exploded around the legs of Marcus, the wood humanoids and even the black flame horse, as they all disappeared from plain view.

A silver light focused in Daimon’s eyes for a moment, he pointed his left hand upwards and silver energy which then changed its color to a bright green tone gathered to then form a giant wood energy shield that blocked Marcus who was descending to punch Daimon’s head.

“Booooom!”, the shield actually held out against Marcus’s fist, before it exploded making him retreat, however he had fulfilled his role in the previous charge.

Daimon who had fended off Marcus, then changed to extend his right arm and the silver energy this time changed to form a wood energy staff with which Daimon redirected the swords and spears of the wood humanoids that had charged at him from behind and both left and right sides.

“Crack!”, the slashes and stabs of the wood humanoids ended up landing on their companions, either cutting or piercing each other, however both the wood energy staff and the shield from earlier turned into green energy particles leaving him open for the fully armored general halberd which was coming from the front.

“Clang!”, however, the scene of Daimon being split in half diagonally that Marcus expected to see didn’t appear, instead of that, the masked silver haired youth had remained still as the halberd’s edge descended, just for the thing to be blocked by a brown-red energy chest armor that suddenly covered his upper body, resulting in sparks of the same color flying around.

“Neeeigh….”, since the attack of its master was blocked, the black flame horse opened its mouth to breath fire at the enemy at point blank, however before he could gather its black flames a fist which was clad in a brown-red energy gauntlet landed on the black flame horse’s face, making it fly a few meters to then fall to the ground.

The now dismounted fully armored general felt as if the enemy was mocking him, because the armor that covered Daimon’s chest and fist, disappeared the next second.

‘Well, looks like those two are inseparable even when it comes to things like this’, thought Daimon.