Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System

’W-Why, in the memories of the material used to create me, Lord Ereth considered this ability to escape with the help of wind to move through space "annoying", so how did that woman catch me so easily!’, inwardly screamed the third.

Unfortunately, while he was free to think, his body was being restrained in every other sense, he couldn’t even circulate mana, the reason is simple, just like how the fourth was hit with the ultimate control technique Laila had as of current, by using the strongest cliché regarding that which she knew about.

The third was hit with the equivalent of that but when it came to restriction techniques, Laila used the "The villain is cornered, so he resorts to escape, disappearing without anyone being able to stop him", cliché as its base.

In said cliché, the villain has been bested by the hero in battle, so the only realistic way for him to escape is through space which leads to the classic scene of the villain "fading" or using some sort of device or magic to do a long-distance jump, which leaves the hero in the dust and thus allows the villain to escape.

That cliché is one of the most reasonable ones actually, because heroes are supposed to have high battle prowess, however space can’t be controlled with raw power and instead requires polished technique, to be fair even Daimon had trouble with that aspect a couple of times before he focused in developing a way to interrupt space escaping spells, after Agrak escaped from him to be more accurate, not without paying a huge price for it though.

From that moment onwards, the only enemy that has managed to escape from him was Gwen and her case was unique, because according to Eve she was the most dangerous ever enemy he had met so far, this included anything and anyone related to Neptune’s mission, as she was a rogue administrator who killed her host and escaped the restrictions of the system, but somehow had access to Dorian’s summoner capacities even after that.

So rather than escaping, she was "allowed" to leave as per Eve’s advice, it wasn’t the time yet for Daimon to face someone like that in all out life and death fight.

Anyway, back to Laila, she didn’t need to go that back to know of a good example of the previous, when Marcus was defeated by Daimon, what did he do, yeah, he ran away on the spot, and just like with other villain cliches that could be actually useful, he failed miserably at executing as him being ultimately caught and killed by Daimon suggested.

"Humph!", Sera whose ultimate attack technique was dodged earlier, appeared in front of the now restrained third, she softly snorted as she slashed her permanent swords at him, one aimed at his neck while the other aimed at his chest, she was decided to either cut the enemy’s head or pierce his heart, in other words she was going for the kill one way or the other.

"Third!", the second who actually abandoned his subordinates, flashed towards Sera and casted a spell as fast as he could.

"Black Fierce Seabed Rock Wall!".

"Crack!", the swords cut through the black rock wall and not only threw large pieces of debris at the third blasting parts of his arms and legs due to the impact, because under Laila’s restriction he couldn’t circulate mana in the slightest, so he was completely unguarded.

"Aghhhhhhh!", then the swords which had been deviated from their original trajectory, left a deep "x" shaped cutting mark on the third’s chest, that being said, he didn’t die at the end.

"White Piercing Step", since the second was now next to the third, Sera used her movement spell to put some distance, not without pointing one of her permanent swords at the half-dead third.

"White Judgement Sword!", the two swords that condensed in front of the third’s chest aiming to finish him like it should have happened earlier had it not been for the second’s interference, alongside the secondary attacks of the piercing step and the three sword condensations from casting said spell, all aimed at the third, forcing the second to hold onto his "brother" to then flash away as he dodged and blocked with his trident to the best of his capacities.

One had to give it to the second, even when he had no time to cast a movement spell, he was fast enough to dodge when his and the third’s lives depended on it.

On the other hand, Sera who with the enhanced piercing step, courtesy of the self-motivation boosting technique, moved fast enough to reach the normal subordinates before they finished replicated the second’s casting from earlier, interrupted them, which combined with the lack of the second to defend them, meant that they were screwed.

Especially so, because when Sera appeared in front of them, they tried to block her permanent swords with their tridents, only for them to be taken out of their hands and disappear into space the next second.

What happened is simple, Laila stole the third’s trident when she dragged his ass out of the space tunnel, because she knew it could come handy later and the opportunity presented itself just after the attempt to kill the third was frustrated by the second’s desperate measures.

Laila used the weapon desecrating technique to once again deprive the enemies of their tridents, and now, without their weapons, with two out of six being basically incapable of defending themselves and without a second in command to make up for the difference in power, Sera was like a fierce predator released in a pack of sheep.

"What, no!!!", with the first of her swords, the girl from the church beheaded the subordinate that had lost his lower body earlier, to then split the one who was missing his arm, in half.

"White Bursting Sword!", Sera then let go of the permanent swords which needed to be recharged and condensed a new white energy sword which tripled its size as she slashed it downwards at her right, releasing a wide half moon slash that instantly reached two of the remaining four subordinates who had turned to run the moment their wounded teammates were targeted by Sera.

"C-Captain Samuel, captain Gregor help aghhhh!!!", those two were engulfed by the huge half-moon slashing light released by Sera and were obliterated on the spot.

At the same time, a large pressure came from above as the first who had gotten away from the constant assaults of the fourth appeared, his eyes were full with anger as he glared at Sera.

"Black Fierce Sea Rampaging Tsunami!", the first directly pointed his hands at the girl from the church of light to gather darkness and water mana which was then turned into a huge wave with fierce currents that descended upon Sera, aiming to both drown her and get in her way in case she tried to finish the sole two remaining subordinates.

"Black Fierce Sea Rampaging Tsunami!", the fourth whose chest was moving up and down blocked with his own spell, he had already used up all the energy Laila had given him so no "devil" suffix was added to his spells anymore.

"Boooom!", both tsunamis collided and exploded, dispersing darkness and water mana in every direction, the fourth was sent flying backwards due to the clash but he was fine, the two subordinates weren’t that lucky the impact made them cough blood but they managed to escape from Sera since the second who was holding onto the gravely wounded third arrived to their position.

As for Sera, she of course had turned into a white energy stream and entered space to then appear next to Laila the next second.

"Two of them still escaped from me, but that guy was indeed cornered this time, right~", said the girl from the church of light to which Laila couldn’t help but softly laugh.

’Yes he was, I didn’t expect you to be able to use the double bursting sword and spatial movement technique combo so fast, that was amazing’, said the girl from the church of calamity, interestingly enough this recognition she gave to her friend didn’t produce a new permanent sword for Sera, instead of that, a white energy pendant was now hanging from her neck.

"This is...", though the light energy pendant that Sera was now observing up-close didn’t have the simple crystal feather shape that the one used by the hero she knew, Sera couldn’t help but be interested in the fact that the third and currently the limit of the "acknowledgment" technique was a pendant, so she now had the two most notorious pieces of equipment that Adam used to have, swords and a pendant.

It made sense though, since the concept of her energy was that of a hero but the way she thought it should be played, instead of the way she got to experience during so many years, the amusing part is that the pendant she received had a winged mask shape, as if combining the angel-related pendant of the light hero system, with the "Gabriel" alter-ego used by the Daimon who was notorious for the mask which was part of the hollow suit.

The technique’s manifestation was clearly influenced by Sera’s thinking, similar to how it happened with the cliché ones, it was Sera’s way of saying "This is how a real hero should be like".

Laila on the other hand had also obtained the second most notorious equipment used by Marcus, but in the way she thought it should be, earlier she did so with the black gloves which have evolved until they reached their limit and now allowed her to even control targets that had jumped into space.

Imagine Sera’s surprise when an arm sized black energy book which revealed itself to the world for the first time, appeared floating next to her friend, that was the "grimoire" Marcus had created to complement his ritual magic, but the way Laila thought it should be.

To begin with, it lacked that aggressive and over the top theme that Marcus seemed to like so much, as it didn’t have sharp black bones or spike toothed mouths and bloodshot eyes on its cover, it was a clean black book with an ancient and mysterious vibe instead, not too eye-catching but not too simple either, it was normal and due to that it wouldn’t be out of place regardless of where you placed it, which would make it perfect for a villain to leave it so that someone would "accidentally" find it and be manipulated by it.

In case you wonder when did that happen, it was not too long ago, just a moment previous to the last clash between the fourth and the first, the fourth believed that he had used up all the energy he was granted by Laila, but the truth is that... she deprived him of it.

She did so because the five minutes of perfect control over the fourth were soon to end and to complete the "A hero’s ally feels unappreciated and changes sides" cliché technique, because the power that the traitor in question gains after changing sides is usually temporal and comes with big side effects, by doing so she obtained a new technique which was perfect for what was coming next.

The fourth who had been flung away by the clash earlier and now landed on a piece of floating ground, next to those two, his eyes were confused for a second before his sclerae which had dyed black earlier returned to normal and he gained some clarity.

"What’s going on... bleghh!", the fourth who had returned to his senses, suddenly found himself next to the enemies, but when he tried to speak, veins bulged all over his body and he vomited blood.

"Fourth, you fucking bastard that’s what you deserve, because of you we lost four subordinates and third was almost killed!", shouted the second as he placed the third on the ground while the first applied emergency treatment to him.

As to why the first took a moment to tend to the third instead of facing those two, that’s because they clearly were focused in dealing with the fourth and the first... had decided to let the fourth die to gain a moment to catch up his breath, also if he didn’t tend to the third, it won’t be one second in command the one to die but two of them, so it was the "lesser of two evils" in his eyes.

’First you bastard, even now you put more importance to third than to me!’, inwardly thought the fourth who was unable to move or even speak.

Now, don’t feel bad for him, Laila herself won’t be the one to decide whether he lives or dies, she gave him the benefit of doubt as a reward for the "assistance" he provided to them by blocking the first and also informing them about the weakness of the third and the bad habits of the second.

"Aghhhh!", from the point of view of the enemies, the veins that had bulged all over the fourth’s body simply ruptured after that black energy book floating next to Laila opened and rustled through its pages, stopping at one in particular.

But Sera and the fourth himself, who could listen to Laila, knew that wasn’t the case.

’Demon Grimoire, Water Chapter First Page, Blood Judgement’, is what Laila said before the black energy book opened and started rustling through its numerous pages.

Amusingly enough, just like how there was a "Daimon element" on the white light energy pendant that had condensed for the currently highest level of Sera’s acknowledgement technique, the same applied to Laila, since the black book which she obtained was called "Demon Grimoire" instead of "Devil Grimoire" as it should have been, considering it was inspired in Marcus’s one.

’Now that you have recovered some memories from the material that was used to create you, both your free actions and those that were under that guy’s influence will be evaluated, if you are worthy then you can truly join our side, otherwise you’ll get what you deserve’, added Laila.

Invisible black threads then pierced the fourth’s head and many memories flashed through his eyes, but it didn’t last for even a second and Laila who could see till the last detail of said memories coldly snorted.

Let’s just say that the fourth’s material of origin was not a decent guy and his actions while under the influence of Ereth, carried zero regret or even any kind of questioning towards what he was ordered to do.

Don’t get it wrong, Ereth indeed placed safety locks in these guys so that they wouldn’t be able to disobey or betray him, but they had their own judgement of things, it was a need for what Ereth wanted them to be able to do, since mere slaves without reasoning would not be able to stall a system user.

So those times when the fourth was sent to kill some random stranded group of people for Ereth to use them in whatever way he needed it, maybe he wouldn’t have been able to disobey at the end of the day, but not only did he not care about it, but he even enjoyed doing so.

’Go die, scum’, and with those words, the veins that had bulged all over the fourth’s body pulsed a couple of times to then rupture making the fourth’s body deflate until he dried up as all the blood in his body flowed out of him and was then absorbed into a page of Laila’s demon grimoire which then closed marking the end of the technique she had used.

The body of the fourth cracked and then crumbled apart turning into dust which Sera erased with a stream of her light energy being shot at it.

’Fourth’s body, why did it dried up like that if she only took his blood... no way, did she steal his mana!’, inwardly exclaimed the second as he gave Laila a horrified gaze, his supposition was confirmed by the first the next second.

’She stripped away all of fourth’s mana, transformed it into that strange energy and sealed it into that book, in a similar way as to how she has "sewn" parts of his domain all over the place... but that energy didn’t feel related to neither of fourth’s affinities, not even the one from the material used to create him’, said the first in a voice that only the second and the third could hear.

He was right, but he wasn’t going to get an explanation about it, only Sera had that privilege, courtesy of her friend.

"So, no new ally?", jokingly said the girl from the church of light to which Laila chuckled.

’He was a piece of trash, but at least he contributed to the fight, not only directly, but his mana was turned into something much more useful for us’, she said.

"Mm, that felt a bit similar to the energy of that girl with wolf ears and tail", mumbled Sera.

The girl from the church of light had hit the nail, the demon grimoire had different "Chapters" each of which represented an element, as to what elements were included, well, it was those who had been manipulated by Laila one way or another, which means, darkness, water and earth from the enemies as well as light from Sera, so far.

And then there were "pages" which represented advanced versions or variations of the base element in question, unlike Marcus’s grimoire which was basically a storage and a shortcut to call out the results of his rituals, Laila’s demon grimoire was that and a refining technique at the same time as well.

In this case, she took all of the fourth’s water mana which was his dominant affinity both in his second in command state and when he was his original self as well, and transformed it into an advanced version of it with a ritual, which as the name "blood judgment" implies, resulted in blood energy being produced.

That’s why Sera thought the resulting energy felt somewhat similar to Arianna’s energy, because her energy is filled with vitality just like the refined energy result of the technique used on the fourth.

Also in case you hadn’t noticed, that had nothing to do with any villain cliché in the slightest, Laila judged the past and present actions of the fourth and once he was declared a piece of trash, he was directly killed, her technique even broke the rule that her energy has been keeping so far, which is that it has low attack power by itself and the reason for it is simple, she had surpassed the most restricted stage of her challenge and now her former "weaknesses" are starting to converge with her former strengths, to produce a much stronger Laila, in other words the demon grimoire for Laila combined both control and strong attack power, respectively.

And she is not the only one as Sera who took off the winged mask pendant to then pour a large amount of her light energy into it, before placing it on the guard of one of her permanent swords, the one floating at her right to be more accurate, suggested.

"White Brilliant Sword!", the previously vaguely detailed sword took a proper form now, it was a great sword with a winged shaped guard and a small mask at the center of it as well, not to mention that there were runes running through the center of the blade which spelled the word "Fairness".

But let’s leave aside the flashy appearance that one of Sera’s permanent energy swords had taken after the pendant was integrated into it, when compared to Laila’s demon grimoire, what really mattered is that when she lightly motioned it sidewards as she accommodated her wrist to properly wield it, a thin line... appeared on the third’s domain which was being maintained even as of current.

"Crack!", a third part of the black sand and clay domain of the third suddenly separated from the rest and then it crumbled apart.

"Blegh!", the third who was already not in a really good state after having received emergency treatment from the first, opened his eyes and directly vomited blood due to the backslash.

"First... agh!", the second who was about to tell the first to do something stopped midway as he felt a piercing pain assault him, the origin of it was that Sera had slashed her sword once again, but this time what was cut was a third part of the second’s domain which was separated from the rest and then crumbled, that’s why the second also suffered backslash.