Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System-Chapter 724: Challenges, Badr’s version (part 4)

"Crack!", the loud shattering sound produced by Badr’s fist breaking a small hole through the barrier of the altar spell, drew the attention of the spear wielding nethereal who was in the middle of consolidating their new powers.

"What!", you could imagine the surprise in the eyes of the spear wielding nethereal, he was told that the defensive barrier of the altar spell was infallible by Marcus and he had no reason to doubt it, considering the kind of powers that the devil ruler system user had shown to have.

"Hsssssss!", Dan was somewhat relieved to see that the enemy’s fist which had broken through the barrier started being engulfed in black flames which were composed of devil mana.

’As expected of that guy, even if the barrier can be damaged there is a strong penalty for even trying’, thought the spear wielding nethereal, however the next second he saw Badr’s fist which was engulfed in black flames, explode in dark blood red nether.

"You hypocrite bastards consider banding together to fight against a single enemy breaking a warrior’s code, but go around killing innocent non-combatants!!!", for a change Badr’s attitude matched with his scary appearance.

With that explosion of nether he blasted away the black flames that were burning his hand, revealing the horrible burning marks left behind which started healing but at the same time since he didn’t retrieve his hand and prevented the barrier from recovering, his flesh was assaulted by the black flames again.

One would believe that Badr would step back since that was the case, but no, he instead forcefully shoved his left hand into the small crack he had opened in the barrier and then... ripped the thing apart.

"Booooom!", the whole frontal face of the barrier crumbled apart and at the same time Badr’s whole body was engulfed in black flames which lasted only for a couple of seconds before a pilar of dark blood red nether blasted them away.

Badr whose body was now recovering from burning wounds, glared at the spear wielding nethereal who had an expression of disbelief, even when being on the same side as those black flames he felt afraid of them and yet Badr jumped into them willingly, just to break into the barrier.

Not to mention that he was once again engulfed in black flames as he walked towards the altar.

"You fucking crazy bastard!", shouted the spear wielding nethereal, the enhancement of the altar just ended so he who was commanding the new "battle avatar" which combined the powers of the two of them, tried to use a martial art to keep Badr away from him.

"This much is nothing compared to what they endured at the hands of cowards like you!", shouted the tall scarred nethereal as he charged at the giant battle avatar, clashing against it the next second.

"Boooom!", as if Badr himself had turned into a projectile, his body exploded in dark red nether upon contact to then drag the giant battle avatar through the leftover barrier alongside him, finally destroying it, which put an end to the black flames that tried to consume his body.

"Get the hell away from me!", seeing Badr whose body had literally missing chunks of flesh due to the black flames while it was recovering and burning in dark blood red nether, up-close, the spear wielding nethereal felt a shiver run down his spine, the enemy had endured all that while destroying the barrier and he didn’t stop the charge, it was making him feel uncomfortable.

"Clang!", however, the giant fist of the combined battle avatar with which Dan tried to punch Badr in order to put distance between them, was stopped by Badr’s bare fist head on.

"Booooom!", after a couple of seconds of stalemate, an explosion of dark grey and dark brown nether colliding against dark red nether, went off, blasting everything in the vicinity while also sending both those two and Badr flying in opposite directions.

"Lyle, wake the hell up already, that bastard has gone mad, we have to properly control this damn thing if we want to win!", shouted the spear wielding nethereal to the hammer wielding one.

Lyle’s life was saved due to the altar spell, since those two are affected by the spell of the other, when Dan activated the spell, he who was at the verge of dying got emergency aid, then when they were enveloped in the combination of their battle avatars, his body started healing.

Of course, it took some time for the hole in his chest which Badr had left, to close up, so he was still out cold, until now.

"Damn it, what happened, the last I remember is that... right, that guy can use Overwhelm", said the hammer wielding nethereal as he got up within the combined battle avatar.

"I know, he somehow has blood from the Zallios family, but he keeps talking about that time when our family got justification to split and become two independent families", said the spear wielding nethereal which made Lyle frown.

"What the hell does that have to do with anything, we only killed the natives of the Saternia planet...", the hammer wielding nethereal suddenly stopped speaking, his father wasn’t informed of what the main combat unit did, they were told that the battle of that day was meant to restore the honor of the Violence faction, the Balax family was at the center of the operation and there was a half-blood in front of them, so it wasn’t that hard to piece things together now that he had all the parts.

"Someone from Zallios must have gotten involved with a native of Saternia and that’s both how that guy was born and why the planet was destroyed... this guy is the battle slave brought by the young master of the Beliel family!", exclaimed the hammer wielding nethereal.

"What, but that meat shield guy had six arms and there was no nether whatsoever in his body, we all ran into him a few times", retorted the spear wielding nethereal.

"What "natives" of Saternia, my mother belonged to the proud Six-Armed Sentry race!", Badr who got pissed off at the fact that those two referred to his mother’s race as if they were some sort of subhuman savages, exploded in dark red nether which raised high into the sky dispersing the black clouds above them to then flash from his previous position.

"B-Blood Steel Devil Mountain Hammer!", the spear wielding nethereal instantly extended the right arm of the combined battle avatar casting a weapon type martial art, which resulted in a rock and steel Warhammer appearing on his hand just in time for Badr’s fist to reach him.

"Booooom!", the bare fist landed in the center of the hammer’s head, forcefully pushing back the combined battle avatar a hundred meters before Lyle woke up from his stupor.

"Bone Crushing Devil Spear!", with a loud shout a rock and steel giant spear appeared for the combined battle avatar to wield with its left hand, in case you haven’t noticed it, it was Dan the one who created the hammer and Lyle the one who created the spear.

This is possible because their families originally were one, they took pride in having grown enough to separate and specialize in their respective specific fighting styles using different weapons, so in exchange for basically admitting that they were too weak to fight separately they got to combine their powers with the help of Marcus and devil mana, so now they could use martial arts of the element and fighting style of the other.

"Ah damn it!", Dan who was doing his best to block Badr was overwhelmed by the strength behind his punch, which made the right side of the battle avatar nearly lost its balance as the hammer was forced away.

Luckily, Lyle who was controlling the left side of the combined battle avatar joined in by slashing the giant spear at Badr.

"Clang!", the tall scarred nethereal answered with a punch from his right hand which was free until a second ago, stopping the blade of the giant spear on the spot.

’What the hell, how did he get this damn strong, he is not using any techniques or anything!’, inwardly cursed Lyle as he found himself unable to gain even a centimeter of advantage over Badr.

"Go to hell already!", Dan who had recovered his balance smacked the giant hammer towards Badr who instead of dodging extended his left hand and while still holding on against the giant spear, punched the incoming hammer.

"Booooom!", the collision between the fist and the giant hammer caused an explosion which engulfed both the combined battle avatar and Badr, the shockwave razed everything in the vicinity to the ground before two objects of obviously different size were sent flying in opposite directions.

The combined battle avatar heavily landed on the ground making a couple of rolls before those two could regain control over it.

"He must have taken damage from that right?", said Dan as he looked at the now destroyed hammer and spears which were crumbling apart in the hands of the combined battle avatar, they had exploded the nether contained in their martial arts to cause the previous explosion, mainly because they had no time to cast a real attack type martial art, because the pressure coming from the enemy’s fists suddenly skyrocketed, had they been a second slower, their weapons would have been forced to fly out of the battle avatar’s hands, or they would have been outright destroyed anyway.

"Our nethers strongly react to the other, when being used for an attack the result is not as simple as a one plus one effect, even our battle avatar took damage despite it being made of the same nether", said the hammer wielding nethereal as he saw the thin cracks that had appeared on the surface of the combined battle avatar which he fixed by injecting nether into them.

"Booooom!", a pile of debris which laid a few hundreds of meters away from the area where the explosion of earlier took place, suddenly exploded as Badr whose upper body was now in plain view because his shirt was destroyed in the explosion, came out of it.

All the wounds on his body closed the next second as he completely recovered, with the exception of the multiple scars that were all over his chest and back, out of which there was one that was especially eye-catching since it was burning in dark blood red nether.

"Perhaps because I was too young, or maybe because the hellish countless years I spent in the war slave camp after that, but I don’t remember all the details of the ones that participated in the destruction of Saternia, which is why I allowed for a scar per each of the coat of arms I saw back then to remain, now I know that one of the families I have to exterminate is the Classya-Nolaas family", said Badr as the scar in question disappeared.

"Crack!", the ground below Badr cracked on the spot, as he slowly rose into the air, his body was cladded in dark blood red nether which was giving the energy firm of the Arch rank.

Now, it’s not like those two wanted to leave him calmly power up, they didn’t attack Badr because they had to gather battle aura to cast the weapon martial arts once again, with the spear and the hammer in hand like before they now charged towards Badr, but they have learned their lesson, as in they knew that without attack type martial arts, they might be able to wound him, but not to the extent they need.

The combined battle avatar flashed from his previous position appearing above Badr to then wield both of its weapons towards him, accompanied by the martial arts of those two.

"Blood Steel Devil Piercing Thrust!".

"Bone Crushing Devil Breaking Impact!".

As for Badr, he surprisingly didn’t extend his two arms like before, but simply the right one, which dyed dark blood red the next second before it started burning in nether of the same color.

A giant dark red nether fist fifty meter large which appeared out of nowhere collided against the two martial arts instantly obliterating them, to then continue its way towards the hammer and the spear which suffered the same destiny.

’No way...’, is what both nethereals thought before the giant nether fist blasted away the combined battle avatar.

"Boooooom!", an energy cloud fully dark blood red colored expanded covering almost all the battlefield, for a couple of seconds everything turned dark blood red before the explosion subsided.

Badr slowly descended from the sky, landing on the ground where the two nethereals whose bodies were covered in dark red burning marks, were laying while coughing blood.

"H-How, you didn’t even use a martial art, how are you so strong!", managed to scream the spear wielding nethereal to which Badr who was looking at his dark blood red dyed right arm with interest casually said.

"My father’s strongest ability wasn’t overwhelm, he not only self-awakened the most exclusive royal ability of the Zallios family "Sworn Enemy" but also improved it on his own".

The royal ability mentioned by Badr is the central power of the Zallios family, they can designate a target and when they are up against said target, their strength drastically increases, since they are the police of the nethereal kingdom the Zallios collectively chose "criminals" as the target, so when someone is considered a criminal for the nethereal kingdom, they boost the power of the Zallios family member in question.

Essentially, someone deemed a criminal can never win against a Zallios who has awakened the ability Sworn Enemy within the Nethereal Kingdom, unless the difference in their original strength is too big, they are the strongest in the kingdom, while the Balax are the strongest outside of the kingdom that’s the dynamic, one focuses in inner security and the other in war.

That’s also the ability Badr mentioned that allowed the Zallios to not need to practice violence and have much more neutral personalities, they can obtain nether so long as criminals exist, Badr’s father however was different.

"You see, for my father power without a proper objective was meaningless, as it could only become "Violence", but when power is used for the right reasons, it could become "Strength" and violence can never beat real strength, that’s what the Zallios and the Balax never understood...", said Badr as his body started burning in a huge amount of dark blood red nether which expanded all over the battlefield.

"I-Impossible, not even Lord Byron could gather that amount of violence nether at the early stage of the Arch rank!", exclaimed the hammer wielding nethereal, to which Badr who absorbed all that violence nether into his body said.

"This is the ability that I inherited from my father "Pledge", unlike the Zallios who don’t care whether the one declared a criminal is innocent or not because they get stronger with quantity, the targets I designate must fulfil stricter parameters, in exchange... the power boost doubles per each parameter met and I’m not tied to the designations of anyone else, I’m free to judge by myself that’s the legacy my father left to me", said Badr to then add.

"And you two happened to meet all the parameters, "Cowards without a code", "Nethereals with realms higher than mine", "Scum without any chance of redemption", and of course "Enemies that deserve to be killed", each has a main point and an extra restriction, that’s why a simple punch of mine destroyed all your special techniques and martial arts".

"N-Nonsense, everyone knows that the sworn enemy ability of the Zallios puts a lot of strain in the user’s body, they have to limit the number of criminals that affect their ability!", shouted the spear wielding nethereal to which Badr nodded.

The boost that the Zallios family members obtain per each criminal is of a mere one percent, but Badr said his total power was doubled per each condition, he had four main conditions and four extra restrictions, that means his total power was multiplied by... eight.

"True, power boosts are often a burden to the body, however the Six-Armed Sentry race is known to have a really sturdy physical bodies and my mother was the most talented in terms of physical resilience in Saternia, to the point that she was to one day inherit one of the two most honorable tittles of her race, if you bastards had arrived a few months later, the ones to have been massacred that day would have been your families instead, at the hands of the Six-Armed Sentry race’s "Heavenly Guard" and her husband".

"Unfortunately, while I inherited her strong vitality and resilience, I can never inherit her title, because I’m not planning on using my hands to defend the Six-Armed Sentry race, but to kill its enemies, luckily the other honorable title perfectly fits me".

"Hell Gatekeeper", that was apparently the name of the tittle Badr mentioned and also a technique, because when those words were spoken by the tall scarred nethereal, all the nether he had gathered alongside his black energy poured out of his body, forming a giant red gate with black chains more than a hundred meters tall behind of him.

"Right Arm of Slaughter", having nothing more to say to those two, Badr extended his right arm at them and the black chains that covered the giant gate behind of him broke as the gate opened.

Nothing besides dark blood red nether could be seen inside of the gate, but the two nethereals immediately felt a sensation of dread invading their hearts.

"W-Wait, our family only participated because we were ordered to, let’s talk, we can give you a list of the other families!", said the spear wielding nethereal in a rush.

"That’s right, we weren’t even there, it was our fathers!", added the hammer wielding nethereal to which Badr casually said.

"I’m not interested, I’m going to personally find and eradicate the families that participated and take pride in what they did".

"N-Noooo... aghh!", the two nethereals tried to escape but a giant dark blood red hand came out of the gate grabbing those two to then drag them inside of it, leaving behind only painful screams which subsided a second later.

"Crack!", the gate closed and the chains sealed it again before the thing cracked and turned into countless energy particles, Badr’s right arm returned to its normal state the next second and the tall scarred nethereal actually fell backwards.

"Phew", Badr let out a sigh of relief, that technique used all his nether and his energy as well, but it’s understandable, he could have killed a half-Stellar rank enemy with a single attack with that.

The punch with which he obliterated the martial arts and everything those two used, was just a normal punch with his fist cladded in the enhanced nether he gained thanks to Pledge, he used all that nether to cast this technique instead.

As you can see, though the ability he gained is monstrously strong, there are restrictions, on the other hand, that’s with power at the early stage of the Arch rank, imagine what will happen if he uses it when he is at the peak, or at the Stellar rank, of course he needs a body that can endure the pressure of that power.

’Just wait Byron, I’m going to tear a hole in your chest with my own hands even if it’s the last thing I do...’, thought Badr as he saw a red gate tattoo appear on his right shoulder, but then his left arm shone in a dazzling silver light, which disappeared the next second leaving behind a white shield tattoo on his left shoulder.

"This is mother’s emblem!", exclaimed Badr, without he noticing, tears started flowing out of his eyes, which he wiped after a second to then laugh out loud before he closed his eyes to rest, not without thinking.

’I see, so even the possibility of dying is out of question now, even father never dared to go against mother’s wishes after all’.