I Became the Simp Character I Roasted Online-Chapter 31: The Corrupted

Revan’s exhausted sigh was instantly drowned out by a sound that made his teeth ache—the agonizing shriek of thick steel bending under impossible pressure.

The remaining saboteurs, thesquad that had managed to slip past the main frontline to reach the rear of the train, froze. Their squad leader had already screamed the order to retreat, but his men were completely paralyzed.

The heavy iron doors of the cargo wagon didn’t just vibrate. They started to bulge outward, the thick metal warping like cheap tin.

The complex sealing runes painted in dried blood violently flared with a blinding, sickly crimson light. Then, with a sickening hiss, the blood literally boiled off the metal, vaporizing into red steam. The seal was broken.

BOOM!

A deafening impact from inside dented the door so hard that the heavy iron hinges snapped.

One of the younger saboteurs finally broke from his paralysis. He dropped his rifle, turned around, and scrambled over the frozen mud, crying out in sheer terror.

He didn’t make it three steps.

A massive, jagged spike of dark bone erupted from the center of the iron doors, moving with the speed of a fired cannonball.

It pierced through the reinforced metal, crossed the ten feet of open air in a blink, and impaled the fleeing saboteur straight through the back, lifting him entirely off the ground.

Before the dying man could even scream, the bone spike violently retracted, pulling his body backward.

The impact of the body hitting the door, combined with another massive strike from inside, blew the heavy iron doors completely off the wagon. The doors crashed into the snow, kicking up a massive cloud of gray dust and freezing wind.

Deep within Revan’s pocket, the strange obsidian coin he had kept since the alleyway flared to life, burning against his thigh with a searing heat.

From within the shadows of the cargo car, exhaling a thick cloud of red vapor and the nauseating stench of ozone, a nightmare stepped out into the night.

It stood over nine feet tall. Its body was a grotesque, biomechanical amalgamation of a predatory beast and hardened, obsidian-like bone armor. Its front limbs ended in scythe-like claws that gouged deep trenches into the earth. It had no eyes, only a smooth, skull-like facial plate lined with razor-sharp mandibles.

But the true horror wasn’t its claws. It was what was violently embedded deep within its exposed, muscular spine.

Three fist-sized, crystalline stones pulsed with an erratic, blinding red light.

The Crimson Tears. House Vespera hadn’t just been transporting illegal mana catalysts. They had weaponized them.

The crystals had been fused directly into the beast’s nervous system, acting as a monstrous, self-sustaining engine.

The creature raised its armored head and let out a roar that didn’t sound organic. It sounded like grinding metal and screaming souls.

The sheer physical force of the sound wave shattered the remaining windows of the train and sent the surviving saboteurs stumbling backward.

"Fall back!" the enemy commander shrieked from the ridge.

"The weapon is loose! Run!"

But the monster was already moving.

It lunged into the retreating assassins. It didn’t fight like a wild animal; it moved with a terrifying, programmed efficiency. One sweep of its massive claw cut three armored men perfectly in half. Blood painted the white snow in horrifying crimson arcs.

Revan kept his breathing steady, slowly backing away. He lowered his stance, keeping his steel sword ready. His body was aching.

’Holy shit,’ Revan thought, watching the beast tear a man’s head off with casual ease.

But his initial shock quickly morphed into a profound, exhausted frustration. Revan’s dark eyes locked onto the glowing red crystals embedded in the beast’s spine.

[The Crimson Tears.]

’What the hell was Sylvia thinking?’ Revan cursed inwardly, his mind racing to make sense of this suicidal logistics.

’Transporting highly illegal mana catalysts and a biomechanical nightmare straight through the Dead Zone. Of course someone was going to hijack this train! It’s a giant, rolling target.’

He spared a quick glance toward the wrecked VIP carriage. Sylvia was in there, hiding behind a broken wall.

’Is she really that stupid?’ Revan questioned desperately.

’At the very least, she must have some kind of plan to deal with this... right?’

The beast ripped another saboteur to shreds, tossing the mangled body aside.

Then, it stopped.

The skull-like plate turned perfectly toward Revan.

It ignored the dozens of fleeing soldiers. It ignored Cassian Voss, who was watching the spectacle from the front of the train with an unreadable expression. It ignored the smell of fresh blood.

It took a slow, heavy step toward the lone servant.

The obsidian coin in Revan’s pocket burned hotter, searing his skin through the fabric of his coat.

’Nah, I’m quitting,’ he decided right then and there. ’I am officially quitting.’

"Revan! Move!"

A shadow eclipsed the pale morning light. Marshal Dain launched himself through the air, his towering frame descending like a meteor. The scarred veteran brought his massive broadsword down in a devastating, gravity-assisted strike aimed right at the monster’s neck.

CLANG!

The heavy steel connected with a thunderous clash that echoed across the desolate valley. Sparks flew into the gray sky as the blade bit deeply into the creature’s bone armor—but it stopped halfway.

The monster didn’t stagger. It didn’t even roar in pain.

It simply turned its faceless, skull-like head, raised a massive, armored arm, and casually backhanded the Marshal.

Dain brought his arms up to brace himself, but the sheer physical force of the blow was overwhelming. The giant of a man was swatted out of the air like an annoying fly, sent skidding backward across the frozen dirt.

His heavy boots carved deep, ugly trenches in the earth before he finally ground to a halt. Dain spat out a mouthful of blood, his freezing eyes wide with utter disbelief as he stared at his trembling hands.

"Hold it off!" Dain roared, his gravelly voice cutting through the howling morning wind as he forced himself onto one knee, clutching his bruised ribs. "Do not terminate! The asset must be secured alive!"

The monster turned its attention back to Revan. It lowered its massive head, the crimson crystals on its spine glowing brighter, the red steam hissing violently from its jaws.

Inside the wrecked VIP carriage, Sylvia watched through the jagged hole in the wall.

Her pale violet eyes were flat and entirely unreadable.

Revan stared up at the towering, blood-soaked abomination. It had armor thicker than a bank vault, claws that could slice through solid iron shields, and a limitless internal battery that bypassed the world’s absolute laws.

And he was supposed to hold back?

"Are you serious?!" Revan shouted back, his voice dripping with pure, exhausted incredulity.

"Should I ask it nicely to surrender, or just politely ask it to eat me first?!"

Dain didn’t answer. The scarred veteran was still struggling to get to his feet across the frozen dirt, gripping his bruised ribs.

The beast was already locking its hollow gaze onto him.

’Hey, am I really that handsome?’ Revan thought.

’You’ve got a literal war veteran and a fancy noble right over there, but you just can’t take your eyes off the underpaid servant. I’m flattered, really.’

Revan breathed in deeply, tasting the sharp tang of iron and blood in the dead air. Then, he let out a long, sharp hiss through his teeth. A thin stream of white vapor trailed from his lips as he forcibly calmed his racing heart.

He dropped his stance dangerously low, his knees deeply bent, shifting his center of gravity until he was almost gliding over the frozen mud.

He didn’t raise his sword into a rigid, defensive block. Instead, he held the hilt loosely near his hip, the tip of the mundane steel blade angled downward, resting just inches above the snow behind him. It was a stance that looked entirely open and vulnerable—a deliberate invitation.

Instead of anchoring his boots into the earth to generate raw power, his body entered a state of constant, fluid tension.

He stopped compressing his Aura into a rigid, internal iron armor. Instead, he made his internal energy viscous, flowing like deep water through his strained circuits.

He wasn’t going to absorb the monster’s force anymore; he was going to entirely redirect it.

"Don’t kill the invincible, nine-foot-tall death machine. Right. Piece of cake"

Revan muttered under his breath, the freezing morning wind whipping his dark coat around his low, predatory silhouette.