Reincarnated as the Villain: The System Made Me Overpowered-Chapter 70: The Crimson Pact

The skies over the ruined battlefield had turned black. Not from the coming of night—but from the swirling miasma of corrupted mana tearing open the fabric of reality.

Valerian’s breath was ragged. His black cloak fluttered violently, torn at the edges. His blade—Sablefang—dripped with the ichor of Wraithborn and warped abominations. Around him, bodies smoldered. The taint of death was thick, choking.

But he didn’t flinch.

Before him stood the Crimson Monk, that ancient entity who had feasted on centuries of blood rituals. His skeletal face, wrapped in crimson bands, bore no eyes—only glowing sockets of vile hunger. Arcane runes pulsed along his gaunt arms as he hovered above the ground, hands bleeding pure red mana into a growing sigil below.

"You are too late, child of fate," the Monk hissed, his voice a whisper and scream at once. "The gate shall open."

Valerian clenched his jaw. His corrupted arm—black and veined with red energy—ached as the sealed mark glowed. Umbra stirred inside his mind, hissing with laughter and warning.

"He’s trying to bind the World Womb... If he succeeds, even the gods will burn."

Behind Valerian, Kael, Selene, Seraphina, and Lira regrouped. Bloodied, scorched, but alive.

"Can we break that ritual circle?" Kael asked, twin blades already crackling with lightning.

"Not unless we kill him first," Selene replied, her breathing sharp as she tightened her grip on her staff. "His barrier feeds on death."

"I’ll break the circle," Seraphina growled, her eyes flaring with divine fire. "I can create a rupture using Solar Flame."

"No," Valerian cut in, stepping forward. "I’ll take him."

"You can’t—" Lira started, but Valerian turned.

"This is more than a ritual," he said. "It’s a pact. He’s not alone."

A pulse of energy surged out of the sigil. The earth beneath their feet cracked. Something was clawing its way out from below.

Valerian leapt forward, magic coiling around his feet. The Monk raised a single hand. Reality snapped.

A bone spike erupted from the ground—Valerian rolled under it, then blasted upward, Sablefang tearing through the barrier of blood swirling around the Monk. But it didn’t cut.

The blade screamed. Blood magic and anti-divine energy repelled each other violently.

The Crimson Monk grinned.

"You wield a cursed blade... yet deny its hunger."

"I control it," Valerian said coldly. "Not the other way around."

The Monk’s form blurred. A flurry of skeletal arms emerged from his back like spider legs. They darted at Valerian—each laced with decay. He slashed, dodged, countered. But they were fast. Too fast.

A spike grazed his side. Pain lanced through his ribs. Another narrowly missed his throat. He spun, using Umbra’s shadow teleport to reposition mid-air.

From below, Selene screamed an incantation. Chains of moonlight shot up, entangling several limbs.

"Now!" Kael shouted.

Valerian surged in.

He drove Sablefang forward—but the Monk snarled and bled mana directly into the circle. A shockwave erupted. Kael, Selene, and the others were thrown back, crashing into the ruined spires.

Valerian didn’t retreat. He blinked behind the Monk and slashed—

Only for the Monk to smile and vanish into crimson mist.

Valerian’s eyes narrowed. The mist was re-forming—cloning itself.

"Three... four..." he muttered. "Damn it."

Four Monks rose now, each identical, each feeding blood into the sigil. Their voices chanted in overlapping harmonies—distorting the air itself.

"Don’t let them finish!" Lira roared.

She cast a volley of Void Arrows that split into dozens mid-air. The arrows struck—two clones exploded—but the real Monk hissed again, shielding the remaining doppelganger with a wall of bone and flame.

Valerian struck the ground, carving a glyph into the earth with his sword.

"Umbra. Boost me."

"Heh... you’ll pay the price later."

"I’ll pay anything if it stops that gate."

A pulse of shadow enveloped him. Sablefang erupted in writhing darkness. His eyes went pitch black. The mark on his chest ignited, like a god’s eye opening.

He sprinted.

In a blur of movement, Valerian pierced the veil of defenses. The Monk turned—too late. Sablefang cut clean through one of the Monk’s arms. Blood that wasn’t truly blood sprayed, sizzling as it hit the air.

"You... dare—!"

Valerian struck again—this time slicing through the Monk’s ribcage. He slammed him into the dirt, grinding his face into the runic circle.

But the Monk laughed.

"You think it ends with me?"

The gate behind them—the bleeding sigil—cracked open.

Something massive emerged. A claw the size of a house. Scales of obsidian. A single eye of red flame, blinking open in the void.

"Gateborn," Selene gasped. "That’s a Gateborn Horror..."

A primordial being summoned from beyond time.

"We’re not ready for that!" Lira shouted, stumbling back.

"I’ve got this," Seraphina said. Wings of golden fire burst from her back. "Cover me!"

She ascended, flames forming around her body like a corona. With a scream, she hurled a lance of solar fury down at the horror’s eye.

The creature shrieked, reeling back. But it didn’t fall. Instead, it swiped upward.

Its claw tore the sky.

The force of it shattered the battlefield. Seraphina was knocked from the air—Valerian caught her mid-fall, sliding back across the ground from the impact.

Kael and Lira were trying to hold off blood-spawned abominations spilling from the cracks now forming in the air itself.

"Valerian!" Kael shouted. "It’s breaching the material realm!"

The Crimson Monk’s body was reforming, bones snapping back together.

"You cannot kill what death feeds," he rasped.

Valerian growled and stood. He looked around. Then at the blade.

"...Use it."

He stabbed Sablefang into the ground. freēnovelkiss.com

The blade screamed as dark energy surged out. Runes ignited. A column of shadow exploded from the point of impact.

Reality trembled.

The Gateborn paused. Its claw halted.

Valerian was now cloaked in complete void. His hair floated. His voice was not his own anymore—echoing, layered.

"You should never have opened the door," he said.

He moved.

The distance between him and the Monk vanished.

With a single swing, Sablefang cleaved through the Monk’s body and soul. A ripple passed through the entire battlefield. The blood sigil shattered.

The portal faltered. The Gateborn began to withdraw—but it wasn’t over.

The claw swiped one final time—blades of wind and magic swept toward them.

Kael shielded Lira.

Selene threw up a dome of lunar energy.

Valerian stood in front, raising Sablefang high.

The claw struck.

An explosion of energy engulfed everything.

Silence followed.

Then—dust settled.

Valerian still stood, holding the now-cracked blade, his arm burned down to the bone.

The Gateborn was gone.

The sky was clear again.

Kael slowly rose, coughing. "Holy hells..."

Lira ran over. "Valerian! You... you’re—"

"I’m fine," he muttered, collapsing to one knee. "Just need a moment."

Selene walked forward, bloodied but upright. "That wasn’t a full Gateborn. That was... only a fraction."

"And it almost killed us," Seraphina added.

Valerian stared at the place where the portal had been.

"We need answers. We need to find out who gave the Monk the ritual in the first place."

Kael nodded. "Where to next?"

Valerian stood slowly, his body aching.

"The Obsidian Conclave," he said. "We find the ones who made the pact... and we end them."

Behind them, a black feather floated to the ground—burning as it landed.

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