Transmigrated into Eroge as the Simp, but I Refuse This Fate

Chapter 325: An attacker ?

The heat moved.

From his chest to his stomach.

From his shoulders into his arms.

It didn’t leave—but it flowed. Rounded. Bent to a curve instead of bursting against a wall.

Damien’s body trembled, still overwhelmed—but for the first time, he wasn’t losing control.

He was redirecting it.

And there—at the base of his sternum—something began to form.

Not hard. Not fixed.

But dense.

Like a storm cloud collapsing in on itself. Mana pooling, thickening. A centerpoint. A nest.

’What is that…?’ he thought, sweat rolling down his brow.

And deep within him, in the soft, molten dark, he felt it.

The stir of something taking shape.

Not quite a core.

But a place.

A pocket of gravity where energy could settle.

Could return to.

He sucked in another breath.

Focused on the creature.

It had stilled again—watching him now.

Not just tolerating his presence.

Witnessing him.

Its long limbs lifted again—subtle motion. Palms outward. Shoulder dipped.

Another step in the pattern.

And Damien followed.

Inhale.

Focus on the nest.

Exhale.

Guide the energy along the limbs. Back into that center.

A line of heat threaded from his arm into his gut. From his spine into his chest. From his legs into his hips.

His entire body a network of returning lines. A loop.

A circuit.

His breathing slowed further. Pain began to dull—not vanish, but equalize. The pressure that had almost shattered him now moved with him. It didn’t crash anymore.

It flowed.

“I see it…” Damien whispered. Voice dry. Barely audible.

But the beast heard him.

Its expression—if it could be called that—remained unreadable. But its posture relaxed just slightly. A breath, long and steady.

Not praise.

But approval.

And Damien—trembling, soaked in sweat and light—held the pattern.

As the current inside him moved, not like fire, but like blood.

He stayed crouched in the water, arms steady, spine aligned with the rhythm now etched into him.

Inhale—draw the mana in from the pool, from the air, from the very space around him. Exhale—let it cycle through the circuit he’d formed inside, anchor it in the swelling battery of energy that pulsed just beneath his sternum.

Over and over.

And with each breath, he felt it grow.

Not just in volume—but in variety.

Different textures. Different weights. Some soft like mist, others sharp like glass. Some hummed low in his bones, while others sparked like static behind his eyes. He didn’t know what they were called, but he felt them—different attributes.

Wind. Fire. Stone. Ice. Shadows that drifted like smoke. Currents that thrummed with potential. Threads of something metallic. Something bright. Something wrong—but necessary.

They swirled around him.

Drawn in.

Fused into the rotation.

And yet—the pattern held. The circuit absorbed them all. Folded them in, sent them spiraling through him, bleeding into the forming core that was no longer just a pocket, but a storm in waiting.

He exhaled slow, a tremor in his arms.

The beast still watched him.

And then—it smiled.

Not wide. Not cruel.

A tiny lift in its tooth-framed expression. Subtle. Knowing.

That’s when the voices returned.

Whispers, at first—barely louder than the breath between his thoughts.

“You don’t belong here…”

“Still dying, aren’t you?”

“You’re just copying. You’ll break again.”

They curled at the edges of his mind like rot, like old doubts clinging to the fabric of his focus.

But this time?

He didn’t flinch.

He kept breathing. Kept circulating. Kept moving forward.

They pressed again.

“Pretender. Thief. Parasite…”

But Damien exhaled—and the voices scattered like dust.

He didn’t need to shout them down. He didn’t need to rage.

Because now he knew.

They were echoes. Not truths.

And he could see it now.

His path.

Not the beast’s. Not the others’. His.

The circuit inside him solidified further. The energy pooled tighter, the edges of the swirling attributes folding cleanly into the core-in-making. Like a lattice was beginning to form around it. Crude. Nascent. But real.

Then—

He felt it.

A spike.

A shift in pressure.

Something approached.

Fast.

The air cracked in front of him like a tear. The shimmer of the waterfall distorted, and from that rupture—a silhouette burst forward.

Tall.

Gaunt.

Armed with claws made of roiling black flame.

It rushed straight toward him—silent, like a thought made blade. And its intent was clear.

Kill.

Damien froze for half a second—but his body didn’t flinch.

Because something else moved first.

The beast.

It uncoiled with impossible speed, hurling itself between Damien and the figure. A snarl like splitting stone ripped from its many mouths, and its claws met the silhouette mid-lunge.

KRAK-THOOM!

Mana detonated in the space between them. The shockwave flattened the surface of the pool, sent waves of light spiraling outward, scattering the delicate flows of attribute threads.

Damien stumbled back, arms raised—but the circuit held.

The voices tried to return—panic, doubt, fear.

But they failed.

Because he wasn’t watching his death.

He was watching his guardian.

The creature held firm, claws locked with the silhouette. And then—it laughed.

“Kekekekeke…”

The sound rasped like ancient stone and wildfire.

Not amused.

But thrilled.

The tension in the space thickened. The silhouette pressed forward, revealing flashes of warped armor, flickering runes along its limbs. But the beast never moved from Damien’s front. Its body tensed, ready to rip again.

Damien could feel it.

This wasn’t a teaching moment.

The clash of forces cracked the sky above the pool, but Damien didn’t look away.

His eyes were fixed—wide, unblinking—on the figure now snarling behind the cascade of warped flame and glinting claws.

It wasn’t a beast.

Not like the creature before him.

No.

It was humanoid.

Broad shoulders. Elongated limbs. A face—almost human—coated in rippling shadows, the features flickering like a corrupted reflection. The edges of its frame shimmered with unstable energy, like it wasn’t built for this world. Like it hated being seen.

And it was aiming directly at him.

Even now, locked against the guardian’s claws, the silhouette’s empty gaze bore through the barrier, trying to pierce Damien’s skin. Its fury wasn’t blind. It wasn’t wild.

It was targeted.

Focused.

Personal.

Damien took a slow step back, body still crouched low, his circuits humming. The current inside him stirred uneasily—but didn’t break.

His mind spun.

Why him?

Why now?

The guardian hadn’t moved for anyone else. None of the other beings. None of the countless threats of this place. But now—this moment—this thing was trying to kill him.

The realization hit like lightning.

’This thing… it doesn’t want me to continue.’

He felt it—deep, visceral.

This wasn’t just another trial.

It was an intervention.

And not from the world.

From something behind it.

Trying to shut him out. Stop the resonance before it could take root.

And Damien…

Damien smirked.

A short, sharp twist of his lips.

Because everything clicked.