I Only Summon Villainesses

Chapter 257: Freedom Tastes Like Air

While the gate continued to tremble, I summoned Maggie and dumped Nisha on her. Then I scaled down the mountain at a speed that should have terrified me.

It wasn’t a surprise that I could move like this. I’d done so with the chameleon. But knowing something and feeling it were two different things entirely, and right now, the feeling was winning. So much that I leaped off the edge of the mountain with absolutely no ground beneath me to land on. My legs swung in the air like I was riding the wind and everything just felt right, the way it whipped against me, the sheer height from up here as I soared across open sky.

It tasted like freedom.

’Freedom sure does taste nice.’

I lashed my hand forward, whipping a chain that spanned a great distance in an instant, latching onto one of the rocks on the lower slope of the mountain.

Then I pulled.

My body was hurled by a tremendous force and I could feel myself tearing against the wind. Before I hit the rock, I released another chain that flew in the opposite direction and latched onto a separate outcrop. I snatched on the force of that one instead, and it yanked me off my collision course. I was already scaling upward again, but before I went any further, I spun, dismissed both chains, and dove headfirst toward the ground.

The wind whipped violently against my ears and my vision blurred from the velocity. I depended less on my eyes, closing them and feeling my surroundings instead.

The entire mountain behind me was already trembling furiously. Massive stones rolled down its slopes.

Just as I felt that I was close to the ground, I shot my eyes open and switched my position, diving my legs down. White flames viciously spilled from my legs and exploded toward the earth with immense speed.

The flames connected with the ground and with their force, I levitated for a moment. White fire spilled in every direction, covering the ground with a radiance like sentient celestial carpet.

I finally landed with a gentle leap, like I was stepping down a few stairs. Then I looked at the canyon that spread around me like a ring.

It was vast. The walls cut deep into the earth, layered stone exposed like old wounds, and the floor was wide and flat enough that it could have held an arena. The air down here was different too, heavier, carrying a faint mineral taste that clung to the back of my throat.

I had captured the layout of the canyon while I was in the air. Using my enhanced senses, I’d noted the people who were around it. It was not a coincidence that the woodland had led me here after all.

This was the true center of the Spirit Gate, and it seemed the others had managed to get here before me.

’I wonder what rank Milo is…’

He looked weak sometimes, but just a few hours ago in the gate he had seemed viciously strong.

’By the way, we cleared this gate quite fast, didn’t we…’

I thought as I walked forward. At the same time, Maggie landed behind me, already walking.

The last gate had taken an intense week with Kassie. A full week of relentless killing, and things had only gotten significantly better after awakening Maggie.

Which made it surprising that we’d managed to clear this one so early. I had expected it to take much longer.

’Milo did say we wanted to sweep in and sweep out.’

I paused, remembering a crucial detail.

’Defeating the gate was not the plan…’

The main plan had been to leave as many corpses as possible so the mining and excavating team could harvest resources. Resources we’d be needing to purchase a great number of elven slaves, granted the idea was to steal plenty for ourselves along the way.

’So defeating the gate… should actually be disadvantageous to us.’

My brows slowly furrowed. The thought sat in my chest like something I’d swallowed wrong. All those corpses that the mining team was supposed to harvest, all those resources we were counting on, and I might have just collapsed the source.

’Milo is going to have thoughts about this.’

Maggie reached me as I stopped. She was holding Nisha over her shoulders.

She said nothing, staring forward, studying the canyon with the kind of quiet attention that made her look like she was calculating something.

The whole place trembled again and she staggered forward. I nearly fell myself despite my firm footing.

Masses of stone that had been rolling down the mountain crashed into the ground below. The mountain was collapsing into itself.

The collapse sent tremors rolling through the canyon that I could feel in my teeth. The ground bucked under my feet in uneven jolts, not rhythmic, not predictable, just raw force shaking loose from the mountain’s bones. The snow mountain behind the woodland seemed to have suffered the same fate. Both were crushing inward and spilling a torrent of debris across the surrounding land.

It was then that I registered something strange. I stared at the ground beneath my feet. It was perfectly still aside from the tremors, and now it was easy to deduce that the shaking was coming from the mountain where the woodland stood, which connected to the frost mountain.

’Ah…’

A slow realization crept into my head as I turned around and studied the collapse. By now it was just a cloud of debris and smoke, still vaguely holding the silhouette of a mountain.

Maggie followed my gaze and asked with a small harsh tone.

“What are you looking at?”

I didn’t mind it. By now, I had come to settle with how annoying and disrespectful she was. Not like I was even one to demand respect in the first place.

“I think… it’s not that the gate has been cleared, but that one part has been cleared. And I think I may be responsible for that.”

She studied the surroundings again, saying nothing at first.

“Is that abominable thing you killed the guardian?”

I looked at her. “Right, it did try to enter my soul and you killed it. Any idea what it was?”

“No, I don’t. And even if I did, are you saying this would be the accurate time for conversations as such?”