I Only Summon Villainesses

The smoke of the devastation did not subside until another half a dozen seconds flowed past. Whatever the summon was and whatever summoner was controlling it, I had no idea what they were or who they were.

With my Enhanced Senses alone, I could only detect four other life forces aside from Kassie and me. Even the Eye of the Storm up there registered more like natural havoc than a summon, but the sea of essence that it emitted made it too overwhelming to ignore the fact that it was a darn summon. And a powerful one at that.

Crude black smoke slid off Kassie’s armor as she stood on the edge of the roof, a few meters in front of me.

Her hair danced backward, and her figure obscured the blinding lights of the water’s skyline as it hit me.

For a moment, my heart hammered as I could stare at nothing but her luscious curves, which were flawlessly outlined thanks to the blinding light of the explosion.

’She… threw herself right in front of me…’

My eyes were wide open, and I could hardly believe it. Of course, she would throw herself in for me, especially when she had the power to protect me. But something was wrong… this was wrong…

My eyes shut, and I couldn’t help but grit my teeth in that moment.

A pain that I had forgotten to feel burned in my chest, and the remembrance of the pain itself was agonizing.

It was painful.

’People that love me keep dying because of me, because they don’t know better than protecting me.’

It was a memory that I kept locked deep within an abysmal prison, reinforced by a formidable door, never to be visited for the rest of my life.

And here I was…

I inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled.

’No… Kassie is alive, and I’m just overreacting. I’m not losing my mind. And I won’t be abandoned. I’m not weak like ten years ago… I have the power to be stronger.’

With those words, I managed to gain a semblance of calm and straightened up.

Then I moved forward calmly, with the Frostfang appearing in my hand as I walked up to Kassie.

“So… what are we dealing with here?”

Kassie turned and looked at me for a moment.

“You seem awfully calm… that’s strange.”

I looked at her and smiled.

The scathes on her armor were very much visible.

’I see… it must have been tremendous damage, and yet she took it with her body without thinking twice. Could she be silently reeling from internal pains?’

Even if she was, I wouldn’t know, because Kassie didn’t even try to keep things away from me. She did it naturally; she had projected a kind of image to me, and that image had never shattered once. Even now.

She raised a brow.

“Are you okay?”

I smiled calmly and dusted my hand on the smoke that was still remaining on her armor, tracing toward her breast, but keeping a calm smile on my face as I deliberately tested the limit of my atrocious acts.

Kassie did not seem bothered by the fact that I was currently trying to dust away a scratch that would not leave from her breast. She seemed more concerned about my expression.

The sky darkened again, and she changed the direction of her gaze.

“Follow my lead and don’t do anything irrational.”

The smile on my face remained… cold and dangerous.

As Kassie covered her face with her armor and prepared her sword, I tilted my head and casually walked in front of her.

One hand was tucked into my pocket while the other was holding the Frostfang.

“Kassie… how about you try following my lead today.”

Kassie shifted but did not say anything. I also could not see her demeanor from behind that mask, but I’m sure she must be popping a vein right now.

After all, she loved to lead, and being led had to be the greatest dishonor and insult to her ego.

But right now… I didn’t care about her ego.

I vanished from her sight. The moment I did, I covered half the distance between us and the Eye of the Storm. As for the other half?

The world below was ravaged by scalding heat, and the next moment my figure practically blurred into the breeze. Two thin radiations of white flames perpetually sat beneath my feet, and their appearance blasted me into the storm above us, such that all that was seen was a white light. After that, a vast shockwave rolled across the sky as I collided and plunged into the eye of the storm.

The shockwave cleared the darkness of the cloud, allowing pale radiant light of the water to pierce through.

Kassie had not moved after me, even after I said she could. She stood on the roof, frozen in the attempt to lean down and take off.

As I tore through the dark clouds, what I saw made my eyes widen for a moment. There in the sky was a white snake that covered the entire sky, and the snake was floating… no, I wasn’t sure that was the right word. The snake looked to be swimming in water… in air?

And on the vast head of the snake, which was as large as Nightyell alone, was seated a man clad in black. The cape of his armor flapped sideways, drifting violently with the direction of the winds.

The man had a scar on one side of his face, and largely embroidered on his chest was an insignia I could never forget, even if I tried.

The insignia of the Eternal Light Church.

My eyes went wide and blank the moment I saw that insignia. And all the composure I had been struggling to keep from the beginning finally seemed to reach a bottleneck.

As that bottleneck was being threatened, I felt a dark joy swelling inside of me.

And my lips curved, revealing all rows of my teeth in a macabre grin.