I Only Summon Villainesses

Unplugging Nisha from the Chameleon was not much work. After all, I had restrained the bastard. I spun my sword and took my time tearing through its underbelly, and it writhed and wriggled trying to break free from the chains, but I didn’t budge. Neither did the chains.

I tore a straight line along the belly of the Chameleon…

’Ah… this is definitely not a straight line. Cade, stop lying.’

Anyways, it was a line and I tore it. I dropped the sword, swallowed hard, and dipped my hand into the severed opening, pushing deeper into the Chameleon’s stomach where I had seen the bulge. Carefully, I used my hand to feel the inside of the stomach, trying to map out the full scope of its body.

Enhanced Movement was helping me in that regard. As I touched the insides, I could make out a fine picture in my head, organs and cavities and the shape of what shouldn’t be there. I felt certain I would have struggled to do the same without Enhanced Senses and Movement working together.

I was finally done with the mapping. I scrutinized the texture of the membrane, or whatever it was, that Nisha was trapped in.

’Quite thin, thank god.’

I pinched the membrane, soliciting another violent shake from the Chameleon, but the chains held firm. I pinched harder and tore it apart, and as I did, a strange sound came from the Chameleon.

I had to stop for a moment.

It had sounded like a female. Not Nisha, but another female, and the sound was wrong in every manner I could think of.

I frowned at the bastard. I couldn’t see its eyes, but it was still, as if waiting for more. My frown darkened, but I had to continue, so I did. I dipped my hand back in and the bastard released another voice, this one making it sound like I was doing something deeply, profoundly wrong.

’There is nothing wrong about trying to rescue Nisha. The wrong thing here is a perverted Spirit Beast.’

Of all the things I had hoped to encounter in this brave new world of Ealdrim, never once did I think a perverted Chameleon was going to be part of it.

’I need to recount my life experiences. At what point did I go wrong?’

I finally yanked the membrane from the inside and tore it. From that little tear I began to work my hand further, ripping the membrane wider while the bastard Chameleon continued to tremble and release different voices. Young, old, female, male. This bastard made everything complicated and it didn’t need to be.

I expanded the tear and the membrane just kept ripping, and the fraud Chameleon kept making lewd sounds with different people’s voices. But I locked in as much as possible and kept at my work. Nisha needed to be saved and I sure as hell wasn’t fingering a monster. This bastard was just a very perverted creature.

I finally reached through the membrane and pulled Nisha out. As I did, the Chameleon trembled, its limbs shaking terribly.

’Goodness, I feel so disgusted right now.’

But the good part was that Nisha slipped free. She was unconscious and curled tight, her entire body coated in a viscous liquid that clung to her like a second skin. I pulled off my tattered coat, leaving just the leather armor beneath, and wrapped it around her before lifting her into my arms.

Then I stepped back, looking at the Chameleon. It seemed to have passed out. Its tongue was slack and hanging outside its macabre mouth.

I cast a hateful look at the creature.

“Time for you to die, bastard. This is for everyone you digested that didn’t make it.”

I extended one hand and summoned a pillar of white fire that rolled forward. It consumed the Chameleon, and the moment it did, I heard a cold, terrified cry.

The scream seemed to bounce off every corner of the woodland, torturing my ears and almost making me want to drop the flames just so the bastard would shut the hell up.

But I didn’t trust that insidious feeling. Something told me it was just another trick, the last thing the bastard could do to salvage itself.

The attempt was weak. Pitiful.

Despite the flames being searingly hot, the Chameleon looked like it was trying to brave the heat. It struggled against the chains that locked it in place and thrashed, wanting to break free at all cost, but it was all futile.

I found so much satisfaction in this moment that I was grinning, vicious white flames reflecting in my eyes.

’Have I been damaged?’

I knew the answer to that. Vengeance was satisfying, and I had been a child who enjoyed it when I shouldn’t have. Nonetheless, when it came to the Eternal Light Church, I was going to enjoy it so much that I didn’t mind whatever evil was reflected in my eyes.

Finally, the sound I had been waiting for reached me.

[Congratulations you have slain a Creature: White Lady]

[Due to its strange nature its Tier and Level cannot be determined]

[You have discovered access to a strange essence]

[Dark Essence has entered your soul]

[The Dark Essence has met the crucifying flames of the Pyre Saint]

[The Dark Essence has been destroyed by The Pyre Saint]

I stood there, cradling Nisha in my arms and waiting for the one message that really mattered.

It was the one message I didn’t get.

I raised my head to the sky and for a moment, wondered.

’Does a god even exist in this world? This is a very wicked world.’

I didn’t know if it was the gods that were responsible or the Lodestar itself, but thinking about this whole thing made me want to start crying.

I had just killed a creature that certainly wasn’t a Spirit Beast based on how the Lodestar treated it.

I didn’t know the rank of what I had killed, so I couldn’t even gauge how far I’d come. At the very least, drop me an item. That was the bare minimum I could have gotten, and yet the selfish Lodestar, or the creature itself, or the gods, couldn’t even be bothered.

’It’s all of them. All of them are simply selfish.’

I hissed and turned away. At that moment…

’Cade…’

“Kassie!!!” My heart leaped with joy.