I Only Summon Villainesses

The Cardinal laughed.

“Ahahah. Young brother, this is simply crossing the line. Beating up Light Templars will not help you in any way.”

He glared at the man beneath my hand.

“Hey, Kyron! Allowing yourself to be beaten by him will not incur you any favor from him!” He barked at the guard, his tone shifting from amusement to something far more dangerous. “This young man has crossed the line. Teach him a very good lesson.”

Kyron bucked under my grip, shoving upward with both arms. For a moment it was a genuine contest, his body straining against the weight of my palm, veins rising along his neck. But only for a moment.

“What are you doing?! Call your summon!”

The Templar’s jaw clenched as he pushed again, his arms shaking with the effort.

“They… put a cease on our—”

I grinned.

“That’s right. As long as you are in this pagoda created by a Sovereign, you cannot dare to summon anything.” I tilted my head. “Unless you want to invite the wrath of a Sovereign?”

The Cardinal’s gaze trembled as I spoke.

“Oh wait, no, never mind. You already went and offended a Sovereign.”

He was still trembling, his eyes wide.

“W—w—who?”

I pointed to myself and grinned from ear to ear.

“Me.”

“You insolent bastard!”

He scowled and lunged his hand back. A sword of light began to materialize in his grip, golden radiance pooling between his fingers.

I didn’t let it form. My other hand shot out and white immolating flames rolled forward, swallowing the distance between us in the space of a breath. The flames caught Kyron first, consuming his head and shoulders in the same instant they leapt toward the Cardinal, who threw himself back several steps and stared with wide eyes.

“How come? What in the…”

His voice shook. Even I was confused for a moment.

“Those are the flames of holy judgment, the sanctifier’s flame that is given to only those who have proven themselves before the Radiant Judge and have walked through the Valley of Good and Evil.” His voice climbed with each word, cracking at the edges. “You blithering fool, how are those flames in your hands?!”

I summoned the white flames again, making them dance along the edges of my fingers, while his guard burned and writhed on the floor behind me.

“Oh, you recognize this? Hmm, I guess you do.” I closed my fist and the flames tightened into a single bright point before blooming outward again. “Well, what can I say? I’m the chosen one?”

His eyes narrowed to slits. Pale amber irises glowed with threat.

“Impossible. Impossible! Impossible!!”

The Cardinal lunged at me, but I moved faster. My hand lashed out and closed around his face while the sword of light was still arcing forward from behind. The blade carved through empty air where my body had been a heartbeat ago. By then, my fingers were already locked against his skull.

I let the flames loose.

His entire body was engulfed in vicious white fire. He screamed, agony and desperation tangled into a single wretched sound that bounced off the walls. And I stood there, smiling at him.

“Listen carefully, Cardinal. Your skin will be quite charred, but I don’t intend to kill you.” I leaned closer, the heat rolling off his body doing nothing to my grip. “If I kill you, who will take the message home and speak about the Heretic that was unfairly treated by Aetheris Kingdom?”

He crumbled to his knees, gasping. His voice was gone. Whatever tried to come out of his mouth was a hollow, broken rasp.

I grabbed what was left of his half-burnt hair and tilted his head up.

“It was just a normal day. I was going to school like any normal day, and then I was suddenly brought here, only to be treated like shit by the kingdom and church that brought me here?” I made a face. “Goodness. No ounce of hospitality.”

I patted his shoulders. The flames had cooled, but a few remnants still danced across his scalp, clinging to the burnt patches like they didn’t want to leave.

“So… go home. Deliver the message to your pope. And make sure, make sure you let him know, that for the Aetheris Kingdom and for the Eternal Light Church, their end is near.”

I chuckled and released his head, tossing it back. He rolled across the floor like a frightened mouse and threw himself out of the way as I passed, scrambling against the stone with what little strength his limbs still had.

Once I was through, I released the chains from Kyron and exhaled.

“Hmm, that felt nice.”

And it was only the beginning.

I looked at my hand and the subtle glow still fading from my fingertips. A small smile crept across my face.

’I’ve grown stronger than I realized.’

Kyron was a Templar. A genuine, Church-ordained Templar, and I had been contending with him in raw strength. But the night Lira got killed, I remembered how badly I struggled with that Templar lady. How she had tossed me around like I weighed nothing.

If they were the same rank, then I could beat her now. I could actually beat her.

’I guess I really should ask Kassie to increase the weight.’

I walked through the corridor and into the main hall. By that point, several men in cerulean armor were already sweeping through the lower floor, their movements sharp and coordinated.

I moved fast, slipping through them with a silent step and blurring speed until I was back on the top floor where I had left Lady Hue.

Just as I was about to enter the door, though, something pressed down on me.

Not physically. Not like a hand or a weight. It was more like the air itself had changed composition, had become thicker and denser and full of something that had no business being there. A pressure boundless and profound, as if the entire world was nothing but a vast, raging ocean, and I was standing at the bottom of it.

Slowly, I turned.

I didn’t need to be told. I had met several powerful people during this Night Auction. Even though I had not encountered most of them directly, I had tasted their spirit pressure enough to know how strong they were.

No one had come close to this.

Not in sheer magnitude. Not even close. And whoever it was, they were still suppressing most of it.

I let out a quiet chuckle.

“I’m grateful to, in this lifetime, meet one of the Sovereigns.” I kept my voice even. “Should I call you the Sovereign of Illusion?”

The figure before me was tall. Impossibly so. He stood like a pillar, dwarfing even Colonel Atlas, whom I had already considered tall. His body was transparent, as though he existed only partially in this space, and the cerulean robes he wore seemed to shift in and out of color with each passing second, never settling on a single shade.

“Not up there. Down here.”

My gaze snapped downward.

An azure cat sat before me, its fur the exact color of the robes I had been staring at. Its mouth was carved into a permanent smile, and its eyes held a depth that had nothing to do with the color of its fur and everything to do with the experience behind them. It licked its paw once, slowly, then looked back at me.

“Surely, you don’t think you will make trouble in my home and escape?”