I Only Summon Villainesses

Celestine was looking at me, and both the frown and the smile that had graced her face a few seconds before were gone. What was left didn’t move at all.

Personally, I had long confronted the idea that the creatures I was summoning were somehow going to be the best of character. Quite the opposite, really. I expected them to be the worst of character, and I had prepared my heart for that before I ever performed the summoning.

At first, I had almost thought that Celestine was going to be different, but alas, I wasn’t surprised or disappointed to learn that she wasn’t. And this felt a bit strange to say.

She wasn’t going to kill me. At least, not by her own reckoning. She was just refusing to let go, from what I saw of it. Granted, her grip was insanely difficult to endure. The gauntlet had closed around my forearm without any hurry at all, the metal warm from her own skin, and somewhere underneath it my bones were quietly filing a complaint.

I sighed and said to her.

”This is a small family, Celestine the Radiant. A family that does not care about what shit you have done in your past. In this family, of course, I am naturally the head. Kassie is your senior because she came first. I wouldn’t outrightly call Maggie or White Feather your senior, but as long as you afford them sufficient respect to say that. Of course, or just do whatever the fuck you want except disobeying my order.”

I knew I had to have sounded cool just now. I knew it.

Too bad there was no way to confirm.

She stared at me for longer than a second, then she slammed her cross staff on the ground once and leaned her weight slightly on it. The stone took the sound and carried it out over the drop. She glanced at Maggie.

”She seems to be judging me though.”

I glanced at Maggie too, and scoffed.

”That’s because she’s in denial. The church used her, discarded her, and ruined her reputation, and somehow she’s begging for chances that all that is right before her eyes is not true.”

I chuckled and added.

”All of us standing before you are products of what happens when the church makes a wrong choice of who they decide to make enemies. Kassie here had, in fact, once eradicated the church in the era of the Zharic Empire.”

Celestine turned to Kassie with renewed vigor. Even Maggie did too, and uttered.

”This whore did? Hmph, I must have died while it happened.”

Kassie tilted her head slightly toward Maggie.

”Or I might have killed you by mistake while killing the cockroaches.”

Maggie chuckled, raising her chin.

”I died in a divine flame, whore.”

Kassie scoffed dismissively.

”Even more pathetic than cockroaches. You died to a domestic hazard.”

Maggie’s eyes turned red.

”You miscreant.”

’God, since when did how you die become a flex.’

While I was still in my thought, Celestine’s voice rang out towards Kassie.

”If you destroyed the church, then you must be a very powerful woman. I tried to eradicate the church myself, but I wanted to destroy it from the root, which caused me to name myself a god amongst men. I wanted to expose the fallacies of the gods. They wreak havoc, and they are certainly not creatures we could trust. Sadly, I was not strong enough.”

I folded my hands, stepping forward a bit, my gaze tight with a frown.

”Wait... a minute, Celestine... what do you mean the fallacy of the gods... and how did you die?”

A small, insidious smile stayed on her lips.

”How did I die? Before I answer your questions, I have just one question to ask. One question that will determine if this family of yours is worth joining, or if I should just return to where I came from and try another time.”

I nodded at her.

”Alright, Celestine. Ask your question.”

She released her staff, letting it stand alone, and walked towards me and White Feather, her golden armor making soft clinking sounds with every step. White Feather did not move, but her weight shifted onto her back foot, and it stayed there.

”If... you ever find yourself in a position where the possibility of fighting a god is incredibly high. What will you do?”

I glanced at Kassie and Maggie, and then White Feather.

”Oh well, first of all I pray hard and really hard that I don’t get to be in that situation. Second, if it does happen, then I better be strong enough to survive or even kill that God, and if I am not, I’m sorry to disappoint you Celestine but I will run. Live to fight another day, baby.”

She smiled and nodded.

”That is good enough of an answer. Your response shows you’re not a stupid youth. I doubted you initially because of your obvious lack of experience, but at the very least you seem self aware.”

She lowered her gaze, a somber look climbing her face.

”Even though I lived for fifty years, I was foolish, thinking I could stand a chance. But I did not even last seconds, before I died by Solarius’s hammer.”

As she completed her statement, my head came up before I could think about it, and the word left my mouth too loud.

”Wait! Solarius, as in the real god?”

”Solarius, the Radiant. Yes, he came down with an avatar to do the job himself.”

I was silent for a moment, studying Celestine with disbelief. The woman had been flattened by an actual deity, and she was telling me about it the way other people mention a bad landlord.

’She must have ragebaited the hell out of him. Did she go around pronouncing herself Celestine the Radiant, I mean it looks like she did.’

She sighed deeply, and the emotions that were all over her face disappeared, replaced by that matured smile. Whatever fifty years had cost her, she had clearly learned to file it somewhere.

She glanced around, at the stone, at the long open nothing past the edge of it.

”Uh, it looks like we are in The Precipice. I suppose you know about it too?”

I stopped folding my arms.

”About it... about what?”

She looked at me for a second, and the smile went crooked at one corner.

”Oh? Interesting...”