I Only Summon Villainesses

It was beyond refreshing.

To the point where I felt an insurmountable amount of essence flooding through me and couldn’t stand up for a couple of minutes.

All I did was lay down there. Meanwhile, Ilse rose to her feet. She wiped her jaw with her gloves and looked like she had just sobered up, realizing what she had just done.

I leaned up slightly.

"Wait, don’t tell me you regret it?"

She shot me a piercing glare.

"Whether or not you’re able to stand to your feet will determine if I do."

I heaved a great sigh and then slowly rose.

As expected, all the fatigue whatsoever, even the subtle motor delay in my arm, was gone. I felt new again, the way one would feel after a very long night on a luxurious memory foam mattress.

I stretched my arms into the air and yawned.

Then I smiled at her.

"Satisfied?"

Her gaze was stern.

"I do not know why you’re smiling. We don’t have that kind of relationship and are only temporary allies."

Immediately she said so, something recalibrated in my mind.

"Yeah, right. I understand."

I dressed myself properly, and together we left the room.

The Grimmwald mansion looked more like a haunted kingdom than a proper noble’s manor. The lights here were either flickering or completely out. The hallways were dark even though it was mid-afternoon, and every corner loomed as if someone was watching your back.

Or maybe someone really was.

Every now and then, we encountered maidens who all bowed to her and continued on their way. Many of them were young ladies who looked fragile and harmless. But there were some of them with heights that intimidated me.

Finally, we descended a particular staircase that led us to the bunker room.

Right from the second layer of the stairs, I could already feel the hard hum of something. And as our steps took us closer, the hum became violent. The ground trembled at intervals, and the pebbles would fly and roll away.

Eventually, there was a reinforced alloy door in front of me. Metal sheets had been layered over each other to create a stalwart defense like this, no doubt.

Even though I could feel the tremors of whatever was going on inside, I couldn’t hear anything, and the door itself did not tremble. Not in the slightest.

I glanced at Ilse, who stepped forward and turned the wheels.

As she did so, I couldn’t help but think,

’Damn Kassie... what kind of relationship do you and your master have?’

If anything, Kassie’s master was the one person I thought her relationship with was going to be magnificent. However, I was shocked to be seeing the complete opposite of that.

The door let out a disturbing growl and slowly shifted.

From the small space, a wicked wind exploded through and blew my hair and clothes backward. Ilse had to hold on tight to the wheels so as not to be swept off her feet.

’Ah, damnit, how am I supposed to put a stop to this?’

The answer was simple enough. If there was anyone who could put a stop to Kassie, it was none other than me. I just had to be serious and stern for once. Or maybe for the second time, or was it the third?

’Damnit, I think I’m serious all the time. I lost count.’

I stepped through the door anyways, and the interior of the bunker was a disaster. It was a miracle how the entire place had not collapsed in on itself.

Net cracks scattered across the entire walls, chunks of stone had been torn off the ground in gouged patterns, and it was safe to say there was no ground anymore. Because everywhere was choked with rubble and stones that had been shattered loose from the ground by the impact of their feet and attacks.

Within all of this disaster, the two of them were still moving.

At first, it was a daunting task to catch a glimpse of their figures with their snapping movements.

It was all a blur of red and frost. One moment, it was crashing into the wall, causing the widespread net cracks to vomit rubble; the next, it was slamming against the metallic reinforcement of the ceiling. The room let out a weary groan, but the two did not mind that.

They had blurred away again and collided into the corner. This time, the entire room shuddered, and the seams of the metallic reinforcement released a rain of dust.

Ilse looked up.

"Oh my goodness, it won’t hold up for long."

It was then that my gaze darkened.

They had peeled themselves off the wall. For a moment, the two of them were visible, each wielding a blade of their own. Brunhilde carried a thin, katana-like sword that deflected all of Kassie’s attacks and left no openings.

While Kassie, with her violent and overpowering tyranny, kept her on the offensive. She gave no space for Brunhilde to retaliate, and her sword, ignorant of its size, came from anywhere.

It tore a deep groove across the wall to smash into Brunhilde from the side. She deflected it with her sword, horizontally placed beside her. But the dust flew into her face.

She flung her eyes away to prevent that, and Kassie struck her head with a vicious kick. The walls shuddered again, and dust collapsed to the ground.

Brunhilde had tilted her head in time and now gave Kassie a forced grin.

"You still have that bad habit of putting that nasty leg of yours on people’s faces, I see. You’re wide open, pumpkin."

Before Kassie could retaliate, Brunhilde’s knee struck right into the center of Kassie’s leg. Her other hand grabbed her leg, and with a brutal twist, they unmade themselves from that position. Kassie went careening into the opposite wall, while Brunhilde was airborne before landing.

Still, she barely had a moment of reprieve. With magnetic speed, Kassie slammed her leg into her master’s abdomen and sent her crashing into the wall, spilling more rubble.

Ilse, at this point, looked panicked.

"We have to put a stop to this."

She sounded so unsure of herself.

’My time to shine, I guess...’

There was no other person who could put a stop to this madness aside from me.

I breathed gently and, with that same breath, released an overwhelming wave of Emperor’s Presence.