I Only Summon Villainesses

Chapter 481: What Happened In Los Arcos?

Maggie led us to a ruined cathedral. In a world this dark, almost nothing could be picked out at a distance, but this place refused to disappear. Even swallowed in shadow, its bones made themselves known, arches and broken spires holding their shape against the black, cracked stone still reaching upward like it hadn’t gotten the news that the roof was gone.

We took shelter inside, the three of us, Maggie, Kassie, and me. I sank onto a broken pew, dust lifting off the splintered wood, and leaned back for a few moments, just breathing, my breath fogging faint in air that had gone graveyard-cold.

Meanwhile Maggie and Kassie stood side by side, and something about the stillness between them felt wrong.

Maggie glanced at Kassie with open disgust and muttered a single word.

“Whore.”

Kassie’s fist opened, sparks crawling up between her fingers and hissing where they touched air, and I cut it off with my voice before it could become anything worse.

“Hey, hey. Surely you two aren’t stupid enough to burn down our only shelter, right?”

Maggie glared back at me, and Kassie let her hand fall, sparks dying, and walked off toward the dark.

“I will survey the temple and set a perimeter.”

I looked to Maggie before she could follow, and gave the order instead of asking for it.

“You’re staying here with me. We have a lot to catch up on, don’t you think?”

She went quiet for a moment, then sighed, irritation still sitting plain on her face.

“Fine. Let’s get this over with.”

While Kassie vanished into the dark, Maggie crossed over and sat beside me. Her black habit made her nearly one with the shadow, and only her pale face and scarlet eyes gave her away.

I leaned there for a moment, doing nothing but breathing, before I finally asked.

“What happened in Los Arcos? How is everyone?”

Maggie didn’t answer for a full minute. She stayed silent, and though I couldn’t be certain in the dark, it looked like her eyes had dropped to the floor.

“They… are dead. Except the girl with the gun.”

My eyes went wide the moment the words landed.

‘Cressida?’

I frowned, my voice sharpening on its own.

“What do you mean they’re all dead.”

Maggie folded her arms, arrogance settling back over her like armor.

“I never failed to protect them. I tried my best. But there’s something else. A man came to help him. A familiar man. He carries a Calamity, a Demonic Summon.”

My eyes went wider still.

Demonic Summons were stronger by nature, on that much every theory I’d built from everything I’d read agreed, and all of it pointed the same direction: Demonic Summons might sit at the very top of the entire spectrum.

And a Calamity, tier one, at that?

‘Wait. Did she just say familiar?’

“Maggie. This familiar person. You recognize them, don’t you?”

“That man. The one full of darkness and blood.”

For a moment my thoughts scattered, chasing after who exactly wore darkness and blood like a second skin.

“The one from the window…” she added.

I was still lost.

“What window, Maggie?”

“The window from the night battle.”

And then, all at once, the image she was reaching for surfaced in my head.

‘Ah, what was his name again…’

‘Atlas! General Atlas!!’

But what would a man like that be doing there? Why would he tangle himself in Manhattan, the Blood Mage, and the extermination of the Black Snow Company?

None of the pieces sat right together. So I asked, even knowing how foolish it might sound.

“I’m sorry, but did you see his face? What did he say?”

Maggie kept her hands folded, and answered with the same arrogance as before.

“I didn’t see him. But I smelled his presence. He never came close, he stood far off and simply controlled the creature. A thing shaped like a horned woman, writhing in black flame. And it was strong.”

She unfolded her hand slowly and studied it, the skin along her palm webbed with thin, pale scarring that hadn’t been there before.

“That flame. It corroded mine.”

I kept my gaze fixed on her as she spoke.

“But that wasn’t the only thing. The Blood Mage said things, disturbing things, and I confirmed them the moment I appeared before you.”

She paused, then went on.

“He mistook me for one who’d abandoned the church’s ways, and he spoke at length of how they use their Saints. You may not know this, but there’s a rank above hunting heretics. It’s called Sainthood. Every Inquisitor aims to become a Grand Inquisitor. But every Grand Inquisitor aims for Sainthood.”

She breathed once, then opened her hands, and a single white flame kindled between them, throwing pale light across her face without ever touching her skin.

“Become a Saint, and you’re granted a Spark of Divinity.”

I narrowed my eyes.

“A Spark of Divinity. What is that?”

Maggie spoke like the words carried weight.

“Proof.”

“Proof of what, Maggie?”

She let the silence stretch before she answered, slow enough that it started to grate on me.

“Proof that he exists.”

The instant I understood her, my eyes went wide and my mouth fell open.

“Proof that he exists? You don’t mean—”

She looked straight into my eyes.

“Yes, miscreant. The gods exist. This flame is the proof.”

Hearing it said plainly made my heart start hammering.

‘Now that is dangerous.’

Maggie went on.

“There are people called Divine Hosts, a rare lineage who can speak with the gods directly. They can even cross into the realm beyond this one, where the gods dwell. They’re the ones who grant the Spark of Divinity. But that isn’t the point. The Blood Mage received a Spark of Divinity once, only to be slaughtered ten years later, because they wanted it back.”

Her voice thickened with hatred.

“It isn’t even that they want it back that disturbs me most, though it disturbs me plenty. It’s the method. Defamation. Character destruction.”

Her fist tightened, knuckles going pale around the memory of it.

“I was burned at the stake for a misunderstanding I had no hand in. And now I think it might have been their scheme from the very beginning.”

[Congratulations…]

[Your Summon Pyre Saint is experiencing a moment of Emotional Vulnerability. Because this has an immense relation to the memories of her past, it will affect her fortitude.]

‘Oh…? AH…’