I Only Summon Villainesses

Chapter 410: Scapegoats

The whole thing was sudden, as the axe flew towards me, I had barely a second to dodge. And to be honest, I was late. I didn’t see myself dodging without losing my ear at the very least, worse, my left eye could suffer for this heavy mistake.

However, in that same breath, a whip lashed out and connected with the axe with brutal force, sending it off course.

Sulin shouted from her position.

"What are you doing spacing out, we’re under attack!"

Startled, I exploded to my feet.

This was the loudest I’ve seen her talk and she was even using a whip. These were all things she had not done in the Night Auction.

’Maybe, she had not really gone there to fight.’

Whichever way, that was a food for another day’s thought. Right now, I had to understand what was going on around me.

We were surrounded; Sulin was holding Harter behind her on the other side of the column platform, while I was alone on this side.

We were overwhelmed by numbers, surrounded in an arc by no less than twenty men. They stood around us like iron towers, their broad figures casting large shadows on the snow.

Immediately, Sulin blocked the one coming for me; another one was already heading in her direction and two more had replaced the one that had missed his strike.

We truly didn’t have the time to even breathe.

Sulin broke into a lightning-fast series of movements. As much as her whip lashed outward, her hand followed with an even more vengeful brutality. She drove her palm into the belly of one of the men, very softly... only touching his iron armor.

However, a bright glow of red burst out from under his armor, and the man began convulsing, staggering back in an ugly dance.

Sulin without hesitation followed through with a devastating, arching kick that connected with the man’s cheek and slammed him to the ground. His body exploded into shrapnel of organs and metals, splashing on his comrades.

Their faces twisted in horror and their rage climbed higher.

"You bastard!"

"You dare?!"

"Die by the Iron Will!!"

They screamed furiously and dashed at Sulin. She was calm and collected, in fact, almost seeming indifferent towards the threat of their rage.

Well, I didn’t have all the time to focus on Sulin of course. I had my own head to watch. But after that first mistake, no one else had come close to such a chance again.

’When leaving my Soul Sanctum is always my most vulnerable moment, I have to be careful from now on.’

It was the one moment where my perception of reality was blurred. The barely a second step where I remove myself from the Sanctum to come to reality is a moment where my senses are blindfolded.

Luckily it wasn’t ever meant to last for even up to a second.

I shrugged off another axe that headed in my direction, casting the man a disgusted look; another attacker followed him through immediately but I backstepped, watching his crude hammer swing down right in front of my chest.

Two more flanked me, they had short swords and plunged them towards me, wanting to lock me in place while the ones I had dodged earlier returned to being a threat.

But then I scoffed.

First of all...

They were painfully slow. They weren’t even worth my time.

"You guys will need to work harder, is this how you plan to kill an Inquisitor if you truly meet one?"

My hand shot out to catch the wrist of the guy by my side. Holding it inches before the knife made it to my ribs.

But a wide smirk bloomed darkly on his face.

Something about this whole situation was funny to this bastard, and I sure would figure it out now.

"Right behind you rich boy!"

I gave him a pitiful look, and drew him closer, latching my grip around his neck with a crushing force.

His eyes widened and paled at the same time, as he saw chains dancing from my body like divine tendrils. The chains had forcefully plunged into the chests of his subordinates around me. Five of them.

His eyes were trembling with so much fear.

The others that had gathered around me, paused, they stared at their friends with horrific expressions on their faces.

As they staggered back, I raised the body into the air, and controlled the chains, letting them tear endlessly into all five bodies and ripping them to shreds in a grotesque shower of blood.

Still holding the man in my grip, I turned to the others, then I returned my gaze to him.

"Because of you... your friends will suffer a brutal fate today. It’s all your fault."

He shuddered and cried out.

"Please! Please! Have mercy! I—I, we just wanted to have vengeance for the souls of the one we have lost. You bastards have killed us way too much."

"Scoundrel! Shut up! We shall beg for no mercy from these white-cloaked demons! Worse than heathens themselves!"

I was silent for a moment, thinking. Then I asked.

"You people, are from the Iron Cult?"

The four men before glared and spoke with so much audacity, but beneath it all was simply that desperate act of courage martyrs always put on. Well, a few of them at least.

"Yes! And we the Iron Cult will have your head for what your kind have done to us, even if we have to die doing it."

I studied the man and the few others for a couple of seconds.

’I guess this all stems from the fact that the flames made them think I was an Inquisitor’

The guy here in my grip was the same bastard that had been at the bridge earlier, his partners must have died, but it turned out he wasn’t just some bandit but actually someone from the Iron Cult.

’That explains it... but I never knew the hatred between the two of them was this bloody.’

I had simply thought the worshippers of the Lord of Conquest were natural enemies of the Radiant Judge worshippers because of their distinction in teachings and practices. But this seemed to go deeper than that.

I glanced at Sulin, she had dealt with most of them on her side, and her whip was lashing out again, about to catch someone.

In that moment, my voice broke out.