Beneath her starving, filthy body and mud-stained clothes, her pure white, powerful little soul was achingly beautiful. Nacht would not allow such a lovely soul to be ruined. She would not let it become stained by resentment.
“Do not curse your fate, girl.” Nacht alighted at her side. “Smile, for you have been blessed.”
The girl, leaning her weary body against a tree, did her best to smile. Nacht beamed back with her whole face. “That’s it,” she said. “You can relax now. There’s nothing to worry about anymore.”
The girl closed her eyes, and Nacht stomped a foot. That was all it took to send a shock wave rippling through the ground. The bandits were no longer brandishing their weapons or leering. They were trembling in their boots.
“Now then,” Nacht said, “what have we here? The three of you weren’t thinking of abducting this defenseless girl, were you? Or was this perhaps a rape? Not that it makes a difference; either way, you were tormenting the weak! I hope you’re prepared to be tormented in turn!”
Torment hadn’t really been Nacht’s plan at first. She was going to grant the men swift, merciless deaths. But then, with a trembling voice, one of the thugs spoke up.
“H-Heh! Y-Y-You’re just my type, c-cutie! I-I’ll h-have my way with you too!”
Empty words. Nacht’s Dragon Aura completely prevented low-level monsters from acting. The man was clearly fighting just to stay conscious. But his words were enough to enrage Nacht.
“What’s that?” she asked. “You want a taste? Well, if you think you can take me, then by all means, help yourself!”
When Nacht had become a demiwyrm, she’d chosen Soul Dragon as her Dragon Factor. Her reasoning at the time was simple: it was awesome, it was super cool, and it fit her image perfectly! But now, she reflected, it may have been the best possible choice. After all, it gave her the ability to see a person’s nature. Every stagnation and impurity marring a person’s soul was a reflection of their deeds in life. Someone with as filthy a soul as these bandits must have committed a horrifying number of sins. Hardly surprising, considering they had been attacking a young girl. The fools would get what was coming to them.
“This is the end of your worthless lives,” Nacht said. “Ars Anima...” As a Soul Dragon demiwyrm, Ars Anima was one of Nacht’s specialty magic schools. According to the game, it was higher-dimensional magic that could bind, judge, or guide the soul—the very core of a living being. In this case, the effect would be judge. “...Negative Gate!”
A hole opened in the sky. There was an eerie sound like a key being turned, and then a dark light began to spill forth. The gate had been opened. Countless grasping hands issued forth. They could hear the pitiable wails of the dead.
“Ee—!” the bandit cried, desperately trying to fight off the arms. “S-Stop! Please! Spare me!”
“Spare you?” Nacht regarded the man coldly. “As if you would spare someone begging you for mercy?” A derivative line, perhaps, but Nacht meant it.
“Noooo!” The man cried. “Help! Someone help me! I don’t care who! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to— G-Ghk!” A dead hand pierced his chest. He couldn’t speak or even breathe as the arms’ embrace dragged him silently to the very depths of hell.
“The dead will hold your funeral,” Nacht said. “Perhaps your soul may even be purified. Try to live a better life next time around.” The golden light of her eyes fell on the other bandits. “And now, it’s your turn.”
The two surviving bandits had no idea what was happening. They had gone so far beyond pale with fear that it looked like their hearts had stopped. They were drenched in sweat and gasping for breath, terrified of what would happen to them. They could hardly believe that Nacht was real.
“W-Wait!” One of them said, pleading for his life. “I’m not like them! I’m no serial killer or sex maniac! I’m just your everyday farmer! But the lord’s taxes were too high for us simple folk to make a living and I had to turn to banditry! I didn’t have a choice! But I’ve never killed anyone, honest!” The bandit pleaded desperately, hoping beyond hope to be shown mercy. But it all amounted to mere excuses.
It might have worked on Toru, but now that she was Nacht, she had lost all patience for empty talk.
“Truly?” she asked. “How sad.” She halted her Dragon Aura just when the bandit felt like he was about to break, releasing the pressure for a second.
“Y-Yes! I knew you’d understand!”
Nacht affected an understanding, friendly smile. “But I have to ask,” she said, “how did it feel the first time you raped a girl?”
“Oh!” the man exclaimed. “Well, of course I felt—” he stopped himself, but to no avail.
“I see!” Nacht could see the shape of the man’s soul as clearly as his body. “Your soul is telling me you had so much fun you couldn’t help it!”
“Gh—!”
“Everyone faces unhappiness and misfortune in their life. Some souls rise above. Others fall from the path and become twisted.” Nacht held the girl gently in her arms. She was scrawny and filthy and smelled like she hadn’t bathed in weeks. And yet her soul was pristine. “This is the result of the choices you made,” Nacht told the bandit. “I will hear no complaints.”
The wind blew. Nacht laughed wickedly, not even sparing a glance for the bandits. All she had eyes for was the girl. “To quote a friend of mine,” she muttered, “perhaps this was fate.”
The girl’s outfit had to have once been quite pretty, but it was filthy with grime and mud. Her unkempt golden hair shone dimly in the light of the moons. Her eyes were closed, but they had been large and bright when they were open, and they had filled Nacht with a strong desire to protect her. Her body was still beautiful despite all the weight she had lost. Her ears were slightly pointed too, marking her as a denizen of a fantasy world. But more than anything, it was her beautiful, strong soul that had enchanted Nacht.
“It’s over,” she told the girl. “You’re safe.” But the girl didn’t respond. “Hey! Wake up!” This was the first person Nacht had met since coming to this world. She had been so elated. But the girl seemed terribly ill. She wasn’t moving at all.
“Oh no...” Nacht said. “Is this actually really bad?!”