“Now, what have I done to earn such an evil look?” Gyria said, doing a poor imitation of kindliness. “We’re comrades, aren’t we? After all, we share the pleasure of serving—or rather, being used by—the same master. I am a herald of the prime minister, you know. Why shouldn’t I enter whenever I please?”
“Says who?!” Tina demanded. Nacht could sense no soul in the man, but she didn’t need her abilities to see that he was not human. Both his voice and his mannerisms were strange and unnatural.
Gyria laughed. “Goodness, we seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot! We both have the same device in our chest, you know. You were quite beautiful when you were covered in blood, little Tina! Kee hee hee hee hee!” It seemed he had been watching Tina’s operation when it happened. “How long are you going to stay here alone? You must choose your friends, Tina.”
“You are no friends of mine!” Tina shot back. “And I’m not alone!”
“You wound me! Well, I suppose I can forgive you. I haven’t introduced myself, after all!” Gyria said, his body contorting unnaturally. His smile twisted into a creepy half-moon grin as he spoke without moving his mouth. “My name is Gyria. I’m a professional killer. My specialty is assassinations, and my hobby is murder. My favorite thing in the world is the sight of fresh blood. If there’s anyone you would like killed, please don’t hesitate to ask!”
He was incredible, in a way. An embodiment of the darkness of humanity.
“Hm,” Nacht said. “I’m Nacht, a Soul Dragon demiwyrm. But you can call me the great and terrible Lady Nacht.”
“Don’t introduce yourself to them!” said Tina. “They’re enemies! Tools of the prime minister!”
“Manners are important, Tina. Besides, we could all afford to calm down a bit.” Nacht was externally calm, but inside, she was seething with anger. Her anger wasn’t directed at Gyria, though, but at the two dolls standing behind him. Every glimpse she caught of them brought her closer to giving in to her rage.
“Heya, bestie! Long time no see!” the white catgirl greeted her. The black catgirl bowed politely.
The two were nearly identical in face, voice, and mannerisms. They had been twin sisters in real life as well. It seemed they hadn’t planned on making their characters identical aside from the color, but both had chosen to play beastmen with cat ears and made their characters the same height. The only difference was the color of their fur. It was a really astonishing coincidence.
Despite her appearance, the black cat, Kurone, acted like a proper adult. In contrast, the white cat, Shirone, acted exactly like one might expect of an exuberant catgirl. Nacht would often play at batting their ears and tails. It was a truly soothing activity.
“Ah ha ha ha ha!” Gyria laughed, taunting Nacht mercilessly for her emotions. “What’s this? A tearful reunion? I suppose it was worth bringing those toys along as escorts, then! Well, why not?! I won’t interfere, so play with them all you like! Little Tina here’s the only one I want.”
Nacht glanced at the pair of dolls as they ran up to her, crowding her from either side. It seemed like the dolls with personalities weren’t under particularly fine control if they would abandon Gyria to come up to Nacht.
For her part, Nacht was grateful for Gyria’s consideration. Her patience, after all, was nearly at its limit. “Oh, really?” she said. “All right, then. I’ll take you up on that offer. Let’s have some fun...”
The words had hardly left Nacht’s mouth before she activated one of her skills, increasing her speed. That alone was enough to send out a powerful blast of sound, striking Tina and Gyria on their faces and knocking them off-balance.
“Eek!” Tina cried.
“Gah!” exclaimed Gyria.
They blinked, and when they opened their eyes, they saw two heads flying through the air. Threads of brilliant red light trailed from the dolls’ severed necks to Nacht’s hands. “Dragon Technique: Red Dragon Claw!”
The dolls didn’t spurt blood or anything of the sort as they seemingly returned to their original, inanimate states. Their bodies now looked like nothing more than artificial mannequins, which Nacht burned with magic fire until nothing remained. It was as if the dolls had never been there in the first place.
“Well, they sure broke easily,” Nacht said. It didn’t seem like the dolls had been created with much in the way of power. Their heads had separated from their bodies with no resistance at all.
“What?!” Tina and Gyria both exclaimed at once as what had happened slowly dawned on them.
“I’m surprised...” said Gyria, trembling at Nacht’s display of rage. “Weren’t those girls your friends?”
Nacht, however, could only take those words as an insult. “My friends?” she said. “Don’t be absurd! If those were my friends, they could easily have stopped an attack from the likes of me!”
Kurone’s class was Kaiser Monk. She was widely known as an absolute beast in close-quarter combat. If Nacht, a magic specialist, had ever done something as idiotic as launching a melee attack at her, she would have simply been sent flying by one of Kurone’s famous counters.
Shirone was a similar matter. She was a support character, unlike her sister, but she was still a max-level character. If it had really been her, she could have stopped Nacht’s attack one-handed. She would have treated it like a joke, playing around the way a cat would.
“If that had really been Kurone,” Nacht said, “she would’ve just said something like, ‘Are you trying to fight me?’ But I suppose the likes of you aren’t sturdy enough for me to play with.” Nacht gave Gyria a look of sheer contempt and condescension.
“Hah,” Gyria replied, glaring back at her. “Yes, yes, you’re very strong. But let your guard down and you’ll die!” It should have been obvious how much stronger Nacht was than Gyria. And yet, foolishly, he moved to attack, sending a tiny poison-tipped needle flying from where it had been concealed in the hem of his clothes.
Nacht plucked the needle out of the air with her thumb and index finger. “Are you finished?” she asked.
Gyria didn’t answer. He contorted his whole body, lashing out with yet more deadly assassination weapons—a blade from his foot, a knife from his sleeve, a needle built into his belt, and short blades strapped to his back. They came from every direction at once, like a deadly rain. And just as a human cannot dodge the rain, there would be no avoiding this attack. “Hee hee hee hee hee! Die! Die! Die to death! Red! Red! Reeeeed!”
“Nacht!” Tina cried. The deadly metal blades flew faster than Tina could follow. They filled the air like clouds as they descended upon Nacht.
“Eh...?” Gyria couldn’t believe his eyes. Even after that entire volley, Nacht was standing there like nothing had happened. She was perfectly composed. The blades were sticking out of the floor all around her, each perfectly vertical and lined up as if they had been placed there with deliberate care, but not one had hit its mark. Nacht was unharmed. “Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-What?! How did you do that?!”