(Ron’s POV)

I was standing with Damian and other leaders and we were watching a scene that should have been impossible. Seeing this scene, for the first time in my life, I felt the true fear of monsters and demons, who were higher in species rankings. A ghost, a monster born usually when a soul is contaminated with grudges, was killing the bandits present here.

And there weren’t just twenty or thirty bandits, there were thousands of bandits. But they all were being killed one-sidedly. When I felt that the concentration of ghost diminished, I decided to make a gamble. I jumped out while pulling my saber. My plan was to use a skill to slice the ghost together with the body it was hosting in. Normal attacks would have been able to damage the body, but to damage a ghost, you need either magical attacks or attacks that were somehow connected to mana.

As I used the skill, the sword in my hand got clad in mana. And it continued towards the ghost at great speed. Just when I had thought that I would succeed in at least wounding the ghost, giving us some advantage, the ghost separated from the body and moved sideways. In the next instant, its hands which had been shaped like claws pierced my chest.

There was blood flowing out of my chest. I had managed to defeat the body, however, I failed in killing the ghost. As I thought that I was soon going to die, the other hand of the ghost morphed into something resembling a scythe. Before I could think of anything else, the scythe was swung upwards and my body was bisected in two.

The final thing I remembered as a living person was the face of the ghost. Its face which should have been without a mouth, was splitting apart in a sneer.

When my consciousness returned, I was a soul. All the leaders had been killed as well, except for one. He was being hung in the air using some skill.

“J-Just kill me, Bitch!!”

The guy shouted. Listening to his voice, it felt as if he was being strangled. However, what happened next made me feel relieved that I was killed swiftly.

“Hmmm….Alright. I will give you a veeerrrryyyy painful death.”

The next moment, his arms and legs spread apart and began to twist. It was a surreal scene. A man’s arms, legs and torso were twisting by themselves. They twisted once, twice, thrice, round and round they twisted. There were sounds of bones being disjointed, muscles being snapped, skin being torn.

Perhaps becoming a soul had improved my senses, but I could hear almost all sound in the vicinity, including the terrified shrieks of the man. However, what I found stranger was the fact that even though there were such sounds, there was no blood. The, as if she had seen through me, she kindly explained with a grin.

“You know, you will experience this pain for a while. I am continuously applying small anounts of healing magic so that your torn skill and muscles will join again and as I twist your arms and legs, they would be torn again. Aren’t I kind? Even though you asked me to kill you, I’m allowing you to live. Hmm?”

The fact that she was explaining all of this with a smile was one of the most terrifying things. Soon after, the guy breathed his last while suffering in excruciating pain. Even though she was casting light healing magic, it wasn’t like there was no damage. And now, the damage had accumulated enough to kill him.

After seeing him die, she headed towards a certain part of town. When I followed her, I found that there was the boy who I had given my dagger to. He was sleeping peacefully. I don’t know how he survived, but I was sure that this ghost had a hand in it somewhere. I was surprised to see her, who had killed all of us in cold blood and cruelty, showing kindness towards a boy.

The next instant, I was seized by some unknown force. I started rising towards the sky, and I saw countless other souls rising together with me. The ghost was looking towards us with shock. The next instant, she disappeared inside the body of the boy.

As my body was pulled upward, my consciousness was joined with other souls. Those who had been with me, the bandits, those who I and my accomplices had killed in the name of riots, the citizens, nobles, royalty and –

A Dragon.

(??? POV)

When I returned to Ray after killing all the bandits, I was suddenly struck by some unknown force. It was pulling me somewhere, but I didn’t know where. When I looked back, I saw there were countless pale blue flames floating in the sky. Even thought I hadn’t seen them before, something inside me was telling me their identities. They were souls. We were of same origin, so I could identify them.

Those souls floated in the air, towards the skies and then their forms began to change. They elongated, joined and separated. I wasn’t sure what was happening, but I knew that it was bad for everyone, and extremely bad for those that didn’t have a body like myself. I possessed Ray, almost on instinct. I had a feeling that it would be extremely bad if I didn’t reside in a body.

And my hunch was correct. If I hadn’t found somewhere to reside in, I would have been forced to obey that force. The souls in the sky had now finished connecting. And what I saw left me speechless. There was an outline in the sky as if a part of a circle was visible from where I was. And there were gigantic letters, Runes that I had not seen before.

A magic formation had been made. Using souls. I had read, no, in the memories I had, I had read that a living person can hold much more mana than a nonliving object of the same size due to the presence of soul. The physical reason for that was because a soul was the best conductor of mana, it naturally came inside the bodies. And the magical reason was that all the phenomena of mana in the body were somehow related to the soul. Hence, it naturally soaked mana in the body.

The magic formation glowed in gold color and shattered. Then gold particles slowly fell down to the ground and were absorbed in it. At the same time I noticed something that wasn’t there before. If it was before, I wouldn’t have been able to notice it. It was very faint, to the point of being invisible. Something was connected to us, or more precisely, to Ray. A line flowing into the ground from us. Currently, there was nothing flowing through this line, however, I was certain, it wasn’t anything good. I tried to break the connection, however, it was unexpectedly strong. But still, I forcible broke it.

I decided to leave this country. I exited from Ray’s body. Now that I had killed all the bandits, I could finally evolve. I had achieved the required level for evolution when I was killing them, but I could not evolve on the spot. If the result took time, it would be dangerous, and also if my body changed too much, I wasn’t sure I would be able to fight that efficiently.

But now, there was no problem, I could evolve without worry. As I evolved, my body was enveloped into light. When the light subsided, my body was smaller. I had red eyes and black hair in twin tails tied with red ribbons, and my body was covered in a red one piece <Just imagine a younger kurumi tokisaki in spirit dress with both eyes red>. And my status had become something like this -

Name: ——

Level: 1

HP: 552   VIT:135

Race: Spectre (Demon)

Age: 0

STR: 110   DEF: 106   AGI: 350   DEX: 133

MP: 1030   INT: 324   MIND: 1039   END: 261

Skills:

Inherent Skills:

• Psychokinesis Lv 8
• Shape Shifting Lv 6
• Flight Lv 6
• Intangible Lv 7
• Possession Lv 4
• Fear Lv 7
• Materialisation Lv 8
• Magic Perception Lv 8
• Magic Manipulation Lv 7
• Healing Magic Lv 3
• Cooking Lv 1
• Cleaning Lv 1
• Sewing Lv 1
• Knitting Lv 1

Acquired Skills:

• Indomitable Lv 4
• Unattributed Magic Arts Lv 5
• Fire Magic Arts Lv 3
• Water Magic Arts Lv 3
• Wind Magic Arts Lv 3
• Earth Magic Arts Lv 2
• Presence Perception Lv 6
• Close Combat Arts Lv 7
• Rending Claws Lv 6
• Soul form Lv 1

Unique Skills: None

Gifts: None

I had gained the stats of vitality and endurance, which means that I had certainly gained a physical form. It was good. Now I do not have to live in hiding. Moreover, my race had finally achieved the classification into the demon category. As I was thinking this -

"...Lu...nus..."

Ray muttered something. At the same time,

<<Christening has been completed>>

(Ray's POV)

It was all over. I had failed in everything. I had surely died. In that burning building, perhaps I had been crushed to death. Or perhaps, I had died by burning. But I was surely dead. My body wouldn't move, and I could not feel anything. It was as if I was floating somewhere. I could not see anything either. As I was thinking this, suddenly, my surroundings brightened up. I could see myself and my mother talking about something.

"Mother, what is your name?"

It was a memory of days long past. I was sitting at the boundary of the fields when my mother came over to take a break from working. At that time, I had asked this question of her. She looked towards the younger me and smiled, and said

"Lunus. My name is Lunus. It comes from a word related to moon."

"But, why moon?"

"Hmmm....It's because your mother is beautiful and gentle like the moon."

"Lunus, gentle and beautiful like the moon, huh."

At that time I had thought that certainly she was beautiful, but gentle, na-uh, not a chance. She would fight with other in village over very small things, and when the kids my age bully me, she would scold them. There were many times when parents of a kid came to fight, but my mother would always stand her ground. She would fight them, usually with words. Sometimes, a fistfight would break out. At one such incident, the father of that kid had tried to hurt her. But soon, she had beaten him black and blue.

When I asked her why she was so strong, she said that she had been a B-rank adventurer in the past. I did not know how strong a B-rank adventurer was, but seeing my mother, I was certain that there was no one here who could match her. Now that I look back at it, she was gentle in her own way. Both gentle and strong. I was weak and was always bullied. I remember, before the dragon came, the kids had gotten tired of scoldings from their parents and my mother. So they decided to ignore me.

Whenever I went to play with them, I would be treated like I was not there. They would not indulge me in their conversations or anything. Some kids who were good towards me would let me play with them, but when the other kids came, they too would stop playing with me. It continued for six months when the dragon came. During that time, only my mother did not leave me.

At that time, I was injured and my mother was too. I remember, she had a look of pain on her face as she ran while carrying me. My wounds healed as a warm light came out of her hands. But I was still too weak to even speak. She was covered in wounds as well, but instead of healing herself, she continued to heal me. All the while carrying me towards the town.

It took us five days to reach there because my mother continued walking day and night, using healing magic on me simultaneously. The beautiful face of my mother grew haggard by the moment. Her cheeks sunk, and her skin became loose. It felt as if she was aging a little too quickly. When we reached the town gates, her beautiful silky black hair had become dried and white. Her face which always had energy was now dark and dreary. Her lips were trembling as she tried to speak something. And then, a particularly strong light came out of her hands and cured me completely.

I became able to walk and talk, but my mother had already died. I cried and cried as her body was carried away.

Now, this memory too, was slowly being taken away from me. I did not know how, but somehow, I was forgetting all the memories I had. I soon even forgot my name. Only the memories from the appearance of dragon to the town were remaining now. At that time, I made a resolution, that whatever happens, even if I forget everything else, I would not forget this. I would grow strong. Strong enough to kill him. And when I had grown, I would make him experience the same pain. Somehow. Even if I die, I will come back.

As these final thoughts passed my mind, I returned to the darkness.

Brago130sf

Phew, finally over. This was the longest chapter I had wrote till date. I was writing it in a somewhat complicated mood so there might be some mistakes. Do point it out if you see them. Anyway, the reason for my mood is that I had a really bad dream. I drove my friend to a train station and saw him off with his girlfriend. At that time, a girl was cleaning the wheels of the train with a cloth when the train started to move. She fell beside the rail line. Though she was still alive. An idiot standing behind me told the passenger to have a nice trip and signalled the train to move.

I spun around and yelled at him to stop the train. He asked why? I said there is a girl down there, and he stopped the train. Now, instead of trying to get the girl out, he signals the train to move. My anger and frustration skyrockets. The next instant, I'm on an escalator with a traffic police officer, and the newspaper says

• case closed
• the girl died from extreme shock as her brain stopped functioning when she felt he flesh being cut. The girl'd body was safe, except her back had a chunk of flesh taken out, thought I think that's because she fell on her side, at the side of the rail line.
• The decreasing quality of officials.

Well, enough with the rant. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. By the way, I dropped Atelier Tanaka. I searched NU forums and the ending was shit. The MC dies a virgin by falling into a well. The novel was shit, the ending was shittier. That too, contributed to the mood.