[Alfheim Dungeon] Nisa, the Shrouded Night

Beautiful fairies live in the forest.

Fairies look as though they have just barely reached adulthood by human standards, and though it varies from one to the next, they typically have light-colored hair and eyes. Living in groups within the forest, they giggle and show the way to kindhearted souls who have lost their path. Their mystical, dreamlike beauty is such that anyone who has even once seen a fairy in the forest says it felt as though they had briefly visited the realm of the gods rather than a mere forest.

But in truth, fairies are forbidden from approaching humans. The restrictions are especially severe for young fairies whose minds have not yet fully matured. The reason is simple: fairies who have never truly encountered the darkness in humanity may, driven by curiosity alone, approach humans — only to be tainted by their sins and driven mad. Fairies are crystallizations of purity, born from the forest itself, their fate bound inseparably to its own. Sin and corruption have no place in their destiny. Should sin take root in one, she can no longer be called a 'fairy.'

Older fairies, knowing how dangerous humans can be, tell the young ones never to approach humans recklessly. But everywhere, there is always one child who doesn't listen. One young fairy from a forest graced by a deep, crystal-clear lake ventured out for a nighttime stroll and approached a human resting by the water, tending a mysterious purple fire.

"Are you lost?"

The human, encountering the beautiful fairy, flinched in surprise, then broke into a warm smile and answered.

"It seems the forest has sent me a gift. Yes, Fairy. I happened to lose my way and was in quite a bind when I spotted this lovely lake and decided to rest here for a moment."

The fairy's guess was right. He said he was lost. Seeing the human smile warmly at her, the fairy judged him to be harmless and drew closer.

"I'll show you the way. Will you follow me?"

"Before that, I would like to gaze at this lake a bit longer. It's hard to come across nature untouched by human hands. Resident of the forest, would you grant me the mercy of savoring this serendipity a little while more?"

To meet someone who knew and respected the beauty of nature, who spoke without a trace of rudeness — how wonderful! He seemed truly humble and kind. Enchanted by his gentle heart and the mystical color of his fire, the fairy sat down beside him as if spellbound. When she came to her senses, she had already been chatting with him for quite some time.

"......and so the deer in this forest love mountain berries. Do you like berries too?"

"Yes, I do. Actually, while passing through the forest, I was so hungry that I picked and ate one round, red fruit from a tree — it was truly delicious. A flavor and fragrance I'd never experienced before. Being lost had me feeling low, but that fruit — I'll remember it long after I leave this forest."

"Oh, was it from a tall tree, by any chance?"

"That's right. You know of it?"

"Of course! It's what the birds passing through the sky stop to eat and rest on. If you liked it that much, shall I fetch one for you?"

The human accepted the fairy's offer. In truth, the fruit of that tree belonged to the birds, and it was an unwritten rule among fairies not to touch it. But this human she had grown fond of wanted one — what harm could picking just one do? The fairy stood and told the human to follow. Walking through the night forest, greeting the fireflies warmly and laughing — she was truly a beautiful fairy.

Arriving at the great tree, the fairy spread her wings and fluttered up toward its top. The birds had already eaten most of the fruit, and the single remaining one at the treetop looked all the more red and luscious. She carefully picked it, cradled it in her hands, and descended. But the fruit's overpowering sweetness drove off the fireflies that had been hovering nearby. Without their glow, the dark night forest was plunged into deeper blackness, and the fairy looked around, unable to see the human.

"Where are you? I've picked such a delicious fruit."

Scanning her surroundings, the fairy failed to notice the presence creeping up behind her. Sensing something wrong when the human was nowhere to be found, she tried to set the fruit down and run back to the other fairies — but it was too late. The human swung a blunt object at her with all his might from behind, and the fairy, struck hard on the head, collapsed unconscious on the spot.

When the fairy regained consciousness, she was bound hand and foot, loaded onto a cart. A gag was in her mouth, so she couldn't cry out to the other fairies for help. It was too dark to see clearly, but the strong scent of wood confirmed she was still inside the forest.

'So this is why the other fairies said not to approach humans.'

Regretting that she hadn't listened to the elders, the child struggled upright. With hands and feet bound she could barely sit up, but she squirmed against the wall of the cart. The rocking caught the humans' attention.

"Looks like it woke up?"

"Didn't you hit too softly? It woke up before we even got out of the forest."

"But hit too hard and the merchandise gets damaged. It needs to be intact to sell to the nobles."

From the voices, there was more than one. There had definitely been only one earlier. More than one made things far worse. She needed to escape quickly, but her bound limbs were the problem. But she was a fairy — she had wings. Just as she had done when picking the fruit, she spread them wide and tried to fly out of the cart. But she had barely risen to head height above the cart before the world spun, her bearings vanished, and she plummeted back to the ground. The humans, who had watched the whole thing, grabbed her by the hair and tossed her back in.

"Ha, the little thing tried to run. Good thing you lit the incense like you said."

"Right? These things fly, so they're easy to escape. Burn some poisonous herbs, let it breathe in the smoke — makes the whole job easy."

"Thanks to that, my head's spinning too from talking next to the fairy."

So the purple fire earlier was from burning poisonous herbs. Now knowing that humans were wicked, the fairy needed to think of an escape plan quickly. If she was dragged out of the forest, no other fairy could help her. She closed her eyes briefly, and when she opened them minutes later, her vision had adjusted to the darkness enough to see inside the cart. She needed something sharp to cut the rope binding her hands, but the humans had anticipated an escape — there was nothing inside the cart. Even so, the fairy refused to give up. Then she noticed it — at the base of a support post, a sharp wooden splinter jutting from the aged cart. She turned around and rubbed her wrists against the splinter as hard as she could. The frantic motion caused the splinter to scratch her hands and arms, but she managed to nick the rope, and with a bit of force, snapped the frayed cord. With her freed hands, she removed the ankle rope and the gag, then bolted out of the cart.

"Hey hey, how did it get out!"

"Dammit, I told you to tie it properly! You half-assed it again, didn't you?"

"As if! We caught a fairy — I did it right!"

From the front of the cart, the humans' voices grew louder as they approached. The fairy couldn't fly, so she had to run. The night sky was unusually dark tonight — not even the guide star was visible. Running blindly away from the humans, she spotted the tall tree where she had picked the fruit in the distance and ran toward it as her landmark. From that tree, she could find the way to the fairy settlement where humans couldn't enter. Picturing the faces of the fairies she lived with, wiping the tears streaming from her eyes, the child nearly tripped several times but reached the tree safely.

And she thought she could escape the humans just like that.

"Whew, look at her run. Hey, because of you I had to sprint in the middle of the night like this."

"Don't these things usually fly around? Why is she so fast on foot?"

"I'm tired so you handle the rest. The master said if we can't capture it alive, we can kill it. Apparently taxidermy specimens sell for a pretty penny too. It's a hassle — should we just kill it? Either way, whether it lives or dies, the boss barely pays us anything."

"Sounds good. Let's just deal with it here and go."

The child had thought she could make it back to the fairies. But having inhaled too much of the poisonous herb smoke, she couldn't even remember which direction she had run from. She had no sense of how to get home, and the humans behind her intended to kill her.

"Everyone, why are you doing this? Killing me won't benefit you. You'll only incur the forest's wrath and never be able to leave! Please give up and go back!"

"Actually? Do you know how much money catching you is worth? Fairy security's gotten so tight lately that this might be our last chance. Catch you, and our families won't have to starve."

"And don't worry about the forest — we'll get out just fine. You're too dizzy to run anyway, right? We'll kill you quick and clean."

These humans were beyond reason — they had made up their minds to kill her. Step by step they advanced, sword and axe in hand, and they no longer looked human to her. They must be possessed by demons. In her eyes, they had become monsters. She had to survive somehow, so she dashed past the tree and fled in any direction.

"She keeps running?"

"Just leave her be. Think of it as playing tag with a pretty girl and run a bit."

"......You disgusting pervert. You go catch her yourself, you creep."

Running, the fairy thought. The poisonous herb's effects had weakened considerably since waking in the cart — she might be able to fly to a certain height now. Could she use this to escape the wingless humans?

The surroundings were dark night, and she was running downhill. The fairy broke into a sprint, then spread her wings and launched upward, momentarily vanishing from the pursuing human's sight. The human, startled to see the fairy airborne again, looked up at the sky searching for her. She crept behind the sky-gazing human and shoved him with all her strength. A tumble down this slope would only leave minor injuries — enough to keep him from following.

But the fairy had overlooked something. The slope wasn't very steep, but the path was lined with trees and brush. The human, scratched and tumbling, couldn't control his fall. At the bottom of the slope, his head struck a tree with terrible force — so hard that the crack of his skull reached the fairy halfway up the hill.

"......Is he dead?"

A fairy must never take a life — they are beings of good. Yet with her own hands, she had pushed a person to his death. She didn't need to go closer to know he was dead. The coppery scent of blood seeped through the forest. Knowing she could never return to the fairies, she clutched the veil on her head and curled up where she stood. She wanted to go back — back to before she had ever met those people, back to the beautiful night forest. She wanted to rewind everything to that moment when she had simply stepped out for an evening stroll.

As the fairy yearned for that 'night,' her hair gradually blended with the surrounding darkness, dyeing black. And yet her longing was so immense that something strange began happening to the veil she clutched. Her yearning had summoned a real 'Night.'

"Wh-what is that! The fairy killed a person......?"

And that 'Night' consumed everything. The other human, failing to notice something strange had appeared in the darkness, approached to check on his fallen comrade, collided with Night, and was drained of life force — withering to death.

Solely from the fairy's wish to 'go back' — a wish steeped not in repentance or remorse, but in jealousy and rage toward humans — God cursed the child so that no one could ever approach her again. She would live for ages upon ages within an eternal night, unable to touch anyone.

Devouring even the lives of the very forest and fairies she had longed for so desperately.

The forest where the fairy who killed a human had lived was devastated within days. Other humans, noticing the anomaly, sent a search party into the forest. The party, who recklessly approached the fairy paid with their lives. The sole survivor escaped the forest and brought word of what the fairy had become. For the sin she had committed, humans stripped her of the name 'fairy' and called her 'Nisa' instead — for the eternal night she had summoned. She was branded one of the most dangerous monsters alive, and an enormous bounty was placed on her head. Many went to slay Nisa for the reward. Many never returned. Before long, the name Nisa became synonymous with calamity, and among those who feared to speak it, she came to bear the alias 'Night Veiled in Shrouds.'

Within the dark night she had summoned, a star appeared for every life she had consumed. Still bearing the form of a fairy, still achingly beautiful, she wandered endlessly with vacant eyes, gazing up at those stars, yearning to return to her friends. Wherever she walked, her black hair trailing behind her, every living thing was snuffed out.

That child never made a friend again.