Order is maintained through the enforcement of laws.  This truth was firmly believed by one wise ruler of a prosperous yet crime-ridden land.

  The criminal element in his lands proved unphaseable by all the punishment his guards could conceive of.  The jails could not hold them, for they had many friends in the town who proved most capable at breaking them out.  Fines were only purloined back from the guard force itself.  Trying to bar the criminal element proved useless as well, for the borders were too vast to secure fully.  The ruler of this crime plagued land was at his wits end.

  The royal wizard offered the ruler a solution, though it was a terrible thing.  Through the use of ancient and dark magics, the evil inside a person could be given demonic flesh.  Demons being what they are, the victim would surely be consumed by his own sins.  This plan seemed extreme, but the ruler was quite desperate.  A pit was constructed, and when next a vile criminal was caught violating the laws of the land, he was tossed inside for the wizard to work his magics.

  The horrible bloodbath that ensued gave those in attendance nightmares for a moon.  The shadow hunger had left naught but a pair of bloody boots in the pit.  With its host vanquished, the shadow beast simply disappeared.

  At first this new punishment for criminals was just rumor among the criminal world.  But as more and more of their friends vanished without a trace, they began to believe.  The crime rate dropped, then.  The ruler thanked his wizard and thought his plan had succeeded in restoring law to a lawless town.  ...But criminals are a very crafty lot.

  Crime all but vanished under the threat of the shadow hungers for a full moon.  Then a lone masked man appeared at the center of town, attacking anyone who came close to him.  The guards lost several of their number subduing this foe.  Once inside the pit, the wizard shuddered to think of how horrible the beast that would spring from this one's black soul would be.  The ruler ordered the casting nonetheless, for law must be strictly enforced in his view.

  The wizard let loose his spell, which crackled through the air towards its victim.  The masked man smiled, chanting words of his own.  The spell was deflected by the masked man's spell, and crackled back out of the pit, straight towards the town ruler.

  The others in attendance ran for cover from the approaching magic, but the ruler simply stood and smiled.  For he was the righteous enforcer of law and order, he had nothing to fear from this spell.  That same confident smile was fixed upon his face as his head parted ways with his neck.

  The town went on to try to find a new ruler, someone to continue the war on crime.. Someone who perhaps knew a simple enough lesson:

  There is no absolute good nor absolute evil.