FINAL INVESTIGATION

[strangerpeople]

FINAL INVESTIGATION


[Fifteen X-Passes. Six weeks. Freedom at last.



But it's not the end. Of course it's not. There are questions to answer, and souls to save. And now that the group is outside, they can see where they are.

They are inside a massive cavern, illuminated in an eerie green light, standing on a stone path. On one side is the ship-or rather, a massive, ship-shaped tangle of bloody branches, the trunk-like roots snaking out and into the river its buoyed on, as well as into the ceiling of stalactites. Said river is wine dark, but it's clearly not water. No-it is blood.

And on the other side of their little pathway? A root-encrusted palace. It sits over a labyrinthine city, bathed in emerald, and all is eerily silent save for some sounds coming from within the castle. It's clear the infestation somehow started here. And it is here that answers are likely to be found.

The doors are right in front of the group-and they are already open, covered in branches. From the outside, it seems little more than a ruin. Once everyone goes in, though?




It's even worse. The tree has taken over. Whatever lives here is no longer in charge. There's no easy way to disentangle the Qilphoth from this place. But there is life here, somehow. You can see figures entangled within the roots as you explore. And-they are still, somehow, alive. More than alive. They are beings that bleed ichor instead of blood-beings of incredible divinity and power. They are gods. And they are hostage to the tree, forever and ever, trapped in induced ennui, unless something is done.


So welcome, Strangers, to the House of Hades.]







[Once you enter, the investigation shall begin.


Good luck.]



((OoC: And here are team assignments!))

Comments

[exequte]

Hubert...! Daddy...!!

[she cannot believe they are ganging up on her like this OH, THE HUMANITY.]

[lovedthemost]

[he tilts his head a bit, curious]

General mystery is what I meant, yes. What did you mean?

[pegasinister]

So much bullying...

[unpossibilities]

I think Akane is nice and I, for one, am grateful to have her.

[he's. a good boy. arf. arf.]

[exequte]

[She lifts a hand, a little limply, before letting it fall again.

She can't touch him, not yet, but....

She wishes.]

Good.

Don't try to push me away again, okay?

Essay Warning, I MEAN it

[superstylishsquid]

You know your asking for a textbook, right? I'll give the Cliffnotes version, then you can ask me to expand on things.

The Umbra Witches are an ancient and noble clan, alongside the Lumen Sages, that dates back to the earliest days of humanity. Aesir, the god of the human world, saw the young humans blindly following their fated paths, incapable of true free will, and so He took pity on them and divided Himself. He granted them His Eyes, the ability to see through the world and oversee the threads of fate, splitting them between two major clans of spiritually powerful humans. The woman who received the Left Eye of Darkness became the first Umbra Witch, and the man who received the Right Eye of Light became the first Lumen Sage.

The Umbra clan spread all over the world, adopting in women who had powerful spiritual energy and taught them the secrets of Witchcraft. They made pacts with devils of the underworld for secrets and greater power, while the Lumen made pacts with angels for the same. The price for such dark power was that no matter their actions, their souls would be irrevocably tainted by Darkness, and they would be claimed by Inferno at the exact moment of their deaths. Some Witches were able to adapt to the underworld and become powerful devils themselves, but since their pacts had no influence on where they landed...most just ended up devoured by opportunistic devils looking for the power boost such a magically dense soul provided.

Most modern media depicts Witches as evil servants of rapacious devils, but that's a fairly recent depiction. The truth is, Witches and Sages originally operated in a tense alliance and protected the balance of the human world. They paid their contracted devils in blood, sure, but anything like sacrifice of innocents was the result of cultures completely under the sway of particularly nasty devils. For the most part, we took payment in the blood of those who threatened the Witches or their homes, including other demons that preyed on humans rather than coexisting with them.

The Eyes of the World were passed down through the two clans for millennia, overseeing the passage of time and keeping reckless usages of Time magic from damaging the world. Maybe as a consequence, both clans developed their own take on a minor Time spell that allowed them to move impossibly fast compared to everything else. Some were more talented in that regard than others, like Cleopatra, or... [He hesitates, tail flicking awkwardly.] Or Dante and Vergil's mother, Eva. But for most, turning the adrenaline of a close dodge into a few precious moments of slowing time for everything around them was the most they could muster.

That symbol you found was a major part of another spell that the Umbra and Lumen each had their own version of. It formed the center of a temporary gateway providing access to the realm of Purgatorio, where the mortal world, Hell, and Heaven all overlapped. From there, you're invisible to those without the magical capacity to see into it, but also can't interact with most living things that only exist on one of the other planes. If you see objects moving on their own or spontaneously breaking, it's a sign that someone is present on Purgatorio.

...The reason most stories of Witches these days paint them in a negative light is because of the Witch Hunts. I don't know why, I was...incapacitated at the time, but about five-hundred years ago? The Lumen decided to declare war on the Umbra. Though history books on the subject say the Lumen clan perished first, they'd already turned the rest of the world against the Umbra, and the Witches were hunted down by the same people they'd once protected, their souls consigned to Hell. Maybe some of them managed to become devils in their own right, but the only survivor I've heard evidence of was Eva...and she died twenty years before I met Dante.

[exequte]

[You know what just for that she is going to bully him in the most efficient way she knows.

Namely--a little carefully, mindful of his ribs still being hurt--she reaches up, laughing, and pulls his head down before kissing him solidly on the cheek.]

[exequte]

Thank you, Kaito! It's good to know somebody appreciates me.

[somuchshipping]

Random, confusing, bizarre mysteries.

[countingme]

[ There's a little pause. ]

W-wow!

[ It sounds a bit... choked up, maybe? But goes on more cheerfully. ]

I'm glad he's got more people who can understand him!

[yesorwoof]

[Makima touches her temple to remind him that she has a headache from transcribing all the tapes, though it's not really clear why this would be so hard. She also has to conserve her energy for actually using them in swordnado. But she will now telekinetically help with something more modest in size she can find - there's a big sword as well as a javelin in the picture, why not those. They can split the five items between the three of them.]

[superstylishsquid]

Not the words, at least not yet, but it's not that hard to get the gist of what he means.

...Then again, I guess I am pretty used to people whose speech is limited to specific sounds.

[yesorwoof]

No, no. I'm sorry I doubted you. I should have guided you more.

[Though... into what? He'll never know.]

In the end... do you trust Moriarty-kun? Don't think he left anything out of his first letter?

[countingme]

All I know is most people find it really tough to communicate with him! I don't really see it. Sure, he doesn't say much, but I never have any trouble!

Are you some sort of god?

[not_a_lego_maniac]

...oddly, it...does.

[superstylishsquid]

I'm...something called a demon-god. A devil with strong enough power over important aspects of the world that we might as well be gods as far as mortals are concerned.

[strangerpeople]

[Well, whatever else is out of place, it might have to do with the gold light coming from the corner near the entrance, right?]

[godspiousjasper]

[ While he won't interrupt Alastor's explanation?

That sure is Roland coming up, kissing the devil on the cheek and carefully wrapping his arms around his waist while resting his head on his boyfriend's shoulder.

Just quietly listening. Don't mind him. ]

[strangerpeople]

[No, but there is a console that seems to be accessible.]

[not_a_lego_maniac]

....So I know how to sword fight, but. I'm not sure what else there is. Other than...I guess petting a giant three-headed dog.

[not_a_lego_maniac]

You killed me!! What gives, mate!?

[onychomance]

[... Gold light again, huh. Any similarity to the one from his closet?

WELL, he will check it out. It's better than disturbing the tree.]

[strangerpeople]

[It looks like the pot was just containing dirt. And the plants look nothing like the tree.]

EVIDENCE

[strangerpeople]

[There's very little similarity to the light the revival orb emitted. Indeed, the item emitting the light is still there, surrounded by a rainbow aura.





It should also be noted that this column and the ground around it are completely untouched by the roots of the tree.]

[yesorwoof]

[Plants and tree are also not at all similar in smell either? Perhaps because the tree is instead alive?]