The first recorded instance of the Gemini condition was actually induced artificially.
The Clan was attempting to create stronger mages, one of their attempts involved using a spell of division to separate one child into two, and then a spell of fusion to temporarily recombine them together.
The Spell of fusion has a side effect that prevents those affected by the spell from being fused together again for several years, which in turn delayed the very temporary separation of the child to last for over a decade.
Sadly the two of them ultimately never lived long enough to recombine.
Instead of creating two Umbran of average strength who would eventually recombine we were left with two sickly children who barely grew into their teens before they both died as a result of their illness.
More 'Natural' Gemini have appeared in the aftermath of the Shattering War, there are all kinds of glitches in the Reincarnation cycle nowadays, one person being reincarnated into multiple people at the same time chief among them those who happen to be the offspring of different alters of the same person.
There are an uncomfortable number of instances of people who were born sickly suddenly becoming healthy while at the same time inheriting the memories of complete strangers.
Celine Sera Rault explaining the Gemini condition
"Isn't he supposed to be a Gemini?" Leon questioned the news about Leo. His Symptoms matched up with what he was told about the condition, with much of the theories surrounding Leo's condition being that the reason why he hasn't awoke from his coma that his soul had vacated his body. The other end of those theories though being that Leon was the one who inherited his soul, a fact that created a... rather nasty argument between his parents and Louise's. Part of his re-entering Alzer was that Celine had to sign a cursed contract that she wouldn't try to do something outrageous like stuffing his soul into Leo's body.
"Mother still doesn't know what's happening to him." Louise was concerned and fearful. "But we've already eliminated every other possibility, the only solution left is that he suddenly woke up and escaped the hospital of his own accord."
"Unleashing one demon in the process taking several more with him." Leon commented dryly. "Should I assume that I was in proximity to him as we approached the hospital has done nothing to dissuade yours or your mother's assumption that I have his soul?" Louise looked off to the side refusing to make eye contact. "That's what I thought. I don't have the dogs with me right now so any help I can currently provide is gonna be done the hard way, through numbers, which reminds me that I have to go to the Adventurers guild."
"Where you left that hussy with her body guards." Louise snapped turning up her nose and crossing her arms, obviously displeased.
"Bro-con." Leon replied bluntly, prompting Louise to go red in the face again, for multiple reasons.
Leon was eventually kicked out of the limousine after that point, but by then he remembered that he has a convenient portal leading back to his ship strapped to his arm and re-entered the Castle.
"My Warden's have gone missing." And ran directly into the familiar meeting room of the Lord of the Castle Dracula. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that?"
"I released three tortured souls from the bondage of the castle. Sue me." Leon replied rather nonchalant.
"Right then." Dracula could do little but sigh in response to the damage already done. "This castle is in a state of war between three forces, my own, the Lords of Shadow and the Acolytes of Satan."
The Accolytes of Satan refers to the offspring of the Demon Lord of Wrath and Light Himself Satan.
Originally a fallen Angel Satan never missed a opportunity to make his hatred for all of humanity known, and as the Shattering War drew close he made his gambit to take dominion over the Earth.
Satan took the lands that the Castle Belonging to his old enemy Dracula stood, the rebuilt Wygol City had become a symbol of hope for humanity, he would claim both it and the lands of his rival signifying his dominion twice over.
Satan spread his spawn among humanity, positioning them in places of power to facilitate his return.
Raisa Volkova was born to the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, manufacturing cures to diseases she herself created while working to spread corrupting influences among the people of the world.
Nergal Meslaamstea became the Head of the World's largest weapons manufacturer, spreading war throughout the world and keeping a elite force of mercenaries in early Armour to fight the enemies of their father.
Guido Szandor infiltrated the Church of the Brotherhood of Light, twisting it's practices to worship his father and become the Dark Churches pope.
Satan's plans however were not meant to be, for on the eve of his return his old enemy Dracula returned as well, regaining his full power in but a night and hunting the Acolytes, striking each of them dead before destroying the soul of Satan himself.
But merely dying is not enough to finish off a demon, while their father had been destroyed each of the souls of the three Acolytes remained, becoming trapped inside of the castle of their hated enemy along with their own respective forces.
To this day they attempt to take control over the castle for themselves.
Excerpt on the politics of Castle Bernhard
"The City of the Damned is among the only places where I can keep the prisoners taken in battle against the enemy, in part because the Gorgons lived there." Leon knew that Death was but a mercy in Inferno, in Bernhard especially. If you do die then you are spared the endless agonies of living in the castle while it puts you back together again, for much the same reasons it's impossible for the Lord to permanently kill off it's enemies as well, victories are taken in prisoners taken captive. "Now you have denied me a precious military asset and stolen the fruits out from under my nose." And while Leon had Dracula's and those under him loyalty it was highly unlikely the same held for the Acolytes of Satan or the Lords of Shadow.
"Yeah I need to find someone to fill in for this don't I?" Leon asked as he awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "How long do I have to figure this out?" In lieu of an answer the Vampire raised his hand and used his power to push Leon out of the castle, spitting him out at the Adventurers guild.
"Right. Good talk." Leon came back to the Guild to discover that it's training yard was occupied.
Chris and Greg were in the middle of a sparring match, using a sword and spear respectively while Noelle was watching them off in a corner, if the light of mana in her eyes was any indication Leon had a pretty good idea of what was going on.
"Hello idiots." Brad and Julius actually flinched at that, much as it pained them to admit that they were getting used to being called by Leon's insults by this point. "Lemme guess, you five knew that I've been making attempts to protect this girl so of course you took the initiative to train her based on the few lessons that I gave you all back in Holfort."
"Of course!" Julius harrumphed as he gave a sneer with an upturned nose. "We're not completely incompetent!" That's not something to brag about.
"Oh? So you've accounted for the differences between men and women's bodies when you began training her?" Leon asked his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"The what?"
Without another word Leon slammed his hand down on top of Julius's head in a karate chop with enough force to render him unconscious sending him sprawling out on the floor.
"Attention Idiots 2-5!" At Leon's shout Brad, Greg, Chris and Jilk all stood ram rod straight at attention, lining up in front of Leon like obedient soldiers. Leon would like to say that he has them trained well, but then they go behind his back and do stupid shit like this. "A man has his centre of gravity located in his chest and is built for strength, a woman has her centre of gravity located in her hips and is built for flexibility, their respective fighting style reflects this difference." Noelle suddenly sighed like she just realised she was wasting her time. "So understanding this you went out of your way to find someone with the same body type as Noelle who was also proficient in the Devil Arm I gave her to use so that she could copy her movements instead." If the pale faced Quadrio of idiots was any indication they did not. "Brad, Jilk and Marie will resume their lessons with Noelle." Marie was a half decent brawler, and although skinnier than Noelle the church managed to push her height to roughly match. "In the mean time the other three can go keep an eye on some demons for me while I attempt to make arrangements for a half decent guard dog." A bloody portal appeared beneath the feet of Chris, Greg and a recovering Julius and sucked them into the City of the Damned. "For you." Leon held out the four Kusarigama that Noelle's previous weapon had become.
"I'm not a great expert on Devil Arms, but I'm pretty sure that's a two handed weapon." Marie stated as she picked up one of the weapons in question and handed it to Noelle.
"Fine." Leon rolled his eyes and put the other three back into the void, and Noelle's weapon disappeared. "Oh my, it's almost as if there was a reason why I handed her all four." And thus Leon took the four weapons out of the void again and handed them all to Noelle. "We wrap these chains around you like this..."
"Wait my ankles too?"
"Trust me this is normal for him." Soon Noelle was wearing all four of the Kusarigama on her four limbs, the chains going up to her knees and elbows.
"I look ridiculous." Noelle summed up her opinion on the matter.
"Try and throw a punch at the target over there." Noelle looked at the wooden dummy, assumed an amateur's stance, before she threw a fist at the target, the blade and chain with it flew off of Noelle's arm and reached out and bit into the target, when she drew back her hand the chain flew off on it's own and re-wrapped itself around her arm.
"Should I assume that the same goes for my kicks?" Noelle concluded that weapon wielding was a lot easier when the weapon in question is both alive and actively cooperating with the wielder.
"More than likely yes." Leon commented as he scratched the back of his head.
"We still have a problem, I can't just walk around with a bunch of blades tied to my arms, for one thing I don't even have a license to carry." Not even Great Nobles were allowed to wander the streets armed with Drop Weapons, not to mention that just owning a weapon required that you have a license. "If that's the case then you can just put them into the void like what I do." Leon commented as he pulled out one of the four Horsemen to show the group.
"Wait you can teach that?" Marie looked shocked and appalled at the highly convenient storage magic that she could've been using all this time. "I assumed that was just some weird demon Quirk!"
"None of you asked." And Leon wouldn't bother to teach them if they asked.
"Damn it!" Marie in the meantime cursed missing out, she had a whole list of things that she would do with her own personal storage space.
"Pick a memory and channel magical energy into it." In Midgard memories were just bits of people's past that they already experienced, in Inferno and Paradiso memories are immortalised as locations, continuously stacking on top of one another and forming new pathways as time goes on. "You'll open your personal space in Purgatorio with enough time. Try and learn a bit more about them for now. In the mean time." Leon turned to Dante, returning the blades that he borrowed from him. "I'm in a hurry, are there any Devil arms for sale right now?" Dante knocked on a door and opened up a warehouse.
"Your God father steals all the ones I collect anyway, have a ball."
Greg, Chris and Julius were all dumped into an active volcano, the air sweltered with heat and there was various demonic monsters locked away in cages.
"Is this a dungeon?" Chris asked and Julius was the first on his feet.
"This is our opportunity! We need to grind here as much as possible if we want to get a leg up on Leon!" Suddenly a huge monster was dropped behind them, slowly turning around the three of them were met by a three headed beast, a huge dog with one head on fire, one laced with icicles, and one sparkling with electricity. And that was how the fools got a new job as minions to the new boss of the City of the Damned, a King Cerberus.
Leon continued with his lessons for Noelle during the day, and hunted in the Tree Tops Dungeon during the night. He didn't do anything as boorish as to sneak in without anyone's permission, he properly obtained the permission of the Raults to enter the dungeon, generously giving them the harvested Afyd honey as compensation while he kept the Halos he harvested. It beat jumping off the side of the Sacred Tree again.
During the day the now Day Walking Vampires, disguised as Elven maids, along the Werewolves, who resembled Wolf Type Demi-humans, spent their days handing out flyers for the various Blackmore Cafe's opening in Alzer and starting work there themselves all while keeping an eye out for any sign of Leo.
In the meantime Angelica and Olivia were continuing their studies. Olivia had reached a compromise in her studies of Life Code, focusing her research on altering the life code of various plants and micro-organisms found in the soil, Cleare was providing her own expertise as well.
"As I thought I'm better with animals than plants." Olivia looked down at a potted weed and held her hand over it as the plant glowed, soon a bulge appeared starting at the roots before travelling up the stem before forcing its way out of the head of the weed revealing itself as a cute little bumble bee. It would be good if Olivia could do things like mass producing disease resilient crops or engineer more nutritious fruits, but for now she was satisfied turning garden pests into garden helpers. Angelica continued to get studying advice and consumables from Rodin's statue.
"So that's how he did it." Angelica knew about the principles behind how the Trinity of Reality works, but the notion of carrying a piece of it around with you for personal storage was outrageous, like someone having personal island towed everywhere just so that they can have all their belongings with them at all times. Angelica pulled out another weapon from the void she created, a red deringer type pistol. "Should I try to summon him?"
There was much Angelica didn't know about the process, the technical application for one, but also what effect it has on Leon. She's seen Leon summon himself, or more accurately parts of himself, using his arms to fight against the Black Knight or in the Bernhard Dungeon. Leon himself once said that normally you aim to summon only a part of a demon when you fight, when Angelica asked Leon later he explained that his Mum lost control of a summon once and it injured his mother. For now Angelica has established her goal.
"Right, I should master partial summoning first." Fenix would be Angie's test subject, then she'd move on to try and summoning Leon. "Even if I do make a plan like that Fenix is still out of commission." Angie thought about it some more. "Should I try and find those two again?" Angelica left her two Salamandra to grind in the fire area, and gather information about the movements of the demonic tribes therein for her, now it may be time for her to gather the fruits of her labours in the dungeon.
In the mean time Loic continued to observe Noelle from afar, the fact that the Red Head hadn't done anything yet made him even more unsettling than if he had just decided to act, and even more concerning he was regularly meeting with another of Noelle's least favourite people.
"She hasn't been back home since practically the school year started." Leila stated tray of food in hand as she sat down in front of Loic.
"Unsurprising, she likely doesn't feel safe at home, I doubt there is a single place in all of Alzer she does feel safe in." Loic replied in a monotone. "How is the ship coming along?"
"The Warlock has made a good distraction, and thanks to his incapacitation of the various Great Noble heads I've been able to finish conducting maintenance. All we need to do is get her away from the Warlock long enough, preferably without him noticing." Loic's explanation was cold and calculated, if there was another person looking at them as they talked they wouldn't think that there was a conversation between two people that was taking place here. And Perhaps if the third party arrived here a few moments earlier then the mystery might've been revealed sooner.
As it stood Louise arrived when the two figures were already deep into their meal together.
"We need to talk Barielle." Louise stated as she sat down at the table.
"Are you referring to my past relationship with Noelle?" Loic spoke about what's supposed to be his main obsession like he was talking about the weather. "My apologies for my attempts to deprive you of your chew toy, witch."
Louise nearly popped a vein at Loic's insult.
"Dalliances with commoner stock don't interest me Loic." Sufficiently prodded Louise sat down at the table with the two individuals already at the table whose conversation she inserted herself into. "From what I've heard the nature of your advances have reflected poorly on the conduct expected from a Great Noble."
"My behaviour has been precisely what people expect of a Great Noble." Loic countered bluntly. "None the less I am taking measures to correct it."
"Is that where you disappeared off during the summer break?" Louise asked brow cocking suspiciously. "You seemed to drop off the map for two months and when you returned your personality has taken on a complete 180 degree turn. If I didn't know better I would say that you were a completely different person." In lieu of an answer an item was dropped on the counter by Loic, a shackle-esque collar made from a ring of wood and with a chain made from plant fibres connected to a cuff that was also carved from a piece of wood. "Where did you get that!?"
"I do not go poking into your family's personal affairs, at least not intentionally." Loic tapped on the collar and shackle, a purple flame bursting out as the magic item made from the Sacred Tree's wood was turned into ashes. "I would appreciate the same courtesy paid to me." With that Loic got up to leave.
"I do not know what you are accusing me of." Louise clenched her fist as her crest activated and a wall of roots sprung up blocking the pair's path. "But now the number of things I have to ask you about has risen exponentially."
The two oddly behaving figures turned around to face Louise. 'Duels' in Alzer were a little less spectacular than what most people think, typically when a 'fight' breaks out between two greater Nobles the situation tends to devolve into a clash of the two crests, between those of equal standing, such as two Great Nobles of equal power, they end up neutralising each other's influence, between individuals of greater and lower standing, a Guardian against most everyone else, the stronger crest neutralises the weaker rendering the other helpless to the whims of the Guardian. As a rule it was the method most encouraged by the Greater Noble Families, not only did it reduce the chances of casualties appearing but it also reinforces the absolute power of the Sacred Tree.
"Now I suggest that you ans-" Louise had the air taken out from her, Loic had abruptly turned around and grabbed hold of the table the three of them had been using and charged, slamming the piece of furniture into Louise's stomach and then running forward and slamming her into the wall, no crest of any kind in sight on him.
"This will move up our time table." Lelia stared in simple terms.
"Indeed." Loic agreed to Lelia's assessment. "We'll need to prepare a distraction."
"Excuse me!" Louise's tone of incredulous rage reflected her anger quite nicely. "But I believe that was un-" Loic didn't give Louise the time to finish her snap, throwing his fist at her hard enough to put his fist into concrete, even if the wall was hollow cinder blocks filled with insulating foam that was still impressive, if Louise didn't move her head out of the way in time it would be bad. "Were you out dungeon diving over the Break?" A familiar hat and wand combo appeared on Louise's person. "You're even stronger than my brother Serge is when we spar!"
Alakazam: A witches tool kit. A hat and wand combo created using the feathers of the demon Ziz and the Witch Malphas.
The wand Ala manipulates the wind, unleashing slashing gusts of wind and guiding the magic spells of the Hat Kazam.
Kazam contains it's own pocket dimension, filled to the brim with a variety of cursed torture tools used in the deaths of Clan Witches, each of them designed to inflict unspeakable agony, and cursed with spells of increasing pain and inducing madness.
Together the two items have the potential to inflict devastating agony onto their opposition when wielded by a skilled member of the clan.
Excerpt from Rodin's Weapons Catalogue
"Tell yourself whatever you want witch!" Loic walked over to the wall and tore a rather thick pipe off to use as a weapon.
"Don't call me a witch!" Few members of the clan would take offence at being called a witch, they are after all known as the Umbran Witches. However few things sting like having something that you take pride in flung at you as a curse, especially by some disrespectful little maggot! Louise blocked the swing from the pipe and pushed the other Great Noble back, with a second swing of her wand Louise threw him off, and with a third she fired off a rather unusual projectile attack, a massive spiked wheel was conjured from the void of space and sent rolling at Loic, the young man catching the wheel with his bare hands before tossing it aside. "If that is not enough to stop you!" Louise started swinging the wand around again, suddenly wooden stakes appeared in Loics arms, legs and torso, teleported there directly via Louise's Devil Arm. "You brought this on yourself Loic!" Louise calmed down from her temper tantrum walking over to the now defeated Greater Noble. "Now I suggest you cooperate with the people who come to pick you up if you-Ack!" Louise was picked up by her throat.
"Unfortunately for you I neither require nor have any use for a healer." A Newman's body is capable of a lot of things, especially when they're connected to an unlimited supply of mana like through a Sacred Tree crest. Superhuman strength, speed, endurance, not to mention any number of magic spells. Something that it shouldn't be capable of was pushing objects out of the wounds just by healing, nor should Loic's arm be turning into silver and rearranging itself to accommodate the stake in his arm to use as a weapon. Most notable, as Louise was only now realising, Loic hadn't once called upon his own Sacred Crest the entire fight. "On the contrary, this entire exchange has been rather counter productive to my goals. I'll leave you alive, purely as a favour to Celene, with the expectation that she will not interfere with my goals."
And then Louise lost consciousness.
Leon had prepared a motley array of sweets for the meeting. Cinnamon buns, Strawberry Shortcake, and of course the Blackmore Coffee that he was planning to sell in his cafe, Celene was quite pleased, Holfort's etiquette classes had paid off well for her nephew, there was however one minor point of annoyance.
"Leon, there is a fly buzzing around your head, be a dear and move so that I can swat it."
"That 'fly' is who wanted to meet you." As Leon explained the grey red eyed orb in question emerged from behind Leon.
"Greetings Mrs. Rault, I-" A loud crunch echoed out as the remains of Luxion's drone was dropped from the air, a stake skewering the drone, and landed on the floor. "Much better." Now that there was no more flies buzzing around Celene could enjoy her snack in peace.
"That was a rather extreme reaction." Leon waved over one of his Vampire maids and had her clean up the mess.
"The terms I believe you are looking for are 'appropriate, measured or reasonable.'" Celene explained as she bit into a rather Gooey eclair.
"Not without a proper explanation no." Leon stated as he looked at Celene rather concerned.
"That AI has been kicking around since well before the world broke down. Malfunctioning almost as long." Celene took another bite of her Eclair and chewed it thoroughly.
"You and Luxion know each other?" Leon asked cocking his brow in confusion, that didn't line up with the explanation he received.
"Is that what it's calling itself now?" Celene asked cocking a suspicious brow. "Great. It's inventing new names for itself now."
"How exactly do you know each other?" Leon asked as he tried to steer this conversation into a remotely helpful direction. "We were working together in the years after the Shattering, it was the AI in charge of the facility where we engineered the Sacred Tree, a warship, at the time the ship's crew was calling the AI Idea."
"A warship was being used to conduct research into genetic alteration?" Leon was surprised at that statement.
"There wasn't exactly a lot of laboratories left after the planet broke." Point taken. "Nor had it taken the inevitable deaths of its entire crew very well either. Add in a few hundred years to stew in it's own obsession and run out of replacement parts and the realisation that the Sacred Tree that we worked to create to try and make the planet habitable again, they're literal Bloom of Hope, has been warped into a tool that these lunatics use to enslave and oppress Alzer."
"Thus why you're insisting that the AI has been malfunctioning but not your overwhelming hostility towards it." Leon stated bluntly. "Care to elaborate on that?"
Celene took a sip of her coffee, a conversational pause as she considered how to word her next statement.
"Are you aware of the fact that you are reincarnated?" Leon cocked a suspicious brow at his aunt as he awaited further elaboration. "You, me, that house plant over there, your little vampire minions, that bird tweeting outside, all of us are reincarnated. Souls while not a fixed resource are formed extremely slowly, so the powers that be reuse as many of them as possible." Leon agreed to the concept, he had learned about it as part of the clan's regular lessons. "Normally things like thoughts, feelings, memories and personality are shed between reincarnations, giving birth to demons and angels." As they should be, otherwise they'd all end up like Lea. "That said there is one thing that remains consistent across reincarnations." Celene tapped on her face, indicating her eyes. "'Eyes are windows to the Soul.' People don't know how literal that phrase really is." Leon recalled a explanation from Nick.
"So the machine is using facial recognition programs to look for it's old crew members?" Leon asked as he thought about it more. "And it's been using those drones to check them one by one?"
"No actually." Celine stated bluntly. "After the Shattering and we started to build up Alzer it effectively built up Alzer's industrial base." Even if it was currently in a warship it was still an AI, able to transfer between one body to another, any number of factories in Alzer for instance. It might not be Luxion's factory ship but thanks to the Sacred Tree Alzer's dungeons as the lowest level of Mana in the world, and they had the support of the Umbran to get the machinery and tech base to the point that it can function despite the mana in the air. A few hundred years on repeat of that and Alzer is what it is today. "Using that it built all sorts of hidden surveillance tools into Alzer, mostly mirrors in public places."
"The kinds of spots that people would stick their faces into a lot." Leon observed as he let out a sigh.
"It engages in a cycle of dormancy and activity, its personality becoming more unstable each time." Celene pulled up her shirt, revealing a faded scar going across her side. "Last time it even attacked me, calling me a liar for getting it's hopes up." Celine put her shirt back down as she resumed eating Leon's deserts. "So now it's no longer allowed in my presence or on clan grounds."
"Well that tracks I guess. Marie and Erica didn't regain their memories until like 800 years had gone by or something." Leon explained with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Marie and Erica?" Celene asked looking at Leon suspiciously.
"People who retain their memories of their lives from eight hundred years ago." Leon explained as he took a draft of his own coffee.
"Excuse me?" Celene looked terrified at the news. And as she was about to address her concerns.
"Mistress Celene!" Her driver suddenly ran into Leon's Cafe. "Mistress Louise has been taken!" And thus the day immediately grew much worse.
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: It is, giant poisonous toads and homicidal fire breathing mermaids besides the point. Personally before they make a new DMC I think they should release proper remakes for the first three games, and fix 2's many problems in the process. Reboot's gameplay was top tier, even series creator Hideaki Itsuno has flat out stated that he took cues from 4's special edition and 5 from the Reboot, it's just a shame that they only got Gameplay right and botched Plot, artwork and Characterisation.