"DEADuctions!" follows the intertwining paths of Hyozo, a young man drawn into a world of mysterious powers and dark rituals, and Davita, a determined officer tasked with thwarting the malevolent COLLECTORS who seek to exploit these powers. As their...
In the shadowed corridors of the unseen world, where the currency of souls was traded with the reverence of a sacred, yet profane ritual, the COLLECTORS navigated the delicate balance between life and death. Each had been plucked from the precipice of their own mortality, their bodies once ravaged by disease or shattered by calamity. They were the chosen, or perhaps the cursed—those who had been granted a second chance through the COLLECTORS COAT, a mantle of power that came with a price of its own.
The COAT did more than cloak them in new abilities; it wove into their very essence, mending broken flesh and silencing the relentless march of terminal cells. Without it, they would crumble, their borrowed time expiring like the last embers of a dying flame. The COAT was a lifeline, a chain that bound them to their role, tethering their continued existence to the duties of their title.
As COLLECTORS, they were tasked with the sacred rite of taxation, presiding over the transactions between the desperate and the arcane. It was a role they could not refuse, for their own survival was intricately linked to the fulfillment of their office. They were the arbiters of the Mystic Ceremony of Insanity, the gatekeepers who judged the worth of each tax and determined the power it might yield.
There were, the COLLECTORS knew, four means through which one could attempt to harness the elusive forces they guarded, although the full breadth of this knowledge was kept veiled from the uninitiated. The first was the Deducted Limbs, a grim offering that spoke of sacrifice and loss, where the hopeful severed a piece of their physical being in the pursuit of power. It was an act viewed with revulsion by the masses, a path chosen only by those whose desperation outstripped their fear.
The second was the Deducted Items, where one's most cherished possessions were surrendered. These were offerings that bore the weight of sentiment and history, and thus were seen as noble, a relinquishing of material ties for the sake of something greater.
Third came the Deducted Memories, the most enigmatic and sadistic of taxes. Here, the supplicants offered up slivers of their past, erasing moments of joy and pain alike, sacrificing the very fabric of their identity for the promise of power. It was a tax that demanded a part of one's soul, a trade that many would balk at, yet some would embrace with a masochistic zeal.
The COLLECTORS themselves were a testament to the potency of these offerings, their presence a constant reminder of the system's efficacy. Yet, the fourth tax remained unspoken, a secret known only to the COLLECTORS and those few who dared to walk the darkest paths of power. It was a knowledge guarded closely, for its implications were far-reaching and its consequences dire.
In the dim light of the Chain Realm, where the COLLECTORS resided when not fulfilling their role, they whispered among themselves of the choices they had made, the lives they had left behind, and the future they had been forced to embrace. Each had accepted the COAT with the hope of transcending their frailties, only to find themselves bound to a service that was both their salvation and their prison.
As the world beyond remained oblivious to the COLLECTORS' plight, the mystic ceremonies continued, the taxes collected, and the powers granted. It was a cycle as old as the COLLECTORS' collective memory, a dance of desire and consequence that would soon welcome a new participant—one whose offering would challenge the very foundations of their understanding.
For now, the COLLECTORS waited, their COATS a shield against the decay of their mortal forms, their eyes ever watchful for the next petitioner to step forward into the light—or the shadows—of the Ceremony of Insanity.
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{Taxable categories} *Ceremony of Insanity* ~Tax bracket~ Deducted Limbs (1) ~Viewed as bad~| Deducted Memories (3) ~Viewed as sadistic~| Deducted Items (2) ~Viewed as noble~|Deducted (xxxx) (4) ~Viewed as Wicked~|
Rule 1 of offering: One may ONLY suggest what they want their power to be when offering their tax to COLLECTORS.
COLLECTORS: a group of individuals with severe body ailments, tasked with providing individuals with the necessary rituals to obtain their power based off the tax offered.
COLLECTORS COAT: is a term for the enhanced physical and mental abilities the COLLECTORS are gifted when tasked with the title, COLLECTOR.
Chain Realm: realm specifically made for the COLLECTORS. They can be called to this realm spontaneously where they are to place each offering within its proper place.
