Memento Iron Maiden

**Wielder(s)** | Austin Creed (Formerly)

**Memento Iron Maiden**, also known as **Merciful Maiden's Cold Embrace**, is the Ancient Gear wielded by Austin Creed of the Astra Team. It is listed as one of the nineteen Longinus, said to be the wickedest of them all.

## Summary

One of the nineteen Longinus, it is currently owned by the man Austin Creed, an alumnus of the Nephilim Institute.

Despite its appearance and fame, Memento Iron Maiden was originally a Ancient Gear used to give solace and comfort for those 'who weren't ready to face death', giving terminally ill or dying ones a quick and painless death. Once their bodies were engulfed by the Iron Maiden, their shades were store inside a jewel on the user's hand and, on command, it could summon them to the living world as ethereal spirits, guiding them in accepting their deaths and come in terms with it until said spirit was ready to pass to the afterlife, being also able to take one spirit's appearance, memories and feelings in order to solace their respective loved ones.

## Appearance

Memento Iron Maiden takes the shape of a gigantic floating Iron maiden torture device with a coffin-shaped form with several spikes spread all over its body and a saint-like form on top of it. In the middle, there is an entrance by two doors that reveals the spiky interior as well.

Memento Iron Maiden has also several chains tied to itself and linked to Austin's back in order to follow him by floating.

## Abilities

The Ancient gear takes the form of a Iron Maiden with the ability to instantly kill those who the user touches under certain conditions. Once the target is caught and caged inside the Ancient Gear, his/her death is painless and instantaneous, leaving no body behind. Once the body is destroyed, their Shades, a lingering part of their soul, is stored inside a jewel on the user's hand and with it, the user can summon the spirit in a physical form, which once destroyed will be stored yet again inside the jewel for later use. The user has total control other said shades, and it can even use the original abilities they had in life, including Ancient Gears, magical knowledge and inherited powers.

Moreover, the user can also change their appearance of the said shades, being able to retain and absorb their memories, feelings, knowledge and even use of their Ancient Gears, meaning Austin is able to use several other Ancient Gears as long as he keeps one's appearance long enough, also enabling him to take one's identity for espionage and information gathering. It's ultimate ability, however, is the ability of the user be able to escape death by changing places with a shade, destroying said shade in it's place, being able to use this several times as long as there are shades left.

Due to it's size and shape, Memento Iron Maiden can also be used as a shield, being tall enough to protect both Austin and the captured Pyrene at the same time.

### Conditions

In order to be used and be fully developed, Memento Iron Maiden must obey a certain number of conditions since it was originally a benevolent Ancient Gear with altruistic intentions. Even with its corruption, Ichijou must still follow said rules to fully grasp the sacred Gear's power and potential:

* First and foremost, the target must fear death.
* The target must be caught and be physically caged inside the Ancient Gear by Austin only. If this condition is not met or is met but the first one isn't, the Iron Maiden won't have any effect.
* The target must believe or at least fear that Austin has any change of killing him or her, in other words, they must dread the user. This condition can be circled around by the user slowly destroying its target's pride, until they start to believe they're vulnerable and killable.
* The user can only summon a couple of spirits for combat at a time, depending of its power and control over the Ancient Gear. Moreover, the user must use their own stock of stamina in order to summon and control one, otherwise the shade might become self-aware and be unable to follow its orders.
* The user can only take one appearance at a time, meaning they are unable to use multiple Ancient Gears at once.

### Weaknesses

Memento Iron Maiden must strictly follow said set of rules, and if any of them are not met, no matter which, the Ancient Gear won't have any effect, leaving the user vulnerable. Moreover, the limitations one has over summoned shades are proportional to that one's stamina and concentration, and any interruption will cause the shade to be able to grasp self-awareness and even disobey the user's orders. Since the shades are still spirits, they are vulnerable to exorcism and other sealing techniques, which might lower the number of Shades Austin can have at the time.

## Trivia

* The name of the Ancient Gear is a reference to Memento Mori, which means "remember you shall die". The medieval Latin Christian theory and practice of reflection on mortality, especially as a means of considering the vanity of earthly life and the transient nature of all earthly goods and pursuits.