Tales of the West : Infernal Desire Voyager

**Tales of the West : Infernal Desires Voyager**is a Story Arc of the the Exteria Multiverse. It takes place in Avalon and follows the perspective of the young exorcist Mary Maark. It is a sequel to Tales of the West : Night of Fractal Horizon and is followed by Tales of the West : Cloudless Sky Reckoning.

## Main Arc

### Through the Gates of Hell

Mary Maark is waken up in the night by Utopia, who informs her that Sayaka Chuda has disappeared. She has probably been taken to hell. Panicked, Mary asks for Utopia to send her to hell. Utopia accepts, after granting Mary a fragment of power from three people of her choice : herself, Sigrid Fafnir, and Mephilia Fatus.

On the road to hell, she finds the mischievous spirit Jacqueline Lantern and the screaming banshee Morrie Kerina who respectively bar her path. She defeats them quickly, intent on saving Sayaka as fast as she can. She then faces the guardian of the gates of hell, Beatrice Circliagina, who tests her hope and courage, but quickly acknowledges Mary's talent and abilities. Mary can pass.

In Avalon's deserted Hell, Mary confronts Shamsielle Tenkuro, wandering aimlessly. Shamsielle asks Mary to give up on Sayaka, and she brutally refuses, confronting Shamsielle until the latter admits her defeat. She then tells her the truth : Sayaka has lost her name due to a binding ritual gone wrong and is a prisoner of hell, captured by the thing she made a pact with. Shamsielle then guides Mary towards her.

### Saving the Nameless

Mary confronts a nameless Sayaka who apologizes and absentmindedly attacks her. Mary uses Mephilia Fatus's demonic powers repeatedly to hurt herself while clashing Sayaka, horrifying her and causing her to stop. Sayaka, even more broken, apologizes, and tells Mary that she was once bound to an Oni, who apparently gained sentience, and that something has caused the Oni to overtake her. Sayaka then feebly guides Mary towards the center of Hell

Therein lies Ooe no Yaksha, a humanoid Oni who explains that Avalon's powerful protective magic turned her from a monster into a human-like individual, and imprisoned her within Sayaka's soul, causing her to suffer ; she is satisfied with making Sayaka pay. Mary challenges her, swearing to make her pay for hurting Sayaka. A brutal clash ensues, ending with Yaksha summoning Mount Ooe to unleash her full power, but in vain. Yaksha calms down and accepts to release Sayaka, telling Mary that her rage was manipulated by a strange flower-maiden.

### The Corrupting Flower

Mary is guided towards a strangely flowery part of hell where she finds Kala, a seemingly innocent gardener tending to the flowers. However, Kala - an extremely powerful Lost - reveals herself to be unstable and chaotic, obsessed by twisted conceptions of rules, elegance and honor, and asks to fight Mary in a mock battle. Kala is overwhelmingly powerful but she refuses to go all-out against an insignificant human, making the battle more even.

Mary keeps fighting for Sayaka as well as Utopia - which Kala openly mocks, saying that Utopia should've killed them all and that she is weak and ignorant - and ends up putting Kala in a corner. When Kala unleashes her full power, it is too late : Mary has struck the final blow. A wounded Kala, burnt by Mary's light, swears that she will have her revenge before using her own magic to eject Mary out of hell.

Mary then celebrates Sayaka's survival with her - alongside Yaksha, which the pair befriends. Meanwhile, Eden Maark, Mary's sister and a demon-hunter, arrives in Avalon. She is immediately intercepted by Kala, who toys with the idea of torturing her to death and send her remains to Mary, but instead settles on adopting her and awakening her latent anger in order to direct her against Mary and Utopia.

## Characters

* Mary Maark : Saint Wandering in Hell
* Jacqueline Lantern : Little Spirit on the Highway
* Morrie Kerina : Lady Screaming for the Lost
* Beatrice Circliagina : Watcher of Hell's Final Gate
* Shamsielle Tenkuro : Last Wanderer of a Deserted Hell
* (nameless) : Mahotsukai with a Stolen Name
* Ooe no Yaksha : Corrupted Eastern Demon
* Kala : Flower-Maiden from the Darkest Eden
* Eden Maark : Demon-Hunter of the Light

## Trivia

* Aside from the **Touhou Project** influence, **Sayaka**'s corruption refers to the Legend of the Five Rings universe (in which her parents were born) and Mary's travel in hell has a **Divine Comedy** influence.