Margaret the Virgin

**Margaret of Antioch**, also known as **Saint Margaret the Virgin**, is a Christian saint who holds patronage over nurses, childbirth, pregnant women, dying people, kidney diseases, exiles, peasants, and those who are falsely accused.

## Appearance

Margaret is described as a young woman around 15-16 years old, with warm brown eyes and long hair reaching her waist in the same color. Her shade within the Divine Dividing wore a simple dark-blue sister attire and a veil covering her hair.

## Personality

Margaret is a kind and caring person who isn't afraid to speak her mind. She is very open-minded about everything and everyone and doesn't let one's status, past, and heritage affect her opinion toward them, as she still cares for Vali as an older sister despite her status as a Christian saint and his as a half-devil from the Lucifer Clan.

She is a devout Christian and spent the majority of her short life travelling across what is now modern Turkey to heal the sick and injured using her miracles as a Holy Maiden. She also used her powers to defend the people, especially fellow Christians, from the dangers that the supernatural world put upon them, such as monsters, devils, daemon, and even the occasional gods.

Despite this, she can be extremely scary if she is angered or during battles. According to Ddraig, the smile on her face when she defeated Belzard still haunts him to this very day.

## History

### Life & Death

Margaret was born around 289 in the Antioch of Pisidia as the only daughter of Aedesius, a pagan priest. Her mother died delivering her and she was nursed by a Christian woman five to six leagues away from Antioch per her father's orders.

Even as a young girl, she embraced Christianity as an influence by her foster mother, she consecrated her virginity to God to become a Holy Maiden in His name and was taught the miracles of thaumaturgy by her guardian angel, Castiel. With her miracles, she travelled across what is now Turkey, using her power to heal the sick and injured and bless the unfortunate, and spread the teachings of the Christ, which led her to be disowned by her father.

At some point in her life, she awoke her Sacred Gear, the Longinus Divine Dividing, and began to train her powers to its absolute limits and in such an absurd speed that Albion could only describe her as a "monster of talent". At some point in time, she defeated the Olympian gods Ares, Hermes, and Apollo in a three-to-one battle, as well as single-handedly fended of an invasion led by the Persian war god Verethragna.

When she was 15 years old, Olybrius, governor of the Roman Diocese of the East, asked for her to become a part of his master Belzard's harem, which she refused as she vowed to keep her virginity for the rest of her life. Upon her refusal, she was captured by his men and took her toward Belzard's throne, in which the Red Dragon Emperor both recognized her as his fated enemy and as his desired "mate".

As his two emotions of wrath and lust fought each other, he entered his Juggernaut Drive, intended to defeat her before claiming her as his own per draconic traditions of old. However, she was able to defeat him using her Divine Dividing in a battle that "rendered the sky and shattered the earth", using her Longinus' sub-species form of a cross to cut open his stomach and his throat, killing him instantly and liberated the people of his tyranny.

However, this victory came at a hefty price, as she both lost too much stamina and suffered too many great injuries that she lacked the energy needed to cure herself as passed away a few months after in the year 304. As she died, she ascended to Heaven and was crowned a saint by the angel Michael.

### Veneration

The Eastern Orthodox Church knows her as Saint Marina and celebrates her feast day on July 17, though the Greek Marina came from Antioch in Pisidia (as opposed to Antioch of Syria), but this distinction was lost in the west.

Her story was summarized in the 9th-century martyrology of Rabanus Maurus, which was considered too fantastic for many clergies who weren't informed of the true events behind it. Jacobus de Voragine, a descendant of Belzard, remarked that the part where she was "eaten by the dragon" was to be considered a legend, not wanting the tale of his ancestor to spread around to protect his family name.

In 1222, the Council of Oxford added her to the list of feast days, and so her cult acquired great popularity. Many versions of the story were told in 13th-century England, in Anglo-Norman (including one ascribed to Nicholas Bozon), English, and Latin, and more than 250 churches are dedicated to her in England, most famously, St. Margaret's, Westminster, the parish church of the British Houses of Parliament in London. In art, she is usually pictured escaping from, or standing above, a dragon.

She was recognised as a saint by the Catholic Church, being listed as such in the Roman Martyrology for 20 July. She was also included from the 12th to the 20th century among the saints to be commemorated wherever the Roman Rite was celebrated, but was then removed from the general calendar along with a number of other European saints.

Every year on Epip 23 the Coptic Orthodox church celebrates her martyrdom day, and on Hathor 23 the Coptic church celebrates the dedication of a church to her name. Saint Mary church in Cairo holds a relic believed to be Margaret's right hand, previously moved from the Angel Michael Church (modernly known as Haret Al Gawayna) following its destruction in the 13th century AD. It is displayed to the public and visitors on her feast days.

She is remembered in the Church of England with a commemoration on 20 July.

### Current Events

When he ran away from home and his abusive father, Vali was guided and protected by a shade Margaret left behind in the Divine Dividing. With her help, he was able to find shelter within the Grigori and protection from the Lucifer Clan and the Old Satan Faction. According to Vali, she was like an older sister to him. After he was safe, she disappeared, but still gave the occasional advice and guides whenever he was in trouble.

She later appeared to Issei Hyoudou, the current Red Dragon Emperor, in his mindscape to help him reduce the curse of the Juggernaut Drive and evil that flows within the Boosted Gear, born from Ddraig's millennia-worth of anger and resentment, which helped him gain his Cardinal Crimson Promotion. She later visited him and Team D×D during their trip to Heaven.

## Relationships

* **Albion**: According to him, she is the scariest wielder he ever encountered, describing her as a "monster of talent".
* **Issei Hyoudou**: She was originally introduced as the spirit of the Divine Dividing gem absorbed by the Boosted Gear when Issei first fought Vali. Later on, she helped Issei dispel the curse of the Boosted Gear and seal waway the malicious consciousness of the past Red Dragon Emperors, which greatly contributed to him gaining the Crimson Cardinal Promotion. Her identity is only revealed during Team D×D's trip to Heaven.
* **Vali Lucifer**: She sees Vali as the little brother she's never had and has been his adviser and "consciousness" ever since he was a child. She was implied to be the one who suggested running away to him, as well as the person who led him to Azazel's private estate in Rome.

## Powers & Abilities

**Immense Strength**: Margaret is considered the most powerful White Dragon Empress of all time and the slayer of the strongest Red Dragon Emperor. Her strength is said to be on a whole different level from the rest of Divine Dividing's past wielders, to the point of reaching the verge of a Balance Breaker. During her life, she had fought against and defeated many powerful supernatural figures, including gods such as Ares, Hermes, and Apollo - three of the Twelve Olympians - and Verethragna, one of the strongest war deities. According to Irina, exorcists often pray to her and Saint George for protection whenever they are fighting against dragons.

**Master Magician**: Margaret is considered a master magician, having disguised her magic as 'miracles' to heal and protect those in need, as well as to defend the defenseless, especially Christians, against supernatural threats.

* **Thaumaturgy** (ソーマタジー, *Sōmatajī*): The ancient magick wielded by saints, messiahs, and sorcerers from antediluvian time. It is considered "the bridge between gods and men", i.e. angels and humans, and possesses near-limitless potential, ranging from offensive magic to defensive magic to healing and even blessing and curses. She was said to receive her thaumaturgical power from the angels for her piety.

## Equipment

**Divine Dividing** (白龍皇の光翼ディバイン・ディバイディング, *Dibain Dibaidingu*): Margaret's Sub-Species Longinus which took the form of a cross-shaped silver dagger with a sapphire-eyed wyver engraved on the blade. It had the power to create cursed wounds onto her enemies that only she could heal and slowly divide their power every second it remained. It was extremely sharp and could easily slice through Heavenly Dragon-class scales, as demonstrated when she used it to slice open Belzard's stomach and throat while he was in Juggernaut Drive.

## Trivia

* She is sometimes confused/conflated with Saint Marina the Monk and/or Saint Pelagia.
* She is the patron saint of Lowestoft, England; Queens' College, Cambridge; and Sannat, Malta.
* She is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, and is one of the saints spoke with Joan of Arc.
* She was reputed to have promised very powerful indulgences to those who wrote or read her life, or invoked her intercessions, which no doubt helped the spread of her cult.
* Holy artifacts associated with her all bear the Dragon-Slaying attribute.
	+ Her shroud is said to protect whoever wears it from dragons or those with draconic essence.