When the Albatross Cries

**When the Albatross Cries** is a Story Arc of the the Exteria Multiverse. It takes place in Interra and follows the perspective of the young independant agent Cerise Chin'Mae, nicknamed **Cheetah**. This storyline follows a Chessboard narration.

## Main Arc

### Arc 1 - The Mysterious Blackrock Castle

Cerise Chin'Mae, who runs an investigation and protection business, is contacted by Edmund Redworth, an eccentric billionnaire who fears for his life, and asks Cerise to watch over him during a family dinner he organizes. Cerise accepts, mostly because of the massive reward he offers.

In Redworth's massive Blackrock Castle, stranded on an island close th England, Cerise encounters most of the family, although Edmund himself, sickly and weak, does not make an appearance. She also encounters Oliver Roswel and Cheren Edgeton, two occultists interested in Edmund's possession of a strange occult artifact, the Mask of Erebos, a dark god from times past.

During the dinner, however, another person appears. Gloria Thelema, a mysterious and taunting woman, makes an appearance, claiming to be 'someone close to Edmund' which his wife Clarence Redworth understands as being his mistress. Gloria claims that a great announcement will be made about Edmund's inheritance this night.

### Arc 1 - A String of Murders

Then, as Clarence goes upstairs to look for Edmund, the dessert arrives and contains mysterious human remains, as well as a letter from Erebos. The Demon King himself proclaims that he will purify the group, starting with Edmund. Cerise opens the locked door to Edmund's study - where he has disappeared. Cerise starts looking for him. At the same time, Erebos's mask and katana disappear from Edmund's exhibition hall.

Cerise first finds Clarence's remains, parts of her body lacking - the same finger and eye that found themselves in the cake. Then, Vann and Rihana are found dead, the time of their death contradicting with their last actions. People start to believe that Erebos is truly the culprit of this enigmatic murder.

Murders start to multiply. Edmund's horribly burned body is found hanging in public from a rope. Several closed room mysteries appear, all but Cerise and Gloria dying one after the other, ending with an impaled Mystia Ratchett telling of a horned demon who killed her, before dying, and Steven Rook assaulting the empty air before dying as well.

### Act 1 - Revival of Erebos

Erebos appears in front of a disbelieving Cerise, who still refuses to believe in the demon. He challenges her to prove her wrong and explain the previous riddles, but she is unable to do so. Erebos shrinks Cerise and attempts to swallow her whole as a prize for his victory, but she is saved by Lily Evershire, the story's overseer.

Lily allows Cerise to challenge Erebos once again, asking him to tell her of another story, and the two clash as Erebos uses his powers to restart the story once again, challenging her to find a logical explanation to the magical string of murders he committed.

### Act 2 - Edmund's Last Will

Erebos shows Cerise a scene of Edmund, grievously ill, using black magic to summon him and kill all those who have "betrayed him". Cerise interprets the scene as Edmund being Erebos, however she can not quite explain everything with this theory.

The story then restarts, but with major changes. In order to confuse Cerise, Erebos puts all the keys of the mansion within the cake, then commits a closed room murder on the person of Evan Ratchett ; an unexplained mystery for Cerise. Then Edmund disappears again, from another perfectly closed room ; Davy Kingston, the butler, confirms his disappearance.

Mystia Ratchett's body is then discovered once again, in an impossible configuration. A strange struggle erupts between the survivors and Gloria, as they think she is the culprit ; finally, however, Gloria confesses that she is Edmund's hidden, bastard daughter. As the survivors attempt to make use of the fact, they are soon separated and once again, all killed, except for Gloria and Cerise.

### Act 2 - Despair and Revival

Cerise is once again about to give up on her battle, unable to explain Erebos's strange magic, overwhelmed by the events. Lily saves her one last time, albeit this time with a threat ; if she is unable to understand Erebos's true nature in the next game, she will be devoured by Erebos without any possible salvation.

However, Cerise now doubts Erebos's true motivations ; is he really a soul-devouring demon, bent on slaughtering all humans, or something else altogether ? She decides to find out, pouring all her soul in the seemingly last match.

### Act 3 - Meaning of Birth

Still investigating, Cerise chooses to discuss with Gloria before the murders start. She starts to find out the whole truth not about Gloria but also about herself. Gloria's true name is Chin'Mae, the same as Cerise... it seems then that Cerise is also Edmund's daughter. The two also learn that Cheria Redworth, Edmund's legitimate daughter, knew about Gloria and secretely hired the assassin Cheren Edgeton to kill her.

As the first murder is once again Edmund, disappeared mysteriously, alongside Cheren who is announced by Erebos to be dead, Cerise claims to have understood the truth. She challenges Erebos and tells her the truth about his existence : a phantasm created by Edmund in order to protect his daughters from the rest of the family, consumed by greed. To succeed, he bribed someone into becoming Erebos for him and slaughtering the rest of the family.

### Act 3 - Erebos Exposed

Erebos's existence family exposed causes him to slowly disappear into nothingness, fading after thanking Cerise for understanding him, and telling her that he will keep protecting her despite everything, and that he never actually planned on killing her or Gloria. A crying Cerise holds Erebos's body, after he confesses to the murder ; first as Clarence in the first storyline, then as Mystia in the second, then as Cheren himself in the last. Erebos then finally dies.

However, Cerise refuses and raises, proclaims that she will revive him, as the new Erebos. As Erebos's mask appears over he, she asks Lily to proclaim Erebos's existence once again. Lily however, asks that she proves Erebos's existence in a game similar to the previous, sending her butler, the investigator Wallace Dyne, as a challenger. Cerise accepts.

### Act 4 - Erebos's Revival

Cerise makes use of the hidden information to prepare an atypic game, using Erebos's existence - half-living, half-abstract - in order to plan multiple-level murders, switching between different 'Erebos'es, using Erebos's mask as a decoy to indicate his position in the mansion. Despite Wallace's insight and intelligence, he is unable to entirely expose Erebos.

After a battle of wits, ending with everyone dead but Wallace, Gloria and Cerise, Wallace finally concedes the battle, not willing to go further to prevent Cerise from reviving Erebos. Lily, impartial, resurrects Erebos and offers Cerise, Erebos and Gloria a place by her side at the Cheshire Isle. After a brief hesitation, the trio accepts, their existence officially proclaimed across the Multiverse.

## Characters

* Edmund Redworth, the mansion's owner.
* Clarence Redworth, his wife.
* Vann Redworth, their first child.
* Cheria Redworth, their second child.
* Rihana Dakini, Vann's fiancee.
* Oliver Roswel, notable occultist.
* Cheren Edgeton, supposed occultist.
* Davy Kingston, Edmund's butler.
* Mystia Ratchett, servant.
* Evan Ratchett, servant, Mystia's brother.
* Mira Lunalena, servant.
* Steven Rook, retired colonel.
* Gloria Thelema, mysterious, opportunistic presence.
* Cerise Chin'Mae, independant agent, first detective.
* Erebos, ancient demon.
* Lily Evershire, overseer.
* Wallace Dyne, her emissary, second detective.

## Trivia

* This storyline is an attempt to reconstruct a plot following a basic outlining of Ryukishi07's **When they Cry**.
* **When the Albatross Cries**'s theme song, as chosen by its author, is **It has Begun** by Starset.