Together, they belong to a mysterious organization whose mission it is to hunt demons: creatures that possess humans as well as prey on both humanity's corruption and innocence. An army of them, led by the demon lord Gilles de Rais, is waging war against humanity. What sacrifices will be called upon humanity for this war? Can this war against the demons even be won?
Tetragrammaton Labyrinth is a violent gothic tale which ran in Comic Gum from 2005 to 2007, and was compiled into six manga volumes. The story has been translated and published into English by Seven Seas Entertainment.
Provides examples of:
- Affably Evil: Gilles de Rais and Prelati are trying to Kill All Humans, but are very polite about it. Gilles is always respectful, asking his minions to stop when he thinks they have gone too far, and being cordial towards the heroines. Prelati is also calm and charming, and is motivated by loyalty to his master.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Demons, most of which are barely sentient and hunger for ether. They possess humans and consume their souls just so they can have a material body to continue their hunt more efficiently by eating living flesh directly.
- Ambiguous Ending: It's never made clear whether Meg and Angela and survive, though the ending seems to indicate that at least the world wasn't destroyed.
- Anyone Can Die: The only main characters who (might have) survived are Meg and Angela.
- As the Good Book Says...: Meg recites Bible quotes to cast spells.
- Big Bad: Lord Gilles de Rais is the leader of the demon army who aims to Kill All Humans as revenge for executing Joan of Arc, who he also wants to revive.
- Black-and-Grey Morality: The heroines are mostly a violent bunch who all have their morally ambiguous moments, but with the exception of The Demon and The Crimson Prayer story arc (which was Grey-and-Grey Morality), their enemies are the Always Chaotic Evil demons who want to Kill All Humans, and while Gilles de Rais and his servant Prelati are Affably Evil, most are straight up evil.
- Body Horror: Actually doable due to Healing Factor. Angela is literally unarmed. She chopped it off to use as a weapon. Yes, she uses a removed rib as a weapon once.
- Bury Your Gays: Inverted as Meg and Angela are the only named cast members to end the story alive.
- Co-Dragons: Prelati, Henriet, and Poitou are the highest-ranking demons in Gilles' army. Of the three, Prelati is the leader.
- Christianity is Catholic: Averted in that the series acknowledges Meg and Angela work for an organization within the Church of England, and that the Anglicans and the Vatican aren't particularly close. The casual reader could be forgiven for forgetting this, though, given that the Anglican Church has a lot of Catholic trappings left over even today, and the series plays them up.
- Church Militant: Meg and Angela. An army later turns up to quarantine the town that the demons ravaged though all they end up doing is mopping up the demons after the heroes end up taking the Big Bad out.
- Cursed with Awesome: Angela's curse leaves her immortal, regenerating, and with no soul/ether. It makes her the perfect demon-slayer, and immune to possession.
- Deal with the Devil: Meg's dad allowed himself to be possessed to save his daughter.
- Emotionless Girl: Angela. After centuries of life plagued by countless horrors, it's the only way not to go mad.
- Functional Magic: Rule Magic - all magic, no matter the tradition, is powered by "ether," which only living souls possess and demons desire.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The embodiment of resentment is the powerful being that Big Bad Gilles de Rais wants to release.
- Heroic Sacrifice:Detective Edward, Trude, Gertrude and Hisami to kill Gilles de Rais's subordinates.
- Historical Domain Character: Lord Gilles de Rais (Bluebeard) and Joan of Arc.
- Improbably Female Cast: A total of two male characters with a significant amount of speaking lines and only one who is named.
- Life Energy: "Ether," which powers magic and which demons love to consume. It's basically soul energy, and only living beings have it. If a person loses all their ether, they will die. Demons like to possess ether-rich people with low defenses, consuming their souls and taking over their bodies. Those bodies are then twisted and warped into nightmarish forms so the demons can consume living flesh from which to drain ether directly. Part of Angela's curse that makes her an effective demon-slayer is that, despite still being alive, she has no ether to lose.
- Love Makes You Evil: Gilles de Rais who was driven mad by his love for Jeanne d'Arc.
- Meaningful Name: The demon-slaying scythe AGLA, which is (according to
Bonus Material) actually a Kabbalistic acronym for a phrase praising God ("Athah Gabor Leolam Adonai" - "Thou art powerful and eternal, Lord") and thus a powerful word by which to banish and control demons.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The main characters practically enable the villains plans by bringing Anathema to the seal thus breaking it. To make things worse, the villains couldn't actually touch Anathema.
- The One Guy: Detective Edward is the only male among the main heroes.
- Public Domain Artifact: Angela's second scythe turns out to contain a nail from the crucification of Christ.
- Really 700 Years Old: Angela who's been around since the 1400s after Gilles de Rais took her soul. She's also the one who founded the demon-hunting order within the Anglican Church, and isn't just their weapon.
- Religion is Magic: Meg uses religion to focus and channel her magic.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Detective Edward's primary weapon is gunpowder.
- Witch Hunt: Nepalese villagers organized one of these kill Meg's dad in her backstory after he became a demon with the standard Torches and Pitchforks. Not that it actually achieved anything.
