Updated: August 7, 2022

I was just discussing how DOD3 connects to DOD1 through Ending E that’s revealed in the DOD3 Story Side Novel with the publisher of this YouTube video, so I felt another wave of energy to delve back into the lore on the Cathedral City and its connection to the so-called “Old World”.

To do this, I’m largely going to take a closer look at some of the chapters of the Utahime Five prequel manga, so if you haven’t read that yet, please beware of spoilers as you go further down the page.

I will post several pages from the manga that are related to this topic here so we can get a better look at what lore revelations are revealed therein.

First, we should take a look at some important parts in the timeline of the early years before DOD3.

(Note: This is an old clipping from the timeline. There may have been updates to it since, please be sure to view the current timeline from the link above.)

856: Theft and other crimes explode amongst the refugees and insurgents. Eye witness reports of strangely morphed creatures begin to flood in.

858: Swarms of huge dragons come flying in, decimating kingdoms until nothing but ash is left behind over night.

867: Nobles and intellectuals from the former kingdoms escaped to the Cathedral City with little more than their lives and set up the Pythagoras Institute to study the disaster, calamity, and rise in abnormalities throughout the world.

868: Unfortunately, the Cathedral City could not accept all of the refugees for lack of food. In order to regulate how many people were allowed to enter the city, they built the Chaldea Gate in three days. Rioting broke out between the refugees and the City’s Self-Defense Forces, which continued to rage on for the following week. (Ten Days of Tragedy)

869: One after another, people began showing strange “miracle” powers such as the power of destruction or the ability to find water veins in the ground.

870: The Pythagoras Institute confirms the existence of “Magic”.

872: The Cathedral City came under strict order and social function by those who used such “miracle” power.

875: The Pythagoras Institute constructs a system to authorize and and keep track of those who use miracles, and thusly begin to dictate social status. Miracle Users, or simply Users, bring order and social function to the city.

887: For the first time in ten years, the Chaldea Gate is opened and the city function expands. The Users begin local rule as faith and religion of the past begins to deteriorate. A new faith concept of “The Users and Miracles of the Pythagoras Institute Church” spread throughout the community.

885: When a magician loses control of his power, a third of the city is destroyed. The Church announces that it is thanks to the research done on Seal Magic that the magician’s power could be suppressed. (In actuality, the experiment on Seal Magic failed and caused bodily enlargement to the caster, who became nothing more than a giant foot that proceeded to trample and kill over 2,000 people in the Slums over a single night. The official announcement by the Church is as previously stated.)

888: The growth and expansion of the city goes well.
The Church aims to expand their territory with the goal of ensuring the “everlasting peace of Midgard through prayer and magic.”

890: Neighboring self-governing dominions accept volunteers to form the “Church Investigation Committee”.

904: The Church Investigation Committee sets out on an expedition across each of the self-governing dominions to gain control of these areas. Once order has been achieved, it becomes custom for the Committee to rule these areas on their own, setting up the first “Lords of the Land” system.

910: The Church pushes forward the study of magical power and sets up “Magic Academies” for full-scale study in each area.

912: Another magical accident occurs within one of the Magic Academies; however, with the use of Seal Magic, the extent of the damage is limited to the death of two people: the person whose magic went haywire and the caster of the Seal Magic.

938: In an attempt to retain power while it continues to expand, the Church enters into a mutually beneficial relationship with each Lord of the Land who had control of large territories.

951: It is routine for powerful people of the Church to accept bribes by the Lords of the Land. Fights among the governing Lords is frequent in each area. The territories governed by these Lords begin to be referred to as the “Land of Mountains” and the “Land of Forests”.

960: The first Magic Academy President is elected. Since the newly elected president is not familiar with magic at all, this causes a void between the Church echelon and the Lords of the Land. Unease among the magicians in the Magic Academy begins to fester.

971: Under the current system, the Magic Academy Presidential Elections are conducted by the Lords of the Land cause some young magicians to rebel. Although incensed magicians rally for the replacement of the president within the Central Magic Academy located in the Cathedral City they are suppressed in a single night (The White Rebellion).

985: Wide-spread famine breaks out. The food supply from the surrounding dominions into the Cathedral City is greatly reduced for several years. In the world of politics, it becomes commonplace for the Church’s upper echelon and influential people to give money and goods, weaponry, women and children to the Lords of the Land in exchange for food.

986: Magicians dissatisfied with the corruption going on within the Magic Academy and the politics regarding the food shortage for poor class decided to form an underground organization to start a revolution. This group became known as the “Blue Corps”.

990: The Blue Corps becomes active. Many young magicians approve them. Even some of the Lords of the Land who are dissatisfied with the Church approve. The Church is said to be weakening as their armaments and talented people dwindle under the food shortage and engaging in bribery for many years.

991: A large-scale revolt (the Blue Rebellion) breaks out in the Cathedral City by the Blue Corps. The Blue Corps occupies the Central Magic Academy with the hope to put a halt to the government and the Church. Their long-term goals include “abolishing the Lords of the Lands’ power while establishing freedom and independence of the Magic Academy”. Nonetheless, the Blue Corps is entirely decimated overnight by a Seal Magic attack that encompasses the entire city. At the same time, 80% of the citizens who live in two wards of the city die as catalysts for the Seal Magic. Even though there were some survivors, they appeared to have lost their minds in the confusion, construction to bury them alive was underway.

993: After the “Blue Rebellion”, the number of applicants approved by the Magic Academy to become legal magicians decreases sharply. The government and Church increasingly depend upon the military prowess of the Lords of the Land. Invested by the Lords, magical experiments by the opposition rapidly increases. The situation of the Magic Academy and the Church falls into uncertainty.

994: Eventually, no new presidents from the lands ruled by the Lords of the Land are elected for the Magic Academy in each location. Even though they managed to obtain independence, with the loss of support from the Lords of the Land, the Magic Academy follows the same path toward decline. Magical experiments by the opposition continue vigorously. The Magic Academy lifts a ban on a previously forbidden magical art. The balance of magical power in Europe falls into chaos.

995: An unprecedented large-scale accident occurs within the Central Magic Academy in the Cathedral City. It is said to be a singing error of the forbidden art by a female magician, but the details of the accident are unclear. It is discovered later that dust from the explosion appeared to resemble a gigantic flower in the night sky. The scale of destruction from the accident encompasses the entire city; all trace of people within the city fades away as the city is reduced to ruins.

Next, we’re going to take a look at the opening five pages of Chapter 6, where we’re introduced to three new characters:

• Shaxor (8) – Lord of the Land of Forests (Gray’s son)
• Gray (44) – Lord of the Land of Mountains
• Caerula (Age Unknown) – Lord of the Land of Seas

Together, these three travel to the Cathedral City with a single goal in mind: Open the Mercurius Gate and obtain great power.

The tree branches stretching upward intrigues me. I can’t help but think of it as a sort of timeline, branching out…kind of like these.

Now, on a side note here, I used to think that the “Mercurius Gate” was a reference to the Roman god Mercury (also the Greek god Hermes), but I no longer think this was the intended allusion. Rather, I believe it’s a reference to a demon named Mercurius that appears in the Brothers Grimm tale #99, “The Spirit in the Glass Bottle“.

The story depicts a young man who comes across a spirit trapped within a glass bottle. The spirit pleads to be freed, and the man fulfills the spirit’s wish by removing the cork on the bottle. But as the spirit escapes from its tiny prison, it grows massively huge, larger than the giant oak tree where the man found the bottle, and states that it must give the gift of death to anyone who sets it free. It goes on to explain that it was sealed within the bottle as a form of punishment and has been stuck inside for an unknown amount of time. Of course, the man doesn’t want to be killed, so he manages to trick the spirit to go back into the bottle. Once back inside, the man seals the bottle, trapping the spirit once more.

A couple things from this tale seem similar to events in Utahime Five:

• There is a large, demonic spirit sealed away that desires to be set free. This is what we know as the “Flower” entity.
• Sometime before the events of DOD3 (likely the large-scale magical accident that occurred in 995), a magician realizes the threat the Flower poses for the whole world, and manages to seal it behind the Mercurius Gate within the Cathedral City.

We don’t exactly know why the inhabitants of the Cathedral City disappeared entirely after the incident in 995, but it could be similar to what happened earlier during the Blue Rebellion in 991. Roughly 80% of the Magic Academy magicians sacrificed themselves in order to cast a massive “Seal Magic” attack against the Blue Corps. It’s unclear whether their entirety (body and soul) is given up to the magic or if their lifeless bodies remain after this attack. Many of the survivors also appeared to have lost their minds and were subsequently buried alive by the Magic Academy. Therefore, it could be that all of the inhabitants of the Cathedral City were used in a massive Seal Magic attack against the Flower entity to seal it behind the Mercurius Gate.

The next interesting part regarding the Mercurius Gate comes on page 18:

Here we learn that Gabriella knew about the Mercurius Gate, and that by merely mentioning its name, it seems to trigger a memory for One. But One also mentions that “all the knowledge and power of this world” is sealed there. How this might relate to the Flower entity is unknown.

Moving back to the Lords of the Land looking to open the Mercurius Gate, they summon Bartas to aid them in this task. By this time, Bartas’s old man body had been lost in a rough battle with One, but he was able to somehow “reconstruct” his body. When the Lords of the Land see him again, they are shocked to see him look like a young boy.

Caerula gives Bartas a piece of paper with words from an unknown language written on it. She tells him to read the words precisely as they are on the page to open the gate.

The line “Just do what it says.” should actually be “Read it exactly as it’s written.”

Details on Bartas and his origins are largely left unanswered even now. The little we know about him is pretty much what Caerula says here. He was discovered sleeping between the 2nd and 3rd doors of the Mercurius Gate. He’s able to understand and speak the Old World language because, evidently, that’s where he’s from. It may also be important to point out that Bartas uses his left mechanical arm to activate the display on the final door.

What’s curious about this passage is that if Bartas was sleeping within the Mercurius Gate for so long, unknown and undisturbed, then what kept him from activating the console himself? Why did he need the keywords that Caerula had? And how did she get them in the first place?

Continuing in Chapter 7, we are pleasantly surprised to see a familiar face:

So, if we didn’t already know, these pages make it abundantly clear that Accord is also from the so-called “Old World”. Another point of interest here is the curious script of the Old World language. Here we see some sort of magic in affect to essentially kick Bartas out for giving the wrong password, but the style of rings with writing inscribed on them closely resembles that of the Utautai magic. The only difference is the Utautai magic uses the classic angelic script instead. Could there be a connection between the two?

Moving on to Chapter 8 when the Utautai girls finally reach the final door of the Mercurius Gate, One gently touches the last remaining door and has a vision of a black monster clawing its way out of the gate.

Maybe that should have been her clue to get far away from that place…

Shortly thereafter, the Lords of the Land ambush them, savagely slaughtering Three, Five, and Four. Two is left alive but has an arm ripped off. In sheer terror and disbelief, One steps back against the final door of the Mercurius Gate. Enhancing her strength with the Power of Song, One squares off against Caerula while her consort in disguise, Partition, watches from a distance. He realizes that One’s use of “Song” has some affect on the gate, but it’s not until later in Chapter 9, when One unleashes another wave of Song.

The final door resonates with One’s Power of Song and finally breaks, allowing the entity from within to escape.

The black “mud monster” then started picking up the pieces of the younger four Utautai and began piecing them back together…

These ghostly reanimated forms of the girls thusly begin to summon their corresponding Angels to utterly crush the Lords of the Land.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the magical circles from which they appear.

Here, you can see there are two main rings of Angelic script with the outline of a flower in the center. This also appears to be the same magical circle that appears beneath the Flower in the last boss battle in DOD3:

Earlier in Chapter 1, however, when the girls are first shown summoning the Angels, their magical circles have a just single ring of Angelic script and are void of anything else in the center.

I think it’s pretty clear, then, that the Flower is that “mud monster” entity that escapes from the Mercurius Gate.

Also a side note here, we’re told that a huge accident occurred in the Cathedral City well before the beginning of DOD3. A magician realized the threat the Flower posed for the entire world and managed to seal it away, behind the Mercurius Gate, but a small fragment of it escaped with the single instinct to destroy the world. This fragment is what discovered Zero as she was on her deathbed and reanimated her body once she had passed. This is, of course, the flower that we see sprouting from her right eye.

Partition seems super excited to see the appearance of the Black Flower and lusts after its power that he will soon take for himself. In the meanwhile, he does away with his consort, Caerula, but his lofty ambitions are thwarted when One and Gabriella manage to stop the Black Flower and the mindless Utautai.

Finally with that threat out of the way, Zero and Michael appear and cause trouble, but the best part of the manga doesn’t come until the end where Bartas shows up again.

Then when Zero attempts to force Bartas out of her way of dealing with One, we’re reminded of Bartas’ strange ability to “reconstruct” his own body and instantly reattach severed limbs.

Then something interesting happens when Michael addresses Bartas:

* The line “I am the Gatekeeper!” should be “Relinquish your role as the Gatekeeper!”

With this passage, it seems as though Michael has some understanding of who Bartas is and what his role was in relation to the Mercurius Gate. They both converse using the Old World language, and we learn that Bartas was likely stationed before the final door within the Mercurius Gate in order to protect it as its Gatekeeper; or rather, he was tasked to protect the city by making sure the gate was never opened.

But through the passage of time, there’s nothing left of the city (or that world), nothing left for him to protect. His purpose gone, he decides to forego his duty and merely search for powerful people to fight… and possibly end his long life.

He injures One and even Zero and Michael so badly, that Gabriella has no choice but to use her Final Wish to become “Angelified”. Bartas doesn’t think much of her transformation, but he experiences her newly gained power firsthand.

* The term used here for the “Underworld” is 異界 (ikai). This is the term that Yoko Taro uses several times to refer to another world or dimension. He hasn’t explained it any further than that, so there could be several different interpretations. At this point in time, however, I think I lean more toward translating it as a distantly remote timeline separate from the current one.

This is when Bartas gets excited about the thought of a good battle, and he brings out his biggest guns…

…or maybe just one.

This is where I’d like to discuss some speculation regarding his design. We have seen his crazy regenerative powers, seen him come back from a mushy pool of blood. Before when One utterly defeated his older alter ego, he came back out of seemingly nothing but pool of his own blood. Now take the image above of him opening a sort of central core constructed in his chest. Looking at this chapter again, especially after Automata, I’m beginning to think that maybe we already know what he is even if we don’t really know who he is. Maybe… he’s a sort of magically constructed android from further down the timeline, namely around 6230 when we’re told the Dragon weapons were constructed. This is also likely the point when the Original Accord was created.

Moving on with some of his final lines in Chapter 15, I’m beginning to think that he needs to find someone strong enough to kill him, so he can finally rest. We don’t know how long he’s been sleeping within the inner area of the Mercurius Gate, but we do know that he was in there, alone, for a very, very long time. That sort of solitude for that long can eat away at your mind. I certainly agree that he comes off as a highly unlikeable character, but I sort of see him as tragic as well. Whether it was his choice or not, he was the protector of the gate. There must be something noble in that… unless, he was sealed in there as punishment for something…?

And as a very minor tangent: Where the heck did the Faerie come from…!?

Good night sweet prince:
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!

This sequence reminds me a lot of Adam, how he is so interested in human emotion, and in the end, he’s quite intrigued by the emotion of HATRED. Comparatively, Bartas is intrigued by the thought of DEATH, maybe because he never experienced it before given his reconstructive abilities.

In the end, we’re left with more questions than answers, at far as Bartas is concerned. Perhaps someday we’ll see him again and learn more about him.