Diluculum Sanctus

Diluculum Sanctus (聖なる黄昏, Latin for "Holy Dawn") Was an ancient covert religious movement comprised exclusively of humans who, through an unconfirmed method, obtained special supernatural powers. Widely considered a satanic cult, followers of Diluculum Sanctus are said to have worshiped a dark Goddess who eventually gifted Her followers with Her blood and some of Her own power. Although the "cult" supposedly no longer exists, the powers supposedly granted to its followers live on in the bodies of some of their descendants. Diluculum Sanctus as a whole had little interaction with Shinigami, but it is said that few members actively participated in Hollow extermination. Diluculum Sanctus had three founders, but only one is known—the names and contributions of the other two have been lost to history.

Overview
According to legend, Diluculum Sanctus was founded by Axenus Gate along with two other individuals, commonly believed to be his relatives. Before the conception of Diluculum Sanctus, Axenus' family were the only worshipers of the unnamed Goddess. It is in fact believed that it was this Goddess whom convinced Axenus to spread Her influence by creating a religious group. For the purpose of garnering more believers, Axenus was the first to inherit a fragment of the Goddess' power, which quickly led to the creation of Diluculum Sanctus, a faction that allowed the Goddess' followers to practice the newly-formed religion away from the public eye.

Aside from their belief in the dark Goddess, followers of Diluculum Sanctus sought spiritual human independence within the Human World, that is, fighting Hollows or other evil spirits on their own terms and generally relying on Shinigami as little as possible. This complimented the group's belief that humans have the potential to far exceed any spiritual being, or at least those they deemed below their Goddess.

Despite Diluculum Sanctus' questionable history, members of the group are said to have treated their peers like family. Diluculum Sanctus is said to have had no true leadership, although members naturally turned to the founders for any guidance.

What led to Diluculum Sanctus' disappearance is currently still in speculation; it is generally theorized that the group was exterminated by Hollows, but, given the level of power its followers were said to have obtained, this is highly unlikely. A less popular theory is that the group simply disbanded after the death of its founders. Because descendants of Diluculum Sanctus' followers are scattered around the Human World, the latter theory is much more likely to be accurate.

Core Abilities
What separated Diluculum Sanctus' followers from other beings capable of manipulating any form of energy is that they did not use Reiryoku as a primary means of performing their sorcery: by transmuting and turning their very soul into a projectile weapon through one of two methods to create an undying link between them and their energy, the zealots were capable of performing feats that would otherwise be considered naturally impossible. The first and most recognized form of energy is created by absorbing spiritrons into the soul, enlarging it and transmuting it into an projectable essence distributed throughout the physical body. This is known as Pactum Anima (魂の契約, Latin for "Soul Contract").

Pactum Anima is superior to Reiryoku in that it never truly leaves the user's body; Pactum Anima immediately returns to its origin when it is no longer in use, a trait which gave Diluculum Sanctus' followers a natural advantage in drawn-out or attritional battles. The process of creating Pactum Anima is dangerous in that if a user generates more Pactum Anima than they are capable of sustaining, it can potentially cause their entire soul to fragmentize and consequently destroy their physical body, leaving them with an empty existence until their soul naturally withers away. Pactum Anima does require a completely physical vessel, so any spiritual being tied to Diluculum Sanctus by blood attempting to create Pactum Anima would meet with a similar fate; it is speculated that hybrid Shinigami can possibly utilize Pactum Anima via a Gigai, but this would effectively prevent the Shinigami from leaving their Gigai ever again.

Because Pactum Anima is never permanently expended from the body, a user only needs to perform the conversion process once, after which it can never be reversed; however, they may do so again at a later time if they believe that they are capable of maintaining greater amounts of Pactum Anima. Pactum Anima is eternally part of the user and cannot be absorbed, manipulated, or destroyed by an outside influence, so techniques generated by Pactum Anima cannot directly harm or be turned against the user through any method; in addition, it renders them immune to possession and abilities that directly target the soul. Although Pactum Anima users have very little Reiatsu if any at all, they seem to be unaffected when subjected to much higher volumes of Reiatsu emitted from other individuals.

The second energy, Anima Obscuritas (闇の魂, Latin for "Darkness Soul"), is more abstract in nature; a common basic description is that while Pactum Anima empowers the soul, Anima Obscuritas destroys the soul. Anima Obscuritas does not involve submitting the soul to darkness as one might believe—Anima Obscuritas can be utilized when a Pactum Anima user drastically compresses their Pactum Anima to the point that they lose much of their personality and their body virtually becomes an empty vessel while still retaining their consciousness; this paradox enables the user to manipulate outside influences via projection of this empty energy, most commonly an opponent's soul. The more Pactum Anima the user has, the more difficult it is to correctly perform this procedure. Because formerly Anima Obscuritas supposedly required absolute devotion to the dark Goddess to generate without dying in the process, only a few descendants have access to it. Pactum Anima users are generally immune to Anima Obscuritas if it is used directly against them (i.e. Manus Tenax), provided they have greater Pactum Anima than the user of Anima Obscuritas. Anima Obscuritas demands concentration to maintain; it is therefore possible for a user to get "knocked out" of an Anima Obscuritas state after sustaining a sufficient injury.

Pactum Anima Techniques
Donum (贈り物, Latin for "Gift"): Because Pactum Anima is literally the user's soul, its generalized capabilities are largly different for each individual. Donum refers to special abilities based on the user's soul. Most commonly, Donum grants the user one or more elemental attributes, which seems to be based on the individual's personality; however, certain individuals, such as Axenus, developed a far more intricate Donum in addition to a basic elemental Donum. It is possible for a Donum to evolve as its user's personality does. Donum is commonly compared to the powers granted to Shinigami by their Zanpakutō, except that the power of Donum is not materialized as a weapon. Donum cannot normally be used during an Anima Obscuritas state—it is replaced with Donum Obscurus.

Turris Anima (タワー魂, Latin for "Soul Tower"): An ability that exploits Pactum Anima's link with its user and temporarily strengthens them. To perform this techinique, a user must first expel a massive amount of Pactum Anima, usually via a Donum techinique or sometimes using Pili Agostinha. Taking advantage of resulting space for additional Pactum Anima, the user once again performs the conversion process before the energy returns to their body, manually restoring their Pactum Anima. Once this is complete, the user manipulates the burst of sudden energy and converts their expended Pactum Anima into an additional layer of Pactum Anima that coats the user's primary Pactum Anima reservoir. This consequently strengthens the user by an equivalent amount to the energy that they released. While exceedingly powerful, Turris Anima's procedure is dangerous in that if a user fails to correctly layer the released Pactum Anima, it will completely merge with them as usual and destroy their physical body due to the over-accumulation of Pactum Anima. Turris Anima is much easier to perform while utilizing Anima Obscuritas; as such, its ancient users commonly switched to Anima Obscuritas before starting the layering process.

Simulacri Pactum (画像の誓約, Latin for "Embodiment of the Contract"): A Pactum Anima user's primary means of enhancing their capabilities, Simulacri Pactum is somewhat similar to Turris Anima execpt that it is more direct and can be perfomed at any time, but requires extensive focus. To perform Simulacri Pactum, a user evenly divides their Pactum Anima throughout their body, creating as many separate channels of energy as desired. The user must recognize every individual reservoir of Pactum Anima as that of a separate, yet like-minded entity, before once again uniting their Pactum Anima. Because of the user's disassociation with their Pactum Anima, the unity is treated as a fusion of identical souls; this consequently results in the user, in a sense, merging with their entire being, doubling every aspect of their capabilities for each division of Pactum Anima the user created. Because of its properties, Sacrilacri Pactum does have one serious weakness in that its user will rapidly age for as long as they maintain the state; the exact severity of this rapid aging appears to correspond to the user's mutiplied power (e.g. enhancing one's capabilities to one-hundred times their normal level would result in the user aging one-hundred times faster than normal). The user can, however, drastically reduce the strain on their body by only enhancing a few capabilities in particular, such as reflexes or physical strength. It is possible that Simulacri Pactum is limited only by the lifespan of the user. Regular use of Messor Vita is a necessity for continued use of Simulacri Pactum, and, as a result, it was largely overlooked by Diluculum Sanctus. Simulacri Pactum is generally unsuited for use during battle because of its long preparation time in the hands of an inexperienced user, which only increases the more the user divides their Pactum Anima; only a true master is capable of instantly invoking Simulacri Pactum to an extent. While Simulacri Pactum cannot be initiated during the Anima Obscuritas state, switching to Anima Obscuritas will not interrupt the technique if it is activated beforehand.

Corpus Ubique Praesens (どこにでも存在する体, Latin for "Omnipresent Body"):

Anima Obscuritas Techniques
Donum Obscurus (ギフト暗い, Latin for "Dark Gift"): As with Pactum Anima, Anima Obscuritas is unique for each individual. Donum Obscurus, unlike Pactum Anima's Donum, refers to a personification based on an individual's soul of a particular technique, as well as the actual technique. Unlike general Anima Obscuritas application, a user influences an unknown realm, enabling them to summon black apparitions, the appearances of which are based the user's soul. Mythical creatures are among the most common forms these entities assume. Their level of power appears to be based on their summoner's will, among other uncertain variables; an average summon is roughly at the level of an average Shinigami captain, according to past estimates. It is unknown if there is a limit to how many dark entities the user may summon at a time; ancient Anima Obscuritas users generally did not summon more than several at once, but it is possible that it is based on the user's proficiency with Anima Obscuritas. As with the regular Donum, Donum Obscuritas evolves in accordance to any behavioral changes in the user.

Manus Tenax (粘り強い手, Latin for "Clinging Hand"):
 * Messor Vita (人生の収穫, Latin for "Life Reaper"):

Perplexus Esse (ジレンマである, Latin for "Enigmatic Existence"):

Pili Agostinha (尊敬のジャベリン, Latin for "Javelin of Agostinha"; "Javelin of the Venerated"):

Known Members

 * Axenus Gate (founder, presumably deceased)

Trivia

 * All Images used in this article were drawn by the author.
 * Given the naming of Pili Agostinha, it is possible that Agostinha was the name of the Goddess Diluculum Sanctus worshiped; this has yet to be confirmed, however.