SCP 6500

Inevitable

Part 3

The SCP universe faces extinction in one form or another relatively often,

but there are a couple of things that make this instance a little different.

For one, normal humans will be practically unaffected, and life will continue on for most

as it always has.

Secondly, the principal ways that the foundation has found to stop this event is through the

collection of various powerful artifacts, each one of which must be obtained through

a ritualistic quest. We've looked at two of these quests, or paths, so far, the warrior and the

mage, and there's two more to go. Let's take a look now at the third path, the clerics. The path of the cleric

involves the search for an unknown device of divine provenance, supposedly capable of accessing

an untold number of realms. The idea is that the usage of this device would halt 650,500 for essentially ever, as it dealt with all of the anomalous energy from the linked realities.

The path of the cleric is titled Kigare, a Japanese term referring to a state of uncleanliness or defilement, linked to the Shinto religion.

The state of Kigare can be caused by any contact with death, childbirth, disease, or other

conditions or crimes, and the individual must be cleansed through purification rights.

Unlike the first two paths, our starting location is not Sloth's Pit, but rather Mount

Ibuqi, the tallest mountain in Shiga Prefecture in Japan.

Our protagonist is a wandering Buddhist monk in his 40s named Kaito Iguchi.

Kaito comes from a multi-generational lineage of Buddhist monks, but he chose to eschew the temple

life, instead taking the open sky as his temple.

He begged for charity from the locals and communities he passed through, often staying in homes

...