Division Case File #1349 - The Arsonist and the Slasher

July 12th, 1951
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Case Description: Agents Persephone and Minerva were dispatched to Rio De Janeiro to investigate a series of seemingly ritualistic murders. There had been a recent uptick in homicides in the city's favelas, and victims exhibited one of two different but seemingly related presentations; The bodies were either badly burned or mutilated with a sharp bladed instrument, but in either case displayed one or more common runic symbols traced to an ancient Sumerian dialect. Upon analysis by Agent Minerva, the runes appeared to be associated with a Hell Dimension known as Kur.
Post-mortem analysis by Agent Persephone was inconclusive - the souls of the victims had been extracted, rendering communication impossible. Routine groundwork conducted by Division field agents revealed that victims shared a common connection to a local semi-professional, highly illegal wrestling circuit known as "Los Lutadores Apocalípticos". Undercover surveillance operations led to the identification of luchadors known as 'Tommy Burns' (Subject 1349-a) and 'Cleaver Ramirez' (Subject 1349-b) as primary suspects in the case.
The two turned out to be competing for the same goal - to open the Door to Kur by ascertaining the name of the realm's guardian (Division demonologists have identified the guardian as an Anathema-class* minor Devil - name withheld). By marking their victim's bodies with characters from the name as they learned them, they were unlocking knowledge of further sigils. This feat had been successfully accomplished a few years prior by a third individual known to both men - Hans "The Hammer" Hackenholt (Subject 1349-c), a ruthlessly sadistic Nazi war criminal who fled to Rio after the war, eventually falling in with Luchador culture. They had assisted Hackenholt in unlocking the Door, but his ascension wiped all knowledge of the name from existence, leaving Burns and Ramirez to start from scratch. The two developed a deep antipathy toward one another and began a race to learn the name first.
Agent Minerva was able to perform metapsychic analysis on individuals associated with the wrestling underground. This allowed Division agents to triangulate the location of both Burns and Ramirez, but only after Ramirez had successfully unlocked the gate. The battle between the two had generated widespread carnage and property destruction, leaving 52 dead and 189 injured. All surviving victims were administered Class-3 amnestics and relocated to safe zones in and around the city. As extraplanar entities began emerging through the open Door, Agent Persephone negotiated a deal with Subject 0-b in order to close the Door, reversing the emergence and subsuming Burns and Ramirez into Kur in the process. As per the conditions of the deal, souls lost in the event were ████████████████████████████████████. Division agents were reassigned to containment and damage control, and the area was cleansed using Protocol ██████.
Case status: Closed.
*Division Protocol 67.13 requires that any edits to case files involving Anathema-class entities that reveal or allude to names and/or sobriquets of said entities be immediately expunged. Individuals responsible for such edits will be assessed by Omen-class agents and dealt with accordingly.

Type

Report, Incident