Corrupt War Arc

'''The Corrupt War Arc is one of two removed arcs. It is currently being rewritten as a side story, and likely will have a different progression from the one listed below, the original progression:'''

The corrupt war arc occurred a month or more after Grace exited Alice's tea party. The corrupt war was a war on three fronts between Europa, Leigia, and the Black Card Brigade. The Black Card Brigade pursued the Scavengers into the dungeons for siding with Alice. They broke through the thick prison door which had been barricaded and sealed by the Scavengers but didn't find the scavengers. Due to the unfamiliar environment, Mavis, Llinos, and Angeline, 3 scouts, were sent to investigate. The trio split apart to search quicker but soon couldn't be contacted due to a fog of disruptive yoki surrounding the dungeon (Leigia's yoki). An armed force of combat medics, heavies, and drillers followed after contact was lost with the scouts while Hailey interrogated Kazuria, a naturally born hybrid they rescued from an awakened, thinking her to be an awakened as well but unsure because of her silver eyes. From there, the plot diverged.

Llinos
Llinos walked until she found Penny. After confirming she wasn't an awakened, Llinos talked with her, surprised over her appearance, art, and behavior (she had eviscerated a scavenger moments before for no reason other than to harvest his guts). She stopped to talk to Penny to gain information as she had been instructed to do. Penny agreed but would only give the information if Llinos let her tie her to a chair and cut her face with a scalpel without making any grimaces. Penny would continue to give answers to Llinos' questions as long as she didn't grimace but should she have grimaced, Penny would have eviscerated her and used her for her art. Penny told her about how Leigia left them to die, how she incapacitated Jill, and how she tried to get Europa to help them but failed. The duo was then attacked by Morphine's maggots. Llinos went under Penny's instructions to deliver a letter of emancipation to the order of the horn while Penny went to stop Leigia from escaping her prison. Penny gave her a ring to stab herself with so that the pain would remind her to stay in reality when fighting Morphine's maggots. Llinos was attacked by the cult but the remaining member(s) stopped attacking once the letter was delivered. She later encountered Chalice and fought her, seeing her as a high priority target since she was awakened. Llinos met up with Mavis, Anguine, and Tristessa and fought against Jill to stop her from retrieving her sword a battle in which Llinos' ear was cut off. They later escaped and returned to camp after killing Rhapsody. Penny destroyed Morphine's maggots and breeder and Agrona and her machines. She entered Leigia's chamber just after she had been freed. Leigia laughed at her and resurrected Raphsody and Vesper to fight her, awakening Raphsody. Penny killed Vesper and Rhapsody was lured away by Llinos and killed by Mavis. As a final farewell to Penny, Leigia used an enormous charge of gunpowder she had been storing to kill Penny and destroy her old body, the body of Pheobe, the former no 2 of the Nightmare generation.

Mavis
Mavis came across a cavern littered with fish bones which connected to the ocean. After kicking some bones (which turned out to be crawlers), she was attacked by a group of human sized crawlers and ran further into the slimy maze. She was attacked by the Order of the horn but ran away, continuing even further into the unknown. Near large piles of bones, she encountered the feral Anguine and saw her rip out the intestines of ascavenger with her barbed tongue, not wanting to watch thinking it was disgustingly carnal how she killed him. Mavis tried to sneak away but accidentally knocked over a pile of bones, alerting Anguine to her presence. Hungry for anything, Anguine tried to eat her in the same way she ate the scavenger but when Anguine put her lips on Mavis' lips, Mavis slipped a yoki suppressant pill into her mouth, reverting her to normal. She was about to kill Anguine but didn't after seeing she had silver eyes and wasn't awakened. Mavis continued on, trying to contact Sharon and saw the feral claymores and infant awakeneds fighting over the guts that Penny had supplied them. They closed in on her, thinking that she was food just as her yoki suppressants failed and she began to see how each awakened being awakened and seeing how Anguine robbed the feral hybrids (they weren't feral at the time) of their last meal and barricaded herself in a separate room, the room she had just exited. Overwhelmed, Mavis was rescued by Anguine who numbed her over-stimulated nose and mouth and stopped the feral hybrids and awakends who wouldn't attack her from their memories of the close bond they had with her. Anguine, now in a stable, normal state, informed her that the rabid creatures she saw in front of her were the remains of the nightmare generation, regressed to basic instincts due to the starvation. She also informed her of her ability to numb anything and her expertise as a healer. They agreed to return to the Black Card Brigade and went back the way they came. They entered the room as Llinos exited it, fighting Chalice. They hid for a short time while Anguine that without the Cult of the Horn, Europa would try seize the opportunity to leave and that it was best not engage her since she was clearly an abyssal one. They witnessed Jill stab Europa and Europa cut Jill to pieces. At the same time, the yoki network cleared up and Sharon contacted Mavis, finding out about Anguine. She teased Mavis' obsession with cleanliness and tried to pry into her bashfulness when relating how she found Anguine. Mavis tried to leave the room, saying they would come back later to collapse it to kill Europa but Anguine wanted to stay to rescue Tristessa. Hearing Mavis talk about killing her, Europa lashed out at her and almost cut her in half at the waist, saying that she talk about victory until she had won and forcibly threw her to the ground, breaking her back. Anguine waited until Europa and her servants had passed and healed Mavis, numbing the pain while she worked. Meanwhile, Jill returned and began to fight with the awakened that Europa had left behind. Anguine and Mavis quickly numbed Freya and cut Tristessa out of her. Jill tried to kill them but Freya ate her, leaving her sword behind. Grabbing her sword to make her less of a threat, the trio ran and encountered Llinos who was stuck trying to cleave through Chalice's sweat which blocked the passageway. Jill came after them to retrieve her sword, cleaving through Chalice's sweat easily and left them with relatively minor injuries, pursuing Europa. The 4 claymores, wounded, continued on when Llinos fought Rapsody to allow Penny to kill Leigia. Mavis killed Rhapsody and the 4 claymores made their way back to the headquarters to recover.

Angeline
Angeline was terrified of her surroundings and quickly met Morphine. Due to Morphine's ability to create likeable illusions in her victim's minds, Angeline saw her as a comforting, kind claymore and immediately agreed to everything she wanted since she was so terrified and saw Morphine as the only way not to be scared and didn't want her to leave her. Angeline told her about Llinos and Mavis and how the Black Card Brigade was fighting the crawlers, causing Morphine to send out maggots to attack Penny and sent more crawlers to attack the brigade. They met Agrona and Angeline was taken to Leigia's chamber which Morphine made to look like the inner sanctum of Rabona, Angeline's dream location. Leigia demanded she pull out the claymores that sealed her away and told her that she was sealed away by the horrible traitor Penny who betrayed her. Angeline believed her and began to pull out the claymores while Morphine numbed her senses and Leigia's immense pain that came from the swords' removal. To help her cope with the pain, Angeline talked with Leigia who harshly dictated the conversation and would allow no room for disagreement. She told her how she became a claymore, her lack of eyesight, her betrayal, and informed her how she would handle a mission, sacrificing those below her so that she could get a kill since she was no 1. She threatened Angeline not to push the swords back in when she stopped in exhaustion and promised safe passage for her, Llinos, and Mavis if she could pull out the claymores. Angeline pulled all the swords out in 15 minutes and fell down, exhausted. Morphine released her illusion and blinded Angeline with acid spit. She then carried Angeline until she found Kazuria unconscious and left her there to be found by the brigade.

Other Black Card Brigade Members
The heavy, driller, and combat medic members who gathered at the entrance to the dungeons were attacked by crawlers. They were assaulted by aquatic ones which left haphazard crawler frames behind and then human and armored crawlers which entered the room through the corpse of an enormous shark battering ram. Pamela and a harvester entered as well. Overwhelmed by the sheer amount of enemies, the claymores began to loose ground and Pamela decided to fight, overpowering and breaking Slaine's arms. Kazuria and Hailey entered the fight, having concluded their interrogation. Kazuria fought against Pamela while Hailey fought with the other claymores to kill the harvester. Once the harvester's momentem was halted, Hailey cut it to pieces with her fatality. Meanwhile Slaine healed herself while Kazuria used 100% yoki against Pamela, damaging her armor and making her wonder what she was. She was defeated by Slaine's yoki disruption when fighting both Kazuria and Slaine at the same time and was killed by Kazuria. The head cultist and Kazuria was run over and lacerated by Umbra while Jill killed Chalice. Europa arrived, riding Umbra and cut the remains of the harvester in half easily to make herself a seat. The Black Card Brigade tried to attack her but found it near impossible to heavily wound her while Umbra defended her and Omega attacked them. Sharon used Heaven's gate to sync their minds to fight more effectively and Europa was forced to make a move. At that moment, Jill again tried to kill Europa but Europa was prepared and had Omega surprise attack Jill, draining her yoki and had Umbra contain and lacerate Jill. Wren used a steel trap to rip off Europa's head and the Brigade celebrated victory, unaware she was still alive. Turning their backs, they began to walk away as Europa reverted to abyssal form and killed Armorina and heavily wounded other members, major casualties being averted thanks to Kazuria who used south wind to divert Europa's attack. Hailey became enraged and swore to kill her but Europa laughed and ran off at incredible speed, shattering through the thick prison door and climbing up an enormous pile of crawlers to reach the surface. Hailey followed and used a fatality to cut her in half. However, Europa was able to instantly put herself together and escaped with Omega and Umbra, laughing at Hailey while she left to destroy a town or two for a victory feast. Hailey contemplated the battle, realizing the Brigade had lost to both Europa and Leigia and that she couldn't win every battle. She allowed Kazuria to join the brigade and wondered when Grace would return, her one month of exile fulfilled.