Grace

Grace, the main heroine of the story. Claymore no 42 (45), half awakened, Subclass "Heart". She became a Claymore after being the lone survivor of an attack on her hometown Alighieri(c101) where she met Blanc “The Barehanded” who donated his arm for her operation. Grace's symbol is a line with a circle contained within a diamond.

Grace is very likely a Drach, although this has yet to be explored in depth in the current storyline.

Appearance
Only Claymore who wears jewelry (Her medallion). Her sword is 16 kilos, 4 kilos heavier than the standard 12 kilos and has an antenna from David hidden in the handle of her sword. She also uses more armor than the average Claymore although she took it off while hiding in Noble's Castle. She now wears Alice's suit which can morph into anything including her missing right arm and can change into any color.

Before her operation, she had green eyes and black hair.

Personality
Prone to violent outbreaks, going as far as injuring her handler Apsley gravely, putting him out of commission for more than two years. Hates to be called by her number and fears rejection by her friends if they will see her stigmata. Called the idealist for a reason, sticks to her beliefs no matter what. Never breaks promises. Cares deeply about her friends and feels responsible for them. Gives every person a chance to prove themselves and doesn't prematurely judge. Seen by many as a saint for her acceptance. Feels responsible for everyone she considers not an enemy and tries to follow the Organization rulebook, although she uses loopholes and sometimes questions the rules she has been given. Generally impulsive, and typically does not make plans far ahead. She has difficulty with directions and can get lost easily.

Grace is dead set to fulfill her promise with Blanc, to come and kill him once she is strong enough to take him on. She is the only Claymore introduced willing to befriend Awakened Being and to let them travel with her given they go without human guts. She scored the lowest in sensory ability in her generation and possibly the entire history of the organization, being completely unable to sense Yoki (She can only sense Yoki to a dismissive degree when absolutely calm, not moving and concentrating for quite some time to enter the red-world). Grace has no Yoki aura, although she never went through THUMA, likely due to being a drach. Grace is generally looked down on by her fellow claymores because of her inability to sense Yoki, lack of aura, rebellious attitude, violence towards her handler, Apsley, and her low rank, being called an abomination, the useless, graceless or the blind (c68). In this respect, even a Yoma, some humans, and mindless Feeders can feel yoki to at least a small degree unlike Grace.

After her half awakening in Natrice, dark Grace (who will be referred to as Aezathol for the high probability that they are one in the same) appeared in her mental world. She shows no compassion towards anyone and hates everything, wanting to destroy everyone and anything. She reappears whenever Grace charges up Yoki near her limit and usually tries to convince Grace to awaken by different means, be it violence or seduction. When Grace refuses to listen to her, she makes contracts with Grace and tries to make Grace stronger by giving her new abilities/unlocking them. If Grace dies, Aezathol will take over her body and destroy the world, the contract Grace made with her in Natrice. She has agreed to let Grace use her unique ability (see below) to gain strength. She often even tries to force Grace into using her ability to make Grace, and by extension, herself, stronger. Aezathol is what Grace calls her dark twin now, but the name itself, meaning heart of darkness, was only stated to be a name and not necessarily her actual name/identity if she had one.

About Grace
Grace's dreams are plagued with strange places, people and things she has never seen and because of this, she hates to sleep, particularly on her back and stomach where the occurrences of strange dreams are increased. In her sleep, she can sense yoki and often met her dark twin after semi-awakening, fighting against her to prevent herself from awakening. She learns how to use the abilities she has absorbed (see abilities/skills below), can talk to others, and even be harmed in her dreams. In her dreams, she has seen the Drach, Mainland, Messire, been on the Moon, and fought against every yoma (a representation of what she wished to do in real life). Her dark twin can manipulate her dreams to an extent, changing the environment but always causing death and destruction in one way or another.

Her mental world is a ruined wasteland and can be manipulated by both Grace and Aezathol like Grace's dreams.

Grace has connections to the Eternals and the doomsday prophecy of Nexus, presumably being Aezathol or the vessel of Aezathol, a being supposedly stronger than even the 4 Eternals. Evidence of this is Omen's testimony and fervor to kill Grace to release Aezathol, Grace's experience of pain when she looked at a sculpture of Messire, becoming the caretaker of Eliah, the fourth Eternal and her dream in chapter 39 where she is approached by Messire.

Grace's Stigmata is unique and cannot be seen without extreme repercussions. On more than one occasion Yoma got repulsed by it so gravely committing suicide after seeing it. Other responses have been insanity, absolute fear, self-mutilation and temporary blindness. Her stigmata wasn't like it currently is after her operation, but became this through unknown means, likely due to Aezathol's corruption of her heart. Because of its horrid nature, Grace tries to never reveal it. Some of her victims who viewed her stigmata also mentioned the term Aezathol, a term found also in the ruins in Nexus connected somehow to the end of the world/Armageddon(c74), a phrase Grace has been called many times.

According to Sharon, her Yoki is red instead of blue and incredibly compressed into a small marble containing extreme power (c36). Her yoki also has curved arms which spiral into its core, an infinitely small black dot. She is an experiment of the Organization, having Blanc's flesh for her operation rather than a Yoma's and as such, the Retrieval Squad is interested in her. In her file in the Organization Archive, some info about her is missing and only accessible after further clearance. The only other Claymores files with such restricted content are the ones on the top 3 and 47, an experimental warrior.

Grace has no yoki aura. There are a variety of reasons this could be, although the reasons behind this will be revealed later.

Grace's scent as a point of ambiguity. Some people claim she has a scent, including Medea, Eliah, Alice, and Miata while others claim she is completely scent-free (Faith). Why Grace's scent is so obvious to some yet imperceptible to others is unknown.

Abilities
Grace's basic fighting style relies on improvising and using whatever is at hand, making her unpredictable to opponents. She has no qualms to use her fists or even money to distract opponents. All this lets her fight on even terms with single digits like Lucia. This technique is made more effective by her lack of aura which makes her unpredictable. Grace is also skilled at finding yoma via infiltration yet can't infiltrate awakened settlements well as seen in Noble's castle and Sanctuary.

Grace's combat abilities:
 * Improvisation and weaponless grappling/fighting
 * Combat reflexes - a passive ability which allows her to see dangerous attacks in slow motion to react to them easier.

Grace's medallion is the heart of her yoki. She found her yoki in it after searching fervently for an extended period of time. It was extremely minuscule and chained. Grace never chained it herself and was only able to use it by synchronizing her heartbeats with it, similar to how her "Heart of Darkness" synchronizes heartbeats to absorb sacrifices. Her yoki enables her to use her unique ability "Heart of Darkness" on anything alive to gain their power. For more information, see Heart of Darkness. The heart of darkness was originally Grace's blessing, created from her will to save everyone (from the hate and despair she suffered (which is the world)) but was corrupted by her own hate, given power through yoki (Aezathol), and turned into a curse. For this reason, Aezathol has authority over the blessing and only has allowed Grace access to it as it is useless without someone to use it to gather sacrifices.

Grace is half awakened and thus can use her Heart of Darkness ability and tap into some of its full potential as she nears her limit. However, usage of these abilities that she has no control over is extremely dangerous and damaging to herself.

Grace has the ability to reject damage on her body by simply thinking of the damage disappearing. This type of recovery works on any type of wound as long as it is connected to her body, even severe burns which typically can't be healed easily, even by awakened beings. This ability offers an additional benefit of having no limit to how many injuries of any extent can be healed as long as the user isn't too tired and is awake, a trait unique to Grace since almost every claymore and awakened has a limited amount of damage they can heal before they are unable to regenerate. Grace's damage rejection speed is quicker the more energized she is and slows down as she grows more exhausted although it never stops. This ability was shown by Omen to be able to be improved to the point where the rejection could occur instantly and not require that the injured piece be attached to the body. This type of recovery may be an unheard of type of denial. Grace herself had this ability before she even semi-awakened, hinting it isn't a part of her Heart of Darkness or the power Aezathol gave her. The organization incorrectly categorized her as offensively typed in their archives during her first evaluation although they noted this ability in her second evaluation.

Grace has limited perception through sight, barely capable of seeing Renee's blood as dim stars of yoki. Grace's suit, obtained from Alice, contributes to her abilities greatly. The suit acts as versatile armor and extra appendages. The suit responds to her will, although often this requires concentration.

The Organization's Rating
First Evaluation:

Number 45. Name: Grace. Warrior Type: Offensive. Left-handed.

Evaluation

Yoki: E

Agility: C

Strength: C+

Mental: C

Sensing: F

Leadership: D+

Skills: Endurance. Slightly average strength. Undying loyalty.

Deficiencies: Impulsive. No sense of yoki perception at all. Too emotional. Weak and non-existent yoki aura. Difficult to locate. Short temper.

Overview: the warrior is a failure, only her undying loyalty to the Organization is why she isn´t disposed off. Shown to not be a stranger to violence. A strong hate against the yoma. Several times requested to hunt "Voracious Eaters". All denied. No need to waste more warriors on her. Due to unique circumstances, she´s allowed to exist in expectation of further results. If changes occur, please have her report to the retrieval Squad for examination.

Second Evaluation:

Number 42. Name: Grace. Type: Unknown. Left-handed. Second evaluation.


 * Yoki: E


 * Agility: C+


 * Strength: B-


 * Mental: C+


 * Sensing: F-


 * Leadership: D+

Skills: Increased endurance. Damage rejection of skeleton tissues. Increased reflexes. Increased strength. Capable to handle enemies in large numbers. Capable to battle and defeat an Awakened Being by unknown means.

Deficiencies: Even more emotional. Cares too much. Prone to violence. Troublemaker.

Overview: Has survived difficult odds. During the amount of a year, killed fifty-six Yoma, one "Voracious Eater" and for the recent record one Awakened Being. Testimony from number five combined with remains of the awakened are legitimate. Due to disturbance in Natrice graveyard, suspicions of her latent side finally been brought to the surface now exists. Needs to be monitored with utmost caution. Yoki aura described as non-existent. This makes her untraceable. Due to increased hostility levels, she needs constant surveillance. Assigning a warrior to monitor her. If further changes of her skills occurs, she will be requested to report to the Organization immediately. Further information only accessible by the Board or the chief for the Retrieval Squad.

History
Grace grew up in Alighieri until she was 10–11 years old. She was born into a chlaresian family and had a mother, brother, and younger sister as well as many friends. At this age, her town was completely razed by an obsidian-like awakened which attacked with lightening and yoma. She was pursued by a yoma who had impersonated someone close to her and had eaten her sister, brother, mother, and friends while she was unable to do anything. She was caught by it and began to cry and fight, refusing to be eaten and realizing that her attempt to save her sister had ended up with more deaths. Blanc saved her from the yoma, killing it but not before it stabbed Grace with its fingers. He helped Grace recover by feeding her medicine and told her that her life was hers to live and that life wasn't fair. Grace saw him as a hero and took his words to heart. After she recuperated, he tried to leave her to Rabona but she tried to stay with him longer, threatening to stain his blade with her blood which was presumably human, a prospect he swore never to do, but was still refused. After being lightly cut (He did not break his promise, as she was not human), she asked to be a claymore like him to try to protect others from suffering like herself. He gave her his arm and medallion in exchange for her promising to kill him and a lock of her hair to remind him of her promise to him. She later was found by Apsley who became her handler and exclusive caretaker and a trio of claymores sent to hunt Blanc.

Her Trainee Days
Following this incident, she became a hybrid with Blanc's arm. Grace was a trainee for 5 years, much longer than the expected 3 that most trainees go through. She made at least 3 friends, presumably as a trainee, Gloria, Mercia, and Erika, her roommate. Gloria was one of the few trainees which didn't harass Grace. She was extremely shy and an outcast similar to Grace. Grace's first teacher was Psyche, whom she presumably met right after her hybridization. Under Psyche's instruction, Grace learned the skills she needed to become a claymore. To train her swordfighting, Trish was selected as Grace's teacher. Trish had little faith in Grace's abilities and called her a failure, becoming greatly upset when Grace beat her "unfairly" in a fight by throwing dirt at her eyes to blind her. Grace passed her final exam with great incident, the details being unknown, but involving her failing the final exam multiple times (which usually results in the death of the trainee upon first failure). Upon graduation, she received an already customized armor, uniform and sword. Following her graduation, she was assigned to Toulouse, the safest region in Tolaine, assigned to weak claymores.

Her Early Claymore days
As a claymore, she had a burst of rage when assigned such a low number and punched Apsley in three places, the face, ribs, and kneecap, causing him to temporarily be put on leave for 3 years to recover and receive treatment from the Retrieval Squad (he still does, but has gotten well enough to give her missions again). She had to go through anger management lessons and learned to count down slowly from 10 to contain her anger and power to prevent another incident. From that point on, she received missions from other warriors or Apsley guarded by another warrior. To test her sensory abilities, Hannah delivered her missions, lying about the number of yoma to see if Grace could find them all. She had to kill Erika when she received her black card. She gained numerous negative nicknames for her reputation of hating/disregarding numbers, receiving hard missions and accepting, and having no aura/sensory ability, generally an indication of a failed warrior. She sparred against Lucia but Lucia could never beat her, making Lucia extremely agitated for not being able to beat someone of such a low rank. She went on numerous missions to kill yoma, asking to hunt "voracious eaters" but being constantly denied. The people she met hated her for being a claymore and she fell into a mist of indifference, killing only because she was told to.

Grace meets Eliah
When Grace went to Ferina on a simple yoma extermination mission, she killed 5 yoma and rescued Eliah from her yoma father, Samuels. When the village leader implored Grace to take Eliah, calling her dangerous and unstable for laughing at Samuels' death, Grace took her under her wing when she remembered her own past and realized that Eliah's family had been killed and she had no place to go. Eliah quickly formed a bond with Grace, calling her "big sister", believing her to be strong, kind and the safest place from yoma, memorizing her unique scent to find her anywhere. Grace came to love her after Eliah gave her the appreciation she never had and made her remember her reason for living, to protect others from her fate.

Grace then traveled with Eliah to Limbus where she asked the girl to play hide and seek while she hunted down the yoma, unknowingly getting her captured by the yoma. She masqueraded as a human and tricked a yoma named Jude into leading her into the yoma hideout to discover Eliah had been captured and was to be eaten, much to her horror. She killed all the yoma and rescued Eliah, leaving to the next town.

Grace traveled with Eliah for possibly a few months, learning the girl had been abused by Samuels and as a result was extremely self-sufficient and hated to take baths because the water would typically fill with her blood when she bathed from her beatings. Eliah would help Grace find all the yoma by "sniffing" them out, leading Grace to think she had a strong sixth sense. Grace would often employ her to find yoma, asking her to play hide and seek with the yoma, ending with the yoma dead by Grace's sword, a game Eliah loved. During this time, they became almost inseparable and Grace began to see herself as Eliah's only family.

Mission to Natrice
Grace received a mission from Gloria to hunt a "Voracious Eater" in Natrice. She was forbidden to carry weapons into the town due to the numerous attacks so together with Eliah, she went in with a hidden dagger rather than her claymore. She met Mael, the gravedigger who sent the request and went to find the yoma. She didn't ask Eliah to hunt it down due to its dangerous nature, instead confronting it in the red-light district and stabbing it in the shoulder with her knife, breaking the knife in the process. Realizing that it had cuts from a claymore on its body, she demanded that Mael tell her who had been sent before her and was killed. Mael revealed it was her old friend, Mercia and Grace resolved to avenge her. Grace found it hiding in the cemetery and fought against it with Mercia's claymore, overpowering and killing it with Mael's help. In the process, she overstepped her limits and began to awaken (and simultaneously, undergo Schmelzen). She met her dark twin, Aezathol for the first time and fought her for control of her body. Grace began to lose but was able to regain her resolve after realizing that her actions were appreciated and helped others, particularly Eliah. Using her conviction, she prevented herself from awakening and Aezathol semi-awakened her, giving her the unique ability "Heart of Darkness" (which was later revealed to be her own blessing, corrupted and stolen by Aezathol).

Her First Awakened
Soon after, Grace was sent on an actual purge mission for the first time to Tangea. She met Rae a day before the mission and learned that voracious eaters was only the name given to the public and low ranked claymores for awakened beings. Rae advised her to get rid of Eliah because an awakened being was too dangerous and would kill the girl if she was involved. Grace didn't want to get rid of Eliah and instead let come with her. Eliah helped Grace find the party, composed of Rae, Valerie and Sheena. Valerie and Sheena didn't want Eliah in their company and insisted she leave, prompting Grace to comfort the girl and sleep beside her. She left Eliah behind temporary to fight so that Eliah wouldn't be hurt. She was tricked by Valerie into going in a separate direction from the rest of the party but encountered the awakened's yoma and killed all but one, forcing it to lead her to her target before killing it. Seeing her hunting party defeated, Grace jumped from a cliff right down onto the centipede awakened, cutting into its neck. Surprised and terrified that he couldn't sense her yoki, the centipede awakened asked her who she was, mentioning her number as was told by Rae, enraging Grace. She quickly cut his arm in half laterally, cut his torso in half and drowned him in a nearby river. She was thanked by Rae who was shocked that a low ranked warrior who supposedly ran away to avoid fighting could single-handedly kill an awakened being in such a unique way. Sheena saw the conclusion to the fight and began to think highly of Grace, no longer referring to her by her number but instead by her name.

The Valley of Death
Soon after this incident, Grace was assigned to give Medea her suppressants and hunt down another awakened. In a destroyed town, Eliah sensed Medea's presence and alerted Grace, seeing Medea as a scary person. Medea blinked behind Grace and took the suppressants, leading her to her Valley of Death to hunt down the awakened. Grace and Medea came across the awakened, Faith and Grace fought against Faith when she accidentally revealed her presence. Faith almost killed her until she saw Grace's Medallion and recognized it as Blanc's, halting her attacks to get information. She was ambushed by Medea who used Grace as a distraction and was knocked out with a yoki suppressant. When Grace was about to kill Faith, Medea knocked her out saying that killing prey unable to fight back wasn't good sport. Medea wouldn't let Grace leave captivity in the valley, forcing her to cooperate with Faith to escape. After realizing that Faith wasn't monstrous and had morals, she agreed to trick Medea to escape the valley. Using Gilas' poison, she poisoned her own yoki suppressants and stole Medea's suppressants when Medea tried to sneak up behind her. Desperate for her suppressants, Medea chased Grace and stole Grace's poisoned suppressants, ingesting them all and becoming paralyzed from the overdose which reduced her yoki to nothing, allowing her to be paralyzed by Gilas' poison. Grace and Faith ran for 12 hours straight away from the valley but were quickly pursued by Medea who awakened, wanting revenge. Medea attacked Grace in the same town they had met but was stabbed and defeated. While dying, Medea told about how Blanc ruined her life and regretfully told Grace that she attacked her first because she reminded her of Blanc. Grace took pity on her and mercy killed Medea at her request. Faith came along with them, terrified of Eliah. Grace, seeing Faith as an acquaintance and somewhat of a friend, allowed her to come to keep an eye on her to prevent her from eating humans, forcing her to have a strict diet of only animals.

The Vanguards
Faith stopped eating humans after 1 month while expressing increased aggression as a withdrawal symptom. They came upon a town which welcomed claymores and they stopped to get food and new clothes from Eliah. Grace gave Eliah a sturdy black coat and a ribbon as a sign of her affection, a ribbon which became Eliah's most treasured item. On the outskirts of the town, Grace and Faith came across Molly who told them to rescue Renee and Kahlan from the Apex. Leaving Faith behind to deal with the Apex soldiers outside, Grace charged into the underground lair where Renee and Kahlan were being kept and fought against Armand. She later left to rescue Renee from awakening, finding her body awakened almost fully. She tried to convince the depressed Renee that she had worth, using her body as a musical instrument rather than kill her. When she was attacked by Renee out of frustration, her "Heart of Darkness" activated and sucked in Renee's excess yoki, reverting her back to human form. She later fought against Armand together with Faith and Renee and with Renee's help, destroyed his lower body. When Nina rescued Armand, Grace asked about Blanc's whereabouts, shocking Nina who informed her of his current location and Harold's mission involving Blanc. Following the mission, Grace fell unconscious and Faith told Renee to not include information on how Grace was traveling with Faith to prevent her from being purged. Grace returned to the town to find it razed to the ground. She learned from Crow that the Apex wolves took the children of the town into slavery for a profit. Grace killed him after he became a feeder after drinking Vanguard tears.

Purge
Gloria was later assigned to monitor Grace by Apsley who agreed to not tell the board about Faith and was happy to see Eliah gone. Grace accompanied Gloria to Garnich to watch Gloria kill the entire town filled with yoma. They later went to Purge for a purge mission. She met with Valerie and Sheena, two of the three other party members. Valerie was enraged with Grace, thinking Grace stole the glory for killing the centipede awakened and tried to duel her. When Lucia arrived to complete the hunting party, they received mission report from Ducard. Grace believed that Ducard was lying and didn't like how he told them to kill the prisoners of Purge if they were unruly. Grace accompanied Valerie and Sheena, finding and fighting feeders. Grace's previous experience with Crow saved the group's lives on more than one occasion. While walking in the hallways, Victoria contacted Grace, giving her instructions and promising locations to slave camps in the north to help her find Eliah. Victoria also helped Grace by lighting up the hallways and informing her of the current situation in the prison and any incoming enemies. Grace discovered from the prisoners that the guards were killed by the soon to be named vanguard members, Nixie and Brook as well as feeders. Grace gave them weapons to protect themselves and found out about Ducard's corruption and use of yoma in the torture room and monster within the execution room. Grace went alone to the torture room and quickly defeated the guards and yoma stationed there. She then entered the execution room to discover the Iron Maiden corrupt being. She fought against it and was stabbed upon opening up its "heart" containing Victoria. Using her "Heart of Darkness", she absorbed its seasoning, killing it, and rescued Victoria, bringing the awakened to the surface before the prison's collapse. She allowed Victoria to eat Ducard's dead guards to regain strength, seeing them as not human if they were dead. Victoria carried Grace above the clouds in her awakened form and used sensory control on Brook, allowing Grace to rescue Lucia whom had been captured. Victoria later insisted on following Grace due to a life debt and the fact that Grace had virtually no sense of direction.

Abyssal Tea Party
Rae met Grace after the incident at Purge and asked her to go on a mission to Danea since a suspicious request believed to be from the vanguards had been sent from there. Grace went there and encountered her former mentor, Trish who had awakened. Trish fought against Grace, dealing major injuries to her body. Grace went into the water to fight Trish since Trish's slippery ability didn't work in water. Trish rapidly seasoned from drinking the Vanguard Tears and began to fight Grace again. After fighting in the water for 16 minutes straight, she defeated Trish using an inferior version of Renee's One ability with Trish's and her own claymore sword. She then used her "Heart of Darkness" to fully absorb Trish's soul and seasoning. She then immediately began to run with Faith, Gloria and Victoria because Alice had sensed them and was trying to grab them and bring them to her tea party. While running, Grace tripped in front of Noble and she was brought to Alice's Mansion. Inside, she met Hannah, Lena, No 28, Faren, and Dumas. She refused to take part in Alice's painful "games", drank her tea without hesitation, and didn't leave the tea party room until she had talked with Alice personally. Inside the mansion, she encountered Alice's art gallery and grabbed a paint knife as a weapon in the absence of her sword. She fought against David and saved Lena, ripping off David's head and using his sharp antenna as a whip weapon. She encountered Zella whom saved her from an awakened and was captured by Danielle and Hazel. She was taken along with Lena to the Black Card Brigade headquarters and called an abomination for her lack of yoki aura. She was treated harshly by Slaine and informed by Hailey that she lacked an aura, making her look like a monster to the members of the brigade. Sharon cleared her as a claymore after suspecting Grace was an eternal when she found Grace's yoki after skin contact and extremely deep searching. She tried to touch it, thinking it pathetic, but was shocked when it darkened and knocked her out of Grace's consciousness with a burst of extreme power. Grace talked with Ceres and Fortuna and challenged Hazel to a duel. She constantly refused to accept authority, much to the chagrin of Slaine and Hailey. Hailey promoted her to be captain of the White Card Battalion to infiltrate the "anarchist wasteland" and retrieve their swords. Grace received yoki suppressing drops for her eyes and pretended to be an awakened. She met Faren tied up after attacking Alice and rescued him in exchange for his help in finding swords. She followed him into Sanctuary and was shocked to see awakened and humans coexisting peacefully. She met Derica and became quick friends with Thera and Mila whom though Grace was a good person at heart. After learning the rules, she went to The Daydream and danced with Mila. However, the peace was soon shattered when Noble barged in and claimed that Grace was a claymore that Alice was interested in, causing serious suspicions as claymores were executed on sight in Sanctuary for their constant attacks. Grace was put on trial to prove that she was an awakened and not a claymore. She was attacked by a yoma to make her reveal her awakened form but killed it barehanded without using over 10% yoki (which would have revealed her true eye color). David, a judge of Sanctuary's hierarchy, remembering Grace, opted to proceed to the final trial where a member of the hierarchy fought personally against the accused to prove their innocence or kill them in combat. He beat Grace for 3 hours while she couldn't use over 10% yoki. When Mila tried to intervene and was ripped in half and David announced he had killed over 30 claymores, Grace used her "Heart of Darkness" and killed David in 30 seconds with a killer stomp, absorbing the yoki of the weakened Mila to power her own strength. She was acquitted of charges as she completed the final trial but for her murder of David, she was exiled out of Sanctuary. She was then given her sword and uniform back by Noble and brought to meet Alice in hopes of ending her delusional tea party. She talked with Alice and couldn't provide a reason for having no yoki aura, what interested Alice. Alice, believing Grace was lying, attacked her, causing cave-ins due to her massive size. Alice confirmed the existence of Drach (more exactly, descendants of dragons, briefly mentioning drach) to Grace by transforming into the shape of Descendant while fighting her. Upon seeing Grace's medallion, Alice stopped attacking and panicked, remembering Messire, and shook her entire mansion trying to blindly attack. Grace calmed her down by smashing her tea pot into her body, dousing her in soothing tea. In the process, she found the key to Alice's mansion, ending the tea party. Grace returned to the Brigade to give them the key but was put on temporary leave for 3 months after being accused for indirectly killing Zella with a cave-in. Grace had David's antenna integrated into her claymore to improve its reach by Fortuna. Grace left the mansion alone and was met by Faith, Victoria, and Gloria.

Grace meets Cassandra
With Victoria's sensory control, Gloria's alternate personality, official resurfaced and Faith took the blame for it as it was her decision to use sensory control on Gloria. Grace and Faith had a serious fight and didn't talk with each other in anger. Grace was assigned a rescue mission in Mucha which was to be followed by a purge mission soon after. Grace went into Alvenheim to rescue the claymore and encountered Cassandra. Cassandra believed her to be a ghost from her years in isolation but talked with Grace after realizing Grace was real. Grace learned the claymore she was to rescue, a low ranked warrior, had left weeks ago and most likely sided with the Vanguards. Cassandra felt a connection with Grace out of a shared loneliness and nonacceptance and wished to accompany Grace. Grace, realizing that Cassandra would be forced to destroy the approaching hunting party, tried to come up with another plan to rescue the claymores and settled with planting a decoy corrupt gut worm in place of Cassandra to be killed. While the decoy operation was in operation, she was attacked by Zero 4 whom had come to retrieve Gloria and kill Grace for the retrieval squad. She fought Zero 4 and to a limited extent, Official. She was able to fight Zero 4 by punching her and with help from Gloria/Official. Zero 4 was about to kill her when she accidentally ripped off Grace's dickey and saw Grace's stigmata. After seeing it, she lost all will to fight and tried to crawl away in absolute terror. She called Grace an abomination, causing her to doubt her identity as a claymore warrior after being called an abomination by a crazy awakened/claymore project from the retrieval squad. She didn't talk about what happened with Zero 4 with Faith anyone else and cried to herself after it was over. She later let Cassandra come with them against Faith's advice.

The Northern Kingdom
Grace went to Alphonse to rescue Eliah but came across Bonnie, Artemis, Arwen, and Lazarus. She fought against Lazarus after realizing they had killed humans for fun (bandits) and gained the upper hand, prompting Artemis to shoot her in the shoulder. When Grace and her companions split apart to fight individually, Grace fought against a newly resurrected Lazarus and was stabbed in the abdomen with his tongue and had her blood drunk by Lazarus. Enraged at being touched and seeing Faith in danger, Grace activated her "Heart of Darkness" and instantly killed Lazarus whom she had high difficulty in fighting previously. She saved Grace from Bonnie, stopping her rotating arms with a single hand and disintegrating one of Bonnie's arms by absorbing all the yoki within it. Miata started an avalanche to get rid of Grace but Grace cut through it with her scream, an ability she gained from Mila "The Banshee". Grace's scream triggered a second avalanche which buried her. She was later rescued, unconscious, by Alice and nursed back to health. Alice was still intrigued by Grace's lack of aura and was on friendlier, but still as insane, terms with her. She helped Grace talk with Noble, helped her to try nonlethal chokes that she would need to get information from the Apex, and played Truth or Dare with Grace, giving her information about the Re-establishment and the first generation. Grace later entered Noble's castle under the name of Trish and successfully passed through the rose room. Using suppressant eye-drops she infiltrated the castle and met Deborah and let her hide in her room to prevent her from being found. Deborah informed her of the hunt to find the anomaly and quickly became friends with Grace. Grace went to an exclusive meeting between Noble and Alice but was brought into a separate room by Clarice when she said the organization stood for a just cause. Clarice took her aside and told her about the horrors of the organization, their lies to the claymores and humans, and the true enemy, the Drach. She tried to use charm of Grace but failed due to Grace's lack of aura, leading her to believe that Grace was a claymore on suppressants. Grace later helped search the castle for Victoria (known as the anomaly) and Grace truthfully admitted to Deborah that Victoria was her friend and needed to be rescued, something that Deborah readily agreed with. With Deborah's help, Grace found and rescued Victoria but was taken for interrogation by Clover at Clarice's request. On the way there, Alice gave her a bodysuit to make up for the one she lost after Clarice threw her personal goods into Mt. Isley. Clarice tried to reveal her stigmata to Noble to prove she was a claymore but she violently refused, sealing her fate. Noble, in disbelief that his Roses of Purging failed to remove her "suppressants", stated that the organization would never attack them due to a truce and that they released destruction squads on towns that didn't pay. Upon hearing this, her image of the organization was put in jeopardy and her mind shut down for a few minutes. Noble was about to execute her for espionage but she was saved by Faith who rapidly seasoned and used her newly extendable, chained arms to grab Grace to safety in a split second. Grace later fought against Omen/Lazarus whom was trying to release Aezathol. Together with Gloria, Faith and Cassandra, Grace was able to significantly weaken Omen and force him to use his Outsider form. In the battle, she admitted to destroying Bonnie's arm and Clarice tried to douse her in acid to execute her but failed due to Alice's special bodysuit. Using the acid, she was able to come close to killing Omen. Omen, in his true form, sucked Grace into himself when he transformed and mentally battled her to release Aezathol, storing her physical body inside a perfectly spherical "heart". Grace defeated him by re-absorbing the piece of her body that he stole from her with additional seasoning, killing Omen. Faith rescued her, flying down from Omen's body and bringing her to safety. Grace was then attacked by Lazarus again who was still determined to release Aezathol and end his own life. He yelled that she was the embodiment of hate and that she must release Aezathol and end the world. In response, she tried to say that she did all her actions out of love and fought to protect others from her fate. Furious, Lazarus tried to force her into awakening by thrusting his hand into her stigmata but caught a glimpse of the stigmata itself and went insane, believing that pain was the solution to the world's and his own problems. He tried to kill her because if she awakened, there would be no pain, but was killed by Bonnie and Faith who simultaneously destroyed his mind and body.

Grace recuperated and was acquitted of all charges due to her critical role in defeating Omen. She talked with her dark twin which she began to call "Aezathol". Aezathol was upset that Grace hadn't used her "Heart of Darkness" to gain strength and mentioned that Grace had obtained yoki-conversion from Omen. She stated that Grace had 3 successful sacrifices (Omen, Trish, Iron Maiden) and 3 unsuccessful ones (Renee, Mila, Bonnie). (*Note* She tried to use her ability on Alice but failed and used her ability to fight against Lazarus and David without actually using it to absorb them.) Clarice apologized to Grace although she said she wouldn't stop Bonnie from taking revenge if she wanted. Grace was examined by Miata to determine what combat class she was. After fighting for 3 hours against corrupted crayfish, Miata determined she was a Heart class claymore due to a lack of any other possible class. Grace was given the option to decide what ability she wanted and chose Deborah's counter waves. She went with Deborah to Dabi to train to get the ability but was interrupted by Desiree who lead her off to a remote ice cavern specially prepared for her and attacked her. Grace fought with her with all her strength but was unable to match her after having her right arm cut off and minced, preventing healing. Disappointed, Desiree tried to drink her blood but was punched back. The fight continued and Grace became enraged after seeing Desiree drink humans to death for their blood, abandoning any exercises to hold her anger back. Grace used Alice's suit to make a makeshift right arm. They fought continuously and Grace and Desiree exchanged swords during the fight in the heat of battle. Desiree slit Grace's throat and eagerly tried to suck her blood but Aezathol empowered Grace in exchange for taking Desiree's life. Grace's throat wound healed immediately and she stabbed Desiree with her right arm and used her "Heart of Darkness", absorbing Desiree's Observer, reducing her body to dust. She fell unconscious for a week and was met by Faith, Deborah and Cassandra who informed them of Grace and Victoria's "demise" and their exile from Alphonse.

Black Card Mission
Grace, thinking that Victoria and Gloria both died due to her decisions and starving after developing an exclusive taste for blood, began to strain her body, weakening herself. She tried contacting Desiree to see if there was any way to release her taste for blood, but was unable to find any other way to quench the thirst. Faith secretly gave Grace a bottle of blood for her to drink, confirming for the Awakened in the group that Grace's "hunger" had awoken. Grace later received payment from Constance, who had been assigned to monitor their group in Gloria's place. After receiving the payment, she was knocked out and entered her Mental World, presumably an attempt by Icolde to talk with Grace in private. Waking up, she accompanied Deborah to a nearby town to use the money to pay for Deborah's supplies that she had left in Noble's castle in their rush to leave the Deep mountains. Grace and Deborah were attacked by a madman, leading Grace to nearly beat the man to death in a fit of instinctual rage. Deborah, entering awakened form, carried Grace and her supplies out of the town, harshly berating Grace for attacking the man. While deciding on a path to Maiden's Cove, Grace wanted to go the shortest rout, while Faith wanted to go the longer rout to avoid troublesome awakened, since both herself and Grace were weakened. In turmoil, Grace left, thinking about how she was dragging the awakened along with her, the results of her choices, and how she could finish the black card without its owner realizing that Grace was traveling with awakened. She was approached by Constance, and sparred with her to reduce her stress, getting her neck broken as a result. Deborah helped Grace recover, and testing Grace's Damage Rejection, had her regrow her hair to its full length twice, the cut off pieces necrotizing and reforming on Grace's head. Faith later cut Grace's hair back to size, giving her advice on how to proceed with the black card.

Grace, against Faith's wishes, decided to take the dangerous path through the forest to Maiden's Cove, thinking they could save time by running through the forest. However, Faith slowly walked the group through the forest, revealing the forest had been littered with traps by Medusa. Grace, thinking that she was helping, kept destroying traps, against Faith's wishes, and caused Medusa to send more traps their way, slowing them down further. The meat on the traps caused Faith to Blood Mist, and Grace in desperation knocked her out, getting caught in a trap. She was able to cut herself free and tried to stealthily find her missing Medallion. However, she was discovered and was forced to fight, getting blinded and shot throughout the fight. She discovered she could calm her bloodlust by ingesting her own blood, giving her pink irises, a painkilling high, and improved abilities and repeatedly drank her own blood during the fight. As a result she overheated and entered a drunk-like heatstroke, and even sat next to Medusa and talked peacefully with her. However, they were interrupted as Grace knocked herself out, and her suit began to attack. Grace was restrained by Constance, who arrived on the scene. Grace quickly recovered to discover Faith and Cassandra fighting Medusa. Thinking Faith was in danger, Grace pushed her aside, getting caught in Medusa's jaws. Medusa used her as a hostage and slammed her into trees and brought her thousands of feet above the ground. The entire time, Grace tried to calm down Medusa and tell her they meant no harm. However, Medusa wouldn't stop, and Faith finally landed a lethal blow on Medusa. Midair, Grace's Heart of Darkness activated, forcing Grace to sacrifice the dying Medusa. Grace chose to keep Medusa's soul, turning her to dust and knocking Grace out.

Grace was able to see Medusa's memories as she was knocked out, and gleaned that Medusa had originally been rescued by Faith, and was a Retrieval Squad sample.

After waking up, Faith told her that she planned to leave. Grace, devastated, refused to let Faith go, worried that she couldn't protect Faith and not wanting Faith to go back to how she was before. Knowing this would happen, Faith knocked her out with Yoki Suppressants and had Deborah transport her to the deep forest. Before leaving, she warned Grace not to trust Cassandra, keep Deborah close, and not to "eat" awakened, lest she become voracious, promising she would return in the future. Waking up, Grace decided to persevere to Maiden's cove without Faith.