Don Quixote || Miracle on Mephistopheles

Before the recent events: In a dark forest, a person has been cornered by three people who have been hunting them down for some time on the orders of their master. The person was interrupted by them while engraving something, though name of the object is censored. The three who had been hunting the person, Lion, Wolf, and Panther, discuss to themselves how it appears as if this person can no longer speak. When the person talks, all that they can hear are the ticking noises of a clock coming from this person's new, prosthetic head. During this, the person realizes that they are losing their memories. Panther is disappointed by the fact he is unable to ask where their star is, unaware that the person has already lost their memories of its location. The three decide to kill the person, but before they can a bus emerges from the woods and hits Lion at full speed, knocking her away. A woman named Faust exits the bus and approaches the person, asking them to imagine their star, then follow it. When the person does so, chains painfully penetrate their chest, but Faust urges them to relax and explains that a pact has been made that binds the person to the group she traveled with. Faust tells the person, who she refers to as Dante, that she hopes they will be a good leader. Several more people exit the bus, the ones who were part of the pact Dante had just made with Faust, and Faust explains that they will fight for Dante as a part of their contracts. A fight begins between the strange people from the bus and the three who were trying to kill Dante, but the three make short work of the group and kill them swiftly without taking any injuries. Soon, only Faust and Dante remain alive, and it doesn't seem like the two will survive much longer. Suddenly, a man with red eyes appears and saves Dante by dismembering Lion and Wolf, telling them to relay a message to the Serpent that "this flow cannot be stopped". The man orders Panther to drag the other two out of there, threatening to kill him if he does not comply. With the threats out of the way, the man tells Dante that they need to rewind time and they become overwhelmed by horrible pain. As they pass out from the pain, they become aware that the group of people from the bus who had just died were being reconstructed and brought back to life, as if time was flowing backwards for them. Dante awakens on the bus and is informed that they are now the manager of thirteen Sinners, the people they had just formed a contract with and brought back from the dead, and that these Sinners are able to understand Dante's ticking as words. The man who had saved them, Vergilius, acts as a guide for the group and is not one of the Sinners. He appears to have known who Dante was before their amnesia. After introductions are finished, Dante is still reluctant to accept this job, especially after learning the goal is to travel to the Inferno. Even promises that they will reclaim their memory and original head back do not convince them, but Faust tells Dante that upon completing all their missions, they will be able to engrave the Aspect. Those words strike something within them, and they follow their instincts and finally agree to cooperate. Realizing that Mephistopheles, the bus, hasn't been moving during this exchange, Vergilius asks he bus driver Charon why they haven't yet departed and she points out the group of Hooligans that have surrounded the bus. Dante, with help from Faust, orders the Sinners through combat, successfully chasing off the Hooligans and allowing Charon to begin driving them towards their destination. They run into a few more groups of Hooligans, leading to Faust introducing Dante to Mephistopheles' ability to access the "Mirror Worlds" and extract Identities that can be utilized in combat. Now fully equipped to handle anything that could stall them further, the group sets off without further delay. Shortly after picking up their Executive Manager, the LCB journeys to retrieve the Golden Bough within District 4's Lobotomy Corp. Branch. Along the way, it quickly becomes apparent to Dante that the Sinners have only recently met, and as of now is only barely functioning as a team: Don Quixote's Fixer fanaticism upon learning of their current destination annoys Heathcliff, quickly escalating to a full-on skirmish among some of the Sinners and resulting in the deaths of Heathcliff, Ishmael, and Ryōshū. The Guide, Vergilius, intervenes at this point, and asks Dante to "wind back the clock" as they did previously to revive the dead Sinners. As Dante seemed clueless as to what they are supposed to do, Vergilius asks Faust to guide them. Following Faust's instructions, Dante experiences visions of a "gateway to Hell", is able to revive the dead Sinners while experiencing the pain of their deaths. Further incidents occurred, showcasing major character traits of other Sinners. Shortly after, Mephistopheles runs out of fuel. Vergilius orders the Sinners off the bus to gather some Hooligans, which are then fed to the bus (to Dante and Sinclair's horror). Faust explains that the bus runs on Enkephalin, which it can extract from the nervous systems of living humans. Just as the bus is finishing its meal, Vergilius notifies the Sinners that they are to have a "guest": a former employee of the D Corp. Lobotomy Corp. Branch, named Yuri, who will accompany them to the now-buried facility and act as a guide. In return, her contract with the Fixer Office she is currently working at will possibly be extended. As the bus approaches their destination, the LCB begins running into people with insectile features, not unlike that of Gregor. As the buglike people (explained by Faust to be employees of the Old G Corp.) are intent on obstructing the LCB's journey, the Sinners leave the bus to negotiate, with Gregor unwillingly taking the lead on Vergilius' "advice". In the ensuing conversation, it is revealed that Gregor has been a major focus of propaganda for the Old G Corp. during the Smoke War, which the Old G Corp. employees are veterans of. The veterans continue to refuse to let the LCB pass, leading the Sinners to resolve to violence to open the way. As the LCB arrives at the entrance to the District 4 Lobotomy Corp. branch, they find two Fixers from Yuri's Office, Aya and Hopkins, waiting for them. While Aya holds a laid-back, friendly attitude towards the Sinners, Hopkins initially adopts a contemptuous attitude when seeing the Sinners' ragtag appearance, though this is quickly replaced by awe when he learns that the Guide of the LCB is none other than the Red Gaze. Vergilius drags Dante aside and advises them to not have too high hopes for the Grade 8 Fixers, then retreats back to the bus with Charon as the Sinners and Fixers enter the decrepit facility. The Sinners and Fixers encounter more Old G Corp. veterans upon entering the underground facility. Similarly to the veterans aboveground, the G Corp. veterans recognize Gregor from war propaganda, and immediately shows great animosity towards him, describing him as a traitor for his "abandoning" his comrades to the side effects of the insectification operations. After making their way past the veterans, the LCB runs into the Peccatula; Yuri isn't able to recognize the monsters, which she is chastised by Hopkins for. Shortly thereafter, the group encounters an Abnormality, the Ebony Queen's Apple, which kills Aya, and combat ensues. After defeating the Abnormality, the team makes their way down into the second floor of the Dungeon. In the second floor of the Dungeon, the Sinners run into Gregor's old superior, who attempts to kill Gregor for his "desertion". Near his death, however, upon learning of Gregor's plights after the war, he appears to be satisfied in knowing that Gregor is "no different from them". Gregor borrows a cigarette from Ryōshū, which he gives as a last token to his Head Manager. Proceeding farther into the facility, the group enters a hallway full of corpses, and toxic gas grenades start going off. The Sinners begin falling one by one, while Hopkins, who learned of the poison through scans conducted previously, and completed a satisfactory gathering of Enkephalin, puts on a gas mask and bids his farewell; Yuri, who was treated by the Office as an expendable, was not informed of the gas, nor was given a gas mask, and begins coughing. Gregor gives her a gas mask he found on Aya's corpse, and they briefly discuss Yuri's feelings about her survival of the site's burial during Lobotomy Corp.'s collapse, before Gregor dies to the gas. After the gas dissipates, Yuri and Dante, who was unaffected by the gas, drag the bodies of the dead Sinners away to be revived. After defeating the Doomsday Calendar, the team makes their way to the final floor of the facility. As Gregor approaches a containment unit pouring with golden light, everybody is suddenly transported to the midst of a battlefield, right from Gregor's memories. Very soon, flashbacks from Gregor's past begins materializing, presenting memories of his youth, from the surgery which replaced his arm with an insectoid bio-prosthetic, to his subsequent alienization from society as the Old G Corp. collapsed after the end of the Smoke War. Eventually, hands begin to descend from the sky, crushing everything on the battlefield. The Sinners try escaping them, albeit to no avail. Gregor points out that since the battlefield is a figment of his own ego, the only way out would be to follow how it played out in reality, by allowing them to be grabbed by the owner of the hand. Back in the real world, the Sinners battle the Abnormality housing the Golden Bough, defeating it and reverting it to its "egg" state. However, the Abnormality evolves into its second form, and Yuri, who steps forward to investigate, is devoured by it. After defeating it for a second time, the Abnormality deployed Yuri's head as a final attempt at self-preservation, a tactic that stays the Sinners' hand for enough time for a newly arrived party, consisting of old acquaitances of several Sinners, to take the Bough. The Sinners return to the bus dejected, awaiting their next mission. The LCB is informed by Vergilius their next mission to claim the Golden Bough will take them to District 10, a place that the Guide mentions Rodion should already be familiar with. The Golden Bough is known to be buried underneath a casino currently occupied by various Syndicates, all of which are attempting to claim it. In order to get their hands on the Bough before the others, the Sinners are tasked with following a plan created by LCCB agents Effie and Saude, involving them sneaking into the casino as one of the Syndicates, and win a card game to claim the rights to the Bough through the use of "wish power", a resource produced by J Corp.'s Singularity. However, the plan quickly falls apart after Don Quixote's attempt to save a elderly pawn shop owner from some thugs from the Tingtang Gang: as more Syndicate members show up to the shop, the pawnbroker pretends to not be involved, and the LCB ends up having to fight the gang. The Sinners then decide to steal the Tingtang Gangsters' outfits, and use those to enter the casino. Once inside, the Sinners face off against the Casino Security, the Tieqiu Crew and Los Mariachis, wasting wish power on their race to the top of the casino. After reaching the top, Rodion requests to play the game, claiming she'd stolen a bit of wish power and felt capable of winning the match. She faces off with the Tieqiu Boss, the Mariachi Jefe Aida, and an old acquaintance, Sonya, the founder of the Yurodiviye Syndicate. Rodion manages to win the match, despite having lied about having wish power left, and the Sinners enter Branch J-03. After reaching the Dungeon under J Corp., the Sinners are forced to do battle against more security, debt slaves, and even Abnormalities. Reaching the final floor has Rodion's past as a former Yurodivy revealed. Wanting to help her community, yet tired of Yurodivy doing nothing but plan and discuss all the time as people were dying in hunger, she would kill a corrupt pawnbroker who was extorting her neighborhood. Unfortunately, the pawnbroker was under the protection of The Middle, resulting in a retaliation that left the entire neighborhood dead. However, Sonya states her reasons for killing the pawnbroker were less about actually helping people, but more of the fact she wanted to be special. The Sinners are then chased by a castle-sized Abnormality, Baba Yaga, and are forced to run to the exit, while Sonya and his Yurodivy appear to protect them as they flee, allowing the Sinners to claim the Bough in the process. Sonya also offers Rodion an offer to rejoin his group, but she declines it, stating she needs to be in "the cold" more. He also mentions something about a "mark", one that only Sinclair can see. Afterwards, Rodion uses the gambling chips she stole from the casino to pay for drink and food to celebrate their first successful mission. Though underneath her cheerful demeanor, she still shows signs of distress. The Sinners enter District 11 to claim the Golden Bough in Calw, Sinclair's hometown. At the Nest immigration checkpoint, Don Quixote attempts to stop the border guards from separating a family, resulting in the guards turning on the LCB, forcing them to fight. K Corp. calls one of their "star Fixers", Siegfried, to deal with the Sinners: only after killing all of them on camera Siegfried allows the LCB to go. Vergilius gives Don Quixote a dress down for her repeated offensives. The LCB then meets up with Saude and Effie, who, as members of the Before Team, scout ahead in the direction of Calw. Later on, as the LCB makes their way to Calw, they are stopped along the road by the Nagel und Hammer Inquisition, that call both Dante and Mephistopheles "tainted", threatening them and beginning combat with the Sinners. Upon reaching Calw, the LCB discovers that the entire town was targeted and destroyed by the Inquisitors, who carry a violent hatred for prosthetic users. The Sinners are welcomed by the voice of the leader of the Inquisition, Kromer, playing through the speakers of the town, and calling for Sinclair. Sinclair identifies her as the woman who killed his family. The Sinners make their way to Sinclair's family's mansion, which has been set on fire by Kromer, and is now lined by the tortured bodies of the prosthetic users of the town, including the corpses of Sinclair's family, which Kromer has unearthed. At the mansion, the Sinners find Effie nearly dead, having been tortured by the Inquisitors, with Outis deciding on giving him a coup de grâce, before the group is attacked by Kromer's second-in-command Guido. The sight of everything that has happened to his hometown sends Sinclair into a blind rage, and after killing Guido, he stabs into the enemy over and over, with his outburst only quelled by Don Quixote beating him to a pulp. The LCB keeps marching into the mansion's basement, which had been converted into a base for the Inquisition, and where Dante perceives the Golden Bough might be hidden. Within the dungeon, the LCB meets a heavily wounded Saude, who asks if Effie was still alive. Outis claims that he is, but just then, Guido, who the Sinners believed was dead, turns up again and attacks Dante. Guido gives Saude a chance to save herself by killing Dante: Saude seemingly turns against the Sinners by pointing her gun at Dante, but once Guido lets his guard down, she shoots him instead. After he is dealt with, Saude admits that she knew that the Sinners were lying about Effie, and asks to be left behind so she can keep the Inquisitors off the team's back. They reluctantly do so, and head deeper into the dungeon. The LCB make their way through several areas under the control of the Inquisition, some of which still active torture rooms where the Sinners must choose whether to intervene and stop the Inquisitors, corroded in to monsters from their use of E.G.O. As they travel, they start to learn the tragedy of the town and of Sinclair's family. Back when Sinclair was in school, prosthetics had become popular in the town of Calw, and Sinclair's entire family had gotten full-body prosthetic replacement. Sinclair, who was supposed to receive it as well, showed himself as excited for the procedure, but secretly feared it, and hated the distance it put between him and his family. Kromer, his classmate at the time, picked up on his feelings, and promised she would save him from the procedure, if he collaborated with her. Kromer convinced Sinclair into giving her the key to his mansion's basement, which housed an L Corp. branch facility. Despite her promise to return it, Kromer never gave the key back, and further down the line, on Christmas Eve, she would intrude the mansion together with Guido and kill Sinclair's parents and sister. After this event, Sinclair awoke in an alleyway, where he was greeted by his friend Demian, who spoke to him cryptically, and whose behavior made Sinclair think he'd already known that what happened to his family would come to pass. Nonetheless, Demian encouraged Sinclair by telling him he would one day break through and fly away; after these words, Sinclair passed out, supposedly making this the last time he saw Demian. Eventually, the Sinners reach the lowest floor of the dungeon, which has turned into a field covered in gore through the resonance of the Golden Bough. At the center of it all, Kromer awaits, on a hill of corpses. Upon the Sinners reaching her, Kromer talks to Sinclair, beckoning him closer and commanding him to join her, speaking of how him becoming her subject in her crusade against heresy was preordained, having seen it happen in an alternate timeline. Using the power of the Golden Bough, she then undergoes Distortion, mutating into a monster resembling a Lust Peccatula. During combat, one of her attacks melts nearly everyone but Dante and Sinclair, who are then saved by Demian's sudden appearance, with him killing Kromer in one blow, seemingly making use of Mang. Demian speaks briefly to Dante and gives them the Golden Bough before disappearing. Members of the LCCA then arrive to rescue the Sinners, injecting Dante with a K Corp. ampule and healing their wounds. While Dante calls it a dismal defeat, back on the bus, the Sinners enjoy chicken kebabs as a reward for claiming their second Bough. The LCB remain in District 11 after their mission in Calw and are requested to solve a case of Distortion Phenomenon by Samjo, a K Corp. employee who is representing the manager of Bodhisattva Chicken, a fried chicken restaurant that is losing its customers due to the Distortion scaring them off. The origin of this case of Distortion was the owner of the local restaurant Eunbong’s Bar & Fryers, which had found itself in direct competition with the newly opened Bodhisattva Chicken. The Sinners observe several members of K Corp.'s Security team that have raw chicken-like creatures, covering their heads and causing them to behave strangely. Samjo gets their attention by throwing a rock at them, which leads to the Sinners being forced to fight against the chicken-headed security guards. Despite this behavior upsetting the majority of the LCB, who do not see any reason to agree to such a request, Faust accepts the contract out of an interest to learn more about Distortions. Heathcliff becomes briefly taken over by one of the Headchicken minions of the Distortion, and the Sinners were able to glean from his experience of being connected to the entity that the restaurant owner had Distorted due to a "lost recipe". An attempt to recreate the recipe by cooking was decided upon to resolve the Distortion, and a cooking competition quickly arose from arguments between Gregor and Ryōshū. Several more rounds of cooking were required after both Gregor and Ryōshū failed miserably at producing edible food, with Meursault's cooking coming very near to perfection, and Outis's successfully opening the heart of the restaurant owner. As Outis's cooking passed, a portal leading to a Mirror Dungeon of the Fathoms of the restaurant owner opened, and he entered. Upon initial entry of the Mirror Dungeon, it is revealed that the cause of the restaurant owner's Distortion is the manager of Bodhisattva Chicken stealing his prized chicken recipe and tossing it into a concept incinerator--effectively removing all traces of its existence. The restaurant owner suffered a breakdown due to his cooking chicken being connected to childhood memories of his mother, leading to his Distortion. As the Sinners defeat him, he comes to the realization that his mother did not like chicken, and promptly un-Distorts. The Sinners open a gift box from the restaurant owner, only to find that it contains only a plush mascot of the restaurant that never went into production. Irritated, some Sinners propose to get rid of it; however, Charon shows a liking for the plush, and she kept it. The LCB drive towards a K Corp. laboratory, as the company has signed a contract with the corporation to gain ownership of a Golden Bough found in the District. Their travel is slowed down by an Abnormality rampaging through the streets of Nest K, forcing them to suppress it. Following this, they reach the K Corp. building and meet its Branch Manager Dongrang, who reveals himself to Dante as acquaintance of Yi Sang, and with whom they discuss the details of their contract, which involves recovering the Bough from a former L Corp. branch that a terrorist group, the Technology Liberation Alliance, has nested itself in. The Alliance suddenly attacks the building, hijacking it and the machines within. The Sinners then begin heading into the L Corp. branch, together by Dongrang, his fellow researcher Shrenne, and the Fixers from the Rosespanner Workshop, contracted to escort them. As they dive deeper in the branch, the Sinners discover the Alliance's motivation for attacking K Corp. stems from their hatred for the corporation's technology, which was developed by capitalizing on the suffering of many. As the LCB fight their way through the bots sent by the Alliance, the Workshop Fixers are revealed to have been contracted by a mole within K Corp. to act as backup for the Alliance, and they attack the Sinners. The mole is revealed to have been Shrenne, who is then immediately assassinated by a Shi Association member that had followed the group into the branch. Following Shrenne's death, the leader of the Technology Liberation Alliance's group, Dongbaek, another old friend of Yi Sang's, appears at the scene, carrying the Golden Bough with her. Dongbaek stabs Yi Sang through the heart with the Bough before leaving. After Dante revives Yi Sang, the Sinner comments on feeling unaffected by the event, but later mentions that the regeneration leaves him hopeless, aware of his unchanging nature. The Sinners reach Dongbaek in the screening room at top of the building, where reveals her intent to destroy the source of K Corp.'s healing "tears" used in the ampules, which can kill just as easily as they can heal. Dongrang's assistant Samjo tries to prove their safety by diving into the tears vat, only to be completely dissolved into the substance. The Sinners then engage Dongbaek in combat, after which Dongrang reveals the source of the ampules: a massive eye suspended over the vat, forced to view crude footage, such as the massacre of Calw and the rampage of the Abnormality in Nest K, in order to make it cry and continuously produce tears. As Dongrang berates Dongbaek's failings, she begins to distort, only to instead gain a personal E.G.O, and attack the Sinners again. After her defeat, Dongrang kills her with the Golden Bough, claiming it to be an act of compassion. Dongbaek's body turns into red petals in front of Yi Sang, as her death is recorded and played for the Tearful Thing. The Bough resonates with Yi Sang, causing the building to become distorted, and all the K Corp. Security and Technology Liberation Alliance members to be reanimated without their consciousness. Fighting their way past them, the Sinners reach a gate that leads into a fathoms of ego based on Yi Sang's memories of the League of Nine Littérateurs, the group formed by his old compatriots from S Corp., and the Sinners are forced to act out the other members to progress. During the play, it is revealed that Yi Sang had created a "mirror" that could peer into other worlds, which would become the base of the LCB Identity system, and that Dongrang had sold out the rest of the League to T Corp., receiving secure employment with K Corp. in return. The Sinners also learn the nature of K Corp.'s Singularity: the Tearful Thing was once a human boy who explored the Outskirts together with Stephanette, a girl who would go on to become K Corp.'s Chief Executive. The boy, after expressing his wish of being able to help people, was turned into the Tearful Thing, and started being used as a Singularity. In the aftermath of the fall of the League, Yi Sang, with nowhere else to go, and believing he could never "fly" again, was taken by Gubo to N Corp., where he was regularly drugged and used to help advance N Corp.'s Mirror World research. Eventually, Yi Sang managed to work the courage to escape, and was found by Faust. After reaching the bottom of the dungeon, Dongrang, who had been struggling with living under the shadow of the League even after its downfall, starts distorting, but then manages to reverse the process and gain a personal E.G.O, Farmwatch by casting away his feelings of inferiority and deciding to kill Yi Sang so his copy of the "mirror" can be the only one left standing. Dongrang nearly wins, but Yi Sang gains helps from not only Hong Lu and Dante, but Dongbaek and his mirror self, Sang Yi. This allows him to gather the courage to fight back, killing Dongrang. With Dongrang's death, the contract signed with K Corp. becomes null, and the current K Corp. Chief Executive Alfonso requests for the LCB's memories of the Singularity erased as the condition for giving them the Golden Bough. Despite the Sinners', particularly Ryōshū's, protests, they go forth with the procedure. Only Dante manages to walk away with the memories intact, apparently being immune to the process, although they do not share this fact with the others. As they return to the bus, they question Yi Sang on his wishes, asking where it was that he wished to fly to. Yi Sang replies that he would have been satisfied with the feelings it would give, and that currently he still has to reflect on what he truly wishes for himself. However, he is resolute to keep on living and facing what the future has in store for him. Afterwards, during a victory party over the third Bough successfully retrieved, Dante meets Demian again, who explains why he believes the Mirror to be a cruel piece of technology, then asks Dante to draw a sheep for him as they had once promised to, before leaving. The last scene has Dante's clock head begin moving towards midnight. The LCB arrive at the Backstreets of District 21, stopping by the shores of the Great Lake to wait and gather materials for the modification of Mephistopheles to become amphibious for the impending Golden Bough retrieval mission in U Corp.'s territory. Of note is the Workshop that Limbus Company chose for the modification--Molar Boatworks, featuring three Fixers who were ejected there from The Library. The Molar Boatworks Fixers utilizes technology from U Corp. to work and fuse scrap gathered from Trash Crabs in the area to modify the bus, though the large amount of raw materials needed means that the Sinners must actively hunt Trash Crabs to keep up with the modification process. The impending trip to the Great Lake makes Ishmael highly anxious, as she believes that the Sinners are far from ready to participate in missions on the Great Lake, even with Dante's resurrection capabilities. Dante tries to liven up the general heavy mood caused by Ishmael's anxiety by organizing a game of beach volleyball, though the plan backfires with the game ending prematurely: Heathcliff knocked the ball out of bounds due to Ishmael's incessant grumbling, leading to its destruction. This series of events eventually culminated in a full-out argument between Ishmael and Heathcliff, which came very near to full-out blows. Vergilius intervened at this point; although Heathcliff was able to calm down and continue participating in scrap collection quickly, Vergilius tells Dante in a later chat that Ishmael's problem cannot be resolved at this time: to be precise, there is no reason to solve it. After much Trash Crab hunting and scrap collection under this heavy atmosphere, the modifications to Mephistopheles is finally complete, and the Sinners go on for a stormy voyage on the Great Lake. With Mephistopheles now sea-worthy, the Sinners travel the Great Lake to locate the Golden Bough. During the voyage, Ishmael, who during the previous events had refused to return to the Lake, resolves to no longer collaborate with the LCB unless explicitly ordered to. As a result, the rest of the Sinners struggle to learn the so called "Laws of the Great Lake", and barely escape some close encounters with the Whales and Mermaids that populate the various lakes. In the meantime, Dante discovers another power to their clock prosthetic, the ability to see into people's mind and their desires. In Marlin Portship, the LCB learn that the LCCB agent they were supposed to rendezvous with has been kidnapped by the Twinhook Pirates, a Syndicate backed by the Middle. Ishmael brings up the name of "Queequeg" at the Pirates' hideout, which leads to their boss, the First Mate Smee requesting to know Queequeg's location, as the Middle has put a large bounty on her head. After the LCB defeats the Pirates, Smee mentions that their Syndicate is backed by the Middle, and that killing her would result in them sending a Big Brother to avenge her; despite this, she eventually reveals the LCCB agent's location. Afterwards, Ishmael attempts to kill her, only to be physically stopped by Dante, who takes a heavy blow in her stead. After rescuing the LCCB agent, Pilot, he reveals to the Sinners that his team had located the L Corp. Branch that housed the Bough, which had been taken over by the Pirates backed by a Big Brother of the Middle. The LCCB team was found and held hostage by the Pirates, until a Calamity know as the "Pallid Whale" closed in: the team was wiped out, while the Pirates and the Big Brother fled, taking Pilot with them. Pilot also reveals that Saude survived the N Corp. Inquisition's purge of Calw and has become one of the managers of the LCCB. With a destination in mind, the Sinners travel the Great Lake to reach the Branch, battling various Whales along the way. During the travel, Ishmael's past is slowly revealed to Dante, who peers into her mind to learn that of her old Captain, who had led her fellow crewmates to their death in her obsession with hunting the Pallid Whale. Dante finds out that Ishmael's greatest desire is to kill her to avenge her comrades. Eventually, the LCB reaches the L Corp. building, which had been spat out by the Whale, but was affected by its tremendous abilities, which covered every part of the building, including the LCCB agents trapped inside, in a thin white membrane, an effect which Faust defines as "pallidification". The Sinners are also approached by Rim, one of Yi Sang's friends of the League of Nine Littérateurs, who has seemingly become a Distortion, and who reveals to them that when the Whale ate the L Corp. building, it swallowed the Bough and all Abnormalities contained there. As they leave, the Middle suddenly arrives, lead by Big Brother Ricardo, who intends on taking revenge on the Sinners, after having seen Heathcliff steal his hair coupons from the club run by the Twinhook Pirates. All the Sinners but Ishmael are all killed off in the slaughter, and are only saved by the arrival of another Color: the Indigo Elder, a man whose mission is killing the Five Calamities of the Great Lake. The Sinners, together with the Elder, return on Mephistopheles, where Ishmael hatches a plan to locate and enter the Pallid Whale, taking advantage of the Sinners' immunity to the effects of pallidification. With the Elder backing them up from the outside, the LCB manages to enter the belly of the Whale, although Ishmael becomes more and more entranced in her quest for revenge. Inside the Whale, the Sinners are saved from being digested by semi-pallidified humans from Ishmael's old crew, led by Ishmael's former captain, Ahab. Ahab proposes a deal to Ishmael and the Sinners: if they will help her reach the heart of the Whale, she will allow them to take the Golden Bough which they seek, and Ishmael to kill her. The Sinners and Ahab's party separate as they traverse the beast, with the Sinners being joined by Queequeg, Ishmael's closest friend, whom she believed dead. Ishmael questions Queequeg on the life the crew led inside the Whale, with Queequeg revealing that they all managed to survive the pallidification by following Ahab's lead; furthermore, Queequeg speaks of having "buried" her memories of Ishmael to focus on survival, leading Ishmael to reminisce on the desire they had shared to live on together after the voyage. The LCB and Queequeg thus travel through the Whale's insides, slaying many Mermaids and fighting off some of the Abnormalities from the L Corp. Branch that had been swallowed by the Whale, while Dante's powers reveal more of Ishmael's past on The Pequod. However, once they reunite with Ahab at the beast's heart, it is revealed that the Captain has sacrificed her party to ensure she reached it. Ahab then reveals that she wants Dante's head, which contains part of a Golden Bough, to be able to kill the whale, as the effects of pallidification prevent her from actually attacking it. The Sinners and Ahab do battle, but when corned, Ahab's obsession and determination lead to her awakening her E.G.O, GasHarpoon, that absorbs her remaining crew, Queequeg, Starbuck and Pip, and sacrifices them to empower herself further. The LCB defeat her, and Ishmael is able to break the Captain's weapon, but as the witnesses the pallidification claim Queequeg, and finally facing the object of her obsession, she begins to lose her direction, and nearly becomes pallidified herself, before being pulled out by Heathcliff. The battle closes, with the crew of the Pequod being taken over by the pallidification. Ishmael shares a tearful goodbye with Queequeg, who asks Ishmael to introduce herself to her once more, in memory of their friendship and affection; Ishmael does so, as Queequeg's body disintegrates. She is ultimately convinced by Dante to not strike down Ahab, but rather, her prize: the Pallid Whale. Ishmael briefly reflects on Ahab, remembering the awe she felt of her the first time they met, and how she'd yearned to become like her, someone capable of facing her destiny without hesitation, and she considers how the voyage turned into Ahab's Mermaid, devoid of her own beliefs, only blindly following along. She then agrees to Dante's suggestion, and tears through the Whale's heart, claiming the Golden Bough within. With her desire denied, Ahab breaks down, but Ishmael reveals her intent to spare her, to serve as a testament to her own sins and failures, as her own Whale. As the beast collapses, the Indigo Elder throws down a rope, allowing the LCB safe passage. Following the successful return to the Mephistopheles, Ishmael states her intent to stay with the Sinners until it comes time to separate, after which she will go on her own adventure, having now found purpose beyond revenge.

Recent previous events: As the journey on the Grate Lake drags on, the Sinners begin to feel the weight of tedium. Heathcliff, however, is anxious, especially after he gains the knowledge that their current destination is District 20. He explains to the other Sinners that after Ishmael's "turn", he has a mounting suspicion that his "turn" will be coming up next; this suspicion is further consolidated with Vergilius giving him "something" after his last consultation session. As a result, Heathcliff wishes to refine his looks for a certain upcoming occasion at T Corp., starting with the procurement of a suit. When everyone else turns in for the night, Don Quixote convinces Heathcliff, {{user}} and Dante to join in on a "plan" to help Heathcliff get a suit. This involves a journey through one of the doors in Mephistopheles' Backdoor to a gift factory run by short, round creatures called Gnomes. The group initially receives a warm welcome by a manager Gnome named Dodoru, though it is quickly revealed that the Gnomes were procuring human matter as raw material in their production. The three fights through a crowd of gnomes, defeating Dodoru and rescuing a girl named Crayon from the materials sleigh. However, reinforcements quickly arrived, putting all except Dante to sleep using gas and carrying them off for processing. At this point, the other Sinners barge in, having noticed Dante's disappearance. It is at this point that it is made clear that the gift factory is located in The Outskirts, a significant distance from the Great Lake. The Sinners fight through the factory, arriving just on time to save Heathcliff, Don Quixote, and Crayon from becoming gifts. They then defeat the gnomes' leader, a red-skinned giant named Santata, who started the factory to take revenge for the Outskirts monsters' denial from entering the City. As Santata falls, his gut begins to swell alarmingly. A figure leaps out suddenly, puncturing the dead giant's abdomen and releasing an extremely malodorous, but otherwise harmless, gas. He then inquires as to the Sinners' origins, and reveals that he is Domino the Hunter of Cloud Town, where Crayon came from. The gift factory usually performed raids on another village at this time of year, so Domino went over to help; however, the Gnomes instead attacked Cloud Town instead, overcoming its defenses and taking all its inhabitants. Both Outskirts residents express thanks for their aid in destroying the gift factory. Though Don Quixote offers for the two to accompany them to the City, they refuse as there is little chance they could pass the paperwork for immigration, let alone integrate into City society. Faust advises for quick return to Mephistopheles as the portal back could close at any moment, and Domino gives Dante an antique carved wooden doll as a parting gift. Back on the bus, Vergilius leaves Dante to deal with the mess after they claimed responsibility over the incident. Don Quixote had grabbed a sackful of gifts and decorations from the factory on the way out and promptly began decorating the bus's cabins. Heathcliff agrees to show the "something" Vergilius gave him, and it was revealed to be an invitation for Heathcliff to attend a certain event (specifics were blotted over) at "Wuthering Heights". At the bottom of the letter is a handwritten note from one "Cathy", personally entreating Heathcliff's attendance.