00 Prologue





The Commandant and Lucia find themselves surrounded by Corrupted and see that they are out of Anti-Punishing Serum. She suggests they turn off her pain receptors despite the risk of M.I.N.D. deviation to buy time to retreat. While waiting for her to recalibrate, the Commandant engages in combat with the incoming Corrupted and is almost attacked. Lucia manages to come back in time to finish the rest while Liv connects with the duo and launches an overload attack.

On the way to regroup with Liv, Lucia becomes more aggressive in fighting the Corrupted as she suffers from the symptoms of M.I.N.D. deviation. They take a short break before arriving at a small area hidden by the ruins where they rendezvous with Liv and Lee. The overload attack a while ago caused the core of Liv’s Levi-Gun to melt and Lee’s hands to suffer burns. It is then revealed that the Gray Ravens were sent to participate in the recovery of City 015 but to compensate for their losses, they would first need to rendezvous with the nearest supply team. The squad decides to take a shortcut through the church where Lucia feels a wave of deja vu passing through it but Lee theorizes it might be from her Sea of Consciousness stabilizing her M.I.N.D.

In the depths of the building, the crew encounters a construct-like figure but realizes it isn’t an ally due to it possessing a high amount of Punishing Virus. Lucia is unable to decipher the figure despite everyone being able to perceive it and her M.I.N.D. starts to destabilize further, strangely not due to the virus. The unknown Construct named Alpha then challenges her to a fight. She manages to nail Lucia’s arm in the wall and is about to finish her off before the Commandant fires at her. Alpha redirects her attention to them and similarly pins their arm to the wall, asking if they can understand what Lucia is currently going through. Seeing their dedication, Alpha lets them go for now and tells Lucia that she looks forward to her choice once she sees what humans truly are.