Warrior Slavery

"Warrior Slavery" is the third episode of the Queen's Blade: Vanquished Queens anime.

Story
As Leina reminisces over what she had learned through every battle she’s been in, she realizes that she can yet still improve, and that pride is the most precious thing she’s earned. While Leina fights off skeletal pirates, Liliana looks on from her ship, accompanied by the Swamp Witch. After defeating additional pirates, Liliana fires a cannonball at Leina, launching her into the air, leading to a quick skirmish. As the ship passes between the two, Leina readies her Dragon Tail technique, but before she is able to use it, she is grabbed by a giant invisible hand, and subsequently hit with Liliana’s Skull Flash. As her pirate minions carry Leina back to ship, Liliana reprimands the Swamp Witch for interfering with her battle, as it dishonored one of her Pirate Aesthetics (#8 bis).

The Swamp Witch informs her that the “prophecy” decides who would have won, and without the interference from her, Liliana would have lost. She also tells Liliana that the very same prophecy guided her to resurrect her from the depths of the sea, which also instructed Liliana to come to the desert to capture Leina. Essentially, all of the Swamp Witch’s actions have been done because of the prophecy. After toying with Leina and adorning her with a nether world parasite, the Swamp Witch tells her that she will now be her servant. Against her will, the other servants force Leina to clean a plate with her mouth, but she fights back. In response, the white parasite attached to her begins to vibrate. The servants, who also have parasites attached to them, began to clean the plates, as Leina helplessly watches on. Deeper into the ship, Leina walks on all fours, tethered by a collar to the Swamp Witch, who notes that, the harder Leina resists, the more humiliation she is subjected to, which in turn powers her parasite. Even through the vibrations, Leina tries in vain to attack the Swamp Witch, but is thrown back to the ground and consequently whipped in front of the skeletal pirates by one of the Swamp Witch’s servants. The Swamp Witch informs Leina, whose parasite has now turned black, will no longer sense humiliation and will now sense the joy she has to serve her master, and converting that joy into pleasure. Even still, Leina tries to resist the parasite. Liliana, her floating ship above a body of water, dives deep down into an abyss, to check a massive hoard of treasure. Meanwhile, her skeletal pirates, are all brought back to life, fight against Leina inside the ship.

However, because of the parasite and the Draining Curse, Leina is not up to her full power and one single pirate is able to easily best her. The pirates then all take their revenge on her. While unconscious, Leina recalls the cheers of her name throughout the Queen’s Blade Arena, as she raises her sword in victory. She then awakens, to find herself trapped in a room with a hatched ceiling inside of the ship, fighting against a pirate who had never got the chance to fight, since he was killed as the ship sunk. Still very weak, she can’t muster enough strength to fight the pirate, and the cheers from when she was unconscious turn out to actually be the pirates berating her.

Liliana interrupts, scolding her pirates for forgetting the Pirate Aesthetics, and listening to orders that were not her own. She throws down to Leina an ornate and elegant sword, which was the weapon used by her grandmother, the ship’s previous captain. The blade has the power to nullify evil, and Liliana says that the Swamp Witch’s curse can be temporarily broken, if Leina uses the weapon. While being scolded, Liliana’s pirates also mention that she also has no choice but to listen to the Swamp Witch. Before leaving, Liliana reminds them of Pirate Aesthetic (#25 bis), and Leina and the pirate continue to fight, as Liliana watches on to see if Leina will fight for herself. While under the pirates boot, Leina recalls her past fights as if she was always what the pirate has been calling her, a loser. But, she realizes that even though she did lose, she always got back up to fight again and again. And with a powerful strike, she destroys the pirate, and breaks free of the lower area she was in. The rest of the pirates begin to band together, but are all defeated by Leina’s full power.

With Leina back to her senses, Liliana fights Leina once again to reclaim the dishonored Pirate Aesthetic from the Swamp Witch’s interruption. After unleashing her Dragon Tail against Liliana’s Skull Flash, Leina emerges the winner, and Liliana tells her that since she was defeated, it all the more makes her stronger as she has been defeated honorably, with her Pirate Aesthetics intact. The Swamp Witch tells Liliana that the curse is not fully gone, and that Leina’s life force is gradually weakening and her days will have to be spent sleeping. Later, Leina, as Maria, says that even though the Swamp Witch’s curse still tortures her, she will never give up her pride.

Alternate Ending: True Defeat
In the alternate non-canon ending, Leina's fate is different, where the humiliation and degradation inflicted by the Swamp Witch and Liliana's pirates destroyed all her will to fight. Prideless and humiliated, Leina urinates herself, admitting defeat. Liliana, realizing she was too late, expresses her disappointment and jumps down, presumably to retrieve the sword.

The Swamp Witch looks on as a naked Leina seen licking a plate along the other servants. The Swamp Witch decides that it's time to complete the "prophecy" and took away Leina's plate. She calls Leina her loyal servant and tells her that there is a place she wants her to go. After Leina replied yes, the Swamp Witch hugs her, calling her a good girl, and that it is rare to see a servant as loving as Leina. It is soon revealed that the parasite is no longer attached to Leina; the Swamp Witch told her that she no longer needs to wear it.

Leina is then seen inside a crate being sent home. By this point, Leina was not able to think about anything besides wanting to go back to the ship. An informer soon notifies Claudette and Elina that Leina has returned. Despite being back home, Leina does not recognize it. However, she thinks that it doesn't matter and expresses her desire to return to the Swamp Witch's side.