Chapter 11: First Contact
Nier gritted his teeth, watching helplessly as the massive reptilian Shade crawled up the side of the mountain, knocking down the metal buildings of the Aerie, and jumped down on a different platform.
He cursed himself for failing to kill it the first time. He had to stop this monster before it hurt anyone else!
"What in the heavens…?" Weiss gasped.
Nier echoed the sentiment, seeing gigantic crimson arms, identical to the ones he could summon, grab the metal houses and lift them up, placing them on the ground safely. Who was using this magic?
Kainé launched herself into battle again, her supernatural speed and agility allowing her to easily clear the distance. Nier had to scramble over the narrow bridges and ladders instead.
Kainé was slashing at the monster with both her swords, torrent of profanity spewing from her lips as she dodged its attacks. Nier sent a barrage of magic spears at the Shade, but the monster easily shook it off, seemingly unharmed.
"Watch out!" Weiss cried and Nier barely dodged the swipe of the Shade's ugly tail.
It roared, the disturbing sound far too similar to laughter, and ran up the side of the cliff once again.
Damn, they had to knock it down somehow!
Apparently, the mysterious magic-user came to the same conclusion, because another gigantic arm grabbed the monstrous lizard by its tail and tugged it down, throwing it back onto the platform.
"Is that another fucking Shade?!" Kainé yelled and Nier did a double-take, recognizing their accidental ally. It was the same strange Shade he saw with Yonah!
It vanished in a cloud of darkness and reappeared right above the monster's head, trying to gouge out its remaining eye and disappearing again when the monster retaliated.
"We'll deal with it later!" Nier shouted to Kainé. Whatever reason it had for fighting other Shades, right now they needed all the help they could get.
"No complaints from me!" the woman snarled, leaping into the fight once again.
The giant Shade breathed out a cloud of mist and Kainé staggered, wobbling on her feet, "…Grandma?"
"…Kainé? What's going on?"
"Stay back or this poison will affect you as well!" Weiss warned him.
"But Kainé…!"
He didn't need to worry, because a blast of power from the enraged woman cleared the air, and she jumped into battle once again.
Nier immediately joined the fight and the strange Shade reappeared as well. He struggled not to attack it too, but enemy of an enemy was better than nothing.
Weiss was glowing slightly and Nier could feel his magic gather as he prepared for something big. The power poured inside him, the world coloring crimson, and Nier jumped into the air, so high he was almost flying. Two massive arms appeared at his sides and he used them to push the monster down, shattering the platform and impaling the beast on the metal pillar.
It slowly began to dissolve and Nier landed, feeling the magic start to dissipate.
He froze at the sudden realization. Where was Kainé?
Nier fought the urge to grab Kainé and hug her, so happy he was that his new friend was alive and well, but the prickly woman would probably stab him for daring to touch her.
"It is only the second time we met," Weiss grumbled. "I would hardly call it a solid basis for friendship."
"What, and taking down a giant Shade together doesn't count?" Nier asked.
Kainé was a good woman, if jaded and rough around the edges, but he could understand why. What she said during the battle certainly painted enough of a picture. Hopefully, he'll get the chance to get to know her better, now that she agreed to team up with him.
Besides, it wasn't like his first meeting with Weiss was all that different.
Nier sighed. He felt completely exhausted, but it was more than worth it to defeat the monstrous lizard. The Aerie might've been full of bigots and overall unpleasant people, but they didn't deserve to die.
A sudden movement caught his eye, snapping Nier back to attention. His eyes widened at the sight of the strange Shade descending from the sky. He thought it had left!
The Shade folded its faintly glowing wings and raised its hands, showing they were empty. It was tense, watching them warily.
Nier was surprised how odd it looked, now that he could look at it properly. Was it, perhaps, part-human, like Kainé?
"So this is our mysterious Shade?" Weiss murmured. "How intriguing…"
"It's just another beast," Kainé growled, readying her swords.
But it did help them, just like it helped Yonah as well as other people, if the stories were to be believed.
The Shade's wings snapped up, arching tensely. It looked ready to fly away.
"Wait!" Nier shouted. "Who are you? Why did you help us?"
The Shade growled, shifting uneasily as its wings slowly folded down.
"What a load of bull," Kainé grumbled.
The Shade narrowed its yellow eyes at her and growled again.
"There's nothing to understand!" she snapped.
"What are you talking about, Kainé?" Nier asked, looking between her and the Shade.
The Shade dragged one hand down its face in a strangely human gesture. Then it raised its right hand and quickly waved it in the air, as if scribbling on something.
"…Writing?" Weiss asked.
The Shade nodded.
"You want something to write with?" Nier clarified and the Shade nodded again in response.
Hmmm… Nier looked around, his gaze falling on Weiss.
"Any reason you are staring at me?" the Grimoire demanded.
"Say, Weiss…" Nier drawled and the sentient book reeled back.
"Oh no, don't even think about it! I am the great Grimoire Weiss, not some rag for you to scribble on!"
Kainé laughed suddenly, shaking her head, "You two are fucking idiots who will get us all killed but whatever." She turned around and walked away, gesturing for them to follow, "Come on, I'll give you some fucking crayons."
They left the Aerie and gathered outside Kainé's shack of a home. The woman scratched a long line on the ground with one of her swords and pointed it at the Shade, "Don't cross this fucking line or I will tear off your wings and shove them up your ass!"
The Shade raised its hands and took a very deliberate step back, sitting on the ground.
"Hmph," Kainé scoffed, walking quickly towards the shack and digging out several sheets of paper and a stub of a crayon. She put both items on the Shade's side of the line and quickly stepped back, crossing her arms.
The Shade growled at her and Kainé's scowl intensified, "Fuck off."
The Shade sighed and picked up the crayon, scribbling something quickly and flipping the paper around, showing them the words, "What do you want to know?"
"Holy shit…" Kainé whispered, her fingers curling into fists.
Nier wanted to swear too. Stories were one thing, but seeing this with his own eyes…
"Who are you? And why did you help us?" Weiss asked, as the only one of them to keep his wits about him.
The Shade frowned and looked down, scribbling its response, "It's a long story, far too long."
"Then make it short!" Kainé snapped.
The Shade nodded and started writing again, "In short: at first all Shades were as intelligent as you are, but as time went by, many started to relapse, losing their minds and going berserk. These are the ones you encountered. You can't understand our language, so you can't tell the difference between intelligent and relapsed Shades, since most of us look the same. Sometimes many relapsed Shades fuse into one, forming into monsters like the one we fought. They are a danger to everyone."
Kainé narrowed her eyes, "Do you seriously think we are going to believe this bullshit?"
The Shade shrugged and added another sentence, "Your choice."
"Relapse…" Weiss mumbled, wobbling slightly in the air. "It sounds… familiar."
Nier focused on him, "So this is true?"
"How would I know?" the Grimoire snapped. "Thanks to some mindless brute who broke my seal with a sword I cannot remember anything!"
Nier stared at the words scrawled in crayon. If this was true… it changed everything.
