"It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another."

Chapter 1 – Deus Machina

Banished forever. That must be the only explanation. Nothing was familiar anymore. Not the skies, not the cities, nothing about this world made sense. She had been wandering for what felt like forever now, through the choking fog down below, the underground ruin of what once must have been a great city, and now… a dark sewer system that was surprisingly much easier to breath at compared to outside.

And yet everything about this place disoriented her. Her eyes were wide and she headed this way and that, a mix of fear and confusion as she tried to piece together the events that happened. She knew her name, Nier, an existence that had been denied at every turn. And the one being that was still at her side all this time.

Whenever she felt like she was about to break, her eyes wandered over to the card in her hands. A card with the image of the only being who had ever understood her. The Arcarum Primal Beast, Death. But she felt distant right now; as if weakened greatly by the cataclysmic events that brought them here.

"Oh Death… I wish you were here right now…" the girl whispered as she trudged through the darkness. There was a wide space ahead that continued to lead further up, ladder handles connected to various open pipes, but there was light coming through from above at times.

But she didn't really know where to go. She was lost and confused, and when she found herself unable to suddenly move her left foot forward, she nearly tripped and looked behind her. She had stepped on something… a substance that seemed to tug at her. And then… she heard the voice.

"….mpty….. Tr….pped….in m…..ir."

She felt a chill in her spine as she turned to look forward again, only to meet face to face with…. Something. She didn't know how to describe it. Much of it was a featureless, shifting, blob-like substance. Yet it moved about as if it was an ethereal thing with little mass or weight. And atop its head, a white circular mask with three holes. At least, she thought it was a head.

It closed the distance already and she was paralyzed already in a mix of fear and uncertainty. What was this…?

"N….t…..the Azure…..but….sc…nt be….y…nd the…. Bo…..dry. Devour… Mus…. De…our."

The wiggling mass sprouted multiple pairs of insect-like arms, tipped with sharp talons that reared up around her like a cage. Was this to be her end…?

"Move it!" a gruff voice called out from behind her.

And at that moment, something collided with the creature in front of her, sending it tumbling away with a screech.

Someone landed in front of her. A young man in a red coat and silver hair that stood up like a flame. In his hand was a sword much bigger than had any right to be wielded by any normal person.

"Hey, can you free yourself? I suggest you do so and find a way to safety, I got this." He said, not even looking back at her before he lunged at the creature again.

She was mesmerized at first, seeing the pair battle. Already they were getting further and further away, as if threatening to leave her behind.

"!" Nier shuddered and moved down to tug on her trapped foot, casting a spell that burnt away the substance and freed her. Run away and find a safe place… that was what he said, right? But she didn't know of any safe place. Which meant all she could do was run ahead, following the sounds of their combat… though staying a 'safe' distance away just in case she'd be detected.

The clashing subsided soon after and from the corner, Nier peeked around. The white-haired man had won, but now there was a woman preventing him from finishing that creature off. She listened to their conversation, trying to gather information… any kind of information about this place.

"…..The Boundary…Ragna the Bloodedge…. The Azure Grimoire….Aren't you that wanted vicious criminal?"

Nier didn't know some of the terminology but she wasn't stupid. This was dangerous and she shouldn't get involved. But if there was a bounty on that man, then maybe she could make use of it somehow?

Surprisingly enough, there was no further conflict to be found. The man, Ragna, had already started walking away and the woman soon moved towards a different direction dragging that amorphous mass with her.

That was when Nier stepped out of hiding and headed down the same path as that man. She had a few conflicting thoughts right now. Gratefulness at having saved her from that creature earlier, and the desire to see if she could kill him and take the bounty on his head. As nice as he seemed, surely a wanted criminal had done many terrible things to warrant such an action, right?

"My beloved… do yoo seek his end?"

Nier heard the voice of her one true companion and sighed in relief. "I believe so. Thank you, Death. I hope you're all better now?"

"I apologize for not being able to defend yoo. Should we meet that creature again, I shall grant it the end it so righteously deserves for daring to harm thee."

"I know. We can take that as unfinished business." Nier replied almost gleefully and began tracking their quarry.

They were out of the Sewers soon and it was so much easier to breathe now. Tracking down their quarry wasn't too difficult at least, but the man kept heading on higher up a tall building, as if to avoid the streets down below with more people in them.

That made sense. If he was going to do something heinous worthy of his criminal stature, he probably wasn't going to be mingling about. He'd want to stay away from others. She paused however. A realization dawned upon her, though she didn't have time to linger on it for long. Because there was someone else in the area.

The man was further up above, but there was someone behind her heading up as well. Either tracking her footsteps, or tracking her quarry.

Her eyes darkened, facing the steps that lead up to this floor. Sure enough, there was someone who emerged from the entrance. A boy, much younger than her. Not a threat as far as she could tell, but it was the boy's companion that annoyed her.

It wasn't human. It was tall and moved mechanically, but she could sense something from it. Something that her instincts warned her as dangerous.

"Ah… my hunch was correct." The boy said, "…someone is already on the way to our bounty. While you may be a fellow vigilante, I can't allow you to take my prize." He continued, the purple machine-puppet beside him suddenly getting into a fighting stance. Its elongated arms raised as if ready to grab and pummel.

"That's no excuse…" Nier said, her card becoming engulfed in a purple flame before coalescing into the familiar shape of Death standing right beside her. "If you get in our way… I'll kill you."

"How odd, this sensation. This is not kin and yet… be on your guard, my beloved." Said Death before rushing forward in a tempest of cutting slices from the sickles about her head.

The boy's puppet responded in turn, blocking and defending its master with its own body before retaliating in kind with surprising speed and agility for a metallic creature of its size.

And while the puppet and the Arcarum Beast fought each other, sending clanging echoes throughout the building, the boy began walking towards Nier. Something still felt wrong though. Death moved well enough as she should, flitting in and out of the puppet's strikes, but there was power that was lacking in Death's own strikes. Surely the puppet couldn't be more durable than expected can it? Was Death still not performing at her full capacity?

"Are you new to this vigilante business, I wonder?" the boy smirked, and adjusted his glasses. He raised a hand up along with his cape and in an instant, something from within the cape extended like a rod, striking Nier directly in the chest before she had a chance to react. The wind was knocked out of her and she fell back, eyes wide as she crumpled over in pain.

A shriek of rage reverberated from Death as she disappeared, standing defensively over the fallen Nier.

"Unforgiveable! Absolutely unforgiveable!" the Arcarum Beast screeched, slicing tendrils aimed at the boy who dared injure Nier. But the boy's puppet was there, blocking and defending him from the worst of the onslaught even as Nier recovered and stood back up.

From behind Death, she glared at the boy and held out a hand. A ball of purple flame shot out, only to be deflected with a wave of the boy's cape.

"Oh? That's a curious type of magic. It doesn't seem like Ars Magus either." The boy observed. "Still, did you think learning a few spells and having access to whatever that thing is makes you good enough to be a vigilante?" he looked at Death. "I bet you thought it would be so easy didn't you? Well allow me to prove you wrong…"

The boy turned towards the puppet. "Sis, let's show her what we can really do."

No, something was definitely wrong. Death should be more than capable of handling an opponent like this. She had done so many times in the past. But something about this place was limiting her abilities. As if she wasn't attuned at all to the souls of anything here…

Some kind of glyph flashed behind the boy, and then his puppet attacked with far more ferocity than before. Death was struck, overpowered by the puppet's barrage of attacks. Again and again, with more force than before.

"No… stop it!" Nier shouted, watching in horror as Death simply seemed to reel back, disappearing in a flash of purple flames, returned to her card. The Arcarum Beast would recover eventually, that much was certain. But now Nier was left alone, against a more dangerous threat than she expected.

"What was it you said again? 'If you get in my way, I'll kill you?' Well, I think it's time you're on the receiving end." The boy said and then snapped his fingers. "Ada, kill her."

The puppet loomed menacingly in front of her. Much like that amorphous mass from earlier, she felt the same kind of paralyzing fear. Things weren't supposed to end this way.

The puppet reared an arm back, and then thrust forward. The tips of its claws extending into a drill that would have ran her through… If not for the ceiling suddenly being sliced open from above and a shape dropping down, clashing against the puppet and causing the mechanical monstrosity to stumble back in a defensive stance.

"Ah…!" Nier stared ahead. It was that red-coated man again, dropping down to save her once again. Intentionally or otherwise, this can't be a coincidence. She dropped to her knees, hands on her face as the man did battle with the boy and his puppet. He was holding his own. No, the man was doing far better than she did.

"Death… please…" she whispered, closing her eyes as she wished for her beloved Death to recover as swift as possible. Nier looked up again as the boy was knocked back against a pillar, seemingly unconscious and that accursed puppet becoming suddenly immobile as a result.

The man sighed, and then turned and approached her.

"You again?" he wondered and scratched the back of his head. "You alright?"

She blinked once. "Y-you… you remembered me? I'm not… no, I'm alright. But Death..." she murmured, averting her gaze from the man for a moment. She looked up again, only to see one outstretched arm towards her as if to help her up.

"Come on. Unfortunately, I don't think this is a good place to hide."

"You were… hiding?" Nier asked, and reached her own hand up. She hesitated for a moment, before taking hold of his hand.

Her face was suddenly stained by blood.

Four sharp shapes had impaled Ragna from behind, piercing right through his chest before retracting back into the mechanical arms of the boy's puppet. They were still active!

"Got him…" the boy said as he wearily got up, pointing at the two. "I'm not letting the Azure Grimoire get away."

Nier's eyes watched with horror as Ragna fell forward. It happened so fast. He just saved her and yet… he had fallen? No, no, no!

The puppet had moved again, a different angle of attack this time. The claws extended again, this time aimed at her and again, despite his grievous injury, Ragna forced himself to move and deflect the attack with a swing of his blade.

Nier screamed. Death manifested, her scythe-like weapons lashed out again at the mechanical puppet. Not just the puppet but everywhere. The scythes cut through the pillars supporting the building, more of the ceiling and even portions of the floor.

The puppet's chest opened up, almost as if in response, before something simply detonated. The blast's shockwave knocked everyone away, along with the rest of the building above them.

They fell. She didn't even know how far she was falling but it was far past the streets they had passed earlier. Ragna still held her close just before the impact caused everything to black out.

Far in the distance, overlooking the site of the explosion, a masked man turned around followed by a large, floating crimson puppet.