“Grimoire Weiss is a floating book with a superiority complex and no legs,” Nier interrupted, forcing a grin. “What does he know about danger?”
“You are. Off-key. It’s annoying.”
“I’m human,” he said.
And for the first time in twelve thousand years, he began to cry. NieR Replicant ver122474487139
He had told himself it was a trick. A lie. A monster mimicking emotion.
“Grimoire Weiss,” Yonha said, her voice brightening. “Are you going to protect him?”
“Or?”
“And Yonha?” Nier whispered.
Weiss floated past Nier, his pages trembling. “No. No, it’s not possible. The Gestalt fragment cannot activate without the original Gestalt present. Unless…”
That was how Nier found himself, three days later, standing at the edge of the Lost Forest. The trees were not trees. They were petrified giants, their branches twisted into agonized shapes, their bark the texture of bone. A thick, silent fog crawled between their trunks. Beside him, Weiss floated, grumbling. At his other side, a heavy-browed, muscular man named Kainé was sharpening a jagged blade with a whetstone that threw sparks. “Grimoire Weiss is a floating book with a
Kainé was a storm in human form. One arm was a crystalline, glowing white—the arm of a Shade she had absorbed long ago. She wore clothes that were more straps and defiance than fabric, and her eyes held the exhausted fury of someone who had seen too much and forgiven none of it.
“Nier, snap out of it!” Kainé shouted. Her Shade-arm was glowing brighter, its light a counter-frequency. She charged, her blade singing as it sliced through a tendril of shadow. The Archivist shrieked, and the hum became a chorus.
“So, Tuesday,” Kainé said, and stood up. “Let’s go find this singing Shade and shut it up.” It’s annoying
“You were,” said the thing wearing his sister’s face. “Twelve thousand years ago. You were a scientist named Nier. You volunteered for the Gestalt program to save your daughter, Yonah, from a disease called the Black Scrawl. Your body was separated from your soul. Your soul—the Gestalt—was sealed away. But you rejected the seal. You tore yourself back into the world, and in doing so, you broke the system. Every other Gestalt began to relapse. To become Shades. And you… you forgot.”
When they arrived, the village was silent. Too silent. The gate was open. A single boot lay in the mud.