"The Underworld? Are you saying we're dead? What the crap are you talking about? We're just in a random alleyway."

The girl he now knew as Nera looked straight into his eyes with the same nonchalant demeanor as before. This unnerved him.

"Wait, why did I even ask "Where are we" ?", Allen was puzzled by his own question and was wondering if what just happened with that creature was causing him not to be unable to think straight.

"Did you happen to look at the moon earlier tonight? What shape was it?", she asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"...Yeah, it was a full moon, What does that have to do with any-", His eyes widened at a sudden revelation as he looked up to the sky above. What he saw did not make any sense. There, shining brightly amongst the clouds, was a crescent moon. Allen could vividly remember seeing a full moon earlier that night and the moon was also half-full just a few days ago. Realizing this, Allen took her words more seriously for now and in a more relaxed tone asked her another question.

"Alright, I guess I'll go along with us not being where I thought we were, so what did you mean by "Underworld", and what is this creature that tried to make a meal out of me? Is all of this just some sort of weird holographic projection or something?"

"Nah, this is a part of the Underworld, an entirely different world where lost souls linger for a while. However, it occasionally leaks out into our world in different appearances like this, and living folks like us can sometimes wander into it as well. I'm telling you all of this so you can maybe avoid this happening again. I may be pretty awesome but I can't be everywhere at once."

Allen ignored her bragging and responded, "So that creature was a lost soul?", he then faltered back as her expression suddenly darkened unexpectedly for a moment.

"No, they're anything but lost souls, they're specters. Monsters of pure miasma that feed on both the souls of the dead and the living. Their entire bodies are capable of draining both the life and mana out of people.", She stated as she gestured to the remains of the "specter", a large pile of bark and vines she was currently standing on that were slowly disintegrating into dust.

"Huh?"

Allen hurriedly got up to his feet from the ground and walked up close to Nera leaning over her enthusiastically.

"Mana!? That means there's magic too, right?", Allen was a lot more eager to hear what she was talking about now.

"So that's how you were able to jump off a building like it was no problem and take out that monster in one hit. You must be a mage or something.", Allen could not help but grin at the thought that there may be mages in the world.

'All of this is crazy, but if there's a way for her to teach me how to use something like magic myself it could be worth it.", he chuckled creepily to himself. Images of him shooting fireballs out of his hands and levitating cars with his mind suddenly popped up in his head.

"No, I can't use magic, and it's not something I can teach you how you use."

Allen tensed up, "How did you know I was-"

"It's written all over your face. When you've spent as much as time I've had looking at people's faces you get a knack for reading them. By the way, let's just say my abilities are more science-based and leave it at that. Knowing too much more will probably just cause you more trouble anyway."

"Maybe I was right about the shock-absorption shoes then?"

"Ah, I see.", Allen replied in a completely disinterested tone.

'if there's no way for me to learn how to use magic myself then it's definitely not worth enough for me to get involved with a strange girl who seems to fight freakish monsters on a regular basis. I'm just going to go home and disregard this as a weird dream brought on by exhaustion and hunger.'

"Well, it was nice meeting you again.", he proclaimed halfheartedly as he waved goodbye and walked away into the mist only to be eventually stopped by what felt like a brick wall made out of ice.

"Ow!", He grabbed his nose in pain. He felt all over the fog and was bewildered to find that the mist itself was solid and there was no way for him to get through it.

"Uhh...", he walked out of the mist sheepishly. "Could you explain to me how I can get the hell of here?"

Instead of answering him immediately, she walked over to one of the walls of the alley, slumped down onto the ground, and pulled out her earbuds and MP3 player from out of the pockets of her tracksuit.

"There's no way for us to get out of here until the Underworld recedes, which it should soon now that the specter has been taken care of. In the meanwhile, I'm just going to listen to some music."

Allen, not completely believing her just yet, walked to the other side of the alley that was also blocked by mist only to be met with the same icy barrier. He spent a couple of moments ineffectually trying to force his way through until he eventually gave up and resigned himself to his indefinite confinement.

He walked about out of the fog and looked over to Nera listening with closed eyes and sat down beside her.

"Uhh...name's Allen by the way.", Allen rubbed the back of his hair in unease at the awkward introduction.

She seemed to be too into whatever she was listening to pay him any mind. He then observed the digital display on her MP3 player.

"PANDEMØNI∩M, huh. I never heard of them before. Mind if I give it a listen to pass the time since my phone is completely on the fritz right now?"

She silently reached for one of her earbuds, moving some of her hair out of the way causing Allen to catch a glimpse of her metallic ears. Besides their gray color and various grooves along them, they were perfectly identical to normal ones made of flesh and blood. Something so advanced it could probably only be found in Atelier City.

'Prosthetics...that must be what she meant about reading faces.", He wondered what exactly happened to her but decided to push these thoughts down and just listen to the music. It was an electronic rock band with a female vocalist. The singer had a hauntingly melodic voice and the song seemed to be about betrayal, deception, and corruption.

As the song reached its conclusion, Allen thought out loud to himself, "It's strange how beautiful this song describes how crappy the world is."

Nera opened her eyes for the first time since she started listening to her music in subdued surprise. "I guess I'm not the only one who can read minds."

***

A little bit more time passed and they suddenly heard a whistle coming from the fog. Following this sound, two figures emerged from it. First they were vague silhouettes but gradually their forms became clear.

The first was a tall man wearing a silver suit of knight armor and wielding a large weapon on his back. His armor was very angular with the front of his helmet being flat with dotted cut-outs on the lower half of it for the purpose of ventilation.

The second figure was a woman of average height dressed in a black hoodie and pants with white musical lines scrawled all across them messily. She whistled exaggeratedly as she twirled a small golden harp on her finger. Her nails were painted the same onyx color as the strings of her instrument.

They both gradually got up to their feet and backed away from the fog as two figures.

“Who are you guys?”, Nera asked tentatively.

“We should be asking you two that. We’re traversers, we came to deal with the specter that was here…”, the mysterious woman glanced around, spotting the scattered remains of the monster that were lying around in the alley. “...but it looks like that was already taken care of.”

“Yeah, by me.”, Nera walked up to the gray-haired woman and pointed a thumb at herself for emphasis.

“Oh, is that so?” The older woman then leaned in to scrutinize her more thoroughly before suddenly throwing her arm around Nera and smushed their faces against each other, much to Nera’s shock.

“Aren’t you adorable!? It’s really impressive a kid like you can deal with a specter of that level. Without any scratches at all I might add too. You must be pretty talented. C’mon, tell me your name!” Nera let out loud protests and struggled to get out of the hooded woman’s grasp.

While she fawned over Nera and he was unsure of what he was going to do, Allen was about to try to approach them but was stopped by a raised hand from the armored figure.

“Don’t be alarmed. That’s just Madame Harpe’s way of showing affection.”, the man’s deep voice reverberated through his metallic helmet. He seemed much more composed and collected than his associate. Allen trusted in his words and stopped in his tracks.

‘This guy looks and sounds like he’s straight out of a medieval legend. And that armor he’s wearing is exquisitely cool. Are these guys like the guardians of the magical society Nera talked about earlier?’

Nera eventually managed to escape with an exasperated sigh and a light blush on her face from embarrassment. She then angrily pointed at the woman Allen now knew as “Madame Harpe” and sharply rebuked them.

“Mind my personal space you crazy-eyed lady! I don’t even know who you are, so don’t go breathing down my neck already! I’m not some pipsqueak you can smother to death!”, Nera yelled this out loudly but was ignored by everyone else. Harpe only tilted her head to show any indication that anyone heard Nera.

Allen spoke up. “You guys. Who are you supposed to be anyway? I know you called yourself a traverser but I have no idea what that means.”

“Hmm, sounds like you don’t know much about anything do you? Well, I wouldn’t mind informing you a little if that’s the case. For starters, I’m Harpe and my ally over there in the walking silver fortress is Hache.”

Allen and Nera glanced over at the armored man called Hache and he simply nodded his head. They both wonder how these two started working together with them seemingly being polar opposites.

Harpe then put her thumb to her chin and closed one of her emerald eyes in thought.

“As for your second question, Traversers are pretty much the cleanup crew of the underworld to describe it in an unglamorous way. Our job is to traverse through its different spills and get rid of the trash known as “Specters” and clear away the stains known as “miasma”. We even have a title to show for it."

Name Colette Bossuet Title D-Rank Traverser

PHYSICAL

ABILITY

5 TECHNIQUE

8 MERIT

6

'There's really a title like that?'

Harpe dramatically took a half-bow as if she was receiving a standing ovation.

“You're welcome.”

“If it was not for Traversers like Madame Harpe. The world would be overrun by those vicious beasts.”, Hache proclaimed.

“You too might be able to become one. I can help you both become Traversers.”

“Really!?”, Allen uttered in disbelief. He did not think his chance to have a huge breakthrough would come this unexpectedly.

While he was sorting his thoughts out, Nera replied to Harpe., “Sorry, but if I was going to be a Traverser, I’d do it on my own terms.”

Harpe took this nonchalantly and continued. “Too bad, there’s still the boy though. I’ll ask this first, have you ever been in a life or death battle before?”

Allen was caught off guard by this question but eventually answered with a shake of his head.

“I see, I guess neither of you would make good allies after all.”, Harpe stated in mock somber. She then raised up with her back straight and her arms behind her back.

“Hache.”, Harpe uttered this one word so uncharacteristically serious and foreboding that it made the hairs on Allen’s neck stand up.

“Why did-”

Before he finished his sentence, Nera suddenly tackled him to the ground. Allen watched as if in slow motion as a silver ax swung through where he had been standing next to Hache not even a second prior.

They both rapidly got back to their feet and backed away from the two they previously saw as “protectors”.

"Dammit Hache, looks like you missed 'em. I was hoping we could get this over with quickly in one fell swoop." The knight's associate bemoaned.

"I guess we're going to have to do this the tiresome and exhausting way.", her words sharply contrasted her apparent whimsical attitude. Harpe’s mannerisms became even more lackadaisical than before and her voice took on a menacing tone as she shed the sheep’s clothing she had worn prior.

Nera looked at Allen worriedly, “I'll be fine no matter what, but you should probably hurry up and run away."

"What!? You may be strong, but you can't seriously think I'm the type to just leave you here to deal with these two your-"

"You should listen to her.", Harpe interrupted."Your role has ended here, extra."

"Harpist Craft, Page 7 - Hymn of Conveyance."

She strummed the strings on the small harp and a somber melody emanated out from it. This was accompanied by emerald green lines of musical notes. They rapidly flew out from the harp and curved right through his chest. He reacted with a karate upper block he had learned a long time ago but it was to no avail. He was instantly sent flying into one of the alley walls at an incredible speed. He could hear a loud thud as his back make impact with the wall and all of the air was knocked out of him. When he fell back onto the ground on his hands and knees, he was left intensely grasping for just a second of breath.

"Huff...huff..huff." While Allen continued to futilely try to force a decent amount of air back into his lungs, he looked up to see what was going on. Nera had her back fully turned away from him.

"I can’t believe I let my guard down with someone that crazy for even a moment."

"Don't worry..."

A fierce grin appeared on her face as she raised her fists in a fighting position.

"I'm sure my performance of handing you two your asses is going to go off without a hitch."

She snapped her fingers causing metallic gauntlets to seamlessly extend over her wrists and hands then swiftly bounded straight towards the armored warrior wielding the ax.

"Harpist Craft, Page 3 - Hymn of Fortification."

Harpe quickly strummed once more on her instrument, this inciting four red staves of musical notes to emerge from it and hurriedly encircle the arms and legs of Hache just as Nera's fist collided with his crossed arms pushed him back into the mist a little.

He swung the ax at her. Nera simply avoided it by leaping back with two steps a far distance away. She followed this up by getting into a running position then started sprinting towards the armored warrior again, building up so much speed her image nearly became nothing but a blur.

She was about to reach the armored warrior in half a second. He swung his ax downwards at her. Nera nimbly avoided the attack. She flipped forward high into the air while keeping her momentum and slammed her feet down on the long handle of the ax as it hit the ground.

It was embedded into the asphalt below. Caught off guard and unable to dodge without disarming himself, Hache took the full force of Nera's second punch.

"Magical Knucker Driver!” She yelled out as her strike made contact with a booming metallic crash. His reverberating voice could be heard as he loudly grunted in pain. However, it was not enough to move him from where he stood, and he batted his arm at Nera, forcing her to jump back.

A large dent was left on his chest plate and he noticeably groaned as he inspected the damage with his free hand.

Nera grinned and raised up three of her fingers.

"Three. That's the number of your ribs I just broke. I could hear them cracking from a mile away. Are you sure you want to continue, tin bucket?"

Having finally regained his breath and got back to his feet, Allen was wordless as he watched the two fight. Both of them were moving in ways that should not be humanly possible. Allen clasped his fists trying to steel his resolve and started to hectically think if there was any way at all he could actually help here.

'Nera, she probably decided to focus on the armored guy first because the other has that move that threw me into a wall. It went right through my arm, so it probably can't be blocked. By keeping her distance, she can at least dodge those attacks if the hooded woman does join the fight. If she goes after that woman now, the armored guy will just have an opening to attack with his axe. But if that woman decides to fight as well, it'll be a two on one. Maybe I could hold her off for a while..."

"There's nothing you could do here extra but be a nuisance."

Allen turned away from the fight to see that Harpe had positioned herself right across from him on the other side of the alley without him even noticing. He backed away cautiously.

"This Grim Reaper Trial only has a select number of performers in it. All the rest are just extras and props. What we want is the Grim Piece from that girl, you don't have to needlessly put yourself in harm's way. You barely know her don't you?".

She glanced his way for the first time and Allen could see that her eyes glowed vivid green and had odd spirals inside of them. Along with the rest of her appearance and sickeningly whimsical voice, she seemed unsettlingly otherworldly to him as if she was a devil in human form.

Allen could not fathom what she was talking about.

"So this is what mages are like. Dammit, Amy might’ve been right in saying that thinking magic was cool was nonsensical. Going up against something I know nothing about is downright terrifying. Was I really thinking about holding her off for any amount of time?"

This was much different from getting into brawls with delinquents like he had many times before. For all he knew, this devilish woman could just strum some more on that harp of hers and tear his body apart. Suddenly, a shaky idea formed in his mind.

"Hold on, you said you were just after a "Grim Piece", right?" "I think I have what you're looking for right here."

Allen rummaged through his pockets until he found the same odd black trinket that had been what had gotten him in this predicament in the first place and, now, he was hoping it would get him out of it.

"Here, she dropped this earlier today. Just take this and leave."

"You really are clueless! I can’t believe I thought you’d be useful for even a moment! That's not what a Grim Piece is extra, this is."

She proceeded to move some of her hoodie's collar out of the way to reveal a mark of strange symbols resembling a tattoo wrapped around her neck. She pressed her fingers to it and it began pulsating with emerald light.

"Let me let you in on something else, this Grim Reaper Trial is to decide who will next take on the title of Grim Reaper, the supreme authority of the Underworld. In fact, each of us participants has already been imbued with a portion of the previous’s power in the form of these Grim Pieces, all that's left is for one to collect them all. I learned that the girl over there has one and the only way to claim it for myself is to rip it off of her cold dead body."

Alllen was bewildered by what he was hearing.

"Now that you know, are you sure you want to try to protect something like that? I may even let you go if you huddle off into a corner somewhere before that lab rat gets put out of her misery.", She pointed to the other end of the alley covered in fog.

"You better hurry, you're running out of time for that deal."

"Huh?"

He turned to look back over to the battle between Nera and the armored warrior. Nera was continuing to dodge all over the ax swings. With her grace and agility, it almost appeared more like she was dancing than fighting. However, one of his strikes eventually landed, making contact with one of the metal gauntlets Nera wore on her hands.

A faint smile of relief appeared on Allen's face for a moment due to her having blocked the attack but it almost instantly vanished as blood sputtered out from her and three vertical slashes appeared on her torso. She gasped and retreated backward from the attack clutching her wounds and breathing heavily.

"But that attack, she blocked it..", Allen uttered out in disbelief.

The woman in the hoodie spoke up from next to him.

"My doesn't only enhance a person's strength and speed but also their flow and rhythm.", she gloated gleefully.

"This means that Hache's attacks can flow straight through solid objects and the rhythm of his attacks is multiplied threefold giving him two extra strikes with each swing.", she glowered back at Allen once more.

"Now, are you sure you don't want to run away?"

Allen stood there shaking in fear and uncertain for a moment. Part of him wanted to go over to Nera to help her out and the other was too afraid to do so.

Nera then turned her head to look at Allen herself. Her grin still remained on her face but he could tell that it was only a fake smile.

"It's alright, I'll be fine on my own. Just run away."

Allen's expression filled with dismay. Those were the last words he wanted to hear and as he began to turn around. The look on her face was burned into his mind and haunted him to his core. It was one of sincerity, fear, and worst of all...acceptance. Deep down, he wanted her to tell him that she wanted him to help, that he could help.

He then ran away to the other end of the alley, away from all of them. When his body completely disappeared into the mist, the devilish woman cackled, "I really do love to watch the moment when a person's heart cracks. Now, I don't have to worry about any unexpected interruptions from that extra. Hache, finish the lab rat off."

"As you command, Madam Harpe."

Nera ignored her remarks and got back into a fighting position. She was able to still avoid his attacks but with her grave wounds, she was much less agile and was starting to suffer scratches all over from his ax swings and their multiple strikes. Eventually, her body began to give out and she faltered as she was leaping away from an attack and stumbled onto one knee. She struck her own legs in frustration trying to get them to move again but she was unable to muster up any strength in them.

She looked up in determination but she began to fill with doubt that she would make it out of this as the armored warrior charged at her and raised his ax to land one final blow that would surely end her if it struck.

However, at that same moment...

"Magical Aerial Dive!!!"

Yelling this out at the top of their lungs, a figure clumsily jumped down from the rooftops right in front of Nera and blocked the warrior's attack head-on catching the ax's handle in their hands just barely managing to keep the blade from slashing their body.

"What are you doing here!? There's no point in you getting involved. I'm not sure why, but I'm the one they're after, not you.", Nera yelled angrily at the figure, Allen.

Allen laughed wryly as the armored warrior began furiously swinging him around trying to force Allen to let go of the ax handle but he refused to budge.

"What?", the warrior's low voice reverberated from his metal helmet again in surprise. Nera's eyes also widened in bewilderment.

The silvery light that had been emanating from his ax was beginning to fade along with the red rings around his arms and legs. They both appeared to be being siphoned by something that Allen had wrapped around his hands. They were remains of the specter's body, its vines which had long and sharp spikes on them.

"No way, you're using those!? Don't you know it's draining you too? Aren't you worried about your life, you idiot!"

"Of course I am, you wannabe martyr!"Allen chuckled mirthlessly as he was slammed on his feet by the large armored warrior in another attempt to wrest his grip of the ax from him.

"I'm the type of guy who only does things if I think there's something worthwhile in it for me and runs at the first sign that things are really getting bad, but even a bastard like me couldn't live with the guilt of leaving someone for dead who just saved their life multiple times.", Allen fiercely declared.

A haunting melody followed by a stream of lines ran through Hache’s arms and launched them forward.

"Ughh!" The blade of the axe was sent into Allen’s shoulder. Three bloody vertical marks similar to the ones that had been inflicted on Nera were now etched on his torso as well. Nera looked over to see Harpe with her fingers on the strings of her instrument, The spiral-eyed woman was chuckling to herself.

“Sorry, I couldn’t let you three have all of the fun.”

Nera glared at Harpe before turning back around.

Allen was desperately continuing to struggle for possession of the ax and coughed up dark crimson blood. Even with a bunch of adrenaline pumping through him, the massive wounds he just sustained were taking their toll as his grip began to loosen, his vision began to darken, and his consciousness began to fade.

Memories flashed through Allen’s mind. They were ones of his numerous shortcomings that he had tried to move past by coming to Atelier City only to seemingly end up failing when it mattered most again.

'Was...this really all my life was going to amount to?'

'What if I just tried harder back then... am I really just going to regret something else I could have changed if I just tried harder?'

'I don't know, maybe this is and was all I was ever capable of, being useless..."

'...No, it's not enough...not enough. I gotta keep trying. I still haven’t done anything great with my worthless life. I wasn't even able to protect the girl behind me...I still haven't gone to see...'

'I'm too weak, If only I was more...I need to become something more...something stronger, something that can save us.'

'Shielding her isn't enough, I need to become something more...I need to become...'

'...her blade...'

The light faded from Allen's eyes as he finally appeared to lose consciousness. Nera was shaken as she could barely hear the sound of his heart beating. He was on the verge of death.

"Hmph.", the armored warrior callously scoffed at this and was about to pull the ax out of Allen's now loosened grip. Unimpressed, he tried to yank his axe from Allen's hands, but just as he was about to do so, the vines of the specter that were wrapped around Allen's hands turned from dark green to pitch black instantly. The vines grew to entangle both the ax and Allen's entire body, piercing him all over with the thorns that began to grow as well.

The armored warrior gasped in surprise. All the mana of the red magical symbols around his limbs were completely drained out of them. The crimson staves broke apart into nothingness. He could feel nearly all of his strength being taken from him as well.

An ominous dark aura then blasted his hands off the handle of the ax and enveloped Allen's body whose eyes were now wide open but emotionless. The armored warrior then began furiously punching him all over his stomach, chest, and face even breaking his nose in the process, but he just stood there motionless like a statue. Then, with no warning at all, the vines began to tighten and Allen's arms began to raise the ax high over his head, up to the crescent moon.

"Hache, get out of there!!! Right now!!!", Harpe screamed, her voice high from distress.

Her warning came too late. The now completely ebon ax was swung down in a tremendously fast blur. Darkness trailed after the ebon blade like a frightening banner. It cut right through the warrior's armor and sent out a wave of black miasma that knocked him meters away onto his back. A gaping slash from his right shoulder to the bottom of his torso was spilling with blood that stained his silvery armor.

In that instance right after. It was like the world was frozen over as all those present were both stationary and speechless, including Nera who was stunned and shocked, not quite believing what her eyes saw.

The vines that entangled Allen and the ax that was currently deeply embedded into the ground were now back to their previous color. They rapidly started to disintegrate until there was nothing left of them. Seemingly due to all the power that was in them being drawn out in the attack. After that, Allen's eyes began blinking as life gradually returned to them. He opened his mouth and broke the silence of that soundless world.

"What happened?"

"You happened.", the Crafter answered as she walked over to the fallen warrior on the ground. As she walked unsettlingly close past them, she grabbed the ax handle and pulled it out from under Allen and out of the broken ground, dragging it along with her. Losing the support, his legs gave out but Nera stood up to catch him before he could fall.

"I knew I was right to be worried about you. Even a worthless extra can ruin an entire performance."

When she reached Hache, she casually stated, "Get up, we're leaving."

"No!", the armored warrior gutturally growled out as he rose to stand. "I can...still fight!"

"I said we're leaving. That wasn't a suggestion, it was a command. You won't last that long in that condition, and I have no need for a broken tool. Besides, the Underworld is breaking apart as well."

As if on cue, large cracks started appearing all over the walls and ground uncovering the real alleyway that looked not much different from the Underworld's version of it. Even the false full moon up above was crumbling away to reveal the true crescent one much to Allen's awe.

"Hopefully, if you two live long enough, we'll be able to meet again and things will go a lot more according to the script."

With those last words, the two enigmatic assailants turned away from Allen and Nera and walked back into the mist where they had come from, which was also starting to dissipate, until they were completely gone from view.

"Alright, it's time for us to go too.", Nera drearily declared as she struggled to walk over to where Allen was. Her breath was ragged as she did so.

Allen tried to stand to meet her, but he fell over instead as he had no more strength to stand. Nera gasped as she looked on. A large pool of blood was spreading out from his body. She tried hurrying to him as much as he could despite not being in much better condition herself.

“Dammit...I save the day and it looks like I’m going to be rewarded...with bleeding out. This is so unfair.” Allen thought in exasperation. He spotted the glint of a teal crystal between him and Nera. He desperately dragged his body along the ground until he could reach out with his hand to grab it.

“Maybe I can pull off whatever happened before again? I have to try. If this night ends in tragedy, it won’t be my fault.”

Allen’s fingertips finally reached the crystal. He saw a bright flash that made him close his eyes.. When he opened them, what he saw was nothing like he was expecting.

A picturesque garden with a golden metal cylinder on the ground. He absentmindely reached out and picked up the cylinder from where it lay on a top a smear of dried blood.

'This dream seems so familiar...'

These were his last thoughts as the environment completely faded into a hazy mist. When he opened his eyes again, he could see the young woman with violet eyes staring at him from above with a worried look. He could feel something metallic in his hand as his vision was obscured once more by darkness.