 The game then jumps five years forward . Nier and the others are trying to find the parts to a key that they believe will help them locate the Shadowlord and Grimoire Noir . After defeating five Shades and assembling the key , the team go to defeat the Shadowlord . There , Devola and <unk> , characters who have been guiding Nier on his quest , appear to try to stop them . They explain that over 1300 years prior , humanity faced extinction due to an incurable disease . In an attempt to survive , they separated their souls from their bodies using Grimoire Noir and Weiss . They created clones resistant to the disease , Replicants , and intended to recombine the souls , or <unk> , with the Replicant bodies once it had died out ; Devola and <unk> were androids set to oversee the project . Over time , the Replicants had begun to form their own identities ; while the <unk> , or Shades , had grown aggressive to them . 
