I know ずに is a form of negation for verbs, but I'm uncertain as to how its
being used in the following context other than as a negation for the verb わかる.

> 昨晩アインは夜明けまで時間をくれた。それまでに生きるか死ぬかを決めさせてくれるという。結局選んだ道は、このままなにもわから **ずに**
> 死んでいくことではなく、ツヴァイとして、殺し屋として生きていくことだった。いつか自分という存在を取り戻すためにも、今はツヴァイでいるしかないのだ。

Seeing as how the verb 死んで comes directly after the わからずに, it made me wonder
why there's not a particle between the two verbs. Unless the に **is** the
particle here, my brain thought the lack of a particle could be explained by
the ずに form being able to connect two verbs like the te form can.

I've not formally studied the ずに form, so I have no means of confirming nor
disproving my brain's analytical explanation. Although I highly doubt the ずに
form can be used as a connective form, a second opinion would be much
appreciated as to what the ずに in the above context is doing.

TDLR: (1) Is the ずに in the above a negation of the verb its attached to,

(2) or is it a negation with only the ず form which makes the に a particle,

(3) or a mashed up combination of the above which would make the に a part of
the negation and a particle,

(4) or is the ずに a negating connective... 'thing' for the わかる verb and 死んで
verb,

(５) or something else entirely?

> Asking as I've seen multiple
> [questions](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/27361/26406) and
> [answers](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/9591/26406) using both ず and
> ずに as interchangeable words for the same form of negation, so I have no clue
> as to what is going or is applicable in my own sentence.
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question
particle-に negation auxiliary-ず
Does the negative ずに form have a connective function like the te form does?
ずに is a conjunctive negative form for verbs which comes from the classical
Japanese auxiliary verb ず (which is still used in limited occasions in modern
Japanese).

This ず was/is added to the end of the 未然形 of a verb and is the 基本形 (and 終止形
and 連用形) of the old negative 'tense'. There are
[plenty](http://www.irohabook.com/japanese-classics-zu) [of](https://kb-
study.com/aux-zu/)
[websites](https://tyottojuku.com/study/%E5%8F%A4%E6%96%87/2540) dealing with
this, so have a look if you're interested.

Anyway, getting back to ～ずに.

～ずに is what we get when we add 「に」 to 「ず」; pretty straightforward, right?

So what is this に, then? According to
[デジタル大辞泉](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E3%81%AB/#jn-166082), に can be
used (as a sort of adjunct) to 動作・作用の行われ方、その状態のあり方を表す (show the way something
is or how an action is carried out). In the case of ずに, this adjunctive に is
attached to the 連用形 of the negative auxiliary verb ず (which winds up being
just ず) to express how something is **not** carried out.

So in your example

> なにもわからずに死んでいく

ずに is being used to show how the action 死んでいく is not being carried out, i.e.
何も分からず(に).

A nice way this can be translated into English is "without ～ing", and carries
the same meaning as 「～ないで」, but is more literary.
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answer